Word: koran
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...tongue, my hands, my legs ... I could not move," he says, his eyes widening at the very memory. "For a few moments I could not even think. My mind went completely blank." Bakr says al-Zarqawi led him into another room, with prayer mats and copies of the Koran. "Come, let us pray," al-Zarqawi said. Bakr says they prayed for about three hours, with al-Zarqawi reciting from memory several long surahs, or chapters from the Koran, in a whisper. From time to time, he broke into sobs and moans, babbling incoherently, as if in a trance. Afterward, Bakr...
...determination to sow civil war in Iraq. Bakr says he recalls conversations in which al-Zarqawi raged at the Shi'ites. "Those were the only times I hear him shout," he says. "He really hates the Shi'ites, even more than the Americans." The terrorist leader may carry his Koran at all times, but his Kalashnikov is never far from his reach, as evidenced by last week's video, in which he is clearly seen wearing an ammunition belt. Bakr and other sources say al-Zarqawi constantly wears a suicide-bomber's belt, taking it off only to bathe, although...
...ZARQAWI IS NO RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR. A high school dropout, he memorized the Koran while in prison and acquired his religious ideas from extremist preachers and thinkers in Afghanistan and Jordan. To devout Muslims, emulation of the Prophet is considered desirable, and most believers concentrate on Muhammad's well-documented attributes, like frugality, modesty, charity and respect for elders. But al-Zarqawi, like others who subscribe to extremist schools of Islam, takes emulation literally. Among the examples Bakr cites is al-Zarqawi's tendency, modeled on the Prophet's, to "do everything from right to left: he puts on his right...
Like many other literalists, al-Zarqawi favors one of the Koran's more complex chapters, known as "The Cave." It includes some metaphysical stories whose meaning has been debated by theologians for centuries. The Prophet is said to have advised his followers to read the "The Cave" before Friday prayers, and "some people mistakenly take this to mean that this surah was the Prophet's favorite," says Khaled Abou al-Fadl, an Islamic jurist at UCLA. Bakr says al-Zarqawi frequently quotes extensively from "The Cave" and encourages discussion about its stories...
...religious and spiritual groups in American politics today.” And according to Facebook.com, the Bible is the third most frequently listed favorite book by college students, but only 237 Harvard undergraduates list the Bible as one of their favorite books. Six students list the Torah, two the Koran, 20 anything dealing with Buddha, and nine the Mahabharata. Unlike our counterparts at other schools, we are not interested in religious texts.Could it be a coincidence that Harvard, a highly intellectual campus, harbors condescension towards anything that reeks of religion? Aside from their stellar SAT scores, Harvard students are distinguished...