# What are some passages in the Quran that are clearly offensive to modern sensibilities? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2015, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787 "2015-11-17T09:03:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/21 "2015-11-18T14:15:39Z")
> [@Chikni](#): > > And if I were asking whether it was or not, you’d have a point. And if that were all the advice I gave then your snark would be justified. It wasn’t, so it isn’t. don’t mention it…oh! you didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/22 "2015-11-18T22:48:51Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > You could always read it. This is what I came in to say, after reading the OP. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2015, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/23 "2015-11-18T22:53:28Z")
Damn, if a poster had come in and asked the same thing about the Bible, you’d be all over yourselves giving examples, and none would ever demand that he read it. He asked for a reasonable request, and there are certainly examples to give. ---
**Author:** ![Chikni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Chikni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chikni)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/24 "2015-11-19T05:14:38Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > for the minority that already has the sensation of being under unfair attack, this falls more likely into a version of [the Mansplaining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansplaining)… > > The liklihood of you being convincing to any believing muslim is near zero. the liklihood of confirming the sensation of prejudice and having the opposite effect is near 100. You don’t know my friend, you don’t know me, and you don’t know the conversations we have. But you have _such_ high confidence in something which you have next to no basis for. Are you religious by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Chikni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Chikni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chikni)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/25 "2015-11-19T05:20:17Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > And if that were all the advice I gave then your snark would be justified. > > It wasn’t, so it isn’t. > > don’t mention it…oh! you didn’t. I _specifically_ mentioned that I wasn’t interested in discussing whether or not the line of argument I was talking about was effective or not. > [@](#): > > Originally posted by me: > > \*Let’s not fight the premise by arguing about whether it(the line of argument) is effective or not please I was asking a specific question. Instead of responding to that question in any material way, you came in and threadshat on the very first response. I’m sorry I wasn’t very polite. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/26 "2015-11-19T11:54:17Z")
> [@Chikni](#): > > You don’t know my friend, you don’t know me, and you don’t know the conversations we have. But you have _such_ high confidence in something which you have next to no basis for. Are you religious by any chance? I am a non-religious Muslim who never prays has not been to mosque in decades, and does not even do the Ramadan all the time. I have seen enough of these tedious excercises and lived long enough as a religous minority that I am bored by this type of Mansplaining and its self-preening pretensions… ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/27 "2015-11-19T11:56:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Damn, if a poster had come in and asked the same thing about the Bible, you’d be all over yourselves giving examples, and none would ever demand that he read it. He asked for a reasonable request, and there are certainly examples to give. the number of posters who are athiest but who have a good command of your majority religion text - as perhaps educated in it - is large here. the number who have any kind of education in the Quran, the Hadith, the tafsir, to be credible and do more than copy-paste from hate-mongering sites is near zero. I can guarantee that almost all muslims living in the western countries have had quite enough of the experience of the recitation from these sites and the gotcha games, enough that even the not-really practicing feel actually more inclined to practice out of simple irritation. ---
**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/28 "2015-11-19T13:22:46Z")
Many, many things. [http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/](http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/) ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/29 "2015-11-19T14:31:37Z")
A perfect example of what I was talking about, that ‘annotated’ site. I quote Malthus from the GD > [@Koran forbids killing innocent civilians](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/koran-forbids-killing-innocent-civilians/737804/31): > > Quoted for emphasis! > > But really, it seems to be all the rage with those attacking religions for any reason. They tend to take the text totally literally and point out how contradictory, crazy, or evil the text is. > > Which may well be true, but it is not a good attack on the religion - most of which have evolved quite sophisticated systems of commentary, interpretation and analysis that make the religion actually practiced far more, and quite different, from that contained in the original text. > > There are of course exceptions - literalists of various stripes do exist, and they tend to be noisy. Thus you get the odd phenomenon of modern-day anti-religious types insisting, along with the fundamentalists, that the (often deeply unpleasant) fundamentalists represent the “true” interpreters of the religion, rather that the (often far more humane and admirable) mainstream, because their vision is a simple-minded application of the text - often, cherry-picking the very nastiest bits for emphasis. tedious behaviours, the proslytizing of either side. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/30 "2015-11-19T18:37:12Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > the number of posters who are athiest but who have a good command of your majority religion text - as perhaps educated in it - is large here. > > the number who have any kind of education in the Quran, the Hadith, the tafsir, to be credible and do more than copy-paste from hate-mongering sites is near zero. > > I can guarantee that almost all muslims living in the western countries have had quite enough of the experience of the recitation from these sites and the gotcha games, enough that even the not-really practicing feel actually more inclined to practice out of simple irritation. Yeah, that horrible hate mongering cite- _Wikipedia_. :rolleyes: Unless you think that my cite from Verse 4:34 is false? So then- just dont post. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/31 "2015-11-19T20:35:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Damn, if a poster had come in and asked the same thing about the Bible, you’d be all over yourselves giving examples, and none would ever demand that he read it. I would. In fact, the OP apparently has some familiarity with the Bible, and I would assume that was gained by reading. ---
