Free The Devil We Don't Know by Nonie Darwish

command lying. I have heard my religious leaders lie, cover up, exaggerate, and define certain concepts in Islam in one way to Muslims and in another to non-Muslims. Islamic slander is perhaps most noticeable against Jews. Simply turn on Arab TV at any time, and you can watch the daily barrage of slander and outright lies, especially about Israel. Yet the commandment to slander and lie does not end there; it eventually spreads like wildfire to reach every corner of Muslim society. The phenomenon of honor killing, in which girls and women are accused of sexual crimes and killed for them, is often based not on reality, but on slanderous rumors.
    Because Islam commands that some truths must be covered up, much of Islamic religious education goes unchallenged and remains vague and full of contradictions. Because of the taboos and the Islamists' extreme sensitivity to anything that appeared to go against Islam, we all nodded our heads and accepted what we were taught. The average Muslim is perhaps the number one victim of the lies and exaggerations about his or her own religion, and now leaders of the Salafi movement and the Muslim Brotherhood have united in telling the naive among the Egyptian people to trust them to bring freedom and democracy to Egypt.
    Those who see the lies for what they are and dare to expose them are severely punished, and it does not matter whether they are Muslim, Christian, or some other faith. That is why if we dig down to the causes of many Islamic human rights abuses, we will find that the victims uncovered some truths that contradict what Islam states or commands. Journalists, intellectuals, artists, or inventors who refuse to go along with the lies and the sacred cows of Islam and who present new ideas that contradict the status quo are often punished severely, jailed, or assassinated, not necessarily by the government, but more often by Islamists. The bottom line is that Muslims must carry the weight of Islam's burden. The damage to Muslim society because of such laws is far reaching and causes distrust, deceit, and damage beyond our imagination.
    The lying game has worked in Islam's favor for a long time, because no one wants to believe that top religious leaders of a major world religion are ordered to lie. Even though lying has benefited Islamic growth and has confused and silenced many, the command to lie, slander, and exaggerate in Islam has far more damaging consequences. It is perhaps most detrimental to the psyche of the Muslim individual, to his interpersonal relationships, to Muslim society, to the Islamic political system, and ultimately to Islam's relationship with the world at large.
    Embarrassment in Translating the Koran
    Many Muslim men have spent a lifetime learning the art of rhythmically reciting the Koran. The sound of their recitation is haunting and hypnotic. People who do not know a word of Arabic are captivated. That, in addition to the vague and difficult Arabic language in which the Koran was written, helps Muslims unconditionally and ritualistically accept the faith. To this day, even as a non-Muslim, I am moved by the sound of the call to prayer, “Athan.” Yet translating the Koran is a very embarrassing challenge for Islam, because most of the material that is translated for non-Muslims actually condemns them to death, doom, and gloom. This is where Muslims skillfully use the right to exaggerate and lie.
    The crux of the challenge comes when the literal meaning of what is written is examined. That is why translating the Koran from its original Arabic to other languages became a huge challenge for Arabs. It is not that the meaning is so difficult to translate or is highly intellectual, as some might claim, but that it suddenly forces Muslims to confront what is actually written in the Koran. Translating the Koran and then reading it in other languages brings it to the questioning eye of other cultures. When the rhythmic and the poetic components are removed, we are