| Birds of a Feather In looking to satisfy a publisher’s requirement that I obtain the endorsement of a religious scholar or authority of some type before they would consider publishing my Layman's Guide to the Koran, I met with an eminent European theologian and guest lecturer at Saint Paul University in Ottawa who has written extensively on Islam and the Koran. When he heard that Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice did not always present the Koran or the Prophet in a positive light he refused to read the book. His concern was that the Bible also contained questionable passages, and for him to endorse a book that contained even mild criticisms of the Koranic text was to invite retaliation in kind which would only benefit the enemies of religion. I was reminded of this meeting when I read that the Archbishop of Canterbury had chastised the British government for urging Muslims to discard the niqab, a face covering veil with a narrow slit for the eyes, warning that if they did, "they would advance the cause of secularism in British society.” Bernard Payeur, October 30, 2006 |
