Paulo Coelho defends Holy Quran as 'book that changed the world'

Coelho says for centuries Christians tried to impose their religion by the force of the sword

World-renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho publicly defended Islam on his official Facebook page after a picture he posted of the Holy Quran led to an unsavoury comment by one of his fans. 

The internationally-acclaimed author of The Alchemist, posted on August 8 an image of the Quran with the caption ‘Exhibition "Books that changed the world"’. Many of his fans commented in support of his post and it has so far earned 39,395 likes and 4, 499 shares.



However, one Facebook user took exception to his views and commented, “Really!!! This book is the source of violence and murder.”

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Coelho did not remain silent and replied to the user defending Islam, “Not true. I am Christian, and for centuries we tried to imposed our religion by the force of the sword - check "cruzades"in the dictionary.. We murdered women - calling them witches, and we tried to stop science - like in the case of Galileu Galilei. So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it.”



For all the author's Pakistani fans, he even wished everyone in the country a Happy Independence Day.

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This article originally appeared on Al Arabiya