Muslim Writer Discusses The Quran, Good Vs. Bad

Online, November 17, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Mohamed Mughal, author of Resolution 786, spoke before a congregation of Unitarian Universalists in Fallston, Maryland on October 24, 2010. Mughal's talk, titled The Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys, used scripture and other literary sources to explore notions of who's "good" and who's "bad." At one point, Mughal read text that described a stereotypical "bad guy," then asked attendees to identify the person being described. Attendees identified Osama bin Laden. Mughal revealed that the text was from George Orwell's novel, 1984, and that the passages were a description of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People invented by Big Brother. Other readings included passages from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies. Mughal's readings from the Quran covered verses regarding: the virgin birth of Jesus; the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden; Moses' appeal to the Pharaoh to release the Children of Israel; and the story of Noah and the Great Flood.

Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity suggests that there are no privileged frames of reference. Mughal's discussion extrapolated this concept into a model of moral relativism that suggests that there are no intrinsically good or bad guys and that the designation is largely one of relative perspective. Mughal cited the villain-less writings of Kurt Vonnegut as an example of circumstances without bad guys.

Asked about the talk, attendee Ed Akehurst said, "I knew that Islam shared a lot of traditions and scripture with Christianity and Judaism but I didn't know just how much until I heard Mohamed's talk."