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Judaism, a self serving monotheism
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
How jealous and proud is he? Well, his name is Jealous. And he named himself!
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Exodus 34:14
That was the description of the Hebrew bible god by the renowned biologist Prof. Richard Dawkins.
What on earth urged such an outstanding scientific figure as Prof. Dawkins, in his discussion of the God hypothesis, to say those things about the god of the Old Testament? He is not known for being irrational or cynical, though he is the most famous atheist in the world, but he made that statement merely out of being objective and logical.
The Bible describes Yahweh as the one true God who delivered Israel from Egypt and gave the Ten Commandments: “Then God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you lived as slaves. You shall have no other gods to rival me. Notice the mentioning and the jealousy of Egypt`s power and pantheon of gods.
Since Judaism gave the world monotheism, one would expect – from a historical point of view – that ancient Jews and their priests must have embarked upon a long and enduring religious quest for the one god concept. But on the contrary, one gets to find out and surprisingly that it was God who made the abrupt introduction to the Jews.
Many secular philosophers and even some theologians argue that monotheism evolved from polytheism saying that “Polytheistic faiths were more primitive and monotheistic faiths more advanced – culturally, ethically, and philosophically.” According to those theologians, if polytheism came from monotheism, it must have de-evolved. It could not have evolved.
But what if monotheism came from a culture that is ethically and philosophically primitive in every way. What then are the chances for a religious evolution – if any – of a universal god and ethical monotheism?
In other words, one can not appreciate the complexity and the sophistication of a modern Porsche car, unless he bears in mind and previsualize the complex and evolutionary phases man had to go through from riding a donkey to hopping over a motor cycle and finally driving a four wheel car.
The same thing should apply when we discuss monotheism, for it is the finest and most abstract concept in religious thinking. The ancient Egyptians reached monotheism after almost two millennia of profound religious evolvement.
We can’t not jump from paganism right into monotheism without transitional phases; this is not logical, and furthermore historically refuted. Nonetheless, and weird enough, this is what we get when we tried to approach the evolution of monotheism in Judaism.
The Hebrews described in the Old Testament appear to have been semi-nomadic herders of sheep and goats and occasional farmers, without knowledge – unlike the Egyptians nor the Assyrians – of metal working, sophisticated craftsmanship or a written language. Like other nomadic herders, they were tent dwellers — as Abraham is described in Genesis 13:3. And, as was common among herders, the Hebrews had a masculine god of the sky and weather. The Hebrews organized themselves around their extended families, and Hebrew families were combined into kinship groups governed by a council of elders that left the head of a family with a sense of self-rule. These heads of families were males with absolute authority over their wives and children, and they were the priests for their families, each family having its own sacred images.
The Hebrews saw their god of the sky as concerned with them rather than as a god for all peoples. Genesis 15:18 describes their god as making a covenant with Abraham, saying:
To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
So this is the kind of monotheism that Judaism gave us. A sort of readymade and evolution free monotheism. A mighty god who cares only for his nomadic people, in a way that wouldn`t qualify him as a universal god but rather as a national or tribal one for that matter.
Yahweh is a Hebrew serving god; his doctrine couldn’t encompass all humans – contrary to the Egyptian God “Aten ” – but only favored his people in an unjustified bias. And looking back at the Jewish herders in those ancient times, tired of wandering after their sheep, envying other powers like the Assyrians or the Egyptians for the land and wealth they had, one can understand their desperate need for a god that would promise them the land and power they lacked .
Was the purpose of all this merely to pluck one tiny nation out of obscurity and elevate it above all others?
To quote Julius Wellhausen ( 1844 -1918), the German biblical scholar and orientalist on the Jewish scriptures:
“Monotheism is worked out to its furthest consequences, and at the same time is enlisted in the service of the narrowest selfishness.”
