Free Quran coming to your doorstep?
Foundation: 'Just trying to be honest brokers of information. You make
your
own judgment'
Posted: May 17, 2008
7:10 pm Eastern
(c) 2008 WorldNetDaily
If you're in your front yard, working in the flower bed or chatting with a
neighbor, they'll pass by silently to attach one of the bags they're
carrying to your frontdoor knob and leave without speaking or engaging you
in debate.
Their mission? To place a copy of the Quran in every home in the United
States.
"We're just trying to be honest brokers of information," Wajahat Sayeed,
founder and director of Book of Signs, which is also known as the
Al-Furqaan
Foundation, told the Chicago Tribune. "You make your own judgment."
Al-Furqaan is distributing its 378-page paperback English translation of
Islam's holy book using teams of paid walkers who descend on
neighborhoods,
going door-to-door, much like other deliverers of newpapers and
advertisements. They don't hand them directly to residents but, instead,
leave them at the front door - but never on the ground. That would be
disrespectful.
The translation's forward asks readers to treat the book with respect.
Those
objecting to the free copy of the Quran are requested to call the
foundation
phone number to have it retrieved or to make a donation to a local mosque.
According to Sayeed, who checks for messages daily, 30 percent are
appreciative, another 30 percent are indifferent and requesting that the
book be taken back and the rest are often filled with expletives.
"It is not pleasant to hear that after all the effort you made," said
Sayeed, who works full time for the foundation in addition to being a
strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The Addison, Ill.-based organization says it has distributed more than
30,000 free copies of the Quran to homes around Houston, Texas, and
another
70,000 in the Chicago area, including the evangelical stronghold of
Wheaton.
Al-Furqaan's horizons go far beyond those two urban areas. The foundation
aims to deliver copies of the Quran to every U.S. household. On its
website,
those interested can order copies by paying a shipping and handling
charge.
Sayeed is not concerned his American readers might be unable to understand
the text.
"The general sense will be clear," he said, noting the foundation had
chosen
a translation Americans can easily read. "Islam teaches peace."
Al-Furqaan is not the only Muslim group distributing free Qurans.
WND reported in 2005, the Council on American-Islamic Relations came under
fire for distributing a free English-language edition of the Quran that
had
been banned by the Los Angeles school district because commentary notes
accompanying the text were regarded as anti-Semitic.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations had previously included the
edition in the Islamic book-package it offers libraries nationwide and was
giving it away to help "improve America's image" through a program called
"Explore the Quran."
A complaint by a history teacher revealed problems with the
CAIR-distributed
version.
Surah (Chapter) 2:65 of the Quran, which reads like most English versions,
says: "And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed. In the matter
of
the Sabbath; we said to them: 'Be ye apes, despised and rejected."
In his corresponding note, the commentary reads: "There must have been a
Jewish tradition about a whole fishing community in a seaside town, which
persisted in breaking the Sabbath and were turned into apes."
Under the heading "Jews" in the book's index, is a reference to Surah
5:60,
which says: " ... Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath,
those
of whom some he transformed into apes and swine ... ."
In the index under "Jews" also are these phrases: "cursed," "enmity of,"
"greedy of life," "slew prophets," "took usury," "unbelief and blasphemy
of"
and "work iniquity."
Author and researcher Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, said that
while the commentary notes in the CAIR-distributed version are
particularly
anti-Semitic, its rendering of the Quranic text largely is no different
than
any other version.
"It's an indication that what we think of as extreme in Islam is not
really
extreme but mainstream," he told WND. "You won't find a translation that
doesn't have Jews being turned into apes and pigs."
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