MOHAMMED
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MOHAMMED
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Justinian, the absolute monarch of the great Byzantine Empire died in 565 AD. Five years later a relatively poor family in the Arabian Peninsula welcomed a boy who would have a remarkable destiny. His country was three quarters desert. The few inhabitants of the country were nomadic tribes. Who would have imagined that within a century these people would vanquish Persia, most of the Byzantine Empire, Egypt, much of North Africa, most of Spain and some of Southern France. This boy, Mohammed or Muhammad, and his followers would succeed in converting and having control over a great portion of the Mediterranean. The medieval world would be seriously altered by this phenomenon. The Saudi Arabian Peninsula is the largest in the world. It is for the most part a continuation of the Sahara Desert that runs all the way to the Gobi Desert in Asia. The Peninsula is a vast, high plateau with most of its cities along the western coast. The Queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon in 950 BC purportedly came from this region. There is evidence that caravan a mile long with a thousand camels carried on trade with Egypt and perhaps India as early as 2743 BC. Inland trade routes stretched along north to Syria. For centuries this commerce converged once a year for a huge trade fair near Mecca, forty-eight miles from the Red Sea. Five-sixth of the population was comprised of nomadic Bedouins. These autonomous tribes or clans were each ruled by a sheik. The Greeks called the Arabic nomads Saracens. The people moved their flocks of sheep from one pasture patch to another. They loved their fast horses, wine made from dates, and women; in that order. But the camel was their most important staple. They were fiercely loyal to each one's own clan. They considered razzias, raids for plunder, a normal and legitimate form of taxation against competing tribes on what each tribe considered its own private desert. Their women were extolled in eloquent poems for their astonishing beauty. Unfortunately, that beauty faded quickly in the harsh, dry desert climate. The word Arab means "arid". A little girl of age seven or eight was sold into marriage. She was only one of many wives. Her purpose was to produce warrior sons. A father could bury his infant daughter at birth if he so wished. When her beauty was gone the rest of her life was devoted to menial drudgery. Because of the hot desert heat, all the Semitic people, men and women, wore long robes and head coverings to protect themselves from the sun. They also often covered their noses from the blowing sand. The clothing became the traditional mode of dress. Some Moslem women still wear similar attire called a chador or burka as a sign of modesty in their religion. The ancient Arabic religion was of a myriad of lesser gods or spirits, jinni. The Genie in the bottle of Arabian Nights lore. Some of the gods were good and others, mischief-makers. The ancient Arabs worshipped holy stones and occasionally offered human sacrifice. The sacred Black Stone of the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque, Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca was and is the focal point of their religion. Kaaba is the same word as the English "cube". The Kaaba is rectangular in shape of formidable dimensions: forty feet long, thirty-five feet wide and fifty feet tall. The Black Stone, seven inches in diameter, is fixed in the southeast corner of the Kaaba. It is placed about five feet from the earth, just the right height for being kissed. Worn down through centuries of veneration, it is oval in shape and dark red in color. The Arabs believe the Black Stone was sent down from heaven by the angels. It is quite possible that it was a meteorite. They believe the Kaaba has been built and rebuilt ten times; first by the angels, second by Adam and third by Adam's son, Seth. According to the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian Bibles and later the Moslem holy book, the Koran, three angels visited Abraham and announced that he and his wife Sarah would have a son. Both Abraham and Sarah were elderly and were quite surprised when Isaac was conceived. Abraham had also had an older son, Ishmael, by Agar, an Egyptian bonds-woman. The progeny of Isaac became the Hebrew people. Sarah drove Agar and Ishmael out into the desert. Ishmael's descendants became the Arabian people. The Arabians believe that Abraham and Ishmael completed the rebuilding of the Kaaba. Skipping to the seventh rebuilding, it was done by Qusay, the chief of the Quarish tribe. In Mohammed's time, 605, the Quarish leaders rebuilt it for the eighth time. Moslems rebuilt it in 681 and 696 for the ninth and tenth times. It stands today from those dates. Several idols were represented in the Kaaba in pre-Islamic times, the principal one being Allah, (God). The descendants of the Quarish tribe were the priests. The aristocratic members of that tribe managed the civil affairs of Mecca. This was the exact same social structure as the Zoroastrians of Persia had. Two warring factions divided the Quarish tribe at the beginning of the sixth century. Abdallah was the grandson or grandnephew of one of those factions. His wife, Amina, was also of Quarish descent. Abdallah went on a trading caravan and died in Medina. Mohammed (c. 570-632 AD) was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. His father was Abdallah and died before Mohammed was born. His mother Amina died when he was six. Although he had a distinguished lineage, his inheritance consisted of a house, one female slave, five camels and a flock of goats. Tradition says his grandfather and an uncle, Abu Talib, raised him. Certainly his early life was one of hardship. Literacy was not important in those days, so he was never taught to read and write. At about age twelve, Abu Talib took Mohammed on a caravan to Syria. He mingled with many of the Jews and Christians in the population there. There was also a large contingent of Jews and Christians in Mecca and Medina. He was attracted to the monotheistic aspects of both religions and the moral convictions of Christians. He could see the merit of those religions as contained in their holy books. He was dismayed at the idolatry and tribal warfare that he felt contributed to the disunity of his people. At age twenty-five, he married the matron, Khadija, a wealthy noble widow fifteen years his senior. He became involved in her merchant enterprises. It was apparently a happy marriage for the next twenty-six years. She bore him two sons who died in infancy and also his beloved daughter; Fatima, who survived to adulthood. His marriage to Khadija was monogamous, a rarity in those times. Her wealth made it possible for him to have the leisure to contemplate the essence of man and his own destiny. He and his family would spend time in a cave near Mecca in prayer, meditation and fasting during Ramadan, the holy month. He was alone in the cave when the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision informing him that he, Mohammed, was the messenger or messiah from Allah as foretold in scriptures. Further, Gabriel told him the Koran, or Qur'an, was the book of his people as it existed in heaven and the angel would dictate it to Mohammed. He continued to have many such visions, often at unexpected times. He would go into a trance like state. There has been some speculation that he had epilepsy. A number of leaders in history have had epilepsy including Julius Caesar and Napoleon. But there is no evidence that Mohammed had Grand Mal seizures. Recently there has been