[genefromjersey]

With all respect to M. Belloc, Islam was hardly a "Christian" heresy. Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

Christianity just prior to the time of Mohammed had been splintered to a large degree: for example, the Coptic church (Egypt at that point was a largely Christian country)was at loggerheads with the church at Alexandria.

Although the Copts now say they never waged war,they did in fact mount a punitive expedition against one of their neighbors - who happened to hold Mecca - using Assyrian mercenaries.

During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox ( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield: bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )

The Coptic church almost vanished as a result, and when Mohammed came along - less than half a century later - there was little opposition to his preachings.

[VOA]

During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox
( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield:
bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )

You might like this book (if you haven't seen/heard of ti before):
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82
by Elizabeth A. Fenn

[TrueBeliever9]

Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

NOT TRUE! You sure fell for heresy genefromjersey!

[theFIRMbss]

>With all respect to M. Belloc, Islam was hardly a "Christian" heresy

Belloc was just a
proto-tin foil wearing nut
who viewed the world in

conspiracy terms.
Today, probably, he'd be
working for LaRouche:

"Now almost forgotten, Distributism was a composite of several social and moral theories first articulated by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) in the pages of volume 2 of The New Age. The initial concepts arose from the four-way (and more) argument among H.G.Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Belloc and Chesterton over modernity ... That discussion, now known as "the Chesterbelloc" contoversy, helped Belloc and Chesterton develop a rationale for equitable distribution of property and restoration of worker control in commerce, agriculture, and industry. This cluster of ideas, soon called "Distributism," was based on the two men’s look back, to European history, as well as their concerns about the present and the future of mass industrial society. ... As Distributism looked to the past for a model of a simpler, kinder, gentler world, it began to focus on what it saw as the abuses of international finance in causing wars, famine, and disruption in social relations. Steeped in European cultural and religious attitudes as they were, it was not a big step for some Distributists to believe in a conspiracy of international Jewish finance responsible for the social chaos caused by both capitalism and socialism. Chesterton, Belloc, Eliot and Ezra Pound were among those who succumbed to this viewpoint at various times."
[Distributism, by Carol DeBoer-Langworthy]

[Cicero]

Nobody knows for sure, but the usual opinion is that Muhammed was a pagan Arab who had spoken with Jews and Christians and was familiar with the Bible at second hand. Islam is partly based on the Bible, but gets a lot of the facts, as well as the theology, wrong.

[Keme]

"During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox ( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield: bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )"

I think you mean specifically the Ethiopian "Copts", not the Copts of Egypt.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Mo'ham', by islam's own version of history, was an ex-merchant, murdering caravan thief with a gang. Some kind of displaced or outclassed arab James Gang had he. Mo'ham married above his station, twice as I vaguely recall. His night tripping, bummer hash?, one night caused his illiterate fool gang to lay claim to Jerusalem, that alone. Hey, let's kill all the Jews onour way. He smashed all the moon rocks save the big one called allah, kept in the cube tent in Mecca, there today.

Mo'ham' began this death cult promising other arab criminal sociopaths a drunken orgy with six dozen reprocessed virgins for those most successful dead mass murderers in the name of Mo'ham's gang's conquests. What a scam.

Mo'ham's new cult had little competition in the lands of the rigidly stratified near caste systems.

[Destro]

No, you are wrong in a way. Islam was heavyily influenced by many things including a Arian Christianity.

[Destro]

Copts being 10% of the population of Egypt does not qualify as almost vanished.

[xzins]

Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally

You read wrong. Or were informed wrong.

Mohammed was an Arab from Mecca....worshipping a tribal moon god name allah.

[xzins]

This is from YOUR post #7 Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

This is inaccurate.

If you go here Islam and Mohammed you can read a bit about "allah's" place in Mohammed's arabic tribe.....allah was a moon god. Given the history of moon god's in that region, that puts him in league with that pantheistic groupings of god names that come from that region.....ba'al, ashtoreth, molech, in particular were associated with heavenly bodies that were worshippped.

[Cronos]

With all respect to M. Belloc, Islam was hardly a "Christian" heresy. Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

No he wasn't. he was Arab, of an Arabic tribe. There were Jewish clans in Mecca too and he did associate with them initially to conquere Meccaa and Medinah, but then when he had finished with them he slaughtered them.

Although the Copts now say they never waged war,they did in fact mount a punitive expedition against one of their neighbors - who happened to hold Mecca - using Assyrian mercenaries.

err... Assyria was destroyed by the Persians in 500 BC, Nineveh was sacked and ruined not to found until the 19th century.

[Cronos]

Although the Copts now say they never waged war,they did in fact mount a punitive expedition against one of their neighbors - who happened to hold Mecca - using Assyrian mercenaries. During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox ( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield: bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )

The ETHIOPIANS tried to conquer Mecca, or to be more precise, the Ethiopian Kingdom in Yemen (which was Christian) tried to do so.