Whistle Stop, my only complaint about what you said is that it makes claims that neither you nor your reading of the Koran can support. The specific statement that "practically every page" etc. All I am saying to you is that you might want to consider how you choose your wording a bit more carefully. That's all. If you continue to refuse to understand my point, that's not really my problem.


But what this book hammers home is that only in Islam is literalism mainstream.

Wolfgang, while I admire her work, I think Irshad Manji is also a bit guilty of too broadly generalizing. She said "Islam" as though it is a more monolithic entity than it is. Here in the US, those Muslims who were born in this country tend to not be particularly literalist. And a lot of the Muslims in this country were born here. Many of them converted to Islam from other religions. A significant number of people of African descent, whose ancesters were brought here as slaves have embraced Islam, and these, in particular, are extremely moderate and not literalist in their practice of their religion. So in the US, it is completely inaccurate to say that in Islam, literalism is mainstream, and to the extent that she is engaging in that kind of generalization, I would have to disagree with her. If she wants to address Islam as it is practiced in specific areas of the world, and make those kinds of claims about that, I think I would have greater difficulty dissagreeing with her.


What does "we deny their right to exist" mean when spoken by a palestinian leader?

It refers specifically to Israel as a political entity and as a state with a particular religious identity, and not to Jews generally.