…there will be no peace in the world.”
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) was Prime Minister of GreatBritain four times: 1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94. He called theQur’an an “accursed book” and once held it up during a session ofParliament, declaring: “So long as there is this book there will be nopeace in the world.”
Times have changed a great deal. Now the votaries of the book he sawas such an impediment to peace have triumphed: an Islamic reading roomis being set up at the library Gladstone founded near his home in NorthWales. In this BBC audio report(thanks to Andrew), Gladstone’s great grandson Christopher Parish andProfessor Richard Aldous, head of history at University College Dublin,tie themselves into knots trying to come up with a reason why Gladstonewould have approved of this reading room. Gladstone, you see, was a manof his time, but he actually made favorable comments about Muhammad inthe margins of a biography of the founder of Islam, and his remarksweren’t as extreme as those of some of his contemporaries…
It doesn’t add up. The text of the Qur’an has not changed from thelate 19th century to the early 21st. What has changed is the prevailingattitude toward the book. Now it has become a manifestation of bigotryand hatred to see in the Islamic holy book anything but peace andtolerance. But the text of the book remains the same. If itwas an impediment to peace in Gladstone’s day, it is now. If it is anuplifting exhortation to peace and tolerance now, then it was inGladstone’s day as well.
Yesterday Geert Wilders said:”I view Islam not as a religion, but as a dangerous, totalitarianideology – equal to communism and fascism. Aren’t I allowed to say so?”
No, he isn’t allowed to say so. If he had been born two hundredyears ago, he might have become Prime Minister of the Netherlands.Instead, he is a hunted man. Likewise Gladstone, were he miraculouslytransported to the House of Commons in 2009, would be excoriated for”hate speech” if he dared to repeat his view of the Qur’an today.
But the Qur’an remains the same. Eventually, Europe and America are going to deal with the implications of that fact, one way or another.