The Old Divine Fear
This morning, I received a video from a friend of mine. He spammed his entire group list. I guess the video was of great concern to him. It was about the rise and spread of Islam. it cited statistics. It did a pretty good job of stirring up some fear with just a dash of hatred. Not sure who sponsored or created this particular piece of hate propaganda, but I could make some assumptions. Anyways, here's my response. I'm sure I'm going to have an interesting day "flamed by zealots" The subject title of the email read "VERY INTERESTING", followed by God Bless You!.............
"Yes! I agree! That WAS VERY INTERESTING!....
Well, being born into a family of Holocaust survivors where, i was never taught to hate the Germans, to respect all races,colours, and the rich,poor etc., I have to point out that my upbringing as a reform Jew allowed me to ask myself several seminal questions, namely, the fairness of the God that allowed the suffering that my parents incurred at the age of 13! The slaughters of innocent women and children, the cruelty to animals,the suffering that i and all of you have witnessed during our lifetimes.. I realized at a very early age that if in actual fact "God created Man in his own image",it's not a stretch to characterize "The Maker" by studying "His offspring". It does not cast a very favourable impression of "Him"!. I have not become an atheist, I am , I guess, a-religious and a student of history. By my estimation,the divisiveness of religion compounded and fueled by greed and arrogance has been a "thorn is the side of humanity" since time immemorial! If as a Christian,you fear the propagation of Islam, try to imagine the horror of all the indigenous people who suffered the wrath and slaughter of America by Spanish Catholics and later on The Pilgrims and their progeny. Imagine the horrors of those hundreds of thousands (millions?)who died at the end of the swords of the Christian Crusaders. Compare the violence and cruelty taught both in your revered Bible and "their" revered Koran. I say both those "hallowed" scriptures, The Bible with close to 700,000 words and The Koran with about 50,000 words are pretty well head to head in the violence and cruelty arena! Both speak of many "woes" and "evil doers", both speak of cruel sacrifice both of animals, men,children and wives! Both speak of incurring the wrath of Allah or God. Both these "cosmic patriarchs" pulled off some creative ways to rain suffering and cruelty upon mankind. Makes water boarding look like a holiday weekend! Both speak of and teach intolerance of others who are not believers. I can go on and on, but most of you are smart enough to know what I'm talking about here., unless ofcourse you are blinded by hatred and intolerance.
This video, from my perspective, is a perfect example of the propaganda and fear mongering engendered by all of the worlds "Great" religions. But now in the major league of religion, all other contenders have been eliminated, the championship is now down to the two finalists- Christianity VS Islam. So, now the question remains: which one of these two international-deity-franchises is going to win? From where I sit, seeing the violence,hatred,and cruelty wrought and inflicted by both these two giants: I'd have to conclude that whether it's the home favourite "infidels", or the visiting "evil-doers",whoever wins the franchise,it will be business as usual. Cruelty, hatred and violence has been such a winning formula for both sides, why change what has worked for them since they were founded?
peace for '09 and beyond,"
"Yes! I agree! That WAS VERY INTERESTING!....
Well, being born into a family of Holocaust survivors where, i was never taught to hate the Germans, to respect all races,colours, and the rich,poor etc., I have to point out that my upbringing as a reform Jew allowed me to ask myself several seminal questions, namely, the fairness of the God that allowed the suffering that my parents incurred at the age of 13! The slaughters of innocent women and children, the cruelty to animals,the suffering that i and all of you have witnessed during our lifetimes.. I realized at a very early age that if in actual fact "God created Man in his own image",it's not a stretch to characterize "The Maker" by studying "His offspring". It does not cast a very favourable impression of "Him"!. I have not become an atheist, I am , I guess, a-religious and a student of history. By my estimation,the divisiveness of religion compounded and fueled by greed and arrogance has been a "thorn is the side of humanity" since time immemorial! If as a Christian,you fear the propagation of Islam, try to imagine the horror of all the indigenous people who suffered the wrath and slaughter of America by Spanish Catholics and later on The Pilgrims and their progeny. Imagine the horrors of those hundreds of thousands (millions?)who died at the end of the swords of the Christian Crusaders. Compare the violence and cruelty taught both in your revered Bible and "their" revered Koran. I say both those "hallowed" scriptures, The Bible with close to 700,000 words and The Koran with about 50,000 words are pretty well head to head in the violence and cruelty arena! Both speak of many "woes" and "evil doers", both speak of cruel sacrifice both of animals, men,children and wives! Both speak of incurring the wrath of Allah or God. Both these "cosmic patriarchs" pulled off some creative ways to rain suffering and cruelty upon mankind. Makes water boarding look like a holiday weekend! Both speak of and teach intolerance of others who are not believers. I can go on and on, but most of you are smart enough to know what I'm talking about here., unless ofcourse you are blinded by hatred and intolerance.
This video, from my perspective, is a perfect example of the propaganda and fear mongering engendered by all of the worlds "Great" religions. But now in the major league of religion, all other contenders have been eliminated, the championship is now down to the two finalists- Christianity VS Islam. So, now the question remains: which one of these two international-deity-franchises is going to win? From where I sit, seeing the violence,hatred,and cruelty wrought and inflicted by both these two giants: I'd have to conclude that whether it's the home favourite "infidels", or the visiting "evil-doers",whoever wins the franchise,it will be business as usual. Cruelty, hatred and violence has been such a winning formula for both sides, why change what has worked for them since they were founded?
peace for '09 and beyond,"
posted by marvinkanarek at 7:52 AM
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