Ancient cultures as the Sumerian, Babylonian and the Egyptian followed a normal and systematic pattern of evolution in regard to the religious thinking, every civilization commenced with a creator god, a pantheon of lesser gods, an epic of creation of the universe, a mythology rich in highly symbolic tales and may be then and in the due course of time – as the case with the kingdom of Egypt and during the reign of king Akhenaten (1353 BC – 1336 BC) – enjoyed the moment of developing ethical monotheism, and introduced the one god concept, in the form ” Aten ” the sun disc whose rays touched and encompassed all peoples alike.
Aten, depicted as the sun disk rays reaching to the earth, encompassing all peoples alike.
But that pattern is turned the other way round in the case of the Hebrew monotheism. The Jews started where other nations ended. They began with the one deity concept, and then set out to fit in their tales of the holy patriarchs, and the creation story.
This reversed manner of religious evolution is perplexing to the extent that pushed some scholars to adopt the thesis that considered Aten worship inspired or in some way sparked the development of monotheism later among the ancient Israelites.
And some authors went a bit farther as Daniel lazer, in his critique of the Old Testament, referred to what he saw as chaotic contradictions and commentd as the following..What, after all, was the point of mobilizing such a broad population in this manner?
So that they could slaughter their neighbors all the more thoroughly?
How could Moses prohibit murder and then, in Numbers 31, fly into a rage because a returning Israelite war party has slaughtered only the adult male Midianites? (“Now kill all the boys,” he tells them when he calms down. “And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”) Was murder a crime only when it involved members of the in-group? Or was it a crime when it involved human beings in general, regardless of nationality? Did an emerging concept of a more equitable social order apply only to Israel or to other nations as well?
In one form or another, these questions have been with us ever since.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=33064
Posted by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat on May 26 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Thanks for the article. What you wrote opens the door to thought; much thought, and by some.
Somehow some people who read this are going to say “It is just wrong” when asked why they do not agree with you. People like short concepts and undeveloped ideas of faith and religion it seems.
thank you for the nice words, by opening the door to interactive thinking, only could we forge new competencies, new understandings, new identities with more common ground.
Islam has been at war with the world since it was created.
Radical Islam promotes Domination through Abomination.
Followers of this version of Islam act on Muhammad’s teaching that anything that furthers Islam is good and anything that impedes Islam is Evil.
In their interpertation this teaching supercedes the also existant code of Morality practiced between Muslims. This moral code, derived from Jewish and Christian teachings and Muhammad’s revelations is one of the beautiful parts of Islam.
The Koran teaches that Islam should and will dominate the world.
Islam almost did so in the first millenium following the example of Muhammed and his early followers who used any means to capture as much territory as possible. by any means necessary.
Islamic Evil persists.
Genocide such as in Darfur and Iran’s public intent to destroy all Jews.
Slander and demonization of Israel, the Jews, the US and Christians using Nazi propoganda, faked news reports and the mass brainwashing of children.
Justifying all acts of depravity, murder and terrorism by Dehumanizing Jews and Christians and preaching that there are no innocents among them.
Rape as law enforcement and as a tool of conquest.
Piracy such as in the Barbary Coast. The need to stop them was the birth of the US Navy under Thomas Jefferson.
Brain washing children to become Homicide Bombers.
Murder such as the daily bombing of Israel from Gaza and the Hizballah rocket atacks from Lebanon.
Abandonment of your Brothers by not allowing Arab refugees from the war against Israel to enter Jordan or any other Arab country.
Callously creating and maintaining the Arab refugee situation for political, propaganda and military purposes. Then blaming it all on Israel, the only human beings in the Middle East that actually helped these Arabs doomed by their own Arab brothers.
It is DENYING Allah (kfur) to deny Israel. Allah chose the people of the Ktub (book) for his special mission that no Muslim is allowed to subvert. Even Pope John Paul II realized this and admonished Christians from opressing Jews and blaming them for Deicide.
Moses the first Prophet, as acknowledged in Islam, to have spoken directly to Allah conveys Allah’s words exactly. Allah explicitly grants the Land of Israel to the Children of Jacob (named Israel) and not the Children of Ishmael. Any incursion or propaganda to the contrary of the explicit boundries laid out by Allah is Kfur or denying Allah.
Someone please ban this Fuc**** zionist from posting this kind of crap!
