The West is on five distinct collision courses with Islam:
the explosive Muslim immigrant ghettos could disrupt half the
major cities in Europe; U.S. troops have been put in the line
of ancient hatreds in Bosnia; war threats in the biblical lands
smack of fire drills for Armageddon; the suppression of oil prices
to 25-year lows strikes at Muslim economies from Nigeria to Indonesia,
and financial colonialism is a provocation.
Kevin Phillips, "The Menace of Religious
Zealotry"
The Islamic World is no longer somewhere else . . . instead,
Chicago, with its 50 mosques and nearly half a million Muslims,
is part of the Islamic world.
The Harvard Pluralism Project
Since Islam is the world's fastest growing religion, through
conversion but mostly through reproduction, there is a tremendous
need to address this subject, which, because of crazed Islamic
fanatics, strikes fear in the hearts of most non-Muslims. First
of all, if we were to take a body count, Islam would prove less
bloodthirsty than Christianity. Nevertheless, this ideology represents
one of the most repressive and unappealing that humankind has
yet come up with.
We are emboldened to tackle this subject not only because
of Islam's expansion and the coming together of its leaders from
around the world, but also because certain Muslim leaders, anxious
to rectify Islam's bad rap, are making statements such as, "There
are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and 99.9% are peace-loving"
(Haitham Bundakji). Were this statement true, it would be both
frightening in its enormity and reassuring in its docility. However,
Islamic doctrine is anything but "peace-loving," as
it constantly calls for the slaying of "idolaters"
and "infidels." (Q 2:190, 9:5, 9:73)
While this 1.8 billion figure seems to be rather high for
the present, according to various interpretations of the prophecies
of Nostradamus and others, Islam will in fact sweep the world,
but, contrary to the best wishes of some of its adherents, this
invasion will not be peaceful. A certain Hopi prophecy has also
been interpreted to state that Islam will become world-dominant.
It would be safe to say that no non-Muslim would like to see
this world taken over by Islam, which, along with Christianity,
represents the worst of Oriental despotism. Most futurists and
visionaries would like to see this planet pry itself free of
religions, especially those that are stuck in the Dark Ages.
Indeed, to those who enjoy the ultimate freedom of expression,
these prophecies are chilling, because Islam is a fervid theocracy
with little room for individuality, not to mention that it utterly
denigrates the female aspect of creation.
This repression of the female is actually ironic when one
considers the roots of Islam, but it is not unexpected in a world
that, for the past several thousand years, has done everything
within its power to subjugate women simply because they are physically
weaker than men, a characteristic shared with the apes and other
"lesser beasts." While some may claim that this subjugation
and enslavement of women is a cultural tradition, rather than
a religious one, it matters not, for it comes hand-in-hand with
religions which teach that there is some separate outerspace
god who is exclusively male. In Islam, this god is interpreted
through the minds of Muslims as being an Arab or Persian man,
as opposed to the Jewish man of the Judeo-Christian ideology.
Of course, this racist interpretation of the divine is absolute
nonsense; yet, in their supreme arrogance and megalomania, many
individuals would like the entire world to believe it is true.
What are the roots of Islam? Well, it is obviously built upon
the Judeo-Christian tradition, but it is also a reaction to said
tradition, which excluded and vilified the various Arab cultures.
Like their Jewish brothers and sisters, the Semitic Arabs trace
their lineage to Abraham, who had sex with Hagar the Egyptian,
producing the progenitor of the Arab race, Ishmael. While the
Jewish contingent interprets this tale to justify its own ethnocentric
ideology, Muslims interpret it to fit theirs, claiming that "God"
would make of Ishmael's people a "great nation" (Gen.
21:18). Typically, instead of searching for the truth about this
tale, its proponents have turned it into a political competition.
