Got any questions about Islam or Muslims, I’ll field them the best I know how. 
I’ll start. Where’s a good online translation of the Qu’ran? And did I spell that right?
And welcome to the boards.
With all due respect, can you outline your credentials with a degree of (message board-ish) credibility ?
Specifically, what is your background in the wider society and in Islam ?
ultrafilter, I converted to Islam so many years ago (1984), there was no World Wide Web then! So I’ve all along relied on print translations. I think the best are the ones by:
A. Yusuf Ali (the original edition, not the bowdlerized one)
Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
Ahmed Ali.
I will have to look around and see which ones are available online and get back to you.
London Calling, I converted to Islam 17 years ago, practiced it consistently since then, read through the entire Qur’an in Arabic several times, studied at the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in Vienna, Virginia and at George Washington University at the post-graduate level; taught Qur’an at the Islamic School of the Oasis in Cleveland; was on the faculty of the International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; worked with Professor John Esposito on editing the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and wrote one of the articles for it; prepared an index to the Qur’an translation of A. Yusuf Ali; I’ve made the Hajj to Mecca and traveled in Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Besides reading a lot from the original Islamic texts and contemporary Islamic thought over the years. Is that good enough for you?
I may be the first Doper ever required to post his résumé upon registering. I wonder if Esprix (Ask the Gay Guy) or “Ask the Black Guy” had to give their qualitications for being gay or Black.
I have a few.
I don’t know anything about Islam.
Can you tell me somewhat breifly what the beliefs are?
Can a caucasian person join?
Ok, thanks for looking into that. I’d consider buying a copy, but I’m a poor college student, so I’d prefer to find one online.
vanilla, the essential creed (iman) recited by Muslims goes as follows in literal translation:
I believe in Allah,
and in His angels,
and in His messengers,
and in His scriptures,
and in the Last Day,
and that its determination of good and evil is only by Allah,
and in the resurrection after death.
As for Caucasian Muslims: there are so many Muslim peoples of the Caucasus who have been there for centuries: the Chechen, Ingush, Abkhaz, Dagestanis, and several more.
When I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which powerfully inspired me to convert to Islam, he included a lot of fulminations and denunciations of the white race (left over from his Nation of Islam days, before his Hajj when he realized that Islam liberates all races of humanity from racism). So at first I wasn’t sure whether I as a European-American would be accepted, and I hesitated to visit mosques. Of course there was no reason to feel excluded, because the Muslim community welcomes all peoples with open arms, with warm brotherhood and sisterhood. Islam is the most un-racist religion I could find anywhere (and I had tried all of the world’s religions), which was one of my main motivations for coverting. Ever since growing up during the Civil Rights movement, I had been searching for the remedy to American racism, and led by Malcolm X I found it in Islam.
ultrafilter, I did a Yahoo! search with the word “quran” and found some pages that may be satisfactory,
like:
http://www.stg.brown.edu/webs/quran_browser/pqeasy.shtml
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/
Haven’t had a chance to check these out so I don’t necessarily vouch for them 100%.
I personally would prefer to avoid the fundie interpretations, which is why I cited A. Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Asad, and Ahmed Ali as some good non-fundie translators.
Hi, Muslim Guy, welcome to the boards!
Here is a link to an on-line version of the Qur’an which either Saxman or Tamerlane posted in another thread. AFAIK both of these fellows are also Muslim Guys of good standing already on this board. They have both done a good job, IMHO, of fighting ignorance here over the past few days. Good, clean knowledge.
Perhaps you can review this and see if it is a good one, I would not know for certain.
If you were able to be face to face with the 19 hijackers prior to their despicable actions, how would you explain/try to convince them that such cowardly murderous actions were not supported by Allah or the Quran?
Sir Rhosis
In General Questions:
Usage of Islamic/Moslem/Muslim?
Does the Koran say that it is OK to kill non-Muslims?
Questions about the Islamic faith
In MPSIMS:
Impressive credentials. I would guess that many people were well aware of Esprix’s gayness before he started the Ask the Gay Guy series. However, you do seem to know a lot about this board for a fellow on his fifth post, have you been lurking or is this a new incarnation?
Welcome Muslim Guy!
I have traveled quite a bit in several Islamic -non Arab countries, (Malaysia, Indonesia, Kashmir), and I have many friends there. As I have watched the unfolding events of this week, my heart breaks for the Muslims of the world to have such a horrific deed connected with their religion.
It is such a stikingly beautiful faith, it’s adherents so tremendously loving and family oriented. But here in the west noone seems aware that these are truly isolated madmen among the millions who know their God would never/could never endorse this evil.
I keep trying to make the people around me understand but without success. I come home and weep. Whenever there’s an item about graffiti, racial slurs etc, I begin to weep again. I feel like the people around me don’t understand the half of how tragic this is.
Guess I just wanted to be heard by someone who knows and understands what I’m trying to say…
Here is a link to an online Qur’an site provided by Ino in another thread:
http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/
Here is the translation by Professor T.B. Irving, a Canadian gentleman who converted to Islam many years ago after studying old Spanish literature. He is a kindly, grandfatherly old man, very pleasant to talk to. I have met him on a couple occasions. He aimed at avoiding KJV style and putting the Qur’an into modern American English:
http://isgkc.org/translat.htm
Well, your registration at a sensitive time is opportune and your knowledge of Board mores comprehensive. And no, you aren’t required to do anything. It was a request. There are a lot of strange people out there, Muslim Guy.
Thank you for helping put your answers in a more significant context and for your assistance in fight ignorance.
My question:
Is it accurate to say the Qur’an expressly forbids the killing of innocents ?
Hi, and thanks for starting this thread!
I’m a devotee of feminist theory and politics. Is there anything within Islam per se that directly supports patriarchy or traditional sex roles? Or that directly opposes sexual equality, the liberation of women from restrictions on conduct that don’t apply to men, etc?
AND…to what extent would your answer bring forth widespread nods among Muslims in general? Is the apparent anti-feminist current in the Arabic Muslim countries predominantly a cultural thing (as far as you know) as opposed to being a by-product of Islam?
(aside: I tend to think Christianity is a patriarchal religion with built-in anti-feminist currents)
As someone who has followed a wide range of Christian doctrines, from liberal Catholicism to Pentecostal Fundie and back to a conservative Catholic stance, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about the Christian beliefs in the end of the world(which, by the way, I do not believe we are in, just to clarify).
The basic creed you posted included “and in the Last Day,”. What are the Islamic beliefs in the the end of the world?
I have a question:
Does Allah hire hitmen to rub out authors that insult Him?
I have a question, too.
Could you please explain the difference between Shi’ite and Sunni?
Thanks, I’ll check the second one out.
Welcome, Muslim Guy and thanks for volunteering to answer questions.
Supposedly, bin Laden is upset that Americans were allowed in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Shouldn’t he be more upset with the Saudi government? If allowing non-believers in is such a problem, couldn’t they have found another way?
Also, please explain women’s roles in your faith. It seems that they have limited freedoms.