Why Arabs Believe In Force Fields (Interesting!)

Strategy Page ^ | December 26, 2008

[2ndDivisionVet]

Many Pakistanis now believe that the recent Islamic terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, was the work of the Israeli Mossad, or the American CIA. Such fantasies are a common explanation, in Moslem nations, for Islamic terrorist atrocities. Especially when women and children, and Moslems, are among the victims, other Moslems tend to accept fantastic explanations shifting the blame to infidels (non-Moslems).

Conspiracies are not unique to the Moslem world, but they are much more common there. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, many Moslems again blamed Israel. A favorite variation of this is that, before the attacks on the World Trade Center, a secret message went out to all Jews in the area to stay away. Another variation has it that the 19 attackers (all of them Arab, 15 from Saudi Arabia) were really not Arabs, but falsely identified as part of the Israeli deception. In the United States, some Americans insist that the attack was the work of the U.S. government, complete with the World Trade Center towers being brought down by prepositioned explosive charges. While few Americans accept this, the Moslem fantasies are widely accepted in the Moslem world. Even Western educated Arabs, speaking good English, will casually express, and accept, these tales of the Israeli Mossad staging the attacks, to trick the U.S. into attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Americans are shocked at this, but the Moslems expressing these beliefs just shrug.

American troops arriving in Iraq go through a real culture shock as they encounter these cultural difference. They also discover that the cause of this, and many other Arab problems, is the concept of "inshallah" ("If God wills it.") This is a basic tenet of Islam, although some scholars believe the attitude preceded that religion. In any event, "inshallah" is deadly when combined with modern technology. For this reason, Arab countries either have poorly maintained infrastructure and equipment (including military stuff), or import a lot of foreigners, possessing the right attitudes, to maintain everything. That minority of Arabs who do have the right attitude towards maintenance and personal responsibility are considered odd, but useful.

The "inshallah" thing is made worse by a stronger belief in the supernatural, and magic in general. This often extends to technology. Thus many Iraqis believe that American troops wear sunglasses that see through clothing, and armor vests that are actually air conditioned. When they first encounter these beliefs, U.S. troops thought the Arabs are putting them on. Then it sinks in that Arabs really believe this stuff. It's a scary moment.

However, many troops learn to live with, and even exploit, these odd beliefs. When troops at one base discovered that they weren't being attacked much, because many of the locals believed that the base was surrounded by a force field, the troops would casually make reference to their force field, when they were outside the wire and among the locals. This reinforced the force field myth, and made the base safer. Other troops would invent new fantasies, like a pretending that a handheld bit of military electronics was actually a mind reading device. That often made interrogations go a lot quicker. Not all Arabs believe in this stuff, and those that didn't and worked for the Americans, often as an interpreter, could only shrug their shoulders when asked about it.

This easy acceptance of fantasies is exploited by leaders throughout the Middle East, and the Moslem world in general. Leaders who know better, build on these fantasies as a way to maintain their control over the population. The problem is a dirty little secret in the Moslem world, that leaders and academics don't even like to discuss it openly, much less with infidels. But it is real, and you can read all about it in the local media, or overhear it in the coffee shops.

[Cronos]

Read the Hadiths where the Profit says that the Sun revolves around the Earth. Now since the profit said this, good moos say this MUST be true.

This hadîth is found in Sahîh al-Bukhârî (3199, 7424). Its text, as related by Abû Dharr al-Ghifârî, is as follows: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to me: “O Abû Dharr! Do you know where the Sun goes when it sets?”

I said: “Allah and His Messenger know best.”

He said: “It goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne. Then it seeks permission and permission is granted to it. Soon it will prostrate and it will not be accepted from it, and seek permission and will not be granted permission. It will be said to it: ‘Go back where you came from.’ Then it will rise from its setting place. This is Allah’s statement: ‘And the Sun runs on to its place of settlement. That is the determination of the Mighty the Knowing. [Sûrah YâSîn: 38]’.”

It is also found in Sahîh Muslim (159,205). Its text, as related by Abû Dharr al-Ghifârî, is as follows:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said one day: “Do you know where the Sun goes when it sets?”

They said: “Allah and His Messenger know best.”

