On Apr 15, 11:26 pm, Dan Clore <cl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Quran 47.4 When you meet the unbelievers in Jihad, chop off their heads!
> wrote:
>
> I checked this verse in the translation of the Quran that I usually use
> (Dawood). There, it reads: "When you meet the unbelievers in the
> battlefield strike off their heads, and when you have laid them low,
> bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take ransom
> from them, until War shall lay down her armour."
>
> Your version seems to somewhat misrepresent the tenor of the verse.
But it better serves the need for an enemy.
I have a bilingual Koran which has what I think is mainstream
interpretive material. It states that this verse means that if
one has to fight with unbelievers one must fight with all
possible vigor, but that once they are defeated and have
been captured, they are to be ransomed (if of high rank, as
was the custom in the period) or set free, instead of
slaughtered as has been the custom in many times and
places. But so what? Those who need an enemy will
find one somewhere, and if they can't find one, they will
create one. The Koran or Communist Manifesto or
whatever must be reworked until it serves the purpose.
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