Free The Devil We Don't Know by Nonie Darwish Page A

left with what should be the important aspect of any religion: the meaning. Unfortunately for Muslims, the meaning of the Koran's words is often not as easy to come to terms with as its musical and poetic recitation in Arabic.
    Even today, I am very moved when I hear the Arabic recitation of Koran 3:169, which refers to those who die in the jihad for Allah's sake: “Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the Presence of their Lord.” It is not the translation of this verse that brings me to tears, as much as it is the Arabic poetic verse, which reminds me of my father's funeral where it was recited as a way to comfort my mother, my siblings, and me after my father died in the jihad against Israel. Only when I read the English translation did I ask myself what it really meant to die in Allah's way and why we Muslims are guaranteed heaven only when we die in the process of battle against enemies of Allah.
    The same thing goes for the verse “The Believers fight in Allah's Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed” (Koran 9:11), which was never described to us as anything other than “it is our pride to die while in battle for the sake of Allah,” meaning in the war against nonbelievers. In Arab culture that did not sound unacceptable, neither in the seventh century nor when I was growing up in the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet when the verse is translated, its meaning does not ring well in the ears of the non-Muslim world.
    The solution for Islamic leadership is to water down the meaning, which, in other words, means to lie in the process of translating what Muslims claim to be the perfect holy book given to Muslims directly from God. A second line of defense is to assert that a devout Muslim must first learn Arabic to truly understand the Koran. When questions arise about the meaning and the translation that are not complimentary to Islam, the questioner is always accused of either misunderstanding or being ignorant of the true meaning.
    Saudi Arabia has been actively trying to produce new translations of the Koran that water down embarrassing messages. It would be wonderful if the original Arabic text were revised similarly and became the new basis for Islam, but don't hold your breath. Saudis also have no problem adding a word here or there to make things appear less severe to the Western mind; for instance, many translations have added the word lightly , which was not in the original Arabic text of the Koran, before the word beat, when the Koran permitted the husband to beat the wife.
    Vengeance
    Vengeance is a major element in Muslim culture, and it adds another dimension to the brutality of life. Not only are Muslims ordered to lie and slander for the sake of accomplishing the goals of their religion, but they are also commanded to do holy vengeance, when the Koran says that it has been prescribed for the individual Muslim believer against those who violate or question the precepts of Islam: “O ye who believe! Retaliation is prescribed for you. He who transgresseth after this will have a painful doom” (Koran 2:178). Another verse says, “We shall take vengeance [ muntaquimun ] upon the sinners” (Koran 32:22). The word muntaquimun in Arabic has a much harsher and more vindictive meaning than the translation of that word to mean “punishment or retaliation.” Yet another sign of how eager Muslims are to save face about what is in their books is that they actually mistranslate it for non-Muslims.
    The message of Islam is clear: vengeance is prescribed for Muslims, and the word prescribed leaves no choice to the Muslim but to consider it his duty to be vengeful. Settling scores and inflicting pain against those who hurt Muslim individuals, tribes, or even nations was a strong cultural phenomenon in seventh-century Arabia and remains so today in all Islamic cultures around the world. When bin Laden was killed by the United