Hemant Mehta is among several who have noted the above video, which features a couple of pranksters in the Netherlands putting a “Holy Qur’an” cover on a Bible and then stopping people in the street, reading parts of it, and asking them what they think. The passages were classic examples of difference between our values and Ancient Near Eastern ones – cutting off a woman’s hand, people being forced to eat their own children, women being submissive, etc. What is most interesting is the way people responded when asked about the differences between the Qur’an (which they thought had just been read to them) and the Bible, before they were told that what had been read to them was actually itself from the Bible.
The Golden Rule applies to reading the Scriptures of another religion. If you cannot see anything good in the Qur’an, and cannot acknowledge anything reprehensible in the Bible, then you are being unfair to at least one if not both. And you are, perhaps most ironically, violating the most axiomatic teaching of Jesus in the process. You are not treating others the way you would want to be treated.
What do blog readers think? Anyone want to try this on the street of their hometown and make an English-language version?
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