Criticizing Islam May Be Hazardous to Your Health
general is encouraged."' He chargedScotwith saying that the Qur'an
directs that"a thief 's hand is cut off for steal ing, ' Yet the idea ofthe
fiel d and "use her as you wish" are from Sura2:223of the Qur'an.
Husba nds are toldto beet their disobedient wives in4:34,Amputation
for theft is prescribed in 5:38. What Qur'an is Higgins reading?
Higgins not only gottheQur'an wrong,but was also mistaken about
Sco t's own sta tem ent s. The ju dge cha rge d tha t Sco t cal led Mus lim s
'demons," but accor ding to human right s activ ist MarkDurie, who was
deeply involved inthe case, "Scot said at one point in the seminar that
in the Qur'an therewere jinn (spiritbeings) which became Muslims in
response to the message of Islam. However, in hissummarythejudge
appea rs to int erp ret thi s as Scot sayi ng tha t Mus lims are dem ons. So
`Somedemons are Muslims' becomes 'Muslims are demons'!'
Apredetermined outcome
There aresome hints that the outc ome of the case was pred eter mined.
When, during the trial, Scot began to read Qur'ani c verses that discri mi-
nate against women, a lawyer for the Islamic Council of Victoria, the
organization that brought the suit, stoppedhim:Reading the verses aloud,
shesaid, would in itself be religious vilification, Dismayed,Scotreplied,-
How canit be vilifying to Muslims in the room when I am just reading
from the Qur'an?"'
With religious vilification laws now coming to Britain and undoubtedly
elsewhere in the West,Scot'squestion rings out with global implications
andmust be answered. If it is inciting hatred against Muslims when non-
Muslims simply explore what Islam and the Qur'anactuallyteach, then
there cannot be a reasonablepublic discussionof Islam. Such legal pro-
tectionsactua lly make Musl ims a separ ate class , beyond crit icism, pre-
:isely at the moment when the West needs to examine the implications of