What did I think of David Wood eating the Quran? So Let us rewind to a few weeks ago. I was on a live stream with David Wood and something unexpected happened. He ripped a page of his Quran and ate it. I was there thinking OMG what is he doing. Those of you who saw the now viral clip know that I wasn’t comfortable. I’m going to tell you what was going on in my head.
So incase you don’t know, I’m Abdullah Sameer, your friendly neighborhood exmuslim. I’m a former believer that creates online content on the topic of Islam.
Is eating the Quran unislamic? What kind of question is that! Of course its unislamic ….right? Well Interestingly, On the Islamic website Islamweb it states a fatwa that many major scholars have actually stated that writing the Quran on paper and then putting it in water and drinking it is actually a cure (ruqyah). The Hanbali scholar, Ibn Al-Qayyim said that a group of the righteous predecessors were of the view that it was permissible to write verses from the Quran, wash them with water and then let the patient drink it. Another scholar supporting this view was the Shaafi‘i scholar, An-Nawawi. Ibn Taymiyyah quoted the view of Ahmad that it was permissible to write some verses from the Quran using ink and wash them with water and then let the patient drink it.
Right before this happened, an emotional Ridvan spoke about how Hijab insinuated what sexual things what they would do to his wife. I won’t repeat it here, but it was disturbing. David was so upset by this that he decided to eat the Quran. This was totally unplanned and on the spur of the moment. He felt bad for his friend and wanted to do SOMETHING. So that’s what he did. I was there sitting in horror thinking “I’m not into these antics. This is too much for me. What is this going to achieve”. Right after this, I did make a silly joke after about how David Wood’s jinn will be gone now as some Muslims actually do something similar. As I showed above, this is actually true. Some Muslims do eat Quran in a sense (well, drink it). I was trying to lighten the mood. It was not even moments after this happened that it was posted on Twitter. Without the context of course. Just the eating part. The original reason for doing this was because of the actions of Muhammad Hijab which now turned into a game of chicken. David warned that if Hijab continued with his vulgar posts about wives of activists (including David Wood himself) Wood would starting a campaign to desecrate it further. Who would fold first?
Soon after this livestream, Hijab folded and made a series of posts:
‘In the last week on Twitter I have been going on a rampage against some islamophobic figures. This rampage could be characterized by bitterness, sharpness and relentlessness. I will be taking the advice of the many sincere people who have advised me move on to other things. Also, not every wild action I have done, or continue to do, is justified or encouraged by Islam. I have a wild temperament sometimes and can act extremely arrogantly. Please don’t copy this behavior with normal people in your life.’
Was this because of David Wood? Maybe. If so, he accomplished his mission successfully and this achieved its goal! I think some wiser heads of the dawah advised Hijab that this is not going to end well. Maybe they took this threat seriously. Good for them. Hijab was way out of line. Even Muslims were worried for Hijab. They were saying that as a Muslim Daee (apologist) he is giving Islam a bad image. For someone who claims to be following the best religion with the most perfect example, this doesn’t look good. It wouldn’t be the first time Hijab did this though. He has a reputation now for being this toxic individual. And he even tries to justify this with Islam, saying that Abu Bakr said something vulgar once.
Apostate Prophet has since ripped up the Quran several times since. Armin Navabi didn’t want to miss out and ate a page of the Bible too. I feel sorry for their stomachs. Personally, these antics are not my style. Me personally. Not because the Quran or its pages as sacred or I’m sympathetic to Islam. It’s just not my thing to take it that far. I do make jokes, taunt, and poke fun at times. I do say blasphemous stuff. My entire platform is blasphemy really. The silliness has its place. Showing the absurdity and making a joke can work wonders to open someone’s mind. I just don’t have it in me to go that far. Sometimes I cant help myself so I make a silly joke. Like when I used to lose my keys I would say bismillah to find them now I just say yabadabadoo and it works just as well! I try to keep myself respectful but sometimes I go too far. Blasphemy has a time and place ,and I can see why people do it.
From Armin’s perspective, there is a good reason for this. It’s to take away the ‘sacredness’, to show them that lightning is not going to hit him, that he’s not going to blow up in a ball of fire. To show them that we can do this, and that its just a book.
And lets be clear. We’re the misguided kafir. You’re the guided ones. The ones claiming to follow divine guidance. You’re the ones who are representing Islam. So do it well! Don’t base your morals on the actions of others. Stick to your guns.
I don’t find many verses of the Quran beautiful, but I do find this one so. I wish Muslims would follow this verse:
“And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace”
– (25:63)
Those Muslims thinking this is some sign I am going to convert back to Islam are wrong. I really do not hold Muhammad or the Quran to any sort of high moral value. The Quran is really an awful book with terrible teachings and it belongs in the 7th century not in our modern world. I think it contains hate speech. What’s worse? Eating Quran or teaching people that apostates deserve to be killed in an Islamic state?
The rot that religion causes on your brain can make you think it’s okay to post sexually crude and vulgar messages about others spouses (like Hijab did) because we upset your sentiments about your invisible god or prophet. Because we talked about it in a way that you didn’t like. Does that make any sense? Blasphemy is punishable by death in 8 countries. We need to fight against this with everything we have. Including sometimes burning Qurans once in a while if it raises attention to our cause.
Will I condemn them? Why should I? Because it offends a billion believers? Well your Quran offends me too. Why don’t you stop preaching it. Of course that’s not a reasonable expectation. So go ahead, preach it. I don’t like it, but I understand ‘live and let live’. I understand that we live in a world where people will do things that upset us.
The Artist Andres Serrano in 1987 made Piss Christ, a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in urine.
He wrote,
“Even within the world’s strongest democracies, an artist’s free expression can be fraught with difficulty and danger, as the recent massacre by Islamist extremists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris has shown. I know something about those hazards firsthand. When I created the photograph Piss Christ, in 1987, I never thought that it would prove so controversial. I too was threatened, and the work was vandalized several times by those who considered it blasphemous.”
Nearly 30 years later, in response to the Paris massacre, the Associated Press removed an image of Piss Christ from its editorial archives. We’ve seen the same impulse for self-censorship in the West before, as we see it in the refusal of many media outlets to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons at the heart of this recent tragedy. Given the seriousness of the violence, such self-censorship is understandable; it’s also a step backward at a time when we need to reassert the importance of free expression by artists, activists, journalists and editors alike.
We need to all learn to be more tolerant. Muslims. Non Muslims. People will say LOTS OF THINGS you don’t like. The line is drawn when it comes to dehumanizing or calling for violence towards a group of people. What is worse? Eating the Quran or saying apostates deserve to be killed in an Islamic state? Of course the latter. Yet we tolerate that shit. So calm down over a few pages getting ripped. Be thankful that you have the right to practice your religion better than you would be able to in many Muslim countries without harassment. The same rights you have, others have. I will stand by this. I may dislike or even hate some parts of Islam, but I like Muslims. As human beings all of us deserve the same basic decencies and rights. The same opportunities and freedoms. The same love and respect. And that’s what I will end with.
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