Posted on 01/13/2008 8:08:44 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Today's religious map of the Middle East traces to the unification of the Arabian tribes under the banner of Islam in the 7th century, and their subsequent conquest of much of the known world. Muhammad's genius was in finding a way to unite the myriad of fissiparous, feuding Bedouin tribes of northern Arabia into a cohesive polity. Just as he had provided a constitution of rules under which the people of Medina could live together, so he provided a constitution for all Arabs, but this one had the imprimatur not just of Muhammad, but of God. Submission -- Islam -- to God and His rules, spelled out in the Koran, bound Arabian tribesmen into the community of believers, the umma.
Building on the tribal system of "balanced opposition" -- the subject of yesterday's essay -- Muhammad was able to frame an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, God-given identity as Muslims. But unification was only possible by creating a tribalized enemy against which Muslims could make common cause. This Muhammad did by opposing Muslims against infidels; and the dar al-Islam, the land of Islam and peace, against the dar al-harb, the land of infidels and conflict. Through the precepts of Islam, traditional Bedouin raiding was sanctified as an act of religious duty.
With every successful battle against local unbelievers, especially after the critical early battle against the Meccans, more Bedouin joined the umma. Once united, the Bedouin warriors of the umma turned outward, teaching the world the meaning of jihad, holy war. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Arabs, in lightning thrusts, challenged and beat the Byzantines to the north and the Persians to the east, both weakened by their continuous wars with one another, thus imposing their control over the Christian majority in the Levant and the Zoroastrian majority in Persia, and therefore over the entire Middle East. These stunning successes were rapidly followed by conquests of Christian and Jewish populations in Egypt, Libya and North Africa's Maghreb (Arabic for "the West"), and, in the east, central Asia and the Hindu population of northern India. Not content with these triumphs, Arab armies invaded and subdued much of Christian Spain and Portugal, and all of Sicily. Since the Roman Empire, the world had not seen such power and reach. All fell before the Saracen blades.
Most accounts of Islamic history, even that of the Lindholm's esteemed The Islamic Middle East, glide over these conquests, as if they were friendly takeovers. But the truth was very different.
The evidence is overwhelming that vast numbers of infidel male warriors and civilians were slain, and that most of those spared, particularly the women and children, were enslaved for domestic and sexual servitude. While men who willingly converted were spared, their wives and children were taken as slaves. In conquered regions, children were
regularly taken from parents, while on the borders -- especially in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa south of the Sahara -- raiding for slaves was normal practice. Of the male slaves, a substantial number were made eunuchs by the removal of sex organs, in order to serve in harems. This account of the Arab campaign in northern India illustrates the usual procedures:
"During the Arab invasion of Sindh (712 CE), Muhammad bin Qasim first attacked Debal…It was garrisoned by 4,000 Kshatriya soldiers and served by 3,000 Brahmans. All males of the age of 17 and upwards were put to the sword and their women and children were enslaved. "[Seven hundred]
beautiful females, who were under the protection of Budh (that is, had taken shelter in the temple), were all captured with their valuable ornaments, and clothes adorned with jewels." Muhammad dispatched one-fifth of the legal spoil to Hajjaj, which included 75 damsels, the other four-fifths were distributed among soldiers."
The multitude of reports from Muslim, indigenous and other sources of the Islamic conquests are equally detailed and equally daunting to a modern reader. It is true that throughout history intergroup relations in most of the world were exploitative and repressive, and not infrequently brutal and bloodthirsty. The world of Islam was not so much an exception to this, as exemplary of it.
The theological foundation of the Arab Empire was the supremacy of Islam and the obligation of each Muslim to advance its domination. The notion of Jihad, in particular, served to establish the Muslim community's permanent state of war against the dar al-harb until the infidels' conclusive submission and the absolute world supremacy of Islam.
Yet even as Islamic armies were coming to dominate the known world, fissures emerged within Islam, which would give rise to the bloody internecine battles that continue to this day in Iraq and elsewhere.
