Archives

Feminist Quran?

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts, Announcements, Q & A on Mar 19, 2009

Rev. Della Fahnestock, president of the Alliance of Faith & Feminism, emailed me this question: “Has the feminist version/translation of the Koran been published yet? Please keep us posted.”

Gals of God, I’ll go one better: Rather than just keeping you posted, I’m posting a progressive translation of the Quran for free-of-charge download right here on irshadmanji.com.

This translation could have been available three years ago. You’ve likely never heard about it because the translators — two women and a man, all of them Muslim-Americans — have had a helluva time getting published. They reached a deal with a major U.S. publishing house. But after the Prophet Muhammad cartoon riots, the publishing house bailed on its contract.

Fear didn’t stop the translators, though. They self-published and have given me the permission to make their translation accessible to all who visit this site. (See the box entitled “Reformist Quran” in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.)

To be honest, I’m not sure you can call this version of the Quran “feminist.” After all, feminism is as much a matter of interpretation as faith is.  What I will say is that this translation exposes just how orthodox the “moderate” and “mainstream” renditions of the Quran actually are.

Does that make reform-minded translators whack-jobs? Judge for yourself: One of the translators — a Turkish-American scholar named Edip Yuksel — recently co-founded a group called “Muslims for Peace, Justice and Progress.”  The MPJP has written a well-reasoned letter to President Obama, asking him to work with Muslims in the West to restore America’s moral authority worldwide.  The letter criticizes Israel.  Hardly whacko by Muslim standards.

What the letter doesn’t do is reduce Islam’s ailments to Israel’s existence. Whaaa…? Whoa. Whackeeee.

I’ve signed the letter. So has a growing list of Muslim intellectuals and activists. You can, too.

But if we Muslims are to acquire any moral authority on human rights, we can’t merely gripe about the United States and Israel. As I document in The Trouble with Islam Today, our problems began well before either country was born. Deny that and you’re denying the notion of Muslims as human beings with agency of our own. Thanks.

To have credibility preaching to others, we first need to act upon the message in this reformist translation of the Quran. Now that it’s posted here for free, how many of us will accept the challenge to read it?