Why is it acceptable to translate the (Christian) Bible, while the Quran and Torah should be read in their original languages?

The topic that you have raised is pretty sensitive. According to my understanding, both the Christians and the Muslims are right in their own way. Bible has been translated to almost every language in the world, because the evangelists wanted to spread the Word of God across all nations. However, since translations can never carry the real essence of the original creations, Muslims believe that its best to keep the word in its original version.  They do not wish to loose even the slightest of essence of the original text with the process of translations.

I have a copy of a Quran, that I was given at a few years back at an Arab American festival. It's in English.

It is true that Muslims only accept the 'originals' but since they don't exist we have a logical absurdity of someone believing in a book they have never seen and that can only be worthless. If we have to read scripture in the original languages we would have to learn it as it was spoken and understood 2,000 or more years ago - a practical impossibility for a whole world. But if God or Allah is so great one would think he could ensure that the message is transmitted in any language, if not then one would have to conclude that God was a bit shortsighted or did not know there are many thousands of languages.

I can throw in another .02. Judaism holds that one does not need to be Jewish to be a righteous human being and have a share in the world to come. Therefore we are not so concerned with "converting" others. We focus on the Torah. And we study it in the original language which is considered not only holy but to have certain properties that would be lost if it were translated. Christianity was always very focused on converting others. This is more easily done if you can provide copies of religious writings in their local languages.

i can only answer for the quran. it is said that the meaning is best preserved if the quran is read in the original ancient arabic that it was written in. however seeing how quickly languages change, i doubt if even modern arabians can understand all of the quran without some effort. if people don't understand it, then reading it becomes a moot point. so it is not only acceptable, but also encouraged to read translated versions of the holy quran. perhaps you got your information from wahabis(guessing) who are all into the "purity" and "originality" but most of the other sects are more practical. or i might even be wrong about the wahabis, seeing as a lot of charitable trusts(some of which must be wahabi owned) give away translated versions of the quran for free. also i remember a time when the roman catholic church imposed strict guidelines about who and how can the bible be read. it was always to be read in latin. then there were schisms in the church and falling popularity(and the fear of irrelevancy, which is again rising up now) made the church take many popularizing steps, one of which was accepting the inevitability of translation of the bible.

There is no original version of the Christian Bible available.  It is a collection of edited stories written starting decades after Jesus' supposed death.  The earliest edition available is in Greek and Jesus would not have preached in Greek.  The Torah was written down from an oral tradition that required the memorization of the passages and recitation of the entire Torah on an annual basis.  The Qur'an is the most contemporary of the three, dictated by an illiterate prophet to his followers who have also had a tradition of memorization and recitation. Jews view the prophets of Christianity and Islam as false prophets.  The Jews are still waiting for Elijah.

A reason is that we Christians don't worship the Bible.  I don't know if the Jewish people do the same thing, but you can see this difference between the Islamic faith and the Christian one anyway by looking how we treat our sacred texts.  The Muslim wouldn't put the Quoran on the ground, fold pages, or mark in it.  But a well-worn bible is a symbol of a Christian's devotion to his faith.  We are PROUD of our beat up Bibles.  That's because the book isn't what is important, but the words inside the book.  I'm not sure about Judaism but there is a lot of similar idolatry in the Islamic faith, like not displaying the image of Muhammad.  They try to keep from displaying the image out of fear of idolatry, but they don't realize that by doing so they are actually creating the idol in spirit.

All languages and their respective alphabets have morphed over the centuries. The Torah interpretations over time since Moses at Sinai have experienced 26 versions of an alphabet. I do not know about Arabic but it's original like Hebrew has been modernized by kings,scribes and other creative folks over time. All this has played into the fulfilment for the tribes of Israel to have been scattered throughout the nations as they were promised they would be. All of this comes out in the unsealing of the book that was sealed in the book of Daniel in the end times.The bible today has been translated in part to have fulfilled the scattering of the tribes.When the unsealed one hits Amazon or the book stores all three of these religions can see how they are related and the restoration of Israel can be fulfilled. Stay tuned! And hang on as it is in these times we are in that these things and so much more are to happen.

Honestly, the great theological differences in Christianity would be diminished if all Christians read a Hebrew-Greek text. However, as Christianity has yet to create a uniform Greek or Hebrew text, and since so many sectarian differences developed within an English context, it's simply cultural fact that Christianity exists independent of its scriptures. Judaism and Islam, both originating in a tribal climate with great respect for the past, emphasized Arabic and Hebrew. Islam, especially, wanted to mandate the Arabic reading because it preserved faith. As we have seen, while there are theological differences in Islam, none are as wide as the rifts between Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, and Restorationist groups (unless of course you want to compare Salafis and Shi'a, but most Muslims could care less for the Salafis)