Posted on 03/11/2002 3:23:31 PM PST by Madiuq
An American researcher who believes she has found the final resting place of Jesus Christ is campaigning to exhume a body at a Muslim shrine in Kashmir for scientific tests. Suzanne Marie Olsson, a New York-based researcher is currently in Srinagar, studying the Muslim shrine of Rozabal. While Muslims say Rozabal houses the tomb of Yuza Asaf, a Muslim saint, many researchers believe it contains the body of Jesus Christ. To put an end to speculation Olsson has suggested exhuming the remains at Rozabal for DNA testing and carbon dating. "This will trace him (the saint) to his origin ... and resolve the raging controversy over the identity of the place forever," she told the Sunday edition of Kashmir's leading daily, the Greater Kashmir. Olsson has already dug up a shrine at the Murree hill station in Pakistan under the supervision of archaeologists Ahmad Hassan Dani and Saida Rahman. Muree is believed to be the resting place of Jesus' mother, Mary (Marium). "The exhumed remains have been sent for the DNA testing and the report is awaited," she told the newspaper. "Now Rozabal holds the key. If the remains there are sent for testing and then tallied with the results of the Murree project, it will either establish the link between the two shrines as being of similar origin and thus authenticate the Marium-Jesus theory or prove it wrong for good." However, her project has run into trouble with the managers of the Rozabal shrine, who are strongly opposed to its "desecration". "We will never allow it," said Mohammed Amin, one of the managers. But Olsson, stressing the "purely scientific nature of her work" and her identity as a "seeker of truth", is pleading to be allowed to "verify the origin and identity of the saint" to put to rest wild speculation. She has even written to Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for help. Olsson also believes Moses is buried in Bandipore in north Kashmir, the Islamic prophet Haroun at Harwan, on the outskirts of Srinagar, and Solomon at Takht-i-Suliaman in Srinagar. "You have more Christian holy sites than even Egypt or Israel," she said in her appeal to the chief minister. Olsson says she wants to unravel the truth about the shrines so that the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir, ravaged by a decade-long Muslim insurgency that has claimed 35,000 lives, can become a pilgrimage centre for Christians and Muslims.
It was interesting though.
All I remember was that I was really into it for the first part of the book, and then everything started to unravel, and by the end I walked away with the impression that it was implicitly a story about these three naively enthusiastic guys who were duped, by some loser (Plantard) living in a run-down flat, into publicizing his delusion of grandeur, or some fanciful made-up bedtime story his senile grand-mere once told him about his supposed "bloodline", or whatever.
That's not to say I think there's not "something to" all of the mysteries/secret societies/weird stuff the authors touch on in their story, though (I mean how could there not be, given the sheer scope of all the things they link together :). Just that in the end the picture seemed pretty clear: Plantard files some document/transcript with the Paris Bibliotheque (or whatever it was), the three authors go find it and follow down his primrose path, and repeat. I dunno...it was kinda disappointing when I got to this part of the story. :)
Exactly my thought. Sure would shoot a pretty darn big hole through the New Testament.
Suzie says so. She apparently knows better than God.
Very - I wish we could know what he said on his deathbed
I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas didn't die at St. Georges Mount in Madras but of old age in Sringar
Neither would I. Which disciple is supposed to have converted the Ethiopians?
Bingo--- end of subject!
No doubt the Kashmiri have some sort of answer to this. BS of course.
I'm not a Christian, but still I find this just plain stupid. Suppose they did find the bones of Jesus? How could they possibly know?
BTW, according to Quranic chronology, Miriam the sister of Moses and Miriam (Mary) the mother of Jesus are one and the same.
Ummmhhh, no, Kashmir was never in the Roman Empire. The Romans never got around to invading India. In fact, they never got farther east than a city near present-day Baghdad. Iraq is a good long ways from Pakistan or India.
As you see, the truth comes out in the end. She really wants to see a united religion of Christianity and Islam.
No can do!
Nothing to see here but another liar.
I knew someone here at FR would come through :-)
Not 'aitch' or 'ecce', eh?
Heck.
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