[lbo-talk] New Translation Prompts Debate on Islamic Verse

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 3/27/07, John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> > Here are two cases that present a contrast: a Muslim Iranian-American
> > woman presenting a new feminist translation of the Koran and a
> > non-Muslim German woman judge ruling against a speedy divorce based on
> > what she thinks is the proper reading of the Koran and Muslim customs,
> > mistaking what some fundamentalist Muslims believe for what Muslims
> > commonly do.  The irreligious should take care not to unwittingly
> > follow fundamentalists' interpretations by assuming the most
> > patriarchal interpretations of religious texts to be the truest, which
> > is a common error of atheists on a crusade against religions. --
> > Yoshie
>
> Isn't this really a good reason to, rather than choose sides in a
> interpretation debate concerning "sacred texts", to distance oneself
> from such nonsense?
> The whole idea of serious scholarly debate on the meaning of these
> writings is not any different than a serious study of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
> Studying them to glean more about the social settings that created them
> is one thing but studying them to determine future actions is patently
> silly.
> Leftists should not align themselves with one interpretation or another.
> I don't care what interpretation one makes of ancient codes if their
> reason for doing so is to provide guidance today. Ancient proscriptions
> are just that and should not be applied to modern societies. That seems
> the best position to take concerning such arguments.

That depends, for instance, on whether interpretations of the texts in
question have anything to do with legal systems and traditions.  No
nation's law has anything to do with Grimm's Fairy Tales, but many
nations' legal systems and traditions have quite a bit to do with
their predominant religions, sometimes directly, as in the case of the
predominantly Islamic world (including "secular" states there),
sometimes indirectly, as part of influences on history and tradition
that get taken into account by courts.
-- 
Yoshie