I will chime in on a small facet of this debate because I don’t have the time or breadth of study to go point-for-point:
There is the famous quote from the bible (little b) that is loosely quoted/interpreted as “spare the rod, spoil the child.” This has been hotly debated for some time amongst parenting experts and religious academics. Apparently, how something is translated from ancient Aramaic, to Hebrew, etc. has a lot to do with interpretation of old writings. There are some who interpret the above saying as encouraging “physical discipline” of children: Beat the crap out of them or they’ll be criminals!
Obviously, I am not much of a subscriber to this philosophy. There are others who translate the saying more metaphorically–apparently the word for “rod” is connected to a shepherd’s rod, so that some scholars take the position that you should “guide” your children to keep them from going astray like sheep. Just an example, in the context of translation and interpretation, of how the Koran might not be best understood strictly construed, especially if you don’t/can’t read it with an understanding of the original text.
