Group aims to educate with free Qurans

As Marcia Macy chatted with her dog walker in the driveway of her Wheaton, Ill., home, a young Muslim man passed her and hooked a plastic bag containing a Quran on her doorknob.

Unlike most religious solicitors, the man didn’t try to speak with her or engage her in debate. He simply left her a 378-page paperback English translation of the holy book of Islam.

“I’d read it just to see what it says, but I believe in Jesus, not Allah,” said Macy, a longtime Christian. “They have a right to do it … but I feel pretty strong in my faith.”

If Macy reads the text, she will have fulfilled the goal of the Book of Signs Foundation. The Muslim organization says that since July it has distributed more than 70,000 free English Qurans to homes in the Chicago area and an additional 30,000 around Houston.

Organizers say their aim is to help people develop their own opinions about Islam instead of being misled by common misconceptions about the faith that have been especially egregious since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“We’re just trying to be honest brokers of information,” says Wajahat Sayeed, founder and director of Book of Signs, which also is known as al-Furqaan Foundation. “You make your own judgment.”

Distributing free scripture is not new, of course. Many Christian groups pass out Bibles; Gideons International distributed almost 450,000 in September in a weeklong “New York Bible Blitz.”

But the Book of Signs’ long-term goal is particularly ambitious: that each household in the U.S. possess a Quran, even if the residents are not Muslims.

The book includes a phone number where people can leave a message if they have questions or comments. Sayeed says about 30 percent are appreciative. An additional 30 percent are indifferent and request that someone return to pick up the book. The rest are often expletive-laden.

“It is not pleasant to hear that after all the effort you made,” says Sayeed, who works full time for the foundation after leaving a job as a strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Muslims believe the Quran to be the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Experts say reading it can be difficult for the average non-Muslim because it’s not written in chronological order and requires some context about the period in which it was written.

Sayeed says the foundation chose a translation written in a simple, modern language that Americans can easily understand.

“The general sense will be clear,” he says. “Islam teaches peace.”