Quote:
Originally Posted by FlorenceArt
But how does my interest, or lack thereof, in Islam invalidate my opinion that religious beliefs are only loosely related to their founding texts, and that those founding texts are tools that tend to be selectively used to give weight to beliefs that originated elsewhere, through a very complex historical and social process?
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Well, that's just it, isn't it? Not knowing the text means that you may not see all the ways that the text directly influenced and continues to influence the society. And the Qur'an is not the only religious text that Muslims refer to. The hadith (accounts of things that Muhammad said or did) is also important to Muslim practice. The Qur'an, hadith, and tafsir all come together to inform Muslim practice. Are there some practices that did not come strictly from these three sources? Sure. But to say that the relationship between the belief of a Muslim and the Qur'an is only "loose" is to demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of the Islamic tradition and the way Muslims practice today. With Christianity, your argument is more valid. Islam, however, is entirely different.
Anyway, I think you and I might just be destined to disagree on this issue. For what it's worth, I've really enjoyed this entire conversation. Even if people aren't interested in getting to know more about Islam or any other tradition, I think it's great that we're all talking about it in one way or another.