Quran wife beating passage cleaned up by first American woman to translate Muslim holy book into English

Astute readers of Marathon Pundit may notice that for the second time today, the surname of Bakhtiar comes into a post.

Instead of Pakistan, this Bakhtiar, whose first names is Laleh, lives in Chicago and she's the first American woman to translate the Quran into English.

From NBC 5 Chicago:

Scholars are most critical of her work because of a change she made in the text.

She changed a passage translated to mean, "It's OK to beat your wife" to instead say "It's OK to go away from your wife."

So, it's okay to beat your wife, according to some Muslim scholars.

Here is a generally accepted translation of that passage, Sura 4:34:

As to those women on whose part you see ill?conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful), but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance). Surely, Allâh is Ever Most High, Most Great.

NBC 5 is reporting that the just-published translation, The Sublime Quran, will be shipped soon, and is available on Amazon, but the site says, "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this title will be in stock again."

UPDATE: Jihad Watch has an earlier post on this story.

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