a report of a form of epilepsy in which the person slips into unconsciousness and experiences an intense spiritual state not unlike an "out of body or near death experience." One can only speculate how and why Mohammed had his visions. When he awoke, he had a scribe write down, word for word, what Gabriel had told him. Unlike the Jewish and Christian Bibles that are ascribed to many different prophets and disciples, the Koran is attributed to one man alone, Mohammed. With Khadija's encouragement, he began to publicly preach his message. The Quarish tribe tolerated him as demented. He gathered a modest following until he went to the Kaaba and railed against idolatry. He considered the Kaaba a form of fetishism and thoroughly condemned the followers of all the ancient paganism. The pilgrims to the Kaaba were taken aback and the Quarish tribe was put off by the threat to the revenues brought in by the faithful. His conversion of slaves was especially offensive to the aristocratic Quarish. The struggle was on. Occasionally, the conflicts grew to be violent. Once, Mohammed was chased through the streets and stones thrown at him bloodied his legs. One of Mohammed's first converts was Abu Bekr, a relative with some prominence in the Quarish tribe. From his private fortune Abu Bekr purchased the freedom of converted slaves and also brought five other Meccan aristocrats into the fold. The recollections of these six "Companions" came to be the most treasured Islamic traditions surrounding the Prophet's life. The "Companions" may be compared to Jesus' disciples. The year 619 was tragic for Mohammed. His beloved wife, Khadija, and his familial protector, Abu Talib, both died. Abu Talib never embraced Mohammed's new religion. Still, true to the ancient tradition of family and tribal loyalty, Abu Talib, always defended and protected his nephew. Mohammed recovered from the losses and at age fifty married another widow, Sauda, and also Abu Bekr's seventeen-year old daughter, Aisha. A significant vision occurred about this time. In his dream-like state he was taken to the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem and flew to heaven and back on a winged horse named Buraq. (The Greek Pegasus?). This revelation made Jerusalem the third Islamic Holy City along with Mecca and Medina. Thus the eternal conflict between Moslems and Jews over Jerusalem. As his visions and preaching continued, tensions in Mecca increased. A group of merchants from Medina heard his message and took it back home with them. Many people in Medina, including some Jews, could find little difference between his new creed and that of the Medinese Jews. A large contingent of Medinese came secretly to Mohammed to ask him to make his home in their city. He answered with the question, could they guarantee his safety even if they lost their own lives protecting him? They promised they would, but how would he reward them? Mohammed's one-word reply was "Paradise." The Quarish leader somehow learned of the plan. He was suspicious of Mohammed's growing power and afraid that, once established in Medina, a traditional tribal war would break out between Medina and Mecca. The Quarish plotted to capture and probably kill him. Of course, Mohammed's followers found out and he escaped to a cave at Tharu, a few miles from Mecca where he hid for three days. Abu Bekr's sons brought camels. After riding day and night for two hundred miles, Mohammed and one other man reached Medina. A large contingent of Mohammed's adherents, or refugees, Muhajirin, had also fled to Mecca in disguise. Along with Medinese followers, they met Mohammed at the city gates in triumph. This date - July 16, 622 AD - became the Islamic official first year of the Mohammedan Age. The Hegira, from the Arabian word hijra, meaning flight, was to become one of the most revered precepts of the Islamic faith. Hejira has always meant a trip or journey taken to escape a dangerous place or the means of arriving at the desired destination. "The Road from Mecca to Medina" is now a metaphor for the passage or the way from peril to safety and protection. Mohammed's first sermon in Medina was to proclaim, "Allah is most Great." He then prostrated himself at the foot of the pulpit three times as he prayed, submitting his soul to Allah. This gave the new religion the name, Islam , "to surrender", or "to make peace" with Allah. The name Moslem, or Muslimin , means "the surrendering ones" or "those who have made their peace with Allah". He then exhorted that this ritual should be continued in perpetuity. Mohammed was the self-proclaimed new Prophet. Incidentally, the spellings of "Moslem" and "Muslim" are technically interchangeable and acceptable. The English pronunciation of the word more closely resembles the Arabic pronunciation when "Muslim" is used. I have chosen to consistently use "Moslem", since pronunciation is not germane in the written text. Mohammed proved himself to be an effective leader in both spiritual and temporal affairs. The influx of more than two hundred muhajirin into the then small city of Medina overwhelmed the resources and patience of the local people. Living arrangements had to be made. Tensions mounted as food shortages became acute. He diplomatically appealed to the spirit of the new religion. To obtain food and other necessities, he then cheerfully reverted to the time honored tradition of razzias, plundering raids, on the merchant caravan. He personally led many of them himself! This is the method Mohammed used in dividing up the spoils: Four-fifths, equally divided, went to those involved in the raids. If a raider were killed, his share went to his favorite wife/widow while the raider himself went directly to Paradise. The remaining one-fifth was given to the Prophet to use as he saw fit for religious purposes and charity. Beginning as small raiding skirmishes, the raids escalated into tribal warfare and ultimately outright widespread conquest. The razzias turned into Holy Wars, the jihads; the battle cry, "Allah is Great!" Mohammed himself seemed to have no problem with the savage brutality that took place during the raids. It soon extended to anyone who opposed or spoke out against him and Islam. At first, he was magnanimous toward Jews, Christians and even Zoroastrians. He accepted all their books and prophets including Jesus as a prophet, but not the Messiah. He acknowledged himself as the final prophet but conceded that people of other faiths could be saved if they followed the precepts of their own religions. His religion was based on the natural laws of the universe, as revealed to him by Allah through the angel Gabriel. It followed that the law of man would have to be a belief in a moral government. Like Judaism, religion and law were one. He even made Jerusalem the quibla, the revered place that all believers should turn to in prayer. He welcomed Jews into the new state's affairs with full citizenship. He began to take exceptions however. He felt that the Trinity of Christian belief was a form of polytheism with Mary elevated to that of a goddess. Islam has always been adamant in its objection to idolatry. Also, the Jews began to look askance at such a warlike religion. They took exception to his claim as the "Messiah" and felt he was misrepresenting their scriptures. They had been through all that with the Christian claim of Jesus as the "Messiah" over 600 years before! In 624 he reversed his decision regarding Jerusalem, and made Mecca and the Kaaba the quibla. The Jews considered this to be reverting to idolatry. With full authority as head of state, he banished seven hundred Jews, forcing them to leave everything they owned behind. Mohammed spent