Western Civilization celebrates roots that extend to the Eastern Mediterranean, a body of water once surrounded by the Roman Empire. When that empire imploded, the power vacuum filled the remnant structure with fresh blood. One such pulsing corpus was Christianity — one authored by a former Roman citizen: Saul before his metamorphosis. There is no compelling historical evidence to suggest that Peter coauthored with Paul in Rome. I agree with Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby: The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity for the argument that Peter had traveled to the east as far as Baghdad, but he had never ventured west of Palestine. The Roman Catholic Church relies upon an apostolic rock, but she freely admits that its reality anchors on Tradition and the Magisterium — historical facts notwithstanding.
The Eastern Mediterranean coastline describes the shortest path between Africa and Eurasia. An incomparable piece of real estate, not what I would call a swamp, though some have: Unfortunately, It Was Paradise. Palestine is sacred soil for the three monotheistic faiths that declare solemn roots at that Eastern confluence, that Holy Land, that stomping grounds of patriarch Ibrahim. Although Ishmael was Ibrahim’s eldest son, he was also the “illegitimate” son of a slave girl known by Ishmael’s father. Isaac was the “legitimate” son of non-enslaved Sara. Islam recognizes Ishmael as the elder son of Ibrahim.
You can read about it in a Qur’an near you. In fact, you may find any number of interpretations freely available online. However, I recommend that you consider an interpretation carefully. My personal copy is a translation by Abdel Haleem: The Qur’an.
I attended an interfaith program that included a local well respected and knowledgeable Imam. A seething attendee slammed his personal copy of “The Holy Koran” onto the table. His question: “Do you know what this book says?” The Imam responded: “It depends upon the translation.” Would you accept a Bible translation that recounts the poisoning of the loaves, the tainting of the wine?
Radical Google® Searches
“Radical Christian Terrorism” (About 9,310 results (0.66 seconds) )
Native Americans, African Americans, and Palestinians share something that Northern Europeans do not: a skin too red, too black or too olive (a characteristic of humans from the sun-rich climate.
That’s an unforgivable crime if racism is your touchstone. Why are Biblical personalities depicted with impossibly Northern European features, such as blue eyes, fair skin, an athletic countenance? Who were the original authors of the Torah, the Bible, the Qur’an? Is that a loaded question? They were Semitic peoples who spoke Semitic languages.
Why does Islam honor Ishmael? What did he do to deserve exile? The Judeo-Christian tradition honors Isaac. What’s up with that? I’ll check that out and get back to you, I have to get to the dirty dishes first, they’re over there in the sink.
Nota bene: The wilder the spurious translation of the Qur’an, the wider is it circulated, the ever endless is it immortalized by false witnesses.
Making stuff up to stoke an agenda is dishonest. It weakens your credibility. Just saying.
Thank you Mr. Oogle, but those results are more helpful. Your bots do fine fast work.
Memetics is a term invented by Richard Dawkins (1976: The Selfish Gene) to describe how information propagates in a network. The internet permits you to inform and misinform as rapidly as web-crawling bots can jump from here to anywhere.
A borg in Macedonia, a bot in Minnesota or a Shakespeare-typing monkey may be squinting at a computer screen as you read this.
Mr. G.O. Ogle, what’s a “meme generator”?
About 1,270,000 results (0.53 seconds)
Why an all-caps serif-free dishwater-grey font? Personally, I would prefer Henry Ford black.
Why would Gandhi quote Martin Luther King on Einstein’s memories of Logan Paul?
The persons most affected by a decision are always the last to be informed of that decision. The Palestinians are the persons most affected by Trump’s nod to Netanyahu. But:
Jerusalem has always been the capital of Palestine.
“There’s no such thing as a Palestinian,” said Mark Levin on Monday, while broadcasting from Israel. “They’re Arabs. I’m sorry, they can call themselves Palestinians, or Palestinian Arabs – I don’t even know what that means.”
By 2020 there will be more Palestinians than Israelis inhabiting the same geography. Israel didn’t even exist before May 14, 1948.
“The May 19 Metro article ‘Judge: Terror suspect’s words can be used at trial’ stated that a terrorism suspect’s parents “immigrated from Palestine.” Last I heard, there has been no peace accord between Israel and the Palestinian Authority resulting in a country called Palestine. For people who immigrated after 1948, it is factually incorrect to state that they “immigrated from Palestine.” Herbert Chubin, Bethesda
In 1948 700,000 unarmed Palestinians were driven by well armed soldiers into a diaspora that continues to this day. Palestinians only possessed arms inherited upon the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire — pretty much all the armaments they have today.
De facto Israel is America’s 51st State, or at least its second District. Puerto Rico is a territorial island inhabited by a people with skin too brown for racist tastes. The Israeli ideal appears to be Northern European, fair of skin and akin to the skin favored by most empires.
Where do the Palestinians stand in Trump’s estimation? Well, what grabs his attention? Trump is as decisive as he is incompetent. POTUS 45 is every bit as racist and corrupt as POTI 12, by any ethical measure. Each president denies the racism behind their actions. Trump envies Netanyahu’s wall and Israeli engineering firms bid for Trump’s dream barrier. Ethiopian Jews try to attain Aliya but can’t get past detention centers. Both blame Islam: Radical Islamic Terrorism but ignore White Supremacists’ terror aimed at Muslims and the survivors of slavery: America’s Black population.
Netanyahu uses his intelligence, and the intelligence at his disposal, to remain in office. Trump doesn’t have enough intelligence to function as an adult. He knows what corrupts absolutely and he grooms it. He’s far closer to a Caligula than any previous President.
