A false interpretation of Koran by members of the Muslim clergy is now being challenged in Bangladesh by a petition filed with Bangladesh Supreme Court on Sunday, August 1, 2010.
It has become a regular habit of Muslim clergymen around the world to give self-styled interpretations of the Koran with the goal of fitting their own political, jihadist or other intentions.
In the petition filed by Dev Narayan Maheshwar at the Bangladesh Supreme Court, and heard by judge Abdul Wahab Miah and Kazi Rezaul Huq, the petitioner claimed that Muslim clergymen continuing to give self-styled interpretations of Koranic verses 99 and 113, claiming that the prophet Abraham took his son Ismail [Isaac] to be sacrificed in the name of God. But in these verses of the Koran, there is no mention of Ismail: Muslim clergymen seem to be trying to glorify Isaac over Prophet Abraham's son Jacob.
When contacted, the grand imam of Bangladesh's national mosque, Mufti Salahuddin said that in the Koran there is no mention of Isaac's name as having been brought by his father for sacrifice in the name of God. For centuries, however, Muslim clergmen have listened to the story that the Prophet Abraham took his son Isaac for sacrifice -- and event observed by Muslims worldwide as Eid-Ul-Azha.
Benjin Khan, a Bangladeshi scholar and researcher of Islam and Koranic verses, has said that wrong, even false, interpretations of Koran have become a regular practice of many Muslim clergies in the world. "Everyone gives the interpretation in his own style to fit his specific purpose," he said.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court will deliver a verdict on the petition in several weeks. If the verdict is given in favor of the petitioner, several interpretations of Koran by Muslim clergies may then be challenged.
While the Koranic interpretation is challenged in Bangladesh's highest judiciary, religious groups and political parties in Bangladesh will need to comclude their activities soon, as country's Supreme Court has recently already delivered another verdict, upholding the Bangladeshi constitution's secular mode. Religious political parties such as thre Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, the Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, the Islamic Unity Front, the Islami Oikya Jote, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and others, have already lost the legal right to continue their activities. Militant Islamist groups like Hizbut Towhid, Khatmey Nabuat Andolan and others also became illegal under the recent verdict. There is also no scope for religious groups such as the Bangladesh Hindu League, thr Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad, or the Hindu Grand Alliance.
An earlier Bangladesh government banned books by Moulana Abul Ala Moududi, who is the spiritual leader of Jamaat-e-Islami.