With all due respect, but i didn,t approach Islam in my post, not even in the slightest or indidirect way.
But mooslims worship the same WAR GOD™ of Abraham.
You all live in hell!
Sabrea — shame on you!
FUCKING ZIONIST!
Islam’s hostility to Christians is beginning to get some attention from the media. The Associated Press reports that a German Christian relief agency was raided in early August by police from the Afghan Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Nearly 100 were arrested including 2 American, 4 German and 2 Australian aid workers. They were charged with preaching Christianity in this Muslim nation.
Bibles, videos, and records with Christian radio frequencies were confiscated as evidence. Also arrested were 16 Afghan workers and 64 young boys whom the police said were being taught Christianity. Officials said the boys would be re-educated in Islam and released later.
The fate of the others was not yet clear. In January this year, the Afghan government warned that conversion to Christianity was punishable by death. Given the harsh and sometimes fatal treatment of Christians in other Islamic countries, there is grave concern, particularly for the Afghan workers. Hopefully the world will be watching.
A little investigating on the internet turns up reports of Muslim persecution of Christians from many other countries dominated by Islam. In Indonesia, reports date back into last year of Muslim “holy war fighters” aided in some cases by government troops using sophisticated weaponry on a campaign to eradicate Christians from whole regions of the country.
In March, a report came out of Pakistan that young Christian girls were being kidnapped and raped by Muslims. One girl was kidnapped after sharing Christ with a schoolmate. Her parents were told that she had converted to Islam and wished to leave her Christian home.
Local police refused to investigate her parents’ complaint and her whereabouts was not known. Another Pakistani Christian faces death by hanging for blasphemy against “the sacred name of the Holy Prophet (Mohammed).”
A Turkish Christian was arrested in February and charged with insulting Islam and Mohammed. Proselytism is not illegal in Turkey, but their criminal laws prohibit “insulting the books, prophets, or values of another religion.” This makes it all but impossible to obey the great commission, so any soul-winning activity could be construed as violating the law.
An obscure war is going on in the southern Philippines where Muslims are using terror to try and establish a separate Islamic state. Christians and Roman Catholics are frequently kidnapped and some have been beheaded.
In Africa, several countries have become dominated by Islam and anyone who does not convert comes under extreme persecution, displacement or death.
Few Americans are aware that Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam, is one of the most oppressive countries for Christians. There are no churches in the whole country. Foreign workers make up one-third of the population, many of whom are Christians.
For their entire stay, which may be years, they are forbidden to display any Christian symbols or Bibles, or even meet together publicly to worship and pray. Some have watched their personal Bibles put through a shredder when they entered the country.
In the past, foreign Christians caught practicing their faith have been deported. Recently there has been an increase of midnight raids with Christians dragged off to prison and computers, Bibles, books, tapes and family photos confiscated.
Much of this news is ignored by the rest of the world but Bible believers should be aware and pray for the fellow believers in the Muslim countries. Over one billion people are bound by this false religion. They need to be freed by the truth of the gospel.
We should study carefully the books that have been written on witnessing to Muslims. There are an estimated 5 million Muslims living in the U.S. Many have strong ties to their homelands. If we win one of them to Christ, we can influence family members both here and on the other side of the world.
Racine – your post is fascinating, and true. This is why I believe that EVERY-ONE should care for and settle in thier own lands, and stay the HELL out of places that don’t belong. Every-one to their own corners.
