What's the Good Word?

There is no question that Islam is currently getting very bad press in the West. To an increasing number of Americans and Europeans, Islam conjures up the image of a bearded fanatic in baggy pants, with an AK-47 slung across his chest. This suits the fundamentalists, whose weapon of choice is fear. And they use selective interpretation of the Koran to brainwash the gullible into believing they are on a holy mission.

The reality, of course, is that the fundamentalists constitute a very small minority among those who practice the religion of Mohammed. It is the silent majority - who are as appalled as Westerners, at suicide bombings and senseless slaughter of innocents - who are trying to put a positive spin on what they claim is the true intent of the Koran. It is with this laudable motive that Laleh Bakhtiar, a 68 year old Iranian-American, set about her mission of providing an accurate English translation of the Koran.

Then she came upon Chapter 4, Verse 34; and nearly dropped the project right then. The hotly debated verse states that a rebellious woman should first be admonished, then abandoned in bed, and ultimately "beaten"- the most common translation for the Arabic word "daraba"- unless her behavior improves. "I decided it either has to have a different meaning, or I can't keep translating," said Bakhtiar. "I couldn't believe that God would sanction harming another human being except in war."

Bakhtiar worked for five more years; and the translation is scheduled to be published in April. When she reached the problematic verse, Bakhtiar spent the next three months grappling with possible interpretations of "daraba". Her eureka moment came when. On reading of the Arabic-English Lexicon by Edward William Lane - a 3,064-page volume from the 19th century. Among the six pages of definitions for "daraba" was "to go away".