ten years in Medina. His visions and revelations in the Koran more often than not reflected the every day problems he ran into administering to his people and directing the razzias. His scripture as recorded in the Koran describe Allah as all-powerful but also merciful. The all-knowing Allah predetermines the past, present and future. Presaged by an aura of divine predestination, a characteristic of fatalism is prominent in Islamic belief. With this precept, the harsh desert life was easier to bear. Since only Allah knows the hour of death, the warriors went off to battle with equanimity. The practice of the Islamic faith is summed up in four duties for all Moslems to follow: prayer, alms, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca. Belief in Mohammed as the Prophet makes up the "Five Pillars of Islam". The adherents are required to acknowledge the precepts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. However, where there are contradictions, Mohammed's divine inspiration takes precedent over all others. Much the same as Moses and Zoroaster, Mohammed used religion to promote general hygiene, cleanliness being moral godliness. His ethic was one of the fear of punishment and the promise of heavenly reward on Judgment Day. He emphasized his correct belief and its consequences more than good behavior. This was a direct contradiction to the Jewish ethic of good conduct being attended by the faith that such goodness is designed for the glory of the one God. With the covenants God had with them as his chosen people, the Jews were expected to set an example for all of mankind to emulate regardless of the consequences. Mohammed's vivid descriptions of heaven and hell as contained in the Koran took on a poetic quality. All of the earthly luxuries would be lavished on the believers in heaven. Wine and other alcoholic beverages were condoned in heaven, but forbidden on earth. Seventy-six beautiful virgins, houris, would attend the men. The women, too, would attain heaven, but just how their sensual pleasures would play out there were not specified. Four wives were permitted here on earth. The high rate of mortality on the battlefield justified polygamy. Mohammed himself made a number of widows his wives. He exempted himself from the four wives rule and during his long lifetime, had ten wives and two concubines. He was frustrated in his yearning for a son. Some of his wives were barren. One did provide a boy but unfortunately the child died in early childhood. Obviously, Mohammed loved and admired women with several provisos prevalent in his and other times. He considered it to be a man's obligation to beget children and women to be a "tilth", a field for men to sow. Included here are the only direct quotes I will make from the English translation of the Koran. We do pick and choose our quotes from scriptures, don't we. "The wife should recognize the superior intelligence and therefore superior authority of the male; she must obey her husband; if she rebels he should 'banish her to a bed apart, and scourge her'. (iv, 34)." "Every woman who dieth, and her husband is pleased with her, shall enter paradise. (iv, 35)."12 Still, this is a step up from the Greek philosopher Aristotle's assessment. He asserted that women were "mutilated males" and had no souls! The Quarish in Mecca had waged a mini-war against Mohammed and his followers. A number of Jews had joined in the battle. The Meccans had been roundly defeated. If Mohammed had lost that one, it might have been the end of Islam. A year later, the Quarish again attacked Medina and Mohammed was badly wounded. The Quarish thought they had killed him and went triumphantly back to Mecca. It took six months for the Prophet to recover. By this time, each side had raised sizable armies. In the final analysis, Mohammed emerged as the victor and returned exultant to Mecca. He gave the vanquished a choice between death and accepting Islam. The Jews, especially, chose death. Shades of Charlemagne one hundred seventy eight years later! The women and children were sold as slaves and Mohammed took a seventeen-year old Jewish girl, Safiya, as another wife. She had been promised to the Jewish chieftain who was executed. Extended into his fifty-ninth year, Mohammed's vitality for his mission was spent in the consolidation of his power and the fine points of Islam. One of his most important edicts was the requirement of all Moslems to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. He is said to have sent emissaries to the Persian and Byzantine Empires as well as other kingdoms with invitations to join in his new faith. None replied. He was not inclined to widen his frontiers beyond Arabia in his lifetime. In his declining years he contracted a lingering fever. In 636 Mohammed died in the arms of his longtime favorite wife, Aisha. His tomb is in Mecca. Without a son and heir, this charismatic leader left his new religio-political heritage with no cohesive form of succession. Abu Bekr assumed the role of the first Caliph of Islam. As happens with most religions, Islam was initially spread by conquest. Worldwide, approximately one out of five people are Moslem today. About one in ten people worldwide are Christian. It is a sobering fact that the U.S. comprises only 6% of the world's population. The more sophisticated and complex religions
became in requirements for living and salvation - Zoroastrianism - Judaism -
Catholicism - the less the common man could live up to those demands. Thus, new simpler religions.
Mohammed's principal legacy was the Koran. The Old Testament, the Gospel, the Torah, the Avesta, and the Koran all are Semitic Books with strong Judaic roots. They are significant, since adherents consider each of them to be the absolute Word of God. They are the laws to govern the conduct of mankind. The Koran is the least mystical and ritualistic. It is ingenuous to the point of simplicity. The Arab customs of the time were incorporated into the Moslem teachings. The Koran is often the book used today to teach young Moslem children to read. In the century after Mohammed's death, any number of questions arose requiring clarification not found in the Koran. Devout Moslems who had personally known the Prophet or heard from the Companions began schools called Hadith, orally recounting traditions that had grown up surrounding Mohammed and Islam. Remember, literacy was not common in those days in Arabia or Europe. In time, these Hadith oral accounts were recorded into the "Correct Book", the Sahih. For some Moslems, the Sahih and the Koran go hand in hand, just as the Jewish Talmud and the Torah do. Without a living successor to the highest office of Islam comparable to a pope, Islam has had a bewildering array of sects held together by the one unifying persona, Mohammed. The caliphate became the closest to fulfilling that leadership function. Islam has no organized system or hierarchy of clergy - no priests, rabbis or ministers, bishops or elders. Neither do the Jewish nor Protestants have an equivalent to the pope. This may or may not have significance for any of the religions depending on the point of view. As in politics, all religions are local. The mosque is the equivalent of a temple, church, synagogue or cathedral. The mosque has at least one minaret, a spire or tower, from which a muezzin chants the glory of Allah. The muezzin is a crier who calls the faithful to the hour of prayer five times a day. This prayer, adhan, is called at dawn, just after midday, late afternoon, at sunset and bedtime. Friday is the Holy Day of the Moslem week. A mullah is a learned teacher or interpreter of the law. An ayatollah is a Moslem religious leader who