Free registration required and all that jazz... Islamic religious leaders from the Middle East will be invited by the National Security Council to join Thai Muslim religious leaders in scrutinising the Koran for correctness, after a new version turned up including distorted teachings. Mr Thaksin said he had read the new version of the Koran, which had been translated from the Arabic language into Thai. Deputy Prime Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha gave him a copy. It contained distorted religious teachings. ``It's an adapted version of the Koran being used to deceive Muslims. The one I read is the translated Thai version. The Yawi version has much more violent content. ``Those reading it for seven days in a row could go crazy because it is completely distorted,'' Mr Thaksin said. The book, written in the Malayu language by Klualatikhor Danohmaeroh, was brought from Kotabaru in the northern state of Kelantan, Malaysia, by Islamic extremists who wanted to use the twisted teachings to indoctrinate local Muslim youths and raise tension and violence in the South. Chapter 1 of the book encourages ``jihad warriors'' to fight for their religion and Allah for the glory of Pattani state and to form troops to fight ``those outside the religion'', while Chapter 3 tells the warriors to kill all opponents _ even their own parents _ and to sacrifice their lives to be in heaven with Allah. Chapter 5 alerts the warriors to go to war to seize Pattani state back from religious renegades, and to die for their religion. Chapter 7 quotes Chapter 123 of the Koran as saying that: ``You must kill all of them, those outside the religion around you, so they will know you, who have faith, are strong as well.'' Not really an issue that many of us in the US have heard about - at least not in the circles that I congregate in. This was the primary reason for the Protestant movement within Christianity. It was the basis behind King James calling for an English translation of The Bible. The Koran states that it must always be in Arabic. It dictates that the prayer meetings are held in Arabic as well. The logic behind it is that it will ensure correctness, but that would only be the case if the entire world spoke Arabic. Even if one were to learn Arabic as a second language, interpretations will vary from one person to the next, depending on their native language. It seems that the politically slanted factions of Islam are taking advantage of the fact that there's no "Universal Translation Authority" (akin to the Council of Nicaea for determining the contents of The Bible) and playing televangelist. Sure, there are English translations of The Koran, along with many other languages, but there is no central authority for Islam that certifies them for correctness - most likely due to the "Arabic Only" dictate within it. This brings up a completely different struggle - do you remain true to the original teachings and ignore the need for correct translations or do you "become progressive" and create a certifying authority? Obviously I'm opening a can of worms with this debate. Dolemite Koran rewrite upsets PM | 
