Only if it is presented as such. Wording and presentation can completely change the way a text is percieved. Christianity, end Judaism even more so, are a matter of community and membership. From my experience, there is no such thing in the Islam I know. People don't meet in the Mosque. They don't sing in choirs. They don't organize activities. They come in friday, they pray, they leave, hoping that no-one has stolen their shoes (they remove them before entering and leave them at the entry, you see... though it has just I occurred to me that they could use lockers like in gyms... ). They don't help each other personally, charity is a state monopoly. Hell, most of the time they don't even talk to each other. islam is a solitary, individual activity that every one performs mostly on their own. There is a sense of community with the Islamic Nation, at large, but not on an immediate, neighbhorhood scale. It's the same sort of feeling that being a member of "Western Civilization" elicits.
And the Qran is incredibly central to the Islamic beliefs. It is much more airtight, much more consistent and cohesive than the Bible or the Torah. It is the Constitution, the ultimate reference, the literal Word Of God. Saying or implying that "God is an eloquent speaker and that we have figured out how exquisitely well He has used the Arabic language to leave his ultimate testament to Humanity" rather than "Muhammad was a talentedly manipulative cult leader" is sure not to earn anyone's ire. It is also sure to provide new venues for the skeptical, inquisitve, curious Muslim's mind to explore, in the same way that Kant's demonstration of Religion's Claim To Be Non Disprovable actually seriously raised the question of the existence of God, paving the way, intellectually, for those of the nineteenth century who decided they could do without it.
And, of course, some Muslims can get touchy about this and overreact, the same way some priests were absolutely infuriated by Kant's work. Do you think whatever pressures he had to endure made his work not worth the effort?
Only if it is presented as such.
If effect of Qur’an is not caused by properties of the text itself, then your quest is a failure, no matter the presentation.
(It's my first time posting an article, so please go easy on me.)
I wonder if anyone ever fully analysed the Qran and all the resources it uses to tug at the feelings of the reader? It is a remarkably persuasive (if not at all convincing) book, even if I say so myself as an ex Muslim. I've started recognizing some patterns since I started reading this site, but I'd like to know if there is a full-blown, complete, exhaustive deconstruction of that book, that is not dripped in islamophobia, ethnocentrism, and other common failures I have seen in Western theologians when applied to Islam. Not a book about "How the Qran is evil" or "How the Qran is Wrong" or "How IT'S A FAAAKE" but "How, precisely, it manipulates you". Can anyone here point me towards such a work?
And where is the markup help in this blog? I can't seem to find it and it frustrates the hell out of me when I'm commenting usual posts.