The Koran Cannot be Reinterpreted

Here's a letter by Hamid Varzi from Tehran, Iran to the editor in the International Herald Tribune. He likely knows a "bit" more about Islam than you do. Hamid confirms what many experts have stated and what so many refuse to accept: The Koran is misogynous, and it cannot be reinterpreted to be compatible with modern values.

Reinterpreting the Koran

The problem with Nadira Artyk's argument that the Koran treats men and women equally is that for every passage that supports her viewpoint there is another passage that contradicts it ("Reclaiming my religion," Views, Nov. 29).

Artyk quotes several enlightened passages that defend women's rights but ignores those that define women as possessions of men.

Any attempt to reinterpret or ignore those passages that are deeply demeaning and restrictive to women is self-defeating, as Muslims consider the Koran to be the direct word of God and consider its reinterpretation, dilution or adaptation to the modern world to be heresy.

There is no such thing as "Koran Light" and any official attempt at an "Islamic Reformation" will be brutally confronted.

Those Muslim nations that have adapted their civil laws to modern times, like the United Arab Emirates, never dared to "modernize" the Koran but simply circumvented it in the national interest and created a parallel world.

Hamid Varzi, Tehran