He said: “It goes until it arrives at its place of settlement beneath the Throne. Then it falls down in prostration and remains like that until it is said to it: ‘Arise! Go back from whence you came.’ Then it goes back and rises from its place of rising. Then it goes until it arrives at its place of settlement beneath the Throne. Then it falls down in prostration and remains like that until it is said to it: ‘Arise! Go back from whence you came.’ Then it goes back and rises from its place of rising. Then it goes without people finding anything wrong with it until it arrives at that place of settlement it has beneath the throne. Then it will be told: ‘Arise! Enter upon the morning rising from your setting place’.”

Then Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “Do you know when that will be? It will be when ‘its faith will not avail a soul which had not believed before or earned some good from its faith. [Sûrah al-An`âm: 157]’.”

The hadîth is also found in Sahîh al-Bukhârî in a highly abridged form (4803, 7433). Its text reads:

I asked the Prophet (peace be upon him) about Allah’s statement: “And the Sun runs on to its place of settlement... [Sûrah YâSîn: 38]”.

He said: “Its place of settlement is beneath the throne (of Allah Almighty).”

[Cronos]

The Islamic world was superior in technology in the age of the Crusades up until the Mamluks taking over Egypt. One of their leaders (I don’t recall the name) ordered the destruction of the rebuilt Library of Alexandria, saying that since the Koran was the word of God, and since all other books were either to reinforce that, or blasphemous, no other books were needed.

NO. The "golden age" of Islam was the period where they had a steady influx of civilized slaves who knew how to run a civilization for them

[dennisw]

It’s not even Korn-study but rote-memorisation of the texts........

That’s what 0 did and what goes on all over the world and in madrassas. But some Korn students actually study this alleged holy text

[mo]

“due to a control of knowledge which truly is a form of mental slavery.”

Some would make the argument that’s precisely what the Washingtonian Oligarchy has in mind for us....

[Cronos]

As the concept passed through North Africa, it picked up the Arabic characters set for 0-9. And that's the pattern to look for

Not really -- the Indian characters for 0 to 9 are


The rabic copied it from Devanagari.

[Cronos]

Flying Garuda

That's hindu, dating from Vedic times.

[Cronos]

But some Korn students actually study this alleged holy text

I wonder how many go nutz after studying it?

[dennisw]

You and I know the bottom line on Muhammadanism ....

Which is no good can come from investing in a murderous “Charlie Manson” false prophet. But millions have done so due to bad inclinations

[Straight Vermonter]

One of the problems with Islam is that their concept of God is that of a completely arbitrary, capricious being...

That's the point the Pope was trying to get across in his Regensberg speech. It must be awful to live a life without Reason.

[blam]

"For this reason, Arab countries either have poorly maintained infrastructure and equipment (including military stuff), or import a lot of foreigners, possessing the right attitudes, to maintain everything. "

I've noticed the same condition in Black neighborhoods in the US.

[Cronos]

Not culturally the same as due toIzlam. Keep your focus on the real enemy that the cult of p*Ss

[slowhandluke]

So much for trusting wikipedia even on non-controversial stuff.

[muawiyah]

Yes, Vedic times, and those fellows who wrote/composed the first third of the Vedas came from, VOILA!!!, Persia and Mesopotamia.

So, what I said.

The "flying garuda", by whatever name, is older than the Vedas, and older than Hinduism.

[muawiyah]

Medieval Spain saw the origination of the world's first true industrial workforce ~ they are called Jews ~ they are still around. Some even have surnames that are readily understood in Ladino as being trade names, e.g. Schmidlapp (which has many spellings, means "sheet maker", that is, one who makes paper. Then there's "Bookbinder", a rather famous name in Jewish culture. And so on.

For a variety of reasons Isabella and Ferdinand thought it best that they convert or be expelled. Kind of like telling NASA's engineering teams to become Scientologists to keep their jobs.

Spain and Spanish culture and its derivatives haven't been the same since.

[Cronos]

Err... the Vedas come from India, not from Persia and definitely not from Sumerian/Amorite Mesopotamia.

Besides, the Persian branch of indo-european religion didn't have the depth of vedic hinduism, even down to the beginnings of the Avestan. Yes, the Gathas of Zarathustra are deep, but that comes from a secondary, post-Vedic timeline

how can you say that the flying garudas is older than the Vedas? The Garuda is the name of Vishnu's flying eagle-horse. It's intrinsically linked to Hinduism


Izlam takes most of its core from Judaism, Arianism and pagan Arabic religions (Semitic religions) and very little from Indo-European religions or thoughts.

Even if you take a northern Amorite myth: the Enuma Ellish -- it doesn't talk about flying vehicles.

