I'll break down their comment point by point, but first of all, anonymous, I appreciate your concern, and the help in trying to clarify the passages of the Quran, they can be difficult to interpret. For the sake of this post, I'll refer to this person as Concerned Muslim or CM:
Sure, CM, what I mean about proselytizing in the warning that you see above the comment section is a warning against people trying to convert me to their religion, Pascal's Wager arguments, etc, that won't be tolerated. Comments that are in disagreement, but are civil, and attempts to clarify something I've said in a post are not only acceptable, but encouraged.
Yes, there probably are many misconceptions about Islam, both from a lack of knowledge about it in the Western world, (it's not a common religion in many places), and deliberate smears for various reasons, especially religiously motivated attacks. In the Koran, chapters are typically referred to as Surahs in Arabic, I usually just simply use the term "chapter" instead.
Chapter/Surah 2 is rather difficult to read and understand, especially for someone who is not familiar with Islam to begin with. I have noticed that the Quran doesn't go with a narrative style like the Old Testament, but instead presumes that the reader already knows what it is talking about. I'm not the only one who has noticed this. It looks like my good blogging friend Ahab of the extremism watch blog Republic of Gilead feels the same way:
