Sunday, September 9, 2012

Anyone Else Find This Triumphalist Language Disturbing?

Why should you come and learn "the Language of the Koran," a free course offered at the ICNA Resource Center? Well, one of the reasons, apparently, is because
Verily Allah raises nations by this book (the Qur'an) and puts down (i.e. destroys) others by it.
That's their quotation, not mine. As a non-Muslim living in a non-Muslim nation, I can't help but view this verily warily. How about you?

2 comments:

Carlos Perera said...

I agree that it's not the sort of pitch one would get from a marketing expert. And, once upon a time, I would have thought it to be counterproductive. However, now I'm not so sure. I've come to believe that, in matters of religion and ideology, what counts most is the zeal projected by the preacher; and, in a perverse way, the ICNA Resource Center's pitch does that in spades.

We easily forget that, apart from the advance of Moslem fundamentalism through jihad in places like sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asia, they have a high conversion rate in supposedly post-religious societies like Western Europe (especially among women!). People seek something to fill the spiritual void left by said post-religious societies, and the pablum being ladled out by too many synagogues and churches just can't compete with the (highly intolerant, to be sure) conviction that emanates from the mosques.

I may even profit from the phenomenon myself: the Jerusalem _Post_'s marketing department computer, which is convinced I'm Jewish, is constantly sending me ads for Israeli real estate and Hebrew lessons packaged with tours of the Holy Land . . . I may send them the link to the ICNA promo of your post; no doubt the _Post_'s marketers can tweak it into a Hebreo-centric ad. A modest consulting fee, if the ICNA approach yields increased sales, would not be unreasonable.

scaramouche said...

I get the same ads, CP. I'm pretty sure ICNA would be thrilled to get its hands on Israeli real estate--as would all of the devout who want the Jews to am-scray because the existence of a Jewish state on land claimed in perpetuity for Allah contravenes core Islamic teachings.