Posted on 07/16/2004 11:24:28 AM PDT by StevenAU
Well said. My thoughts exactly.
Allah is not God, and Mohammed is a false prophet.
Little is to be gained by comparisons. Each life, and that includes our own, should stand upon our behaviour and actions. If there is to be a final judgement, it will not be based on with whom we compare; but if we did our best on earth and never hurt a weaker person deliberately.
Might the good Lord not also take into account our motivations?
Jesus the man, was a Jew, a Rabbi, a learned holy man. He wanted us to love each other. He understood the terrible power of hatred. The history of his people was one of endless suppression and slavery.
Mohammad was a psychopath. He had numerous schiziod episodes, ancient arabic sources describe treatment for epileptic seizures in his youth. Mohammad was abandoned by his mother, became an orphan, lived on the steps of a temple with beggars. He was an anarchist. The people of Medina threw them out.
Mohammad learned from the 'people of the book' - the Jews and Christians, and incorporated their scripture (which he learned orally,) into arabic lore and the Code of Hammurabi; An Eye for an Eye etc...some of which the Hebrews included in the Original Testament.
The koran is nothing but a mish-mash of every ancient ME belief system. Mohammad chose what worked for him. Subjugation to allah is worship of Al-Uzza, Venus the Queen of Heaven. Meteorites were believed by the desert arabs to be rocks thrown by a god who lived on the moon at unbelievers; therefor, if you do not subjugate yourself to allah you will be hit on the head with a burning rock. Evidence shows that three millenia ago, arab nomads carried aeriolites on their travels and considered them sacred.
Mohammad told his followers that every rock that fell from heaven and killed someone, had their name written on it by allah. That's arab fatalism.
There is nothing to be gained or understood by comparing Jesus to Mohammad unless one understands the history of the arabs and the life of the man they call a 'prophet' - who was, IMO probably the most evil, cunning and demented creature our species has as yet produced on earth.
Two Books to read; Ages in Chaos, by Immanuel Velikovsky.
For the most comprehensive history of the ancient ME.
The Life of Muhammad, by Edward Canon Sell. A biography of the man whose terrible legacy the entire world now faces. (see tagline.)
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God."
Consider yourself educated.
If I didn't know better, I would say that Osama Bin ladin is seeking to out do Mohammed by using Jesus as a model to bring about a revolution that will result in a fundamentalist take over.
His pictures strolling through the forrested hills are reminiscant of the many paintings of Jesus. Jesus appealed to the masses and asked them to follow and they did.Among his followers were the Jewish Saccari zealots who are only dimmly outlined but were warriors and fighters against the established order. Jesus made his statement by overthrowing the established order on the Temple grounds. The only teachings of Osama we hear are the messages of war but I am certain that his other teachings in Arabic are of a religious nature.
If he wins, he will achieve the historical stature of Mohammed and of Jesus.
On the contrary, I consider myself trolled. If that's what passes for a demonstration of superior Biblical insight, then I withdraw my request to be taught.
Beware false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth fort evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
The other is worse than pig crap.
The so called revelations in the koran were written down many decades after the death of mohammad, after various factions began to fight amongst themselves, because their leader left no Will and named no successor. ( They have been fighting each other for the Caliphate, the Sucession, ever since.)
The contents of the koran, which few muslims ever read, are meaningless without the biography of the man. One needs to understand the HOW and WHERE and WHEN the 'messages' were received, and how self-serving they were. Most were simply permission from allah to rape and plunder and kill. (Allah's Will.
The 62 (at last count) volumes of hadith are about as meaningful as the Story of 1001 Nights, or fairy tales. (Gossip Journalism comes to mind.)
Muslims are required to believe the 'prophet' was a divine and sinless man who could do not wrong. (Will of allah again.)
We must, all of us, who wish to understand, read the biography of the man. And ask ourselves, why are muslims discouraged from doing the same? Many of them do not even know the story of his life exists. Why? Because if his life was exposed, the myth of the 'prophet' would be dead. And islam would die with him.
http://www.prophetofdoom.net/ An excellent site.
Eccl 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; ... 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Sometimes, you can turn the other cheek if it's just you. But love demands that you protect others. And that sometimes means taking up the sword.
Christians: God sent his only Son to die for you.
Muslim: God expects your only son to die for Him.
Jewish: God help your only son if he doesn't make it through medical school.
Then why were Jews driven from Jeurselem roughly 60 years later by the Romans? If it was military conquest that propelled the Gospel of Jesus outward, the rath of the Romans against the Jews would have insulated them from ever adopting a religion of Jewish extract as they did 300 hundred years later. Not to mention that none of the early Christians were any kind of effective military fighters what so ever. Just before then the Romans had humiliated and killed Christians by the hundreds for all the Empire to see, hardly something warriors and fighters could make their case on.
The only teachings of Osama we hear are the messages of war but I am certain that his other teachings in Arabic are of a religious nature.
He undoubtedly preaches the strict fundamentalist codes that the warrior Muhammed taught.
If he wins, he will achieve the historical stature of Mohammed and of Jesus.
You are half right, where he to destroy Western Civilization, he would set himself up as a prophet of some godly sense, just as Muhammed did, and the conquored would worship his memory. Jesus however maligned he would be in the conquored cultures would continue to be worshiped, not due to any warriors, but because of the Good News the Gospels gives to the individual, and will continue to give long after we are dust.
"God sent his only son to die for you."
"Muhammed sends his sons to kill you."
I couldn't have put it better. Those two sentenses sum up the main difference between the two faiths.
Islam is:
1% religion,
99% social control.
That's what I meant -- It's safe to say that most, if not all, Christian rulers who were contemporaries of Muhammed left a great deal to be desired characterwise but none of them founded a religion nor does anyone hold them up as models of humanity. The reason I said that is that a Muslim apologist might defend Muhammed by pointing out, reasonably enough, that Christian rulers at the time ruthlessly stamped out opposition, as well.
Christian rulers did things then that are not acceptable now. Devout Muslims are still stuck in the early middle ages.
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