blogging the Quran

From Mindy Belz' interview in World of (and article about) Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch...

Spencer: "We can't defeat an enemy when we don't even know why he is fighting, what he wants, or what will bring him to stop fighting." So about a year ago he took on a much-needed public service project. He decided to go through the Quran verse by verse, line by line, discussing it in context, he emphasizes, and showing what Muslim commentators say about the various passages. "No one will thus be able to say with any accuracy that I am ignoring peaceful sections or misstating how such passages are understood by Muslims," he says.

And so "Blogging the Quran" (with inspiration from Slate's "Blogging the Bible") was born. And every week Spencer faithfully posts successive commentary on about 40 verses from the Quran—making extensive use of Muslim commentaries and interpretations so that any student "will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims." Spencer stresses that you need a Quran for this study (and in his introduction, linked through jihadwatch.org, gives not only recommendations on the best English translation, but also hyperlinks to Quranic texts along the way).