Bigger things to protest

So Newsweek has retracted its report about the defiling of Islam's holy book, the Koran, by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But it's too late. Muslims everywhere are questioning America's respect for all religions. Journalists are wondering what standards allowed the charge to be printed without proof. Foreign policy analysts are asking how the riots incited by the charge will affect the war on terrorism.

Still, at least one more question needs to be asked: Even if the Koran was mistreated, are violent riots justified?

"What do you expect?" my critics will declare. "Abusing the Koran is like abusing basic human rights. If you're a good Muslim, your identity and dignity are bound up in revering the Koran. It's the literal word of God. Unsullied. Untouched. Unedited. Unlike the other holy books."

Sorry. That argument just doesn't wash. One can appreciate the Koran's inherent worth, as I do, while recognising that it contains ambiguities, inconsistencies, outright contradictions and the possibility of human editing. This is not simply a reform-minded Muslim speaking. This is Islamic tradition talking.

For centuries, philosophers of Islam have been telling the story of the "Satanic Verses". The prophet Mohammed accepted them as authentic entries into the Koran. Later he realised they deified heathen idols rather than God. So he belatedly rejected the verses, blaming them on a trick played by Satan. Which implies that the prophet edited the Koran.

Let's push this point further. Because pious Muslims emulate Mohammed's life, those who compiled the Koran's verses after his death might have followed his example of editing along the way. The compilers were, after all, only human as human as Mohammed.

Moreover, they collected the Koran's verses from sundry surfaces such as bones, stones and bark. How did the passages get there? According to Islamic lore, the prophet, an illiterate trader, couldn't record them. His companions served as scribes, often writing from memory. Given so much human involvement, isn't it possible that errors infiltrated the authoritative Koran?

In asking this question, I'm neither impugning the allegorical wisdom of the Koran nor inviting another fatwa on my life. I'm saying that Muslims have to get comfortable asking such questions -- and not merely whispering them -- if we're going to avoid a further desecration of human life. Riots in Afghanistan have already resulted in at least 14 deaths. Aid workers have been attacked, their offices burned. How does this benefit the cause of dignity for anyone?

Many will insist that I'm undermining the dignity of Muslims by challenging a pillar of their identity. By urging my fellow Muslims to consider these questions, I'm showing faith in their capacity to be thoughtful and humane. I'm appealing to their heads rather than only their hearts. Ultimately, I'm fighting not Islam but the routinely low expectations of those who practice it.

Contrast that with the strategy of Imran Khan, the Pakistani cricketer turned politician who rallied his countrymen to express rage based on one paragraph in Newsweek. A fierce rival of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Khan objects to co-operating with the US on security matters. He knew his comments about Newsweek would feed the most reflexive of Muslim impulses: to treat the Koran with uncritical veneration.

Such lazy tactics remind me of those used to drive the Miss World Beauty Pageant out of Nigeria in 2002. That fiasco led to more than 50 deaths.

It wasn't the affront of immodestly clad women that sparked the uproar. Rioting began only after a columnist suggested that the prophet would have got a kick out of the pageant and taken its winner as his wife. An imprudent remark, but should it have caused banditry and murder?

When people believe that certain aspects of religion are off-limits to questions, it doesn't take much to incite violence or to withhold forgiveness. In the Nigerian case, even though the offending newspaper apologised three times, Muslim protesters set its offices ablaze.

As I write, Muslims worldwide are scheduling demonstrations for the end of this month against those who insult Islam. They'll peacefully protest against not just the possibility of the Koran's desecration at Guantanamo but the proven torture at Abu Ghraib prison and civil rights violations suffered by ordinary Muslims in the US. They have every right to condemn these injuries.

Will they also speak out against the bloody, fiery riots that, in the name of honouring Islam, are killing an increasing number of Muslims and non-Muslims?

It's a question worth asking.

Toronto-based journalist Irshad Manji is author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith.

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