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The Saudis Are Pissed Off With The American Quran

The American Quran is a new English translation of the Muslim holy book, that believers believe was dictated by god to his prophet Muhammad in a serious of visions. The book aims to explain Islam to the world in a way that is not confined to the rigid Wahhabi interpretation of a typical Saudi version. The Daily Beast reports: A new translation of the Quran, with commentary, is causing a stir—and maybe something of a revolution—in the world of English-speaking Muslims. Why’s that? Because Salafists—adherents of a very conservative brand of Islam—have dominated the world market for Qurans for decades. Funded by the oil-rich royal family in Saudi Arabia, which has an especially rigid Wahhabi branch of Islam, the Salafis have exported their teachers, their mosques, their audio and video productions, and religious texts across the Arab world and into Pakistan, Europe, and North America, quashing alternate interpretations that don’t fit their narrow views. “In all these places, they funded the building of Saudi-style mosques with Wahhabi preachers and established madrasas that provided free education for the poor, with, of course, a Wahhabi curriculum,” religious scholar Karen Armstrong wrote about the Saudi export of religion in 2014. “At the same time, young [...]