Quote of the Day #5

“Having thus given a cursory view of the Koran, I lay it before the sensible person with the purpose that they should know what kind of a book the Koran is. I have no hesitation to say that it cannot be the work of either God or of a learned man, nor can it be a book of knowledge. Here its very vital defect has been exposed with the object that people may not waste their life failing into its imposition. The Koran is the result of ignorance, the source of animalisation of human beings, a fruitful cause of destroying peace, an incentive to war, and a propagator of hostility among men and a promoter of suffering in society. As to defect of repetition, the Koran is its store.”

Dayanand Saraswati was an Indian religious leader and Hindu reformer in the nineteenth century. He was opposed to what he called superstition and criticised Islam as immoral and warlike. Whilst he thought Christianity a good religion, he said the Bible contained many stories and precepts that are immoral; he opposed the perpetual virginity of Mary because he thought such doctrines are simply against nature.

As someone who opposes all three versions of the Abrahamic delusion, I really like this quote. I forced myself to read the whole of the Koran from cover to cover back in 2014, simply to see what all the fuss was about. Saraswati’s description of the Koran certainly fits in with my experience – especially the repetitive bit! And since three-quarters of the Koran is gibberish it can be used to support all sorts of contradictory readings – Islam as a feminist religion, Islam as a religion of violent misogyny, Islam as a religion of peace, Islam as a religion of violence and terrorism.

By the way, the quote works equally well if you replace the word “Koran” with the word “Bible.”