[Cronos]

On the contrary, Spain had it's high points right after the reconquista (1490), right up until the late 1600s when they had dynastic crises. The expulsion, while deplorable, didn't hurt Hispania.

Besides, the expulsion needs to be understood from the point that it was primarily the expulsion of Mulsims from Spain.

[muawiyah]

Read more closely. Many of the geographical locations contained in the earliest Vedas are IN PERSIA, not INDIA.

I was watching the program INDIA on PBS last evening, and in the second section they got into the Vedas and reminded me of much of the scholarly anaysis that's gone into them. That was one of the items.

THere's still dispute about when they were written down. At the moment the common belief is they were converted from an oral tradition to writing entirely in India some time BC. At the same time, there's a less commonly held belief that they were rendered in writing, but kept secret as written documents, for several centuries.

This is roughly the same sort of idea frequently advanced with regards to the oldest works in the Bible. They were supposedly kept orally for many centuries until writing came along.

Turns out, of course, that writing was already in existence in the very place the original Vedic civilization and Hebrew culture came from ~~ Upper Mesopotamia!

I suspect both the Vedas and the background materials of the Pentatuch were maintained in written form at the earliest possible times ~ many centuries before the claim that they were written down.

I am aware that Indian scholars are presently in the throes of a rejection of the Aryans as having anything to do with Indian religious tradition and are willing to claim the Vedas are 100% an Indian production.

Fine, but other evidence points to foreign origin.

[Cronos]

err.. does Wikipedia say that?

[muawiyah]

Right, 60,000 Jews were sent packing, 80,000 were converted, and virtually no Moslems left outside of the post-Reconquista property owners and elite (and even if they'd wanted to convert, that particular class was unwelcome).

BTW, there were many fewer people around in those days than there are now.

Spain destroyed its industrial base in 1492. The discovery of gold in the Americas circa 1521 allowed their bankers in Belgium to pay their bills, but, alas, sometimes it's good to have your own industrial workforce and machinery around. By 1600 Spain had lost its most ambitious people to the Americas, the gold ran out, Portugual (a more enlightened place) was seizing back its independence, and Spain was spent.

The 1500s were a period of serious decline for Spain as a viable nation. All they had was money.

[Cronos]

Many of the geographical locations contained in the earliest Vedas are IN PERSIA, not INDIA.

Examples? The Vedas refer to the land of the 5 rivers, to the mystical Saraswati river etc. -- all topographically in the Indian continent

THere's still dispute about when they were written down. At the moment the common belief is they were converted from an oral tradition to writing entirely in India some time BC. At the same time, there's a less commonly held belief that they were rendered in writing, but kept secret as written documents, for several centuries.

True, the exact time is in dispute, but they definitely date from before Christ and before Gautam Buddha (300 BC). The dates are assumed to be at around the late Harappan era (1700 BC and earlier).

About them being oral first, yes that must be true for parts, but not all the vedas. Definitely not the Atharva, I would guess but the others like the Rig and Ayur must have been oral initially, yes

Turns out, of course, that writing was already in existence in the very place the original Vedic civilization and Hebrew culture came from ~~ Upper Mesopotamia!

A non-sequitor. The Mayans had a different form of writing as did the Chinese and as did the Harappan civilisation. Their language / scripts aren't related to Sumerian/Akkadian as is evidenced in their non-cuneiform characters. You can see the linkages between the Sumerian cuneiforms and Elamite and Akkadian and even Hittite writings, but not with indic writings

Secondly, the mythologies of the indo-europeans differs considerably from the Sumerian (Enuma Ellish) or Semitic mythos -- and that is highly evident when you compare the Enuma Ellish, Egyptian Mythology and the Vedas. The later tie-ups like the Phoenician/Greek and the later influence of Zoroaster on Semitic religions is a later development.

Vedic civilisation did not centre around cities like the Sumerian and that stands out in the mythos of the Vedas as well.

Indian scholars aren't rejecting that the Aryans had anything to do with the Vedas because that's silly -- the northern 70% of India is aryan. Hinduism evolved from Vedic Hinduism and it's worship of the Devas under Indra to the influences of Buddhism (ahimsa) to move away from yagnas to a more Brahmanical form, to deeply embrace Dravidian beliefs in Vishnu and primarily Shiva.

on the Contrary, India scholars are of the belief that the Vedic and Aryanic civilisations originate from northern India -- the Punjab and Gangetic plains and then moved to the north-west.