has often taken over the political leadership role, as in Iran in recent times. There are a perplexing number of Moslem sects just as there are in any other religion. Some are orthodox or strict literal interpreters of the Koran. Naturally, fanatical groups arise from time to time that become prominent in our headlines such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Mujahedeen, meaning Islamic fighters, is probably a corruption of Muhajirin, the group of Moslems that preceded Mohammed from Mecca to Medina. Names such as Shi'a and Sunni are prominent in the current news. Shi'a are mostly Iranians. The Sunni are considered the most traditional and orthodox. The predominate Moslem sect in Saudi Arabia today is Wahibi. The Iranian language is Farsi. Others speak Arabic. For the most part, Moslems go about practicing their faith and daily lives much as any other religion does; concerned with family, children and work. During a little more than a twelve hundred year period between 500 BC and 700 AD many of the extant religions of the world were formulated. That is a long time to our way of thinking. Yet in the pages of history it is a relatively short time. Confucius founded his philosophy in China. Lao-Tzu of Taoism, Buddhism of Gautama and Jainism of Mahavira also arose India; Shintoism in Japan. Zoroastrism was founded in Persia at the end of the seventh Century BC. Confucius lived c. 551-479 BC. The derivation in the West of his name is interesting. The Chinese have always put the surname first, then the given name and last is the honorific. His surname was Kung (Con), Chiu was his personal first name. Dz or Fu-dz is Honored Sir. Thus , Kung-Fu-dz was latinized into Confucius. Other major religions were founded in the Middle East; Judaism evolved between the twentieth and fourth centuries BC, Christianity in 33 AD in the Roman state of Palestine and Islam in 632 AD in Arabia. Many other religious leaders with divine claims have come and gone but why is it that these faiths worldwide have endured? What was going on in the world in that thousand plus year time period? Perhaps, more important, what was going on in the hearts and minds of humanity? Could it be the ongoing maturation process of the human psyche? There is a basic fact in all of history. Whenever the birth rate outstrips the food supply, the balance has to be restored in one or more of three ways: Starvation, infanticide and/or conquest. The Bedouins of Arabia who became Moslems were used to warlike ways and tired of starvation. It became the most natural thing in the world for them to go marching off to war and dying for Islam with enthusiasm! Within a century the Caliphate of Baghdad c.750 AD extended all the way from the western most part of North Africa to Libya and Egypt. It encompassed all of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, The 'Holy Land', Syria, Armenia and Persia. The Moslem Moors of North Africa overran the Iberian Peninsula and held it for over 700 years. The Turks (Turkey) soon came into the Islamic fold and ultimately defeated what was left of the Byzantine Empire. Moslems had absolute control over access to the land trade routes to the Far East and virtual authority over the Mediterranean Sea. There are two very famous operas with themes of those times, Die Entfuhrung Aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), by Mozart. Serail and Seraglio are German and Italian respectively for "Harem". The opera is set in the eighteenth century. It is about an attack on a Spanish ship in which the passengers and crew were taken as slaves and the women were sold into the Pasha's harem. The other opera is L'Italiana in Algeri, ("The Italian Girl in Algiers,") by Gioacchino Rossini. This takes place in the early nineteenth century and again involves pirates and an Italian girl who winds up in the harem of Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers, (The Governor of Algiers.) This opera is something of a comedy of errors and everybody lives happily ever after. In early Moslem days, the caliphate was a religious more than a political office. Not too surprisingly, over time, religion came into concert with politics. An emir was a ruler and/or military commander. At the head of the administrative structure was the hajib or "chamberlain", who controlled access to the caliph. Next in rank was the visier who guided the policies of the state. The vizier appointed and supervised the officials of the government. Soon, intrigue came to supersede devotion. Medieval European aristocrats traditionally scorned merchants as a lower class of society. The aristocracy was more interested in acquiring land. The Moslems joined ranks with the Jews, Persian and many Christians in the pursuits of the world of commerce. Many Arabic words crept into the language without change of meaning. Words such as tariff, traffic, magazine, caravan and bazaar are all Arabic words. Sakk is the word for promissory note. From sakk we derived the word, "check". Most of the early Moslems were fairly tolerant of other religions to a certain extent. Philosophers were indulged as long as their writings remained unintelligible. Captives in war could escape slavery by converting to the Islamic faith. King Arthur and Charlemagne did much the same thing with those they did not kill. Further, conquered people found it to their economic advantage to embrace Islam. They were integrated into the general population and exempted from taxes. However, in some Eastern Islamic countries, free Christians and Jews were forbidden to be educated in Moslem schools. Further they had to attach a wooden devil to the doors of their homes. "Infidels" were required to wear clothing denoting their religion and their slaves had to put such distinguishing patches on their garb. Shades of the Star of David on their sleeve that Jews were required to wear in Poland by the Nazis! It seems that whoever is in charge is determined to impose silly requirements on their minority populations. The more sophisticated a society becomes, the less overt but more subtle the discrimination grows to be. Overall however, the result is the same. Between 628 and 1058 the Arab Moslems made enormous strides in all areas of their endeavors. After they invaded and conquered parts of peaceful Hindu India, along with the usual spoils of war they brought orange trees and spread them throughout southern Europe, especially Spain. Cotton was introduced into Europe from India by the Arabs. Muslin cotton and damask linen from Damascus are two from their rich fabric heritage. To grow cotton, canals and extensive irrigation systems were devised to bring the usually arid desert lands into productivity. A fascinating bit of innovation was another import (stolen?) from India. The Vedic religion of the Hindus invented and then developed "fables" as a means of teaching moral values. The Moslems brought this type of stories back from India and they eventually became incorporated into Western lore. The Caliph Harun al-Rashid (789-809), a contemporary of Charlemagne, proposed a Suez Canal. His idea simmered for a thousand years until the French, with some financial backing from the English, finally completed building it in 1869. The construction of that canal took ten years. The windmill was in use in Moslem countries long before it first appeared in Europe in the twelfth century. The Moslems beat Marco Polo to China by 425 years. The technique for making paper was brought from China, making possible the manufacture of books. Paper had been in use in China since 105. By 794, books were common in Baghdad. They did not appear in Germany until 1228 and in England until 1309. The technology of tempered