Love the writing. With all do respect, since the heretical Latins hijacked Christianity, Christians have been encouraged to convert for their own self-satsfactin. If someone is interested in learning about a religion, they will find.Those preists, they loved to get more money, more land. Since the first traders, priests would come along to convert. Such as the Jesuit Preists. lMen of language manipulation. They came with traders claiming to save souls. They were there to open markets, explot whatever they could for the church and the King. It was all about Empire. Sorry. Christians can be the meanest, bloodiest, most brutal war mongers I have yet to know.The Japenese were very smart. For 200 years, they would not ALLOW the Jesuits off the ship. They knew what was going on. What later went on for 500 years in Latin America. 200 years, and they were able to develop a thriving society on their own terms. If only the great, cooperative civilizations such as the Aztecs and the mayans had not been so trusting. Our own Native Americans, who where very spiritual, do you know what the PURITAN attitude toward them was? Any religion that thinks they have a special right, and the right to push others. People have come knocking on my door, telling me that I can be saved on the spot, all I have to do is say “I accept Jesus Christ as my saviour.” what the hell is that? These horrible Evangelicals on TV. These men, always selling a book or a DvD, that tells you how the Lord wants you to be rich. What the hell is that? This article was right on. I resent others encouraginf war and slaughter so they can be ruptured. Don’t I have a choice. I love the Quakers. They are the first their when people are in danger, They “get in the way”. they have schools that teach good education. They have compassion for those in Prison. They were in Gaza and the West Bank years ago to walk Palestinian children to shool, to “get in the way” so the mentally disabled settlers would not beat them. They were in Nicarauga when the US Gov was actually out doing the zionists in terroe, for awhile. If only all Christians could be Quakers, the dissenters.
They do not have dogma, they do not have prachers. They know the Gog is felt in their sou;l. Christians have been blind fe centuries,with a few exceptions. Like the Priests in El Salvador who got attached to the poor and served them first. The US Gov funded, trained and armed thugs to murder them.So many people have died in the name of Christ…Quakers know that Jesus came allready, they actually know the old Testament. Unlike the Christiabns today who twist and pull and distort it as they do Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations and Thomas Paine who deplored Christianity.
debbie,
I enjoyed your comment, obviously you`r one of the few who still enjoy an intact soul and mentality.
My regards.
Yer jew god there & yer mooslim god are the same evil bastard so take that!
Eat me Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah/Satan!
Dear Mr. al-Ghiffari,
I too can change my name and pretend to be something I am not.
Clearly, Ashraf, you’re bright, but you don’t understand the highest concepts, the higher and the highest realms of pure mysticism. As does NOT Dawkins. All religions are self-serving, but religions operate at the nursery school levels of spiritualism — hence, at the lowest level of mysticism. The total mystic reality—to put it in terms you are familiar with—is above the PhD level. I’ll give you just one example from your post.
______
AE => He said, ‘I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you lived as slaves. You shall have no other gods to rival me.”
TG => YOU, Doc, are stuck with a lowly world perspective. Mystically, this one phrase is an attempt to describe the SOUL’s predicament in this lower Creation that surrounds our senses. Egypt represents the lower vibrational world we live in. We are slaves to the senses in this lower world–this Egypt. The only escape for the soul, the only option for enternal bliss and happiness–the soul’s inalienable right—is to leave Egypt (this world), purify itself, then travel vibrationally to the soul’s Pure Home. This can be done while living in this human body, this little-used instrument of spirituality. The True Home is far beyond the physical body, the so-called spiritual realms of the religions, far beyond the mind, far beyond to the highest region where there is only He and us souls, us droplets in His ocean of pure love.
______
There are so few souls who understand what the great mystics have repeatedly described. Religions evolved around the Mystics’ sayings, without the religion founders understanding the Masters’ words. As the centuries fly by, our knowledge is degraded further by those (many well-meaning) religious personalities who turn the Mystics’ proclamations into money making organizations.
______
Thus we have today, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Budhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism and whatever great religion, being a group of blind leaders leading the blind. No small wonder Professor Dawkins is confused. No wonder he claims to be an atheist. But I will tell you from my own decades of experience, Dawkins is an agnostic rather than an atheist. His mind and attraction to his senses will most-likely never let him admit it. Instead, down here in Egypt, he has made atheism his own religion. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Cheers and thank you for the good post. Texas Grunt, Vet, First Cav, Mystic
God called Eqypt, perhaps the GOD of Tohra the dirtiest scripture ever written alongwith Talmud, forgot that the world is called world in all other religious scriptures and that Eqgypt was just a tiny in sginificant part of it. I dont know where you see the mystic reality. Yeah probably when your Tohra says “Chosen people” than its a mystic reality too, its for all the people and everyone is chosen, so why kick the poor palestinians out from their home land or in your case the “Promised land”???
@ FAIZ
This ” promised land ” myth, how many more of human lives should be waisted in cold blood, just to make this fairy tale come true..!!
Exactly Ashraf, when muslims follow Koran, they are called fundementalist and now they have coined a new term “Islamist”, soon it will change to just “muslim” but when they say it is their promised land based on some 3000 yr old scripture than its absolutely fine.
@ Texas Grunt
Thank you for your comment, and if mysticism gave you the enlightenment and illumination your soul aspired to, then i`m glad for you.
Thank you Doc. I feel blessed. I have no idea why this happened to a low-life like me. You are all much more deserving. Since this is a Veterans’s site, maybe it was seeing, witnessing, identifying with all the dead and dying—for no innocent reason—that put me on this Path. Now, it is just a matter of riding the last wave.
TG
[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
imo this kind of religious dogma has no place here. very disappointing.
Hey Joe, it’s okay. Occasionally we need a change of subject to give us a little break to put the America’s problems in some perspective. Remember, some of us who served were/are religious. They should have the right to speak. Afterall, it doesn’t happen very often. But keep posting.
Texas Grunt
@ Joe Scmoe
my dear, i`m not a priest, nor am i talking religion, and if you are a veteran, then you can agree with my humble opinion, that the world is coming to an end on false religious prerequisites.
It has no place in the Military either but that doesn’t stop the Pentagon from spreading Religious lies and dogma around the world!
[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
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[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
Yahweh is a psychopath:
Judaism and Christianity – Two Thousand Years of Lies – 60 Years of State Terrorism
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/156452-Judaism-and-Christianity-Two-Thousand-Years-of-Lies-60-Years-of-State-Terrorism
Among the three Abrahamic religions – only Islam remains monotheist. Other two has long been corrupted according to Dr. Robert Funk DDD – a world renowned authority on the Bible. He claimed in 1991 after a six year study along with a dozen of other Christian scholars that 80% of Jesus’ quotes in the Bible are not divine but added by the ‘interested individuals’.
Holy Qur’an do acknowledge the existence of Moses Law (Torah) and Jesus’ Gospels (InJeel) but says that the divine messages contain in those Scriptures were of tribal nature and not universal in nature. Holy Qur’an on the other hand – carries instruction for every aspect of human life – from spiritual to politics and from family to environment.
Who would know Jewish hatred toward Christianity than Rev. Ted Pike…..
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/religious-hatred-in-israel/
Thank you for the link, i appreciate it.
Isn’t the god of the old testament and the god of Islam and the god of the new testament the same mythical critter?
Nope, there is no such thing as the GOD of Islam since Islam never started with prejudice. Islam never says that you muslims are chosen people and favored by GOD in anyway. If a muslim kills some innocent soul, he will be punished in the same way as non-muslims, unlike the GOD of old testament in which GOD favors one over the others. GOD IS NOT BIAS. The old scripture has been modified to suite devilish needs of a particular people (JEWS).
Yes, the “God” of Islam just wants you to live like a tampon!
Sabrea, how in the world does a tampon live? Your brief and brisk comment leaves multiple images flowing through my brain (yes, I do have one with more than one cell).
I might mention, you seem quite angry about the reality in this lower creationg — this mythical world called Egypt. Release of anger is good. For the few who will see the light, it is the first step.
TY for your insightful reply, sage sir.
I opposed the creation of this “free will” Universe, and I was asked.
Now I’m in this hell, too.
I am tired and I want to go home to the Vacuum.
Blessings
@ Sabrea
that doesn’t stop the Pentagon from spreading Religious lies and dogma around the world!..
well said indeed, my greetings.
Faiz, excuse me, but if there is no God of Islam, then, 1) who did Mohammed worship? and 2) who in the world is this Allah character? 3) I have the distinct feeling that Muslims (except for my Muslim friends) feel that if a soul isn’t a Believer, then the soul is not innocent? Just asking.
Texas Grunt, I never said there is no GOD in Islam, I said their is one GOD, in arabic we call it Allah, in english we call it GOD, this supreme being is not biased towards muslims, unlike jewish GOD in Tohra or Talmud that gave them the “PROMISED LAND”. You have one brain cell, I highly doubt it, sorry no offence.
Faiz
Well said Faiz. Like the writer of this said. The world just might end on a false premise. God or Allah the two are not separate. To me evil is committed when we seperate the two. To use a religious value.
We need to find common understanding of God or Allah just like the writer of this article said.
@ Mr.Higgins
this is one shrewd comment, the god of old testament, the god of the new testament and the god of Islam are generations of the same mythical critter, but with different preconditioning. Allah and Jesus learned their lesson and tried to do better than Yahew, since he was the meanest of Gods.
Yoohoo?!? Yahew?!?
I agree; Yahoo? yahew? yoohoo? wtf?
Same evil bastard! You win!
Sabrea, like the great Master YODA said in STAR WARS, “FEAR LEADS TO ANGER, ANGER LEADS TO PAIN, PAIN LEADS TO SUFFERING. So calmn down, relax and chill.
Wise words Falz, tho I may not ever get it.
Thanks, tho.
[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
Religion is about the acquisition of wealth and power.It destroys faith and spirituality by openly boasting of its uniqueness to all others.Religion has no meaning except for some broad based biblical myths used especially by zionist jews and their xtian zionists for nothing more than selfish and perverted goals.
Judaism/zionism is a degenerate, perverted and self centered socio/racial/political way of life where lies, thievery, murder and deception is a way of life.
Xtianity in America has no more meaning than judaism. Both are a washed up and overrated.
We see the evidence of this everyday when the likes of John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham and on and on use religion for their own self centered goals of wealth and power. There is no spirituality whatsoever involved. They are the jackals and vultures who prey upon the ignorant and weak. I predict that xtianity will go the way of paganism, only to be nothing more than an historical relic of age consumed by lust for power, wealth, suspicion and jealousy.
As for that reeking, fatuous garbage known as judaism, it can disappear just as well. Talk about perversion, degeneracy and deceit, judaism has it all in spades.
There is a joke that goes: How does a jew say fuck you? Trust me.
..overrated, i couldn`t agree more.
[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
While press accounts mentioned in passing that the victims were Christians, few conveyed to the reader that these were people assaulted by Muslim extremists because of their religion. On September 25, militant Muslims shot dead 7 Christian Pakistanis execution style in Karachi. Most of the media failed to report this at all, though it was at least the fifth bloody attack on Christians in Pakistan in the last twelve months.
And the media almost never point out that Christians are being killed, often at places of worship, in several countries with Islamic majorities or governments, not because they are Westerners or Americans (many are neither) but because they are Christians. Nor is the White House or Congress nearly as attentive–to put it mildly–to this pattern of killing as it is to any injury on either side of the conflict in Israel.
People who follow international news are aware that a civil war raged in Ethiopia for more than 30 years. But few realize that it was a religious war–between Muslim Eritrea and Christian Ethiopia–in which tens of thousands perished. Many know that the people of East Timor were savaged, but it is rarely mentioned that most East Timorese are Christian, while the Indonesian militants who killed many of them and brutalized the refugees in West Timor are Muslim. Indeed, Christians in other parts of Indonesia have hardly fared better; for instance, thousands died during riots in the Moluccan Islands in 2000.
The bloody war in the Sudan, similarly, pits the Muslim government in the North against the Christian and animist South. And in Nigeria, as Muslims try to impose a strict version of the legal code called sharia in several provinces, armed conflicts between Muslims and Christians have erupted and thousands have died. Just lately, in the Ivory Coast, Muslims in the North have been attacking Christians in the South. On a smaller scale but very much along the same lines, scores of Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt in January 2000; several churches were burned in Kenya the following year.
It seems somehow inflammatory to point to the religious element of these and many other conflicts. Nearly every day, meanwhile, some scholar assures us that Islam is a peaceable and loving religion. What is going on here?
From the beginning, Islam drew a distinction between Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims. The former were “people of the book.” They had to pay special taxes and wear identifying clothing, yet their status reflected a certain respect for what Muslims saw as the earlier but incomplete and corrupted revelation recorded in the Bible. In the modern period, Christians and Jews are typically called Kuffr, or infidels. In countries under strict sharia, apostasy is a capital crime, and in the minds of extremists like Osama bin Laden, infidels too deserve death. While Muslim societies differ widely in their levels of tolerance, pluralism, and religious freedom, full respect for Christianity is virtually absent.
This matter came up last spring at a conference held by Iranian reformers in Isfahan. The gathering brought together a number of Islamic and Western intellectuals in opposition to the thesis advanced by Samuel Huntington of Harvard University that Western and Islamic civilizations are bound to clash. During his presentation, Ebrahim Moosa, an imam from South Africa now teaching at Duke University, urged that Islam be recast so as to accommodate liberal attitudes. He stressed the need for three changes: recognition of women’s equality with men; toleration of capitalism; and recognition of the full dignity and humanity of nonbelievers. But we are still waiting to hear from many other Muslim leaders as to whether they wish to move Islam in this direction.
The White House has solid tactical reasons for stating and restating that our fight is only with terrorists, not Muslims. We must face the fact, however, that while the prophet has many moderate followers, the terrorists command great sympathy in the Islamic world not only because Islamic populations are anti-American or anti-Western, but also because the terrorists are attacking infidels. An elderly Afghan freed from detention at Guantanamo last week made a telling statement to a Washington Post reporter: “The Americans treated me well, but they were not Muslims, so I didn’t like them.”
It is true that other religions have passed through violent and intolerant phases. And it is possible that moderate interpretations of Islam may again come to predominate. But we shall be unable to recognize and foster that development if we refuse to acknowledge that the violence currently erupting in many parts of the Islamic world is aimed not simply at the political and economic leadership of the West but also at its Judeo-Christian tradition. When Christians and Jews are no longer characterized as Kuffr, we shall know we have turned a corner.
@Sanji
i enjoyed your comment, you tackled an Islamic sore spot, very insightful analysis especially your conclusion.
Ashraf, ask the guy whether he is Hindu Brahminist or zionist and I can tackle what ever crap he posted with ease.
@ Faiz
You strike me as a vibrant and sincere Muslim, but you should try and curb your enthusiasm.
Ashraf, I am not a sincere muslim but just speaking truth, looking at what the guy posted, its says American treated me with respect in Guantanamo prison, come on now, you got to be kidding me??? if this is the truth than why doesn’t he himself stay there for 1 month and get respected under the care of Uncle SAM?
You know I had to look up Exodus 34:14. And damned if it doesn’t say that. The Egyptians were the first ones to try for monotheisim by worshiping Aton the sun. But after his devotee died, the Egyptians went back to their pantheon of gods. I have my own questions regarding the bible and its laws. As a woman I don’t see any reason for worshiping any male oriented religion. Men run the churches. They lock women out of the running of the churches and yet if you go to any church, who do you see there doing all the work. I’m not for worshiping any god who has no respect for me. And I’m not going to be forced to follow someone else’s religion and I’m not going to force anyone to follow mine (such as it is). Theocracy should have died a long time ago. I once read that all religions are the same, but they speak to the different needs and understanding of people. Some people need sharia law, some need conservative Judaism, some need to be Methodists. They’re all part of the living religion, but you have to start with the part you understand. As for me I don’t want to be the sole of the foot.
@B.A. Gilmore
Theocracy should have died a long time ago, As for me I don’t want to be the sole of the foot…i greatly respect your point of view in regard to religion and theocracy. As for king Akhenaten Monotheism, it ended by his mysterious death, due to the fierce resistance of the old priesthood.
I am a woman,and most wymmen infantilize everything. Women should not be allowed to run major institutions. Daycare centers, bakeries, cosmetic companies – fine. But not major publis institutions. When wymmen take over – it’s an absolute sign of the decay of a social order. Sorry, darling – it’s true.
