The use of the term "a people of no intelligence" is the
contentious phrase, which you said was a quote from
the Koran. It was not. It was a quote from Maxime
Rodinson, which appears in a book by Jef Lang, an
American convert.

Much of your speech can be found in chapter 2 of his
book, including the quote from Lammens, the
etymology of a fa-la taqilin and all the injunctions to
knowledge.

Your speech seems to be very close to a regurgitation
of his thoughts. If this is the source of your speech,
taking your own council and checking the source may
have been a good idea.

In the 32 translations of the Koran currently available,
not one contains the phrase " a people of no
intelligence".

The French word renseignement (both Rodinson and
Lammens were French) can be translated into English
as Intelligence, but only in the sense used in Military
Intelligence, i.e. information that is transmitted.

Perhaps in future if you checked your facts a little
more carefully, you wouldn't create such a ruckus and
as a result increase division and islamophobia.

The Mutazillah worked on the basis that if a Koranic
interpretation seemed illogical, it was the
interpretation that was at fault, not the Koran. Calling
2/3rds of humanity "a people without intelligence"
does not seem very omniscient.

But as you said yourself at the beginning of the
speech, if it is good it is from Allah, if it is bad it is from
you. You are now a very public figure and by using
this phrase without checking have done your religion
a disservice.

This could all be sorted out by simply saying "I got the
quote wrong".

As for the cattle interpretation, we call Christ the good
shepherd. You do the math.

I'm really hoping NS readers, unlike Grace and Rob, will not simply 'fall' for the original premise laid out in the attack by the (now increasingly discredited) Harry's Place blogger, but take a step back and recognise that this is nothing but a witch hunt by a few individuals against NS.

The open targetting of Mr Hasan has been exposed very articulately by http://www.pickledpolitics.com/ today, in which several extensive longer quotes of Hasan's are presented, rather than just the single line being constantly repeated and analysed without any context.

The pickledpolitics blogger points out, as anyone who has watched it will agree, that Hasan's full speech is actually more critical of Muslims than than the west and of the many passages of the speech which this pp site quotes supporting this context, one includes the line : "It is the only way to learn, to open your minds to non-Muslims, to open your minds to other cultures, to learn foreign languages."

These appear to be the words of a very open minded individual. Unlike those targetting him on that site.

In this clip, you compare the position of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran on nuclear
weapons to that of Pakistan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4hpfqFt-
0Q&feature=player_embedded

You praise the fatwa of the Ali Khamenei and condemn the conduct of Pakistan.

Do you believe that Iran is following the fatwa of the Supreme Leaders?

Stop the witch hunt against Mr Hasan and have a read of how all of these unfounded and 'agenda'-driven attacks could be libel - http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/5312

How is this supposed to be interpreted then:

"We know that keeping the moral high-ground is key. Once we lose the moral high-ground we are no different from the rest, of the non-Muslims; from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfil any desire."

So non muslims are animals???? Is that what you seriously believe????

"2. [15:37] “In Islam, to believe is to know. To disbelieve is not to know. That is what it fundamentally comes down to; it [to disbelieve] is to remain ignorant; to cover up knowledge. After all, what is ‘kaffar’? Kaffar comes from the root word which means to cover up, to conceal. The kaffar is the one who covers up that knowledge which is clear. The French orientalist scholar Lamens [?], he once wrote that the “Quran is not far from considering unbelief, disbelief as an infirmity, as an illness, as a disease of the human mind”. Subhanallah. Non-Muslims point this out to us.”

Subhanallah usually means assent or agreement in that way and then you add that Non-Muslims point this out "to us" – meaning, I think, that you agree with them when that happens and agrees that a lack of belief in Islam is a near disease of the mind etc.

As a non-Muslim that's not a pleasant statement to see or for the senior editor (politics) of a leading progressive left-wing newspaper to make either.

Question arising – Does you genuinely agree that I, as an example, are near mentally ill because I am an unbeliever?

Regarding the use of Kafir - Kafir is seen by many people, myself included, as the equivalent of the N word or the P word (am not writing them out, apologies to all for use to illustrate the point) I appreciate it has a different origin being religious as opposed to racial but the insult is of the same magnitude. It is used these days as a base, gross insult and is a perjorative term. Why use it as done in the speech?

Moo.