steel was brought from India to Persia. The Arabs took it from Persia and made it into the celebrated "Damascus" blades and later into Toledo steel. Other Moslem Arab incursions into China brought back gunpowder, the compass and playing cards, first to the Middle East and eventually, Europe. Another ingenious first was the use of carrier pigeons. From about 700 on, the Islamic world experienced a virtual Renaissance similar to that of the Italian during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. They made astonishing advances in science and mathematics. Arabic numerals and zeros used in astronomy were brought from Hindu India in 662. The Arabic word, safir, meaning, "empty" became the English word, "cipher". In the hands of Latin scholars, safir translated into zephyrum, in turn shortened into zero by the Italians. The Moslems also imported the decimal system from India, which of course, ultimately spread to Europe. The Arabs are credited with developing algebra. (That is a strike against them right there when I think of the year in high school and one year of college algebra I sat through. I did well in those classes but whole days in my life since have gone by without having to solve a single quadratic equation!) As a matter of fact, algebra was literally outlawed in Europe for over two hundred years. (Right on!) "Algebra" is from the Arabic words, al-jabr, that translates "restitution", "completion" or "adjustment". For those interested, they also came up with tables in trigonometry and other higher mathematics. During this time their astronomers automatically assumed from their calculations that the earth was round! The Moslems very nearly invented the science of chemistry. As was most of Medieval learning in this field, it was tied into alchemy and the occult. Jabir ibn Hayyan (702-765) well known in Europe as Gebir, was the most famous. Because of his work in alchemy he came up with the concept of the scientific experimental method five hundred years before Roger Bacon. Ali al-Masuda compiled a thirty-volume encyclopedia. As an historian, he compared favorably to Pliny and Herodotus. This native of Baghdad postulated a theory of evolution; mineral to plant to animal to man. Of course, this did not set well with fundamentalist Moslems and he spent the last ten years of his life in Cairo in exile where he died in 956. Sufism is a curious form of Islamic mysticism that evolved sometime during the eighth century. It was founded in the central Turkish city of Konya, (formerly the Roman Iconium). Konya was quite a large and influential city for centuries. The name Sufism is from the Arabic word for "wool", suf. Much like the Christian monks, the Sufis wore only a woolen robe, and devoted their lives to prayer, self-denial and asceticism. They worked themselves into a frenzy of dancing in order to experience ecstasy in union with Allah. They have been known as "Whirling Dervishes". The Sufis are similar to the Hindu Indian fakirs and to a certain extent, early Quakers and some Christian sects, speaking in tongues. (Fakir is actually a Arabic word but is generally applied to the Hindus who practice that form of their religion.) Mohammed was adamant about monotheism. Any system of saints was for him polytheism. The sufis in their preaching as well as many Moslem philosophers and others produced a tradition of heroes of the religion by popular acclaim and in time, Sufism was accepted into the Islamic faith. This practice is similar to that of Christian Catholic sainthood. However any sect that had secret revolutionary ideas of morality and law was strictly forbidden. There was one sect that was part religious, part political that gained widespread support and power from about 760 through 930. Ali was Mohammed's adopted son, also the orphan son of Abu Talib. He married Fatima, and became the Prophet's son-in-law. Ali was a devoted Islamic follower. The doctrine of the Shi'a group believed that the descendants of Ali in each generation up to the twelfth was a divine embodiment of Ali, the Imam. The Imam appointed his successor. The sixth Imam named his oldest son, Ismail, to follow as the seventh. There are two holy cities in Iraq, Karbala and Najaf. In central Iraq, the city of Najaf (ancient name, Kufa) is where the Shi'a sect originated. Mohammed's adopted son and son-in-law, the Imam Ali, was killed there. It is reputed to have been founded by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. The mosque in Najaf contains the tomb of and is devoted to Ali. This shrine was and is a focal point in the post-war insurgency in Iraq. An extremely Holy Site in the Islamic religion, the desecration of the shrine would enflame Moslems worldwide just as an attack on St. Peter's tomb in the Vatican in Rome would outrage Christians everywhere. Ismail turned out to be something of a ne'er-do-well so in about 760 his father repealed the nomination in favor of another son, Musa. (Ismail drank wine.) Nevertheless, one group of Moslems felt that because of the divine nature of the succession, Ismail was the only valid seventh Imam. For a century, these "Ismailites" as they called themselves, were a rather obscure sect until a new leader, Abdallah ibn Qaddah, rose to power. He dispatched missionaries throughout the then Islamic world to spread the teachings of the "Ismailite Seveners". Converts to the sect were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to the head of the sect, the Dai-d-Dual. Also they were sworn to absolute secrecy. The converts were then put through a lengthy initiation process consisting of nine stages. Only bits and pieces of doctrine were revealed at each stage. They were told that all would be made known to them at the final stage. In other words, they were systematically brainwashed. At the eighth stage they were told that nothing could really be known of a Supreme Being, therefore, there was no need to pay homage to him. The followers were told that they were above any belief or law. Further, they were taught to expect a Mahdi (or Redeemer) who would establish a world of brotherly love, equality, justice and restore Islam to its glory. (The Messiah?) The communal doctrine for all property and women was back again in the guise of a quasi-mystical religion. Remember the Zoroastrian Priest, Mazdak? A number of the old Persian Mazdak followers was still around as well as other like-minded groups. They were all attracted to the Seveners. Over time they came to be a powerful force in Islamic countries. They founded the Fatimid Dynasty, after Mohammed's daughter and Ali's wife, and took over Egypt and North Africa. Qaddah died in 874 and Hamdan ibn al-Ashrath, known as Qarmat, a peasant from Iraq, took his place. The Qarmati or Carmathians as they came to be known, were quite an energetic sect. They must have been very persuasive as they gained thousands of converts and organized guilds of workers. Their interpretation of the Koran was to disdain the orthodox rituals. They established their own state on the Persian Gulf west shore in 899. The caliph's army tried to put down the insurrection but was roundly defeated. The Carmathians went on to plunder most of Syria, and Basra, Iraq, and in 930 sacked Mecca itself!!! They killed thousands of Moslems and along with other rich plunder, carted off the Black Stone! The Fatimid Caliph restored the Black Stone to the Kaaba twenty-one years later in 951. The violence of the Carmathians threat to ordered society outraged most of the Islamic populace. Its own excesses helped to cause the Carmathians to die out and go underground. But a century later the sect re-emerged as the hashish devotees of the Ismaili of Alamut Assassins.
