my daughter tells me that there, as far as she knows, are NO "neutral" English translations of the Koran. (and i've NEVER known my daughter to lie. she is the MOST honest person i know! ===> note to all: don't ask "Tunafish", "does this dress make me look FAT?" -- lol! )
free dixie,sw
I do not speak Arabic. I've seen multiple translations, by multiple Islamic scholars. While I might grant that certain nuances might be hard to translate between any pair of languages, I do not consider that multiple translators would make the same basic mistake in the same way.
If so, I would expect to be able to find lots of discussions on the internet that "xyyxx really means closer to A than B" and so on, yet I've never come across that. All that I see is that when somebody points out something in the Qu'ran that is embarrassing to Muslims, some Muslim says "Well, the Qu'ran is not translatable, so only someone who knows Arabic can understand that."
I don't buy it. I consider the argument a form of Taqiyah (Muslims are allowed to lie to infidels if telling the truth would be bad for Muslims)
One question in all this: how does one become the adopted parent of a Turkish Muslim girl, without you yourself being a Muslim?