Heute ist die Amazon-Lieferung eingegangen, ein sehr schönes Exemplar, verfasst von Gott natürlich (von wem sonst?) und in einer englischen Übersetzung von Abdel Haleem, einem gebürtigen Ägypter aus Kairo, der den Koran bereits als Kind auswendig lernte. Inzwischen ist er langjähriger Arabischlehrer in Cambridge und einigen Londoner Universitäten und gibt auch Fortgeschrittenenkurzse in arabischer Übersetzung und über den Koran. Seit 1995 ist er Professor für Islamstudien - ich glaube eine bessere Übersetzung ist in Europa kaum zu bekommen.
Jede Seite enthält auch eine Abbildung des arabischen Originals (nicht, dass ich das lesen könnte). Aber das wichtigste: das Buch ist groß und schwer, und wenn ich es in der Bahn lese wird es jedem sofort ins Auge fallen.
Morgen geht es also los: bin schon gespannt auf die Reaktionen.
Meine Theorie ist ja, dass die Iren relativ entspannt mit dem Thema umgehen, ich vermute mal nicht, dass ich viele Kommentare bekommen werde - gespannt bin ich dennoch.
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So here it is: my brand new Qur'an has arrived, of course delivered by Amazon. It is a very fine exemplary, written by God (of course) and in an English translation from Professor Abdel Haleem. Born in Egypt, Abdel Haleem has already memorized the Qur'an by heart as a child in a Cairo Qur'an-school. These days, he is a teacher for Arabic in Cambridge and some London universitites and also gives advanced courses in Arabic translation and Qur'an studies. Since 1995, he is a professor of Islamic studies - I don't think I can get a better translation in Europe.
Each page also contains an original picture with the Arabic text (not that I could read that). But the most important thing: the book is big and heavy, and when I will be reading it in the DART-train, it will catch everyone's eye.
Tomorrow is the start, then: I'm already curious about people's reactions.
My current theory is that the Irish are pretty relaxed about the whole thing, they might have a sense of community that is a little bit too strong for my liking, but they have also a "live and let live" attitude, much more so than other European people seem to have these days.
So I don't think that I'll get many comments, but we'll see anyways.
*Disclaimer: I am NOT a muslim, but a Christian from Germany with an Arabic name and Algerian-French "by-roots". These days, I am more or less Agnostic, not a member of any organized religious group and pretty much a "freethinker". Recent events in France and around the world, which led to aggressions against normal, every-day peaceful Muslims, led me to the idea of carrying out this experiment: I will be reading an English translation of the Qur'an (I've never read that book, so I might even learn something new) in public transport wherever I go. In 2015, this will be mainly Dublin, Ireland, but also include California and Germany. I'll note down any reaction my lecture will provoke and am already quite excited about these.
Update August: Nothing happened. People in Ireland don't care which book you are reading in public, and pulling out the big Qu'ran has not provoked any specific reaction (positive or negative). Some people looked twice at the book as it is unusual that somebody reads something like this on the commuter train, but that's it.
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