About 1090, a "Grand Master", whom the Crusaders referred to as "The Old Man of the Mountain" took hold of a fortress, Alamut, known as the "Eagles Nest". This was in Northern Persia up in the mountains at about 10,000 feet. The Alamut Assassins were a secret organization, one of history's strangest religious sects. It began a long campaign of terror against its perceived enemies of Islam. The lowest devotees or young initiates were called fidais. They were required to carry out the orders of the leaders with dispatch and blind obedience. Marco Polo encountered the Alamut stronghold in 1271. He recounted that the "Grand Master", Hasan ibn al Sabbah, had re-created a garden right out of Mohammed' descriptions of Paradise in the Koran, complete with a number of nubile young women. The fidais were given heavy doses of hashish and then brought into the garden. They believed they were actually in Paradise. After about five days of wine, women and fine food, they were again drugged with hashish and taken from the garden. Of course, when hashish wore off, the fidias wanted to go back to the garden. They were told they could return, forever, if they obeyed the Master without question and absolute fidelity or were killed in the process. (Does this have a familiar ring to it?)
The fidias became known as the hashshasheen, drinkers of hashish.
Thus the origin of the term "assassin". The organization survived the
thirty-five year reign of Hasan and went on fight the Crusaders and otherwise
wreak havoc until defeated by the Mongols in 1256. This zealous sect
continued however, and became relatively peaceful as it spread throughout Persia
into Syria, India and Africa.
Because of Mohammed's strict abhorrence of idolatry, no depiction of human or animal forms was allowed in art or sculpture. As a result, the Moslems developed beautifully intricate geometric designs. The Moors occupied Spain for 756 years and built the magnificent Alhambra in Granada (c.1248) and the Alcazar at Seville (c.1181). Both were constructed as fortresses as well as palaces. A Persian architect built the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Begun in 1631, it took twenty-two years and twenty-two thousand workmen in forced labor to complete. The Mughal (Mogul) emperor, Shāh Jāhan, commissioned this exquisite example of Moslem architecture as a tribute to his beloved wife, Arjumand Banū Begum, also known as Mumtaz Mahal, ("Chosen One of the Palace".) She died in childbirth after giving her husband 14 children in 18 years! The Ottoman Empire, the name ascribed to the Turkish State, was founded by Osman (1259-1326). It lasted from 1289 to 1922. The ancient name of Turkey was Anatolia. When the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks, their capital, Constantinople, was renamed Istanbul. The Ottoman became a huge empire. The Turks moved on to conquer Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania; parts of Hungary and Russia; Iraq, Syria, Palestine, the Caucasus, and Egypt; parts of Arabia and North Africa as far west as Algeria. At one time, they came very close to invading Vienna, Austria! The Moslem Turks and especially the Saracens continued to wage battles against the Christian Crusaders and The City-States of Mediterranean Europe. The Sultan Suliman or Suleyman I the Magnificent (1474-1566) brought the Ottoman Empire to its zenith during his reign. It extended from Hungary to Mesopotamia and from there, southwestern to Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers. The sultan was the most important and powerful ruler of Islam. He controlled the Islamic world. Huge and influential, it left its imprint on science, medicine, mathematics, philosophy and architecture worldwide. The Sultans of the Osman family held power until the close of the seventeenth century. After them the administration of the empire deteriorated in the hands of the visiers. Over the years, the empire gradually shrank as a result of the usual internal strife and wars. The Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I. In modern times it is now the Republic of Turkey. Its borders extend five percent into Europe and ninety-five percent in Asia. In 1923 Turkey became the first democratic Moslem country to have a president and a constitution. Its capital was moved from Istanbul and is now in Ankara. The majority of Turkey's people are Sunni. The Sultanate and Caliphate were abolished with members of the Ottoman Dynasty expelled from the country. In April of 1928 the clause in the constitution making Islam the state religion was removed and Turkey became a purely secular state. In 1999 the country became a candidate for membership in the E.U. (European Union). The criteria for membership were set down in Copenhagen, Denmark a dozen or so years ago. In October of 2004 the European Commission was to report at its meeting in Brussels whether or not it will grant a date for the twenty-five countries in the E.U. to vote on Turkey's admission. The matter is still under advisement. The Copenhagen criteria are regarding human rights, religious freedom and the justice system. Of course the ongoing political feud between Turkey and Cypress as well as the Kurds in Iraq will no doubt be topics for debate. In the usual and presently volatile political climate, the E.U. has concerns that Turkey will revert from democracy to theocracy. In other words, after more than 1300 years, that's thirteen hundred, it is still the Christians vs. the Moslems over mammoth meat, hunting territory and which Hunters have the better caves. We all know about Saudi Arabia, its huge oil reserves and the large extended Royal Family - don't we? The Saudi people now have very little say in how their country is run anymore than the people of the monarchies of Europe did during Medieval Times. And of course, Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca, the tomb of Mohammed, the Kaaba and the Black Stone; the most revered places in all of Islam. Enormous wealth has poured into that country because of its supply of oil exported around the world, but primarily to the West - predominantly Christian countries. This wealth has made it possible for the Saudis to buy western technology to operate its oil fields as well as expensive consumer goods. Thus the country has become dependent on western technology without having to develop its own.
Very often wealthy Saudis send their young men off to Europe and America to be educated.
They find an alien and sometimes hostile culture in their
new learning environment. As a result, some of them become angry;
defending their own cultural background of language, religion and ethnic customs.
