Word: koranic
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...KORAN: Does the holy book authorize beheadings and other hostage killings...
...does Islam also excuse al-Zarqawi-style atrocity? Well, one verse in the Koran condones beheading, but in the heat of battle. Some accounts of the Prophet Muhammad's life, called hadiths, record the execution--by what method is debated--of a tribe that had lived among Muslims and then betrayed them. Al-Zarqawi's specific bid to sacralize Berg's slaughter rests on an allusion to Muhammad's great victory on the battlefield of Badr. According to some hadiths, Muhammad was left wondering what to do with the resulting prisoners. This, the texts claimed, was the context...
...extent to which these people enter into questions of Islamic principles is questionable." Since religious study was discouraged for decades under Saddam Hussein, many of the younger insurgents are educating themselves as they go along. If they accept as teachers theorists of terrorism like al-Zarqawi, the Koran may continue to be used to sanction atrocities no one could ever have imagined...
Those of us pushing for reforms are not seeking to change Islam. We are questioning defective doctrine from an intellectual and theological position, using the Koran, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad and ijtihad, or critical reasoning, as ideological weapons in the war over how Muslim communities define themselves. Islamic scholar Amina Wadud notes that we are emboldened to take public action to reject the way extremists have defined Islam since 9/11. We are in the midst of jihad li tajdid al-ruh al-Islami, a struggle for the soul of Islam...
...Mecca in the 7th century, the Prophet faced off against his own tribe, the Quraysh, for worshipping false idols. In much the same way, modern Muslims are pitted against people worshipping false idols of hatred, violence and intolerance. After he fled Mecca, the Prophet heard a chapter of the Koran called Al-Nisa (The Women), which said, "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice as witnesses to God, even if it may be against yourselves, your parents or your kin." With this philosophy, he built a vibrant, inclusive community and returned to Mecca to claim the city that...