International bestselling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, who is known for his books "The Alchemist," "Veronika Decides to Die" among others, publicly defended Islam's holy book, the Quran, on his official Facebook page. On Aug. 8, Coelho posted a picture of the Quran on his Facebook page with a note saying, "Exhibition: ‘Books that changed the world,'" which received great attention from his followers on the popular social network, and gained more than 38,000 likes and 4,000 shares.
However, one of his Syrian followers, using the name Hiba B Dakkak, left the following comment on the image: "Really!!! This book is the source of violence and murder." Coelho replied to Dakkak and defended Islam by saying: "Not true. I am Christian, and for centuries we tried to impose our religion by the force of the sword – check ‘cruzades' [sic] in the dictionary. We murdered women – calling them witches, and we tried to stop science – like in the case of Galileu [sic] Galilei. So, it is not to blame a religion, but how people manipulate it." Coelho's reply has received more than 7,000 likes on Facebook.
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