“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

Thus fumed the Hebrew prophet millennia ago (Isaiah 5:20).

Of the many things that today conform to his lament—and they are increasingly legion—is the mainstream presentation of Islam. Consider, as just one example, the heart of Islam—the Koran, which NYC’s latest mayor was recently sworn on—and how its introduction into the West has been utterly twisted as a way to “put darkness for light.”

From their first contact—or rather collision—with Muslims, non-Muslims wanting to understand what Muslims’ rationale for attacking them frequently turned to the Koran.

Beginning with John of Damascus (b. 675)—who said “There are many … quite ridiculous things in this book which he [Muhammad] boasts was sent down to him from God”—till the modern era, non-Muslims, particularly Christians and Europeans, reached an unwavering consensus that the Koran, that “most pitiful and most inept little book of the Arab Muhammad,” not only promoted hate and violence, but was full of “ugly and vulgar filth,” including by depicting paradise as a “sexual brothel” for those who die waging jihad, to quote the eighth century’s Nicetas Byzantinos, who had and closely studied a copy of the Koran.

Even the first English translation of the Islamic holy book (based on a French translation) was produced at a time when the Muslims of North Africa—the Barbary pirates—were terrorizing virtually every corner of Europe, enslaving at least 1.25 million Europeans, from as far away as Iceland. In this context, the translator of this first English language Koran (1648), Alexander Ross, explained why Englishmen should bother reading the Koran:

[In] viewing thine enemies in their full body, thou maist better prepare to encounter and, I hope, overcome them…. There have been continual wars, and will be still between us. It concerneth every Christian who makes conscience of his ways, to examine the cause and to look into the grounds of this war.

Then the age of political correctness came upon us—an age of unrestrained censorship and deception. U.S. President Barack Obama declared that “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”

As “proof” of this dubious claim, we were told that one of the earliest instances of the Koran’s introduction into America came under “progressive” circumstances. Speaking of his being sworn into the House of Representatives on the same Koran that Thomas Jefferson owned, Keith Ellison exulted:

It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Qur’an.

Well over a decade later, in January 2019, Rashida Tlaib, another Muslim elected to the House of Representatives, said she too would be sworn in on the same Jefferson Koran. “It’s important to me because a lot of Americans have this kind of feeling that Islam is somehow foreign to American history,” she said. “Muslims were there at the beginning. … Some of our founding fathers knew more about Islam than some members of Congress now.”

Several academics agree with this view, including Denise Spellberg, author of Thomas Jefferson’s Qu’ran: Islam and the Founders. While admitting that “it’s true” that Jefferson’s Koran was produced under the usual circumstances—to understand and combat one’s enemy, in this case, Islam—“it’s [sic] appeal went beyond” and “was really a bestseller,” she said. “By using Jefferson’s Quran,” she said of the aforementioned Muslim politicians, “they’re affirming the fact that Islam has a long history in the United States, and is in fact an American religion.”

How much of any of this is true? None.

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Raymond Ibrahim

Woe Unto Them that Whitewash Islam in the…

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