**Author:** ![Chikni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Chikni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chikni)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/32 "2015-11-19T21:11:01Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I would. In fact, the OP apparently has some familiarity with the Bible, and I would assume that was gained by reading. No, my familiarity with the Bible is from posts on this message board. Never read it. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/33 "2015-11-20T01:11:07Z")
To Ramira (in re Post #27): It may be that irritation is the objective; perhaps they have a lot of time on their hands and have nothing better to do. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/34 "2015-11-20T09:53:41Z")
You might run in the issue that only the arabic version of the Koran is authoritative. I did when I argued with some guy that it was condoning slavery. He denied it. When I pointed to some verses, he said that it was a French translation, hence not worth a damn, and that the arabic version was probably saying something different (“servant” instead of “slave”, for instance). He wouldn’t check the Arabic version, either, and in fact I doubt he could read classical Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/35 "2015-11-20T10:09:32Z")
> [@Chikni](#): > > No, my familiarity with the Bible is from posts on this message board. Never read it. That means you’re merely familiar with some of the Bible. Why not read the whole thing? Why not read some of the commentaries on the Bible? Of course you do not have to convert to a believer of any stripe. Why not do the same with the Qur’an? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/36 "2015-11-20T12:22:15Z")
> [@Chikni](#): > > No, my familiarity with the Bible is from posts on this message board. Never read it. Then I suggest you do so. You might be able to find brand new absurd and offensive material! ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/37 "2015-11-20T12:31:55Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > That means you’re merely familiar with some of the Bible. Why not read the whole thing? Why not read some of the commentaries on the Bible? Of course you do not have to convert to a believer of any stripe. > > Why not do the same with the Qur’an? “Too much work. I don’t want to know anything about it, I just want to be able to troll people it’s important to.” –A possible answer, though only the OP knows how truly it represents his actual views. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/38 "2015-11-20T15:20:00Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Then I suggest you do so. You might be able to find brand new absurd and offensive material! That sounds as though you are saying you see what you expect to see. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/39 "2015-11-20T17:36:31Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah, that horrible hate mongering cite- _Wikipedia_. :rolleyes: Your capacity for strange distortions can be impressive. > [@Ramira](#): > > the number of posters who are athiest but who have a good command of your majority religion text - as perhaps educated in it - is large here. > > the number who have any kind of education in the Quran, the Hadith, the tafsir, to be credible and do more than copy-paste from hate-mongering sites is near zero. Of course I was not commenting on wikipedia at all, but making the specific observation _“the number who have any kind of education in the Quran, the Hadith, the tafsir, to be \*\*credible \*\*and do more than copy-paste from hate-mongering sites is near zero”_. Of course, I myself would not pretend to comment in substance on the character of another religion, like say the Hinduism or the Budhdhism or even a close one like the Judaism by the reading of _ **Wikipedia** _, as I think the idea of reading a wiki page and thinking one has substance to make any real comment on the belief or the substance of that religion to be ridiculous and shallow. > [@dougie\_monty](#): > > To Ramira (in re Post #27): It may be that irritation is the objective; perhaps they have a lot of time on their hands and have nothing better to do. yes, there is a whole category of persons like that here. > [@clairobscur](#): > > You might run in the issue that only the arabic version of the Koran is authoritative. I did when I argued with some guy that it was condoning slavery. He denied it. When I pointed to some verses, he said that it was a French translation, hence not worth a damn, and that the arabic version was probably saying something different (“servant” instead of “slave”, for instance). He wouldn’t check the Arabic version, either, and in fact I doubt he could read classical Arabic. In fact the terms are indeed genuinely ambiguous (maybe they were not at the time, but in a thousand years…). But that is not my argument (to agree with the person). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787/40 "2015-11-20T19:21:24Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > Your capacity for strange distortions can be impressive. > > Of course I was not commenting on wikipedia at all, but making the specific observation _“the number who have any kind of education in the Quran, the Hadith, the tafsir, to be \*\*credible \*\*and do more than copy-paste from hate-mongering sites is near zero”_. > > Of course, I myself would not pretend to comment in substance on the character of another religion, like say the Hinduism or the Budhdhism or even a close one like the Judaism by the reading of _ **Wikipedia** _, as I think the idea of reading a wiki page and thinking one has substance to make any real comment on the belief or the substance of that religion to be ridiculous and shallow. > > yes, there is a whole category of persons like that here. > > I You were responding to my post, and my post was copy paste from Wikipedia. Show me where in this thread there has been: “copy-paste from hate-mongering sites”. No one is attempting to “comment in substance on the character of another religion”. That verse is commonly commented on in discussion of the Koran. I simply used wiki to find that verse easily and use it as a easy translation from a neutral source. However, if you dont like wiki, try: _The Human Cycle - Eighteen Lessons with Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Jalali By Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Jalali_ or [http://al-quran.info/#4:34](http://al-quran.info/#4:34) or [http://www.shiavault.com/books/the-human-cycle/chapters/6-lesson-4](http://www.shiavault.com/books/the-human-cycle/chapters/6-lesson-4) (this last discusses the verse) or any of thousands of cites. _It’s a freaken verse from the Koran._\*\* It says what it says\*\*. I didnt attempt to “comment in substance on the character of another religion”, I simply quoted a well known verse.\* Do you claim that verse is not in the Koran? \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-passages-in-the-quran-that-are-clearly-offensive-to-modern-sensibilities/737787.md?page=3)