Of the Qran and its stylistic resources: deconstructing the persuasiveness Draft

Raw_Power

(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.

(It's my first time posting an article, so please go easy on me.)

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.

What, all of it? Then surely you have forgotten, say, this fragment which is about morals and nothing else (and which I had to learn by heart in school).

My eyes may have glazed over a few times. :-) But here's my summary of the whole of that sura:

(1) Fear Allah. (2,3) Don't talk over the Prophet. (4,5) Don't pester the Prophet. (6) Don't trust enemies. (7) Believe. (8) Allah knows all. (9) Exercise justice among believers. (10,11,12) Let believers be as brothers. (13) Allah knows all. (14,15) Believe and obey. (16) Allah knows all. (17) Believe. (18) Allah knows all.

I mean, yes, those moral fragments are there, but they seem to take a lot of searching. Anyway, LW isn't really the place to discuss the relative merits of different religions, so I don't want to prolong this.

Well, it was quite literally true in context. Infidels would kill you.

All rather a long time ago. Now you can be killed for leaving it. I wonder if there are statistics on the number of people, worldwide, voluntarily converting to or from the various faiths (plus atheism)? Like measuring immigration and emigration as a measure of people's preferences among countries.

LW isn't really the place to discuss the relative merits of different religions, so I don't want to prolong this.

I wasn't aware that that was the way you saw this discussion. Why compare things that are equally false? But I understand that, from your perspective, the text is boringly monotonous. I had similar problems when reading the Bible. All those names one after the other, with no introduction, no context, no Character Establishing Moments, nothing... Well, at least you have just demonstrated that there is something strongly subjective about the ap... (read more)