Source: Australian Muslim Times
Posted by Dr Ameer Ali
Justice Desmond Fagan, while reading his judgement on the Jihadi Bonnie and Clyde terrorist case advising Muslims with “deep knowledge” to disavow some verses of the Quran, only shows how ignorant the magistrate was about the history and content of that tome, holiest to all believing Muslims.
“If Australian followers of the religion, including those who profess deep knowledge, were to make clear public disavowal of these verses, as not authoritative instructions from Allah, then terrorists’ moral conviction might be weakened,” Justice Fagan said.
To start with, the name religion, which originated as a binary between religion and secular in the context of European Enlightenment in order to separate the state from Church, is the most inappropriate term to describe Islam, which is Deen as the Quran refers to and is best translated as a way of life.
The magistrate can be pardoned for using this misnomer, because even erudite Muslims make the same mistake.