Most notably, the relentless oppositions within tribal life have been reflected on a large scale in the battles between Sunni vs. Shiite, a battle originating in a squabble between closely related kin groups over the leadership of the Islamic empire following Muhammad's death. Their divergent philosophical orientations are based on two tribal principles: Sunnism recognizes leaders based on consent; Shiism recognizes leaders based on descent. The continued anatagonism between the two groups constitutes one of the many ways in which the tribal spirit continues its dominance in the Middle East.
philip.carl.salzman@mcgill.ca
-Philip Carl Salzman is professor of anthropology at McGill University. This article is drawn from his forthcoming book, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity Books).
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/
Genocide committed in the name of Allah:
3,000,000 Bangladeshi Hindus Killed during the Pakistan-Bangladesh war in 1971. From 1894 to 1896 Abdul Hamid, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, killed 150,000 Armenian Christians. In India, Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur along with his disciples was burned to death by the Moghul ruler Aurangzeb in 1675. Another Sikh, Bhai Mati Das was sawn into right and left halves while he was still alive. In July 1974, 4,000 Christians living in Cyprus were killed by Fahri Koroturk, president of Turkey and his Islamic army. From 1843 to 1846 10,000 Assyrian Christians including women and children were massacred by the Muslims. From 1915 to 1918 750,000 Assyrians were killed in the name of Islamic Jihad. In 1933 thousands of Assyrian villagers were murdered by the Iraqi soldiers in Northern Iraq. Since 1990 more than 10,000 Kashmiri Hindus have been brutally murdered by Islamic fundamentalists. Over 280,000 Ugandans killed during the reign of Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979. Over 30,000 Mauritanians have been killed by the Islamic dictators since 1960. In 1980, 20,000 Syrians were murdered under the rule of Hafez Al-Assad, President of Syria. Since 1992 120,000 Algerians have been murdered by the Islamic fundamentalist army.
Hinduism tells us that the “Self” which dwells in each and every being in this universe is one and the same with Godhead. Every soul in this uinverse is a reflection of this Supreme Self. Thus every individual has the potential to realize Godhead by the realization of this “Self”.
Realization of the “Self” is possible only when someone is free to think on his/her own and act accordingly. The most heinous and barbaric crime in this world would be to stop an individual to think freely. And when such a crime is legalised in the form of a religion, one can easily imagine how disastrous it can be. Islam is such a religion.
Islam imposes a threat to the whole world which is far worse than deforestation, nuclear destruction or AIDS. It is an insidious, devilish disease creeping into the veins of the world. Every individual must realise the destructive and evil nature of this religion, for it eats away at the very foundation of humanity which is an individual’s ability to think individually and act accordingly. The following articles logically analyse different aspects of this so called religion and bring forth the true nature of Islam...
“Muhammad’s Tribe (the true history of Islam’s suppression of conquered
nations and people)”
Good post.
Reminds me of a presentation by the recently departed D. James Kennedy
(of The Coral Ridge Hour) in which he muttered aloud “Why does
NOBODY talk about the REAL FIRST “Crusade”...the one in which the
Muslims took the Middle East, Northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula
by raping, murdering, enslaving the populace. Or converting them
at the point of a sword.
And either appropriating or razing THOUSANDS of their churches and synagogues?
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/mohwar1.html
Prophet of Terror and the Religion of Peace—Part I
Mohammed, Prophet of Islam is known as the “Apostle of Peace” by Muslims. Nothing can be further from the truth.
This article is just one of a series that I will be publishing regarding sadistic cruel nature of Prophet Mohammed. In this article I will prove once again, that Mohammed was in fact a terrorist, criminal and murderer whose entire life was based on victimizing innocents and indulging in mindless violence, carnage and massacre. He was a man who destroyed peace wherever he went, and in its place brought terror, carnage and death.