Denise.. you’re a guy right. You can’t even type women. WOMEN. Women are half the world’s population. They give birth to men and women and they protect their children like no other being on Earth. Men and women just have to learn to talk to one another. Each has some wonderful things to contribute to the world. And when you think about some of the gender differences, they’re as funny as hell. Personally, I’m fascinated by the male brain. I would love to explore that territory. Unfortuneatly, I’m still trying to figure mine out. Sometimes there’s so much crap in there it boggles my mind. And there are so many things men don’t know about women it boggles my mind. How can some of this stuff not be funny.
To those of you complaining about Islam – puhleese. Especially you so-called “Christians”. Too many of you Zio-xian idiots have started worshipping Jews, instead of God. Which serves the interests of the Jew. Naturally.
Islam is a religion of violent conquest – but the tenets expressed in the Koran are nowhere NEAR as bad as the pure FILTH that comprises 99.9% of the 33,000 pages of the Satanic Bible – the Bible. I dare any of you to delve into that depraved swamp. The Talmud contains the MOST evil way of “thinking” I have ever encountered, anywhere. Islam may kill your body, if you don’t convert – but Judaism kills your soul.
Judaism is a “religion” of Race, bloodlines, and self-worship.The rabbis of the Talmud joke about how they are smarter than God. That’s complete blasphmy, no matter what God you worship. The Talmud tells Jews that they are entitled to do whatever they want to do,to any non-Jew. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING is off the table. The thing that is so shocking is the “rationality” and lucidity, of centuries worth of the most finely polished machinations and stratagems, contained there-in, designed to use, abuse, enslave, trick, loot, torture, and murder anyone that is not one of the Tribe. It’s monstrous – and I don’t think most humans would come uo with the depravity dripping from every single page of that UnHoly work, if they sat down and thought about it for a thousand years. It’s not HUMAN .
Christians forgot what Jews are, over two hundred years ago, when European Royalty literally sold out their own people for Sheeny Gold. Jews have been allowed to run rampant, ever since. Behold the destruction they have wrought. And most fools know nothing about it.
Denise what you said about bible based Christians worshiping Jews seem to be the case. If you watch John Hagee. What you said about Jews worshiping themselves also seem to be true if you read headlines.
How can one say that Judaism gave the world monotheism when the Egyptians had practiced that concept several thousand years before the Shemites started worshipping a god they created?
As for Judaism, look around and do some research and find out what the Jews holy book, the TALMUD says about Jesus Christ and his mother. Then ask yorself why Christians literally worship Judaism.
As for Christianity, in most of the Western world, worship of their god has been replaced by Mammonism, with the Federal Reserve, the IMF and Wall Street being their Temples of Worship.
Questioning the authenticity and the evolution of the Jewish Monotheism, is what this article is all about.
I am Brazilian and I see this a lot here, the problem of Christians is that many admire both the jews ñ so that even there for them
In September 2008, Ghassan Michel Rubeiz, the secretary of the Middle East of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches wrote an article, titled “A Licence to Target Islam”, saying:
The late Reverend Jerry Falwell’s comment about the “impersonal” God of Islam is a dramatic example of televangelical deviation from ethics of interfaith dialogue. Pope Benedict’s unfortunate lecture on Islam and reason illustrates the characteristically condescending stance of the church on the faith of Mohammad. President Bush’s “Axis-of-Evil “framework” on his “war on terrorism” exemplifies misuse of moral analysis in political discourse.
At anytime, without fear of public sanction, any loud politician in the Western world, any ambitious television anchor or any theatrical evangelical pastor, can launch an attack on Islam, as a religion, or as a community. Today, Western media have license to attack Islam and Muslims. Media vulgarity towards Muslims is manifested in careless, crass, phobic and obsessive reporting on Arabs, Muslims and Islam……..
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/a-license-to-target-islam/
[...] Judaism, a self serving monotheism : Veterans Today [...]
Greetings,
“Religion began when the first knave met the first fool.” – Voltaire
Shalom,
Infidel