I doubt that Trump could find Jerusalem on a world globe, but he has Fox and Friends to cover that from behind their coffee table. They have his ears and the dark matter between those ears. F&F spur him on to spurt his soul-deadening tweets, his talking points.
The last two empires to make global choices for Palestine have been English-speaking realms with world-counquering ambitions. In 1948 the former imperious spoke the Queen’s English. They passed the baton to the next imperial deciders, the ones who speak English American style.
The United States had already ethnically cleansed indigenous Americans who stood in their way since the arrival of Columbus (notable racist) to today. The 50 states carved into North America arrived by dint of legally sanctioned genocide. Manifest Destiny squeezed life blood from sea to shining sea — State by flagged-star State.
History is always written by the conquerer. Of course “mistakes were made,” but their monotheistic God did favor the features of the Northern Europe didn’t he? Jesus, Mary and The Father depicted with European features and a skin lightened by many cloudy days.
Let’s take a look at how the English speakers ordained the ancient land of Palestine, home for three aspects of a monochromatic God in situ. Each find a place in respective scriptural scripts for the characters at play.
The sons and daughters of Ishmael find themselves at the crosshairs. 1.8 billion gentle worshipers are either “Radical Islamists” or they support “Radical Islamic Terrorism” because they honor the Quran. Is that beyond all possibility in 2017? No, homo sapiens are ever capable of reaching to any depth of depravity to attain greater depravity. Venture capital is always available to fund decadence, be you a Drumpf or a Caligula.
Children as young as 12 enter the Israeli prison system if they throw a single rock, or an IDF soldier merely states that the youth threw a stone.
Were it not for the United States of America (and the Marshall Islands) the Palestinians would already have a homeland, one recognized by the world community.
Each of us originates in the bubble that is the womb, and proceeds into a larger bubble — a system of approved myths inherited upon birth. Mythical systems accrete over the centuries, they become the stuff of culture, of family, of traditions — of a certain mythos. Xenophobia is a fear of the foreign mythos, the strange, the other-wordly.
You’re talking about the dregs of society who have a way at doling off the rest of us. Not in our neighborhood, Bill.
Three monotheistic religions spring from myths. The triad started with the patriarch Ibrahim’s sexual relations with that woman (Sara) and with that woman (Hagar). Ibrahim stands atop an isosceles triangle, isosceles because Judaism and Christianity are more familiar with each other, they are the points at respective ends of the shorter line of the triangle. Together, they celebrate something called a Judeo-Christian tradition.
Bill, have you ever heard of a Judeo-Islamic tradition, a Christo-Islamic tradition? Hang out with scimitar lovers and you’ll die by the sword. Live safe or die, that’s our motto.
The progeny of Isaac and Ishmael revere their father Ibrahim, but they do not visit the mother of the other. A brother discarded at birth becomes a grotesque creature during centuries of banishment.
My birth certificate states that its described birth was “legitimate” — that I am not a bastard. Legitimate and illegitimate bring baggage to the children thus belittled. Do they not? Are there any possible connotations that suggest “bastard” might be a loaded word?
Takes one to know one, bastard. Your father was probably born in Kenya, too. We’d like to see if your birth certificate has an “il” erasure. Just the facts, man. Just the facts.
Yesterday was “Columbus” Day, it was also “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” Columbus myths are more important to its proponents than Columbus facts. Fortunately for them, those who favor myth have techniques such as confirmation bias to keep the 25th suggestion for an Indigenous Peoples Day safely at bay.
I listened to a disquieting interview yesterday with author Carol Delaney on her book Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem. Delaney offered much more than a standard defense of Columbus Day, she accurately and disturbingly connected the dots that most Columbus proponents ignore. In other words, Ishmael be damned.
She proudly connected those dots to illuminate an ambition far larger than a couple continents — the apparent need for never ending condemnation of Islam in polite company. Forever and ever, amen.
A few salient points on population movement:
The expulsion of Jews from Spain was completed in 1492, the expulsion of Muslims was completed in 1609.
The ethnic cleansing in the Americas began in 1492
The Inquisition in Spain was already underway in 1492
There still exists a longing nostalgia for the Crusades today
The Crusades are yet described as purely a matter of self-defense.
The sacred myth informs the non-indigenous that Columbus was a faithful Italian Catholic tasked with restoring Jerusalem to Christendom — or at least Judeo-Christendom — through a two-speared operation, from the east as well: completing the aims of the Crusades and the object of the Inquisition.
Columbus stumbled onto a foothold role that established ports for the grim slavers to reap the benefit of clockwise flowing ocean currents. These currents were perfect for purposes of logistic maximization. Cargo circuits brought plentiful human resources from Africa to “get the job done” in a properly fulsome manner. After emptying human cargo at the ports of Columbine discovery, they could deadhead those empty craft and load up bipeds in Western Africa. A logistical marvel of the first order.
Discarded human resources at the bottom of the sea
Portugal supplied missionaries to convert indigenous peoples surrounding the Amazon, pacification brought us Brazil, Spain pretty much tamed the rest of what is now known as Latin America. Access to pagans made possible by craven Conquistadors who rammed through the soft underbelly of the western portions of North America to the wealth of California and the expanse of Texas.
Welcome Europeans?
Does it matter a whit that the colonizers spring from European stock, possess Caucasian physiognomy, have a skin color not tanned by either the sun or made golden under a set of purple ultraviolet ray emitters?
You were probably offended by that Dove advertisement that got all you political correctors lathered. What’s wrong with being white? To the victors go the spoils. Says it all. That’s all you need to know, all there is to know. Get with the program or take the next flight out.