When Mohammed first started screaming from the rooftops that he alone had the divine word of God, the people of Mecca ignored him. However, when he started insulting and defaming the religion of the peace loving Meccans, they couldn’t take it anymore and tried persuading him to stop. Mohammed the coward was too scared of the growing hostility against him and instead of calling upon his Allah to strike down the Meccans, he crept out one night and fled for his life.
Ever since that incident, Mohammed was determined to take revenge on the Meccans. He escaped to Medinah, which had a sizeable Jewish population, and started plotting his revenge with a small gang of criminals. This was the beginning of Mohammed’s trail of violence, hatred and bloodshed that would soon destroy the once flourishing culture of Arabia. The story has been documented in detail by his biographers, - surprise raids on trade caravans and tribal settlements, the use of plunder thus obtained for recruiting an ever growing army of greedy desperados, assassinations of opponents, blackmail, expulsion and massacre of the Jews of Medinah, attack and enslavement of the Jews of Khayber, rape of women and children, sale of these victims after rape, trickery, treachery and bribery employed to their fullest extent to grow the numbers of his religion Islam which ironically was supposed to mean “Peace”! He organised no less than 86 expeditions, 26 of which he led himself.
The motives of the converts to Islam was never in any doubt. As D.S. Margoliouth states in his book Muhammad and the rise of Islam
“Of any moralising or demoralising effect that Muhammad’s teaching had upon his followers we cannot say with precision. When he was at the head of the Robber community, it is probable that the demoralising influence began to be felt; it was then that men who had never broken an oath learnt that they might evade their obligations, and that men to whom the blood of their clan had been as their own, began to shed it with impunity in the “cause of god”. And that lying and treachery in the cause of Islam received divine approval. It was then too that Moslems became distinguished by the obscenity of their language. It was then too, that the coveting of goods and wives possessed by Non-muslims was avowed without discouragement from the Prophet....”
The details of all his criminal onslaughts in the form of battles and assasinations are chronicled in this article in a chronological manner. One should note that everytime the “Apostle of Peace” committed one of his criminal onslaughts, he always justified the crimes by quickly claiming a “divine revelation” which conveniently removed the blame from his bloodied hands. These convenient Suras are detailed immediately below the description of the incident...
bttt!
Thanks for this ping. The total truth concerning the Islamic enemy & their diabolical goals must be told.
With every successful battle against local unbelievers, especially after the critical early battle against the Meccans, more Bedouin joined the umma. Once united, the Bedouin warriors of the umma turned outward, teaching the world the meaning of jihad, holy war.
Islam is NOT a "religion of peace."
Revisionist history......still being taught....anything to condemn Christians.
“The Haj” is an outstanding book! That one, in addition to “O, Jerusalem” gives a good overview of reality in the Middle East, before and after the creation of Israel.
Sounds like what'll be going on at the Democrat convention, between the Hillary minions and the Obama brigades.
In my opinion the instability in the Middle East results from the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI and the collapse of the European colonialism that attempted to replace it. We still don't know what group or country is going to emerge as dominant in the region, although Iran is making a powerful bid.
This region has not been self-governing since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, a period of about four centuries. The present borders are mostly artificial creations.
IMHO the region would have had a much better chance if at the end of WWI the British hadn't double-crossed its Arab allies and allowed the creation of a unified Arab state with Damascus as the capital.
Have you seen the video of Ezra Levant defending himself against the Alberta Human Rights Commission?
http://www.freedomsenemies.com/
Ezra Levant is the publisher of Western Standard magazine, whose print version, now defunct, published the Danish Mohammed cartoons two years ago. On Friday Mr. Levant was summoned under protest to be interrogated by a “human rights officer” from the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The reason? Khurrum Awan, an imam from the Canadian Islamic Congress, filed a complaint with the HRC against him.
I didn’t watch the videos, but I read the articles and blog excerpts posted here. Ezra is doing great work.
Amen, brother.
Sister ;)
As Maxwell Smart used to say, sorry about that! :-))
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