The Fictional Patriarch
First of all, like numerous biblical characters, Abraham is
a mythological construct. As superb scholar Barbara Walker states
in The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets concerning
Abraham:
"This name meaning 'Father Brahm' seems to have been
a Semitic version of India's patriarchal god Brahma; he was also
the Islamic Abrama, founder of Mecca. But Islamic legends say
Abraham was a late intruder into the shrine of the Kaaba. He
bought it from priestesses of its original Goddess. Sarah, 'the
Queen' was one of the Goddess's titles, which became a name of
Abraham's biblical 'wife.' Old Testament writers pretended Sarah's
alliances with Egyptian princes were only love-affairs arranged
by Abraham for his own profit - which unfortunately presented
him as a pimp (Genesis 12:16) as well as a would-be murderer
of his son (Genesis 22:10).
"In the tale of Isaac's near-killing, Abraham assumed
the role of sacrificial priest in the druidic style, to wash
Jehovah's sacred trees with the Blood of the Son: an ancient
custom, of which the sacrifice of Jesus was only a late variant.
Jehovah first appeared to Abraham at the sacred oak of Shechem,
where Abraham built his altar. Later Abraham build an altar to
the oak god of Mamre at Hebron. Even in the 4th century A.D.,
Constantine said Abraham's home at the Oak of Mamre was still
a shrine: 'It is reported that most damnable idols are set up
beside it, and that an altar stands hard by, and that unclean
sacrifices are constantly offered.'"
Allah - Remake of the Moon Goddess
What this description means is that Judeo-Christian-Muslim
tradition is built upon hoary myths, such that none of its offshoot
religions can truthfully claim to be of divine or "inspired"
origin. As concerns the god of Islam, Allah, Walker has this
to say:
"Late Islamic masculinization of the Arabian Goddess,
Al-Lat or Al-Ilat - the Allatu of the Babylonians - formerly
worshipped at the Kaaba in Mecca. It has been shown that 'the
Allah of Islam' was a male transformation of 'the primitive lunar
deity of Arabia.' Her ancient symbol the crescent moon still
appears on Islamic flags, even though modern Moslems no longer
admit any feminine symbolism whatever connected with the wholly
patriarchal Allah."
Indeed, the Koran verifies Allah's lunar or night-sky status:
"Remember the name of our Lord morning and evening; in the
night-time worship Him: praise Him all night long." (Q 76:23)
And at Q 2:189: "They question you about the phases of the
moon. Say: 'They are seasons fixed for mankind and for the pilgrimage.'"
In Pagan Rites in Judaism, Theodor Reik states, in
a chapter called "The ancient Semitic moon-goddess":
"All Semites had once a cult of the moon as supreme power.
When Mohammed overthrew the old religion of Arabia, he did not
dare get rid of the moon cult in a radical manner. Only much
later was he powerful enough to forbid prostration before the
moon (Koran Sure 4:37). Before Islamic times the moon deity was
the most prominent object of cults in ancient Arabia. Arab women
still insist that the moon is the parent of mankind.
"Sir G. Rowlinson traces the name Chaldeans
back to the designation of the ancient capital Ur (Chur) to be
translated as moon-worshipers. The Semitic moon-god was 'the
special deity and protector of women.' The Babylonians worshiped
the goddess Ishtar, who is identical with the great Arabian goddess
and has the epithet Our Lady. . . She also has the title
Queen of Heaven, which really means the Queen of the
Stars. She was horned and was, as all lunar goddesses, represented
by a heavenly cow.
"The Hebrew tribes, or rather than ancestors, were the
latest wave of migrants from Arabia. The cult of their god was
associated with Mount Sinai - the mountain of the moon. The experts
assume that the name Sinai derived from Sin, the name
of the Babylonian moon-god. In Exodus (3:1) Sinai is called the
'mountain of the Elohim. This suggests that it has long been
sacred.'
"In the Old Testament, which is a collection of much
earlier, often edited writings, the moon appears as a power of
good (Deut. 33:4) or of evil (Ps. 12:16). Traces of ancient moon-worship
were energetically removed from the text by later editors. A
few remained, however, and can be recognized in the prohibitions
of Deuteronomy. In 4:19 the Israelites are warned: 'And lest
thou lift up thine eