The anti-Islamic people wouldn't have hate our religion that much if they would just read the whole Qu'ran and try to understand what's actually in it. Do you guys agree?

 In my experience, people who make statements like these don’t quite mean these exact words. The term “try to understand” is used to suggest that if they truly tried, they would came to the same conclusion as me; and those that did not, they did not truly try to understand it. What most people actually mean is that, “The anti-Islamic people wouldn't have hated our religion that much, if they would just read the whole Qur’an, and perceived the text in the exact manner as I do”. It is easy to see that this form of argument is built upon a logical fallacy.

Note that this is hardly unique to Muslims or Islam alone. Though I would be lying if I said that such a mindset is not common within many Muslim-majority nations. I have seen the same in people (especially preachers) from various religious: Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and others. Its not just related to religious people or topics regarding religion either. The common factor in my experience seems to be people who have spent most of their time living in an ideological bubble with similar minded people (same religion in this case) for extended periods of time; which means minimal interaction with people of other different religions or opinions. This results in the same ideas being regurgitated and validated within this echo chamber, without any exposure to a counter-opinion, till they are perceived as the universal truth.

For example, a Muslim surrounds and isolates himself in a community of Muslims; the people in this echo chamber constantly talk to each other of how reading the Quran will make anyone see the light of Islam; every person that the man has talked to (having been Muslims) has vouched that reading the Quran proves Islam as the undeniable truth; when this man talks to a non-Muslim, who does not see any evidence within the Quran that proves Islam as the absolute truth, the man does not understand how this is possible; after all, everyone that he had previously talked to swore this to have been the case. People who have spent their entire lives living among similar-minded people (especially in terms of religion) sometimes have difficulty understanding this diversity in opinion or perspective. That is also why many of these people, when they debate or discuss these topics with a person of different opinion, often quickly fall apart.

Now, coming back to the point of the logical fallacy that lies in this type of mind-set. Some Muslims seem to believe that reading the Quran can make anyone see the light of Islam, but this isn’t how it works in real. If a person doesn’t believe in Islam, reading the Quran doesn’t mean anything to them. It is simply a book. A slow and difficult read at that. To a non-Muslim, reading the Quran would probably be like reading the Silmarillion; though with less stories; and a greater focus on morality, hell, heaven, end of the world, etc. They would not see within it the evidence that serves to prove Islam as the truth. Nor would they perceive it the way a Muslim might.

The assumption that just because a person criticizes Islam (or something related to it) means that they have never read the Quran or studied Islam is untrue. That isn’t to say that there aren’t a lot of people who criticize Islam or Muslims, without knowing the first thing about it. However, there are also many among them who have studied Islam in detail, read the Quran and Hadith, and so forth. Many of the great debaters on religion have gone through religious texts from multiple religions (including the Quran - with translation and tafsir). People who are interested in comparative religious studies also do so. In my experience, quite a few ex-Muslims (who become atheists/agnostics) have a preceding religious phase, where they study Islam in great detail in an attempt to strengthen their faith. Yet, they may still criticize aspects of Islam, despite having a great deal of knowledge on Islam, including having read the Quran.

Conversely, just because a person is an extremely enthusiastic Muslim does not mean that they have read the Quran (in terms of translation and tafsir) or studied Islam in great detail. I have come across countless Muslims who have never gone through the translation and tafsir of the Quran themselves. This holds especially true in highly religiously conservative countries with low literacy rates (Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.). I would actually attribute this to be one of the main causative factors behind the Mullah culture in these regions.

I would divide the people who criticize Islam (or certain aspects of it) and Muslims into two broad groups.

The first being the blind Islamophobes, who have no interest in talking or understanding anything about Islam at all. They hate Islam and Muslims and will continue to do so; Quran or no will make no difference. Even if they did read the Quran, it would only be used to cherry pick verses without context to serve as justification of their pre-existing hatred of Islam and Muslims. There really isn’t anything that one can do about these people.

The second group are those people that are more willing to engage or participate in a discussion. These people are at least willing to be open-minded to see things from a different perspective. In my experience, the criticism of Islam or Muslims that comes from this group has less to do with the text of the Quran or Hadith, as it is common for religious texts to have multiple interpretations. Their criticism or dislike comes as a consequence of the words, behaviour, and actions of the Muslims themselves as a whole. Hard to blame them. People’s perception of religion (or other ideas) comes from looking at the people that follow that religion. In the real world, religion is essentially what the people (especially scholars or esteemed figures) who follow that religion say it is. That is where I would say the blame comes back to the Muslim community worldwide. It is no secret that there are many Muslim-majority nations that are plagued by many issues; some religion-based and others that are multi-factorial. We are talking about extremism and terrorism, women’s rights issues, poor treatment of religious minorities, blasphemy and apostasy laws, hypocritical attitude when it comes to Muslim and non-Muslim minority rights, and so forth.

People (who don’t believe in Islam) around the world see the way that these Muslims behave and therefore perceive that to be the definition of Islam. It is up to the Muslims to bring forth change in themselves, if they wish to change the manner in which people around the world perceive them and Islam as a whole.

When people around the world, who are not Muslims, see images like these regularly from multiple Muslim-majority countries; they are hardly going to perceive Islam in a very positive manner; Quran or no Quran. Especially considering that these same Muslims themselves would be first to cry persecution if similar laws were applied against them in countries that have a non-Muslim majority. The sad part is that this is little more than Islamic chauvinism or supremacism at its peak. The majority of the Muslims in Pakistan, including the blasphemy-obsessed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), are followers of the Hanafi Madhab or “School of Islamic jurisprudence”. The Hanafi law generally does not allow a death penalty for blasphemy, when it comes to non-Muslims and women. The punishment is limited to canning or imprisonment (that is if they refuse to repent). Yet, these people came up with a different interpretation to maintain their blasphemy law.