Further, impoverished young Moslem men from the Middle East and North Africa immigrate to Europe, especially, in search of a better life economically. This is not too different from poor Mexican immigrants coming to the United States, sometimes legally, other times illegally. The young son of one wealthy Saudi had nothing better to do than go off to Afghanistan and fight for Islam with rebels of the Islamic Alliance for the Liberation of Afghanistan against the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government. Russia supported the PDPA and then in 1979 invaded Afghanistan. The young man obviously had financial resources, connections and natural organizational skills. Involved in the fierce fighting of guerrilla warfare and living in caves, it is easy to see how Osama Ben-Ladin no doubt came to identify, personally, with Mohammed. It has been reported that Ben-Ladin is the seventeenth of more than fifty children in his family. Ben-Ladin was actually born in Yemen. His father was a wealthy businessman in the heavy construction business with close ties to the Royal Family. It has been said that Ben-Ladin's father was married some twenty-two times, albeit to not more than four at a time. As you know, Islamic law permits four wives and also divorce. The senior Ben-Ladin was killed in a plane crash when Osama was ten years old. The younger Ben-Ladin himself has four wives and a number of children, reportedly twenty-four. Ben-Ladin received degrees in Civil Engineering, Economics and Public Administration from the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. The University is situated in the large port city on the Red Sea near Mecca. He is a devout Sunni Moslem, a minority sect in predominately Wahibi Saudia Arabia. His personal wealth has been reported anywhere between one and two-hundred fifty million. In 1979, the U.S. and Russia were at a standoff as nuclear powers. Still they both played a good game of "Let's you and him fight on their territory and with their blood." Both powers supplied arms, ammunition and encouragement to the favored side of each in Afghanistan. Remember, Saudi Arabia has little ability to manufacture its own armaments but it does have plenty of money to buy from arms merchants around the world. The arms dealers are ready, willing and able to sell to anyone with the funds to buy. (Also, remember that the U.S. was involved in selling scrap metal to Japan before World War II that came back in the form of torpedoes and bullets.) To support the Afghan rebels, Ben-Ladin brought in a number of his followers as well as money from his father's enterprises. After years of fighting and living in caves; the rebels, Ben Ladin and his band of merry men succeeded in driving the Russians out of Afghanistan. When Iraq invaded Kuwait and Saudi Arabia felt threatened, Ben Ladin returned home to Saudia Arabia and was quite vocal in his views on how the war should be waged. He brought some 20,000 fighters with him. He no doubt saw his chance to be a hero again, at least to his own way of thinking. Ben Ladin had always resented "infidel" U.S. military bases on Saudi Arabian soil. The Saudi Royal Family rebuffed him. The Saudis then called on the U.S. instead, with United Nations support.
All this time, Ben-Ladin had been busy, busy, busy
building an organization called Al-Qaeda. His number two-in-command
henchman was and presumably still is Aymen Al-Zawahiri, (not to be confused
with Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Iraqi insurgent leader killed in a
United States aerial strike in June of 2006.) Al-Zawahiri is from a privileged, prominent Egyptian family. By profession, he is a medical doctor and a surgeon. He and some of his cohorts were imprisoned in Egypt for fourteen months and presumably tortured. While in jail, he became the spoksman for the group of his fellow prisoners, although he is reported to shun the spotlight. In 1991 t
While he was in exile in Sudan he was
organizing and carrying out attacks all over as well as stirring up trouble
in Sudan that continues today. There were attacks of U.S.-Saudi
Military bases in Dahran and Riyadh in 1995. Riyadh is the capital of
Saudia Arabia. The militant Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. Ben Ladin's resume
of destruction and that of Al-Qaeda include
bombings on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the U.S. Cole ship in
Yemen, the battle of Mogadishu in Somalia; and branching out to the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center; Amman, Jordan; Bali,
Indonesia; Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Madrid to name a few. In
essence, Al-Qaeda and Ben-Ladin declared war, a Holy Jihad, on the U.S. and
anybody else in the world who doesn't see things their way! In 1994 or 1995 the Saudi government revoked ben-Ladin's citizenship after his family had formally disowned him. The Sudanese government wanted to extradite him back to Saudia Arabia but the Royal Family refused to take him. Finally, in 1996 because of pressure from Saudia Arabia, Egypt and the U.S., the Sudanese expelled him to Afghanistan. On a chartered plane he was welcomed there from his previous "heroics". The Taliban government was quite hospitable to him. Ben-Ladin's Number two man, Aymen Al-Zawahiri and and some of his companions were tried, convicted and sentenced to death in absentia by the Egyptian government. All those men were Egyptian citizens.
Ben-Ladin was last seen near Tora Bora,
Afghanistan. Now, no one knows where these slippery characters are.
They are probably holed up in some caves or with sympathetic supporters in
either Afghanistan or Pakistan. In all the years of the British Empire's domination of India, she was never able to subdue the tribes in the rugged regions of the Khyber Pass. Egypt and Saudia Arabia consider them
to be common criminals. At the very least, they are an embarrassment to their native countries.
They are hardly "Worthy Adversaries in War!". If so many lives had not been lost, so many wounded and maimed for life and if so many billions had not been spent to conduct the war in Iraq, the whole scenario would be comical. During the height of the Cold War in the fifties, there was a hilarious novel written by Leonard Wibberley entitled, The Mouse that Roared. It is about "Grand Fenwick" a tiny fictional European Alpine duchy only three by five miles in size. It was on the brink of financial ruin. The government officials, in desperation, remembered the amount of money the U.S. had invested in Europe, Germany and Japan to rebuild their economies after the destruction of World War II. So they decided that the best thing a country could do was to declare war on the U.S., be defeated and have the U.S. pour tons of money into it. So they got a little boat and armed with longbows, sailed to the U.S. to invade. The only problem was; when they got there, a nuclear drill was going on and nobody was in sight to surrender to. Through a series of flukes, they managed to get their hands on "The Bomb" and win the "War". Now, who has to pony up foreign aid to whom? You can only imagine the machinations that went on after that on both sides.
The Northern part of Sudan is Arab Moslem, the southern, somewhat non-sectarian. A nasty civil war had been going on there for a long time. It was finally running out of steam when a new rebellion got going in 1993 in the Western Region of Darfur in Sudan. Darfur is predominately black, while the Janjaweed militias were supported by the Sudanese government. In September 2004, the authoritarian President Omar el-Bashir on Sudan's state run television reported that the "ethnic unrest" that had been going on in Darfur for nineteen months was coming under control. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Sudanese government and their allied Arab Janjaweed militias of genocide in which upward of 50,000 people had been killed and well over one million refugees had fled their homes. Powell asked the U.N. to impose sanctions on, among other things, Sudan's oil industry. The European Union is also critical of Sudan's policies. However, China and Pakistan, who are Security Council members of the U.N., did not favor such sanctions. Those countries import oil from Sudan. As of 2006, the Janjaweed was being disarmed and banished from the official Sudanese military. It is now possible that the UN sanctions will be lifted, even though the killings continue. (The Janjaweed banished to where? Who will give them sanctuary?) All of us were outraged by 9/11 and a knee-jerk reaction could easily have been, "Nuke 'em!" The U.S. has the power, weapons and means to deliver them to do just that. But to whom and where? NATO did help the U.S. take out the Taliban government in Afghanistan for giving Ben Ladin safe haven. Most of the world agreed it should be done. But, then on a military roll, President Bush decided to preemptively go after Sadam Hussein in Iraq, despite overwhelming reservations from the UN and most other nations. Is it a good idea to go after a gnat with a sledge hammer? If it has lit on a large plate glass window, you swing and miss, then what? All you wind up with is a big mess of shattered glass. How can you hope to win the hearts and minds of peoples when they are staring down the barrels of M-16 rifles?
