The Problem is the Reader

On the day a Federal District Court judge told the would-be Times Square bomber that she hoped he would spend his life sentence thinking about whether “the Koran wants you to kill lots of people,” Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan took the stage at the 92nd Street Y to debate the question, “Is Islam a religion of peace?”

Neither man liked the question.“This is not the right question to ask,” Ramadan said in his opening remarks. “It doesn’t mean anything.” It didn’t mean anything when George W. Bush called Islam a religion of peace, said the Swiss scholar, barred by the Bush administration from entering the United States on anti-terrorism grounds in 2004.

The right question, he said is “do we have something helping us toward peace?” Ramadan seemed to be saying that Islam served that purpose, though he never said so outright. “The Koran is the word of God,” he said. “The problem is not the book. The problem is the reader.”

Full Coverage: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/10/christopher-hitchens-and-tariq-ramadan-spar-over-the-peacefulness-of-islam

It was interesting to trace allegations and comments from a famous Atheist on Islam.. I was offended when he described Quran as “Laughable..” but I had carefully followed his equal attacks on religions and religious beliefs.. Maybe he found his own peace upon his recent death.. or Maybe as collectively agreed by all religions, suffers his “intellect” denial..

Full Article: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmys.tc%2F1j1&h=GAQH0aGZfAQHNX1iyc7H-4OIegGQjgxLL94PuS0DhXH7mlA