Iraqi Author Rashid Khayoun: Islamic Scholars Have Massacred the Quran

Iraqi author Rashid Khayoun said in a TV interview that Muslims tend to disregard the pain of the nations raided during the Islamic conquests. Khayoun said he blamed Islamic jurisprudents for "doing away with 70 verses that dealt with peace, with love, and with minding one's own business." The jurisprudents abrogated all these verses for the sake of the verse of the sword and have "massacred the Quran," he said. The interview aired on Sky News Arabia TV on June 3, 2016.

Rashid Khayoun: "As Muslims, we treat our history as if it is full of compassion. That is not true. There were wars. Even the early Islamic conquests - we should not view them in a romantic light. There were conquests and Islam spread, but were we aware of the feelings and pain of those whom we conquered? We unsheathed swords, not books."

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Interviewer: "Were you shocked by the subjugation of Yazidi women, by the fact that in this day and age there are people - even if extremist - who still believe in this notion?"

Rashid Khayoun: "What shocked me was the excess of barbarism, and in the name of religion, no less."

Interviewer: "Of course, they justify it with historical events and religious texts."

Rashid Khayoun: "Yes, but we have to...Those religious texts are the problem. They are being used today, and taken out of the context in which the (Quranic verses) were revealed. When some raid took place, and the verse 'kill them wherever you find them' was revealed during the battle, these were (appropriate) circumstances, but these things should not continue. What should continue are the verses that pertain to peace and love. I blame the jurisprudents as well. They massacred the Quran, by doing away with over 70 verses that dealt with peace, with love, and with minding one's own business. All of these were abrogated in favor of a single verse - the fifth verse of Surat Al-Tawbah, the verse of the sword."