Word: koranic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Wednesday evening, Yaqub-Kahn made the first of many lengthy phone calls to Khaalis. He listened patiently to the terrorist's outpouring of grievances, then made a plea for compassion. Khaalis turned out to know his Koran. "Don't try to teach me," he said. "I know it better than you." But the Koranic verses began to move Khaalis. Said one: "O, ye who believe, forbid not to yourselves the good things that God hath made lawful for you and do not transgress the limits; verily, God loveth not the transgressors." Another was particularly effective...
...ambassadors decided the proper approach was to appeal to Khaalis' faith. To brush up on the Koran, Ghorbal phoned his political counselor, who supplied him with some apt quotes. Said Ghorbal: "We decided to use the Koran to impress on him that Allah orders us to be merciful...
...bravery." Khaalis protested that the place where he was appeared "unclean." This remark convinced the negotiators that Khaalis was a devout Muslim who would pray only in clean surroundings, as Islamic tradition prescribes. Now there was hope, for a source of leverage existed-the compassion cited in the Koran...
...from the ambassadors, and sat down. Not until the meeting passed its 15-minute mark did the police begin to relax. Speaking in a low, soothing voice, Zahedi brought up the deaths of Khaalis' children, and suddenly the terrorist broke into tears. Then Zahedi returned to the Koran. "You could see a rapport building," recalls Ghorbal. "Trust and confidence were sinking in." Finally after two hours, Khaalis blurted out what was most on his mind: he did not want to go to jail, he wanted to go home...
...even changed the group's name. Once the Nation of Islam, it now calls itself the World Community of Islam in the West, or the Bilalians, in honor of Bilal, Mohammed's first black follower. Ministers, now termed imams, are expected to instruct members in the Koran and the Bible. At "temples," renamed "mosques," the seats have been ripped out so that members can prostrate themselves during prayer. Wallace also stresses such traditional "pillars" of observance as the month-long fast of Ramadan, the five daily prayers while facing Mecca, and the Hajj (pilgrimage...