Many times when engaging with Muslims, I will inevitably run into a point where the Muslim will try to shut down the conversation using a fantastically lazy cop-out:
"You don't even speak Arabic. You must speak Arabic to understand the Quran/Hadith!"
This article will explain why this is a supremely illogical argument.
There are less than 400 million Arabic speakers on the planet. This includes standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, and Sudanese Arabic, which are to greater or lesser extents mutually intelligible.
Note that there are, officially speaking, 1.9 billion Muslims. I don't believe that number, and you can read why here, but since apostasy is just as likely in Arabic-speaking and non Arabic-speaking nations, we'll stick with the official numbers.
That means that even if we assume that every single Arabic speaker is a Muslim, approximately 80% of Muslims don't even speak Arabic.
So if one does need to speak this language in order to properly understand Islam, can Muslims explain why 4/5 of their fellow Muslims aren't apostates? If they can understand their religion due to translations and instruction in their own language, then certainly I can as well.
While I may not speak Arabic, dozens of men who do speak Arabic and English have translated the Quran and Hadith collections into English so that I can understand them.
So what is a translation? It's simply someone who understands both languages trying to convey the message in one language into the other as closely as possible. With a translation, I personally have an Arabic speaker telling me what it means in English.
"No!", comes the reply, "To understand it, you must speak Arabic".
Do you know what Muslims have done by saying that the Quran cannot be translated? They've declared it to be unintelligible and incomprehensible, even for an Arabic speaker. If it is easy to be clearly understood, as the Quran frequently claims (Surah 6:114, 11:1, 15:1, 16:89, 24:46, 26:2, 27:1, 28:2, 41:3, 57:9, etc.), then it should be easy to convey that message accurately into any language.
If a native Arabic-speaking scholar like Yusuf Ali or Mustafa Khattab can't tell me what the Arabic is saying accurately, what hope do I have of understanding it even if I spent years learning it?
They've also banished 80% of Muslims and 95% of humanity to being unable to understand the "Word of God". The truth is, if the Quran was God's Word to mankind, it would be able to be translated into any language.
I like what TheReligionOfPeace.com says on this topic:
Games Muslims Play - The Quran Can Only be Understood in Arabic
Another problem is the fundamental impossibility for anyone to learn a language that cannot be translated into one they do know, which means the apologists who insist that one "must learn Arabic" in order to understand the Quran are refuting their own premise. If Arabic can be learned, then it can be translated. If it can be translated, then there is no need to learn it.
Despite how ridiculous this argument is, it is often a first resort when a Muslim is trying to respond to someone else showing something evil, illogical, or inconsistent in the Quran or the Hadith, especially when trying to appeal to the mob. "This ignorant Kafir thinks he can understand our religion when he doesn't even speak Arabic!"
This gives them an alibi or plausible deniability to try and laugh off any serious objections to their religion without having to address the claim. It's a lazy defense mechanism against criticism.
This kind of behavior works well online, in Muslim echo chambers, where the goal is not to get to the truth, or honestly deal with criticism of Islam. Everyone who does that leaves the religion in a few days. So, what you are left with are swarms of dangerously ignorant, childish Pagans, who think that they "win" if they can spam 😂 emojis and mock you for speaking English. That won't work forever. Eventually that road will come to an end, and the end is just a door to Hell.
Invalidating every critique because of the convenient stipulation of needing to speak a certain language only proves that the Quran cannot possibly be clear, understandable, or from God.
Muslims urgently need to write to Mustafa Khattab, the Saudi Arabian government (Sahih International), and other translators of Islamic literature, and tell them to do their job. I've been assured that none of them, despite decades of experience in Arabic and translation, can manage a simple translation into English for a book shorter than the New Testament.
The reason that this argument is resorted to by Muslims is because their false religion doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Therefore, no one can scrutinize it unless they belong to the 5% of humanity that speaks Arabic. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. The truth should fear no inspection, and God did not create a religion that only makes sense in one language, considering He created the languages to start with (Genesis 11).