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The end of IslamReader comment on item: Moshe Sharon Explains Middle Eastern Realities Submitted by Ed Melik (United States), Oct 7, 2006 at 02:59 My thoughts on your comments referring to the Bible: You claim that "The flaw in your thinking reflects a neglect of Biblical prophesy. Islam will never respect the Jews or Israel until the armies of the Islamic nations surrounding Israel are destroyed by God. Read closely, Ezekiel 38 and 39. After the war of Gog and Magog the Muslims will turn to Jesus Christ in mass. They will lay hold the Gospel of forgiveness of sins and hardily renounce Islam. But not until then. You might want to read "Epicenter" by David Rosenberg, a Jewish Christian. He has a highly informed and incisive understanding of the dynamics". The above thinking reflects the point of views of a great majority of ignorant and ill informed people who have little or no knowledge about their own religion, leave alone other's. A great majority of Bible toting and chruch going Christians do not know the Bible, as matter of fact, most of the people who follow any religions, do not really know or understand their religion. Most of them learn snippets of information through sermons and their religious preaching at thier churches, mosques, sinagogues, tempes and tabernacles etc. If one studies any of the three major religions - Judasim, Christianity and Islam, you would but find that all the prophets of Judaism are the same prophets of the Christianity and Islam. How does the Torah (The Old Testament) differ from the Bible (The New Testament)? Hardly any. Because all the Prophets of Judaism are the Prophets of Christianity except Jesus Christ who became the founder of Christianity that resulted the Jews to crucify him. Islamic Quraan is slmost identical in its chronology of its Prophets, that are the same as of Jews and the Christians, also revere each and every Prophet of both the religion. In contrast to the Jewish faith who ridicules and call all sorts of names to both, Jesus and of course, Mohammed. To the Jewish faith both are false religions. But for Muslims both religions, the Christianity and the Judaism ,are the true religions except what Muslims claim that the Prophet Mohammed is the last Prophet and is from the line of the Abraham. Thos who claim that Islam was founded and spread by sword are also suffering from hate and anger that their ignorance compells them to spew out such venomous and inciteful remarks. Unfortunately, majority of the followers of all of the three religions are generally ignorants and do not have the basic knowledge of the history of these 3 religions. Those who claim that Islam is a violent religion and spread on the force of a sword should read the facts below to re-examine their sense of proportinality in the light of reality. Here are few facts that I must abridge due to time and space limitation here. I will skip the begining of Christianity and the Judaism and start from several centuries later to review the true facts VS pre-planned and well thought of hate progaganda against islam by a few highly placed individuals and their clandestine organizations they belong to, to maintain an on-going hate program against Islam. I will break down the history of Christianity in different periods starting from 1450 to 1792 concerning Europe, New England, South America. For about 300 years, during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, the Roman Catholic and Protestant faith groups were directly or indirectly responsible for the arrest, torture and execution of persons believed to worship Satan or express heretical religious ideas. Most of the death sentences were passed by civil courts, not by the churches. However, the Christian churches were indirectly involved: They provided the theological foundation for the persecution of heretics in civil courts. They created a false and unsupportable belief that large numbers of worshipers had sold their soul to Satan and were committing evil and homicidal acts. From 1492 to now: For his second voyage to the Americas, Columbus took the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea and proceeded to unleash a reign of terror unlike anything seen before or since. When he was finished, eight million Arawaks -- virtually the entire native population of Hispaniola -- had been exterminated by torture, murder, forced labor, starvation, disease and despair." Later European Christian invaders systematically murdered additional tens of millions of Aboriginal people, from the Canadian Arctic to South America. The exact number is unknown. Natives were murdered by warfare, forced death marches, forced relocation to barren lands, intentional and accidental spread of disease, poisoning, the promotion of suicide through the destruction of their cultural and religious heritage, etc. Even today, Canadian Natives have the highest suicide of any population group in the world. The genocide against American Aboriginals is one of the most massive, and longest lasting genocidal program in human history. More details. 1885 to early 1900s: Many millions of Congolese died in a massive genocide, starting in 1885 and continuing into the 20th century. The Congo Free State was controlled at the time by King Leopold II of Belgium. It was a regime of widespread forced labor, mass murder, mutilation and torture. MoreOrLess.au.com estimates that the population of the Congo declined from about 20 to 30 million to under nine million during this time of atrocity. The Congress of Berlin gave King Leopold II administrative powers over the Congo Free State. According to the Siracd.com web site:
Author Conan Doyle was inspired to write The Crime of the Congo -- a book which he finished in eight days. It is "filled with graphic descriptions of violence and illustrated with photos of mutilated people, dealt with the atrocities committed in the Belgian Congo on behalf of King Leopold II." Doyle later campaigned for and end to the atrocities in the Congo. The situation gradually improved. More details about this genocide 1904 to 1907: This was the first genocide of the 20th century. Some Hereros have suggested that the Nazi Holocaust was patterned after this genocide some three and a half decades later. Germany ruled Namibia from 1880 to 1915. In 1904, Herero warriors were angered at the German settlers who had enslaved their people, lynched their men, and stolen their land, cattle and women. On JAN-12, they massacred about 200 German civilians. Although the uprising ended on 1904-AUG-11, the German army continued to exterminate the Hereros until 1907, resulting in the deaths of perhaps 65,000 persons. As is usual in these mass slaughters, the number of victims is unknown. The Herero population alive at the time range from 50,000 to 120,000. About 15, 000 survived. On 2004-JAN-12, the 100th anniversary of the Hereros uprising, Wolfgang Massing, Germany's ambassador to Namibia, expressed his regrets. He said that while history could not be undone, "we can give back to the victims and their descendants the dignity and honor of which they were robbed...I also wish to express how deeply we regret this unfortunate past." Later in 2004, German Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul finally gave the Hereros what they have been asking repeatedly: her country's apology. She said: ""We Germans accept our historical and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time....The atrocities committed at that time would have been termed genocide." She promised continuing economic assistance, but ruled out financial compensation for the descendents of the victims. Namibia-travel.net describes Herero present-day spirituality: "The ancestral cult still plays an important role in the lives of many Herero people. In the evenings, they often sit in front of the 'Okuruo'; the holy fire, which may never be allowed to burn out. The chief establishes contact with the ancestors and in a loud self-talk, asks for advice and help or confesses mistakes and sins." 1941 to 1945: These atrocities were perpetrated by the Ustaa regime, the Independent State of Croatia, which was established in power by the Nazi government of Germany during World War II. They fiercely hated Serbs, Jews, Communists and all other non-Catholics. Their goals were to convert Croatia into a pure Croatian and Roman Catholic independent state. On 1941-JUL-22, Dr. Mile Budak, the Ustaa Minister of Education and Cults, said: "The movement of the Ustashi is based on religion. For minorities-Serbs, Jews and Gypsies, we have three million bullets. We shall kill one part of the Serbs. We shall transport another, and the rest of them will be forced to embrace the Roman Catholic religion. Thus, our new Croatia will get rid of all Serbs in our midst in order to become one hundred percent Catholic within ten years." During 1941 to 1943, the regime slaughtered at least 250,000 Serb residents of Croatia and Bosnia, and more than 20,000 Jews. Most were systematically exterminated at the Jasenovac concentration camp, and similar facilities. "Ustaa units, often encouraged by Catholic clergy, carried out a program of compulsory conversion of Orthodox Serbs to Catholicism; resistance often resulted in murder. Some Serbs, particularly members of the elite, were not even offered the option of conversion to avoid being killed." "Conditions in the Jasenovac camps were horrendous. Prisoners received minimal food. Shelter and sanitary facilities were totally inadequate. Worse still, the Ustasa guards cruelly tortured, terrorized, and murdered prisoners at will." After mid-1942, a further 7,000 Jews were dispatched to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland for slaughter. "The Ustasa government was dissolved in May 1945. After the war, most of the Ustasa leaders escaped to South America or Spain." "Since the end of World War II, political and ideological conflicts in the area have made the documentation and verification of victim statistics extremely difficult. To cover the trail of terror and murder, authorities of the Independent State of Croatia burned official records from the Jasenovac camps first in early 1943 and again upon evacuation in 1945." On 1945-MAY-12, 600 inmates attempted to break out of the camp; only 70 succeeded. Former inmates meet on the site of the concentration camp annually on the anniversary of the event. In 2003, for the first time, a Croatian head of state joined in the remembrance. President Stipe Mesic expressed his "deepest regret for the innocent victims of those who tarnished Croatia's name." Harper's Magazine maintains a list of "Events related to Genocide" from 2000-AUG to the present time. See: http://www.harpers.org/ As far as those who shamelessly claim that Islam is an intolerant religion and it encourages others to kill and distroy non-Muslims and thier properties which is totally false. Here's a brief check of reality: LAW BANNING ALL RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIANITY "It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the father, Son and Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. ... The rest, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.1.2..... Source: Encyclopaedia Romana, "The End of Paganism" see also Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1943, p. 31. EDICTS AGAINST NON-CHRISTIAN WORSHIP "No one shall consult a soothsayer, astrologer or diviner. The perverse pronouncements of augurs and seers must fall silent. ... The universal curiosity about divination must be silent forever. Whosoever refuses obedience to this command shall suffer the penalty of death and be laid low by the avenging sword." -- Codex Theodosianus, IX.16.4 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). "Whatever privileges have been allowed under ancient law to priests, ministers, prefects and hierophants of the pagan cults, whether know by these or other names, are to be entirely abolished, nor should they pride themselves on being protected by any privilege, since their profession is known to be condemned by law." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.14 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). "The knowledge of those, who being equipped with magic arts, are discovered to have plotted against men's lives or who have perverted modest minds with lust must be punished and a penalty rightly exacted under the harshest of laws." -- Codex Theodosianus, IX.16.2 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). "Since We have learned that certain ecclesiastics and others serving the Catholic sect are being compelled by men of different religions to celebrate lustral sacrifices, We decree hereby that whoever should consider that those who serve the most sacred law may be forced into celebrating the rites of an alien superstition, he shall be beaten with clubs in public, provided his status so permits. However, if the consideration due to honorable rank protects him from such injury, let him undergo the penalty of a very heavy fine." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.2.5 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). "Let superstition cease. Let the madness of sacrifices be exterminated; for if anyone should dare to celebrate sacrifices in violation of the law of our father, the deified Emperor, and of this decree of Our Clemency, let an appropriate punishment and sentence immediately be inflicted on him." -- Codex Theodosianus Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). "No person shall pollute himself with sacrificial animals; no person shall slaughter an innocent victim; no person shall approach the shrines, shall wander through the temples, or revere the images formed by mortal labor, lest he become guilty by divine and human laws." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.10. Source: Encyclopaedia Romana, "The End of Paganism" "It is necessary that the privileges which are bestowed for the cultivation of religion should be given only to followers of the Catholic faith. We desire that heretics and schismatics be not only kept from these privileges, but be subjected to various fines." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.5. 1. "The ability and right of making wills shall be taken from those who turn from Christians to pagans, and the testament of such an one, if he made any, shall be abrogated after his death."-- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.7.1. "Whenever there is found a meeting of a mob of Manichaeans, let the leaders be punished with a heavy fine and let those who attended be known as infamous and dishonored, and be shut out from association with men, and let the house and the dwellings where the profane doctrine was taught be seized by the officers of the city." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.5.3. "We command that all those proved to be devoting themselves to sacrificing or worshipping images be subject to the penalty of death." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.6 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, "It is decreed that in all places and all cities the [pagan] temples should be closed at once, and after a general warning, the opportunity of sinning be taken from the wicked. We decree also that we shall cease from making sacrifices. And if anyone has committed such a crime, let him be stricken with the avenging sword. And we decree that the property of the one executed shall be claimed by the city, and that rulers of the provinces be punished in the same way, if they neglect to punish such crimes."-- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.4.......Source: Codex Theodosianus, in Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources, Vol. IV: The Early Medieval World (Milwaukee, WI: University Research Extension Co., 1907), pp. 69-71. "[Christian monks}... hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrow of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die. After demolishing one, they scurry to another, and to a third, and trophy is piled on trophy, in contravention of the law. Such outrages occur even in the cities, but they are most common in the countryside ..." -- Letter of Libanius to Emperor Theodosius I, 386 C.E........Source: Libanius: Selected Works, Tr. A.F. Norman (Loeb Classical Works, 1977) "Let all temples in the countryside be demolished without disturbance or upheaval. With their overthrow and removal, all material basis for superstition will be destroyed." -- Codex Theodosianus, XVI.10.16 Source: Brian Croke & Jill Harries (eds.), Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome: A Documentary Study (Sydney: Macarthur Press, 1982). THE BURNING OF NON-CHRISTIAN BOOKS "All writings whatever which Porphyry or anyone else has written against the Christian religion, in the possession of whomsoever they shall be found, shall be committed to the fire." -- Emperor Theodosius I. Source: Lardner, Works, vol. vii., pp. 206, 396. MANDATORY WORSHIP: ESTABLISHMENT OF "THE LORD'S DAY" "On the Lord's day, which is the first day of the week, on Christmas, and on the days of Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, inasmuch as then the [white] garments [of Christians] symbolizing the light of heavenly cleansing bear witness to the new light of holy baptism, at the time also of the suffering of the apostles, the example for all Christians, the pleasures of the theaters and games are to be kept from the people in all cities, and all the thoughts of Christians and believers are to be occupied with the worship of God. And if any are kept from that worship through the madness of Jewish impiety or the error and insanity of foolish paganism, let them know that there is one time for prayer and another for pleasure. And lest anyone should think he is compelled by the honor due to our person, as if by the greater necessity of his imperial office, or that unless he attempted to hold the games in contempt of the religious prohibition, he might offend our serenity in showing less than the usual devotion toward us; let no one doubt that our clemency is revered in the highest degree by humankind when the worship of the whole world is paid to the might and goodness of God. Theodosius Augustus and Caesar Valentinian." -- Codex Theodosianus, XV. 5.1....,.Source: The Medieval Sourcebook So if we study Christianity in comparison to Islam, I don't think Chiritianity comes out shining. History of Judaism based on the holiest teachings of Talmud is filled with hate, destruction and step-by-step code of conduct of how to destroy the non-believers. I would suggest to those who wish to read about the teachings of the ancient Talmud should visit: http://www.stormfront.org/jewish/talmud.html Belief in Witches gradually dissipated during the Age of Enlightenment, as people began to question the reality of many long-held religious beliefs. Estimates on the number of victims range from 3,000 (from a Roman Catholic source) to 9,000,000 (from various Neopagan sources). Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". |
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