Religious Censorship Quotes
Islam is a proselytizing religion, and the Wahabi sect that dominates the religion and even the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia, is a particularly fundamentalist exponent. Hence the translation of Islamic books into Arabic. The few books translated into Arabic reflects not only the fear of heresy and cultural imperialism, but there is a conservative Islamic view that everything that is valid and important to know is in the Koran and the Hadith. Therefore, no other books are necessary.
In his preface he lists the objections that the religious authorities had made to allowing common people to read the Bible. The priests were in danger of losing their monopoly in telling people how God required them to behave. Note that one of the objections was that it was impossible to render an accurate translation of the scriptures. Although some of the scholars realized that the Latin version of the Bible was itself a translation from Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew, most men of the era thought that the Latin version was the only version of the Bible. Tyndale wanted to bring the Gospels and the Old Testament to every Englishman, and he did just that. He was however burned at the stake for his “heresy.”
The editorial was defending the two published cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad which were offensive to Muslims throughout the world.
The clerics of the day were exasperated trying to control the new technology of printing. Almost anyone could produce books and many did. Some of these dealt with religion and some were anonymous. The Council required that members of religious orders have their books reviewed prior to publication by their religious superiors, but the thing that frustrated them most was the anonymous tract. They could not attack the character of the personage of the author and in there was slander or heresy, they had no one to attack or punish.