So here we are. The rest is not ancient but current history. We are engaged in the first pre-emptive war in U.S. history.
At the same time the "insurgents" are waging a "civil war" between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites that could be compared to the bitter internecine conflict between the English/Protestants/Irish/Catholics. That brouhaha goes back to the feud between Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots; the half-sisters and daughters of King Henry VIII. It really boils down to nothing more than family fights that evolved in to good old fashioned xenophobia.
Christianity built on the Jewish Old Testament and its traditions. Some five hundred years later, Islam built on both religions. There are many traditions common to all three religions with individual variations. For example, the Jewish Holy Day is Saturday; Christians, Sunday; and Moslems, Friday. All followers are expected to attend services on those Holy Days.
Orthodox Jewish men routinely wear a small skullcap called a Yarmulka. The
Orthodox Jewish people maintain strict Kosher meals. Dietary restrictions also have similarities. I understand that Moslems, like Jews are or were forbidden to eat pork. Until the second Vatican Council commonly known as the Ecumenical Council called by Pope John XXIII in 1962-65, Roman Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Fridays. Women were required to wear head coverings such as hats or scarves to hear mass. The mass worldwide was given in Latin. After the council, those requirements were relaxed and voluntary. Masses could be said in the common local language. Generally, Protestant churches have fewer such restrictions. All three religions hold true the Ten Commandments handed down from God to Moses.
Women were and are allowed to worship with men in the Christian Church edifice. Originally, only men were allowed into the Jewish Temple or Synagogue. Are they now? I don't know, do you? I never asked. Is the language of the Jewish Service in Hebrew or the common local language? Is the language in the Moslem Service in Arabic, Farsi or the common local language? I don't know, do you? I never asked.
As we have noted, in ancient times, especially in the Middle East, the Semitic people had to adapt to their environment in order to survive. They domesticated wild animals for their own use - dogs, cats, sheep, goats, cattle and camels. Where food sources were in short supply in the desert climate, it was not wise to use animals such as pigs as a source of food. Pigs compete with humans in their dietary needs. Pigs do not graze! Better to prohibit raising pigs for food. Since both the Jewish and the Islamic religions combine faith and law, it follows that this restriction would be incorporated into both.
In September of 2006, we were in Istanbul, Turkey and were taken on a tour of the exquisite Blue Mosque there. In architecture, especially from the exterior, it is almost identical to the Hagia Sophia across the way. We learned a great deal from the Moslem guide. We were required to remove our shoes and carry them with us in a provided plastic bag before entering. That is no hardship for us, as it is customary where we live in Hawaii to remove shoes before
entering a home. The entire floor of the vast mosque is covered with probably priceless Turkish carpets. We women were required to cover our heads with a blue scarf also provided by the mosque. I didn't see that as a problem, since it is only a polite gesture to conform to religious customs. In fact, it was a privilege to be able to enter that mosque. Our guide told us that women are not
required to pray in the mosque, and some fundamentalist Moslem sects do not allow women inside at all.
The Blue Mosque had a smallish area with a railing around it for women toward the back of the mosque. The guide explained that, like Mohammed, the Moslems traditionally prostrate themselves on all fours on the carpets to pray. He said it would be distracting for men and women to be together in that posture. Despite our best intentions, haven't all of us been guilty of having our thoughts occasionally wander during a church service?
I have often seen Moslem women and girls wearing head coverings. In September 2004 the French introduced a ban on such for girls and young women in public schools. Is this really such a big deal that it has to be banned? Actually, it is not such an unfavorable idea whenever you are having a bad hair day!
Are any of these religious traditions anything more than ethnic customs? More importantly, are any of them worth killing each other over?
Christianity went through its own "growing pains" from the often, bloody power struggles between Rome and Constantinople to the Middle Ages, the Inquisition, Russian Orthodoxy, the Reformation, and the Holocaust among others. Christianity is still evolving.
There is an old familiar hymn and battle cry. An English clergyman, Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the lyrics in 1865. Arthur S. Sullivan of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas set the words to music in 1871. There are six verses. The first verse is:
"Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
Refrain:
Onward, Christians soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before."
We all know "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". It was written in 1862 in Boston by Julia Ward Howe. She was an author and reformer involved in the causes for women's suffrage and prison reform. With her husband, she worked in the anti-slavery movement.
There are five verses:
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on."
The last verse is:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on."
Islam is the new kid on the block and trying to play catch-up five or six hundred years after Christianity became established. The Islamic religion is in the process of "growing pains" with familiar parallels to those of Christianity. Frankly, Christianity has not exactly set a sterling example for the new kid. It was only about sixty years ago that the most disastrous calamity that humanity has ever inflicted upon itself was taking place - the Holocaust.
Now, the Islamic Warriors, young and with raging testosterone, are going off on suicidal razzias with their battle cry of "Allah is Great!" Rarely, but certainly, a few women have joined their ranks. All these groups, Islamic
Hunters and Christian
Hunters alike, are fighting with each other before chasing after the same mammoth. In the meantime, the mammoth goes lumbering off into the forest and extinction.
Isn't it about time we saw these religious conflicts for what they are? " My Jesus is better than your Mohammed, Gautama, Mahavira, or whoever." Just as bad, back home; " My Jesus is better than your Jesus!" It is the schoolyard arrogance of "OH YEAH!!!! Well, my Dad can lick your Dad with one arm tied behind his back!"
Throughout history, empires have come and gone. One pattern common to all is that as long as poverty and ignorance exist at one end of the spectrum; and greed and indifference on the other, the door is flung wide open for treachery.
War legitimizes cruelty, brutality and
theft - on a massive scale! Where is the heroic honor and glory in that?
For thousands of years, war brought territory and booty. The tangible riches brought home seemed to justify the sacrifices of casualties. No more. Now, war only brings death, destruction and rubble. The booty now is purely ideological. War is a primitive response to perceived threats or a means of imposing one group's will on another. There are better ways to fight ideological wars. Perhaps in the future missiles could be superseded by word processors.
Religion and the resulting cultural traditions become firmly entrenched. Technology, for good or ill, is always way, way, way ahead of culture. The technology of war has become far too deadly to even be considered as an option. People have to learn about one another and find that as humans we have many, many more common objectives than differences. Then we can become friends. Friends don't generally want to kill each other. |