Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Mental Torture: Hostages Forced to Read the Qur’an

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Those Hamas kidnappers, it turns out, came up with a fiendish form of psychological torture for their Israeli hostages. As Robert Spencer noted briefly here, according to the four hostages just freed in a daring raid in Nuseirat, they were required by their captors to read the Qur’an. Could a more sinister form of mental torture be devised? But it was not meant as a torture. These devout Muslims who held them captive believe the Qur’an to be the most beautiful and splendid of all works, the inspired word of Allah. This belief in large part stems from Surah Al-Isra (17:88), which states: “Say, Indeed, even if mankind and the jinn assembled to produce something like this Qur’an, they could not produce anything like it, even though they were helpers one of another.”

Additionally, when Mohammed was asked to perform a sign or miracle to demonstrate his prophethood to others, 29:51 says “Is it not enough for them that we have sent down to you the book which is read to them? Indeed, in this truly is mercy, and a reminder for people who believe.” The Qur’an itself is so wondrous a creation as to be sufficient reason to believe in Islam, far more miraculous than the Christians’ miracles of resurrections and healings. Muslims believe that the Quran’s literary quality alone is a miracle and of too high a quality to have been written by man. It is, Muslims insist, of an unearthly beauty.

But we who are not Muslims and have tried to read the Qur’an — I have attempted several times, but was left in a state of mental distress (a dose of Shakespeare’s sonnets, taken regularly at bedtime, soon rid me of my Qur’an nightmares), and while I can endure brief sorties into the text to pluck out this or that verse to quote in order to make a point, I have never been able to read it through. The English historian and writer Thomas Carlyle called the book “toilsome reading and a wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite,” with “endless iterations, long-windedness, entanglement” and “insupportable stupidity.” Yes, all true — especially that bit about “insupportable stupidity.”

John Quincy Adams, the most acute American critic of Islam, described the faith that is rooted in, based on, derives from, the Qur’an, and the Prophet Muhammed who received it, in memorable terms:

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE…. Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant…While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men.

Now those four hostages — Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, have been rescued from their Hamas kidnappers and have returned home, to Israel. They are safe. They are sound. They are glad to be back in the bosom of their families. And they are absolutely delighted, I am sure, not to any longer have to endure reading the Qur’an, with its “endless iterations,” its “longwindedness,” and its “insupportable stupidity.”

Comments

  1. I noted yesterday that “being forced to read Qur’an/other Islamic texts during their forced captivity is beneficial in that the now former hostages can personally refute claims by Muslims and their useful idiots that Islam is a religion of peace.”

    Though not something one would want to endure, of course, but use the experience to make that point clear and uequivocal.

    • Forget reading the Koran, read Reliance of the Traveller: Islamic Sacred Law aka sharia law.

      BTW: Islam means submission, there is no religious in Islam, when one submits they are submitting to the ravings of an insecure human being who hates women and Jews. The writings in Islam are simply evil and dangerous to humanity.

      • Deadly for Jewish people and infidels and basically Slavery for Women. And this is what these protestors want? Disillusioned individuals.

        And the Jews who have brought Art, Music, Medical for all mankind, technology and basic Humanity to the world,
        What have the Muslim people provided the world?
        OIL that American oil companies discovered for them and built the infrastructure for their oil production that has made them BILLIONS of dollars and they spit in the face of America. Oh almost left out their billion dollar world wide Opium and illegal drug production, and slave trade.

      • “aka sharia law”

        A friendly FYI, the sharia is the embodiement of ISLAMIC law.

        The term “sharia law” is a misnomer.

  3. Dearest Dr. Spencer,

    When you, who have edited the most readable version of the jumbled Islamic text, admit that you yourself have never completed reading it, I feel much relief. Even I learned so much from you, could not finish my Quran either.

    Who on earth writes any book edited from shortest to longest phrase? If you turned any of your work into your publisher edited in such a way, they would laugh in your face, and probably tear up your contract!

    Your friend
    John G.
    Fort Myers

  4. Forcing someone to read the quran should be a capital punishment offense. Hang them high !

    • I agree. And I would refuse, even if it meant a whacking of the neck. It’s a book of demon filth.

  5. It is torture alright. I read a little of the evil, hate-filled koran and it has to be, apart from its evil content, the most turgid, boring load of shit ever written. To be forced to read such garbage would be enough to make some people consider suicide. I mainly wanted to check on a few passages that I had heard about. Nothing in the world would have kept me reading much of the boring drivel. Life is too short to endure the torture of reading the repulsive, evil and immensely boring koran. I know that some people do have to read the koran in order to let us know about its evil content, but I could not endure reading much of it.

    • Tim, when the mozlums coming pouring out of their barracks, esp on a Friday, they show the rest of the world the evil they have been hearing inside. when they rape and murder and scream what they read, we are witnessing the evil they absorb.
      I have never tried to read it, don’t read quotes of it, and have no intention of trying to read it.
      When I was much younger, there was an ad which said, “You are what you feed your mind.”
      And in Acts, the new Christians burned their books on the magical arts.
      I believe it’s a good thing if we are able to refrain from taking in the evil inside the book of filth.
      I do understand that some people feel they should read it in order to know what’s in it, and that is their right to choose

      • somehistory, I hope you are going well. When I first came across those quotes from the Koran that called Muslims to go out and murder the non-believers when the chance arose, which I am pretty sure was here at Jihad Watch, I was shocked and I thought that I had better go and check out if those quotes are really there in the koran. Plenty of Muslims where I live so there was no trouble finding a copy of the koran in the local llbrary and I checked on the quotes. Could be 15 plus years ago and I then included those quotes in letters I wrote to politicians here in Australia because I was sure that they probably knew nothing at all about islam. I think it did help to wake a few of them up. When I mentioned that some people need to read the koran, I meant people like Robert Spencer. As for me, I won’t be reading any more of the unreadable crap that is the koran. How’s you dog going? Any songs written yet? I am polishing up a few songs I have written. I’ve had a couple of health problems lately and am slowing down for the winter.

        • Thank you, Tim, for your reply. I guessed that you meant Mr. Spencer in particular.
          I read a book back in the 80’s that gave a synopsis of many religions, islam included. Each chapter covered a different religion written by either a believer or former believer.
          Then, I began to have many interactions with mozlums…in my job, in their jobs, public and other circumstances. That is where I learned about a lot of their beliefs and practices.
          Doing the research for a paper I had to write brought me to this site and I learned even more. So I never have read any of their book, not feeling the need to.
          But, as I said, each person has a right to read or not. No one should be forced to read the garbage.

          The dog is doing okay. She still has some trouble with digestion, but it’s not every day. And she goes in and out at will to lie in the sun or the shade, chase cats and squirrels, and bark at people going by (some, but not all of them). She has a large understanding vocabulary, but she gets into these mischievous moods sometimes and obeys when she gets ready to. She likes to watch me wash dishes, hang clothes and mow the grass, but if I’m sitting to read, etc, she’s demanding attention.

          I haven’t been working on the songs too much lately. I think about working on them, but get distracted by things going on.
          I’m sorry your health is giving you problems and hope you have rapid improvement.
          It’s been hot here, and the heat is hard on me; so I can relate with winter being harder for you.

        • Like you, somehistory, I will leave it up to people such as Robert Spencer to do the painful, but very important, work of reading the koran and exposing the foulness of the manual of hate for us to see. As I said, for me, life is too short to spend much of it reading the boring crap in the koran. It sounds as if you are doing OK and that dog sounds like a pretty good dog and plenty of fun. I look after stray cats that wander into my yard. I have two these days. Both have had tough lives. I get a lot of fun out of watching them. I am not looking to work again, at 74 years of age, but if i did I would do volunteer work looking after animals. I am one of many people who prefers animals to most people although, luckily, I do meet some very pleasant people from time to time. I would take the heat any day over the cold weather although it really doesn’t get cold, by international standards, out here where I live. I think I was meant to live in the tropics. All the best to you.

    • A few years ago, some prison guards in Colorado got in trouble for torturing a group of inmates. Their method? They forced the prisoners to listen to the kindergarten song “Baby Shark” on a loop for over 3 hours.

      I’ve read maybe one-third of the Quran, and I think I’d rather listen to “Baby Shark” on a loop, though that is awful as well.

      • My granddaughter, when about two-three years, loved “baby shark”. I listened to it with her over and over. Didn’t bother me, listening to her sing along.

      • I had never heard the “Baby Shark” song, Mike so I just checked it out. It was fun, but I can see how three hours of it would drive even the sanest person stark raving mad. I listen to and watch a lot of musical performances on youtube, which i enjoy a great deal, and that “shark song” had, by far, the most views of any song i have ever come across. Definitely massive hit. I’d take the “shark song” over the mega boring load of shit called the koran any day of the week. At least the “shark song” is bright and happy and isn’t full of endless hate and calls to kill and rape non-believers.

      • “Baby Shark” is just cute and silly–and any threat reference is definitely of the mock variety. Would that this were true of Islam…

    • Someone who memorizes the Koran from cover to cover is a Hafiz and is highly respected throughout the community. There are supposedly millions of them.

      • Kilauea, to me, memorising the koran sounds like the very definition of wasting your life. Instead of receiving respect, such people should be told, hey, wake up, get a life. You are throwing your life away on an idiotic pursuit. Memorising crap is not exactly using your brain in a creative way, but spending your life memorising the contents of the fould koran, what an appalling waste of a life. I suppose that, if some Muslims, are spending their time trying to memorise the evil koran, then they probably are not out there trying to murder non-Muslims in terrorist attacks, like so many muslims, so that is one good thing about it.

    • Tim, I’ve read the Qur’an five times in different translations–I thought I was done with four, but then Robert Spencer came out with the Critical Qur’an a couple of years ago.

      The first time I read the Qur’an was not long after 9/11–I wanted to see if the Qur’an really did reach violence. I thought there might be a few ambiguous passages, but I *never* expected the torrent of savagery I found. And I knew nothing about abrogation and the order of the Suras as the time–all things that make the Qur’an even worse.

      It is an arid, irrational, and deeply ugly book–were it not for the threat that islam presents to us, I doubt I ever would have read it–and *certainly* never more than once.

  6. Thanks guys. Yes, I understand what you mean by having difficulty in reading the Koran – but I actually did it! I managed to get through to the finish. Mind you, it was not easy but it leaves you with an indelible impression on the barbarity that is the basis of this system. Robert Spencer and his associates need to be applauded for their efforts in exposing the dangers to the rest of us.

    • I agree, Greg, that Robert Spencer, and others like him, are doing some of the important work that anyone could do these days by exposing the barbaric filth that makes up islam. If only more people would wake up and see islam for the hate-filled garbage that it is.

  7. Makes me wonder – has “The Critical Qur’an” been translated into Hebrew?

  8. And it isn’t just the Quran. There’s the ‘Sira’ or ‘Life of mohammed’, by one Ibn Ishaq. And volumes and volumes of Hadiths. Islam is based on all three together. Some brave infidels have waded through them all: translating them out of Arabic into other languages.

    Because at least some of us need to know what is in there, in all its stunning vileness.

    A comparably bad book is ‘Mein Kampf’. Bad content, bad intention and very badly written, in every sense of the word. But those non-German persons in the free world who, in the 1930s, were curious enough to read it: whether able to read German and tackling the original, or else taking advantage of the efforts of those brave and curious souls who had translated it into English, had a head start on everyone else. Churchill was one of them. And interestingly enough, when Churchill read the translated Mein Kampf, he called it “the new Koran of faith and war”.

    • While not as bad as the Quran, the Book of Mormon isn’t easy to read either. The phrase, “And so it came to pass that….” is repeated hundreds of times, which makes it a tad monotonous.

      Mark Twain once called it “chloroform in print,” but it really does contain a “Book of Ether.”

      However, at least Mormons haven’t gone on a violent rampage due to the comedy musical “The Book of Mormon”!

      • Tim McVeigh, who committed the mass murder in OK in ’95 with the fertilizer bomb, based his ideas on “The Turner Diaries.”

        Lot of evil in books and many read and then act on the evil.

  9. There are two ways to read the koran

    I Uncritically;islamic holy men interpret it for you.They won’t tell you the truth.
    II Critically;you interpret it yourself.Haram of course.you might become an apostate.

    islamic holy men don’t want you take path II.
    If you take path II you are likely a critical thinker.Ask questions about the koran but there is no point asking islamic scholarrs

    A dawah man is like a square tire salesman
    an islamic scholar is like someone claiming to be a professor of square tire engineering.

    think for yourself.

    note:the koran is incredibly BORING.watching moss grow is more riveting.

  10. Muhammed was a con man, a liar, a rapist, and a savage. That he was ever given the time of day, let alone founded a major religion, is a testament to the idiocy of humanity.

    • Perfect summary of the situation, Grey. Have to include murderer and pedophile in the list of the scumbag Mo’s qualities.

  11. questions about the koran for muslim apologists to answer

    1}if allah confirms the Torah{koran 3:3,koran 2:87} how did he miss the ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE TORAH i.e the law of Moaes?

    2}if allah is “the knower of all things “koran 2;29 then why does allah mistakenly{and laughably} get Christian theology so wrong in koran 5:116 pickthall.Where does allah get Mary from?

    3} how could allah have missed the Golden rule {the meaning of the law of Moses} and the 2 chief commandments{the whole of the law} if he confirms the Torah?

    4}”Abraham was not a jew”koran 3:67.how could allah fail to understand that Abraham has to be a Jew?of course allah’s ibrahim is not the Biblical Abraham

    5}if you want answers..follow allah’s advice given to muhammed in koran 10:94:check the sources with…. the Bible folk.

  12. I certainly would not want to force anyone to read it under these circumstances. But as a general statement, we should have read it the day after 9/11.

    I remember getting to about 1/3 into it before I had to put it aside for some weeks. Maybe longer. I eventually did go back to it and finished it.

    I have never read such a spiritually dark book. It’s been years since my reading and I know I need another go through of it. But I dread doing so because it is just so evil.

  14. Mental Torture: Hostages Forced to Read the Qur’an
    ………………………………………….

    The vicious Qur’an just confirms all of the savagery of the pious Muslims who kidnapped, raped, and–in many cases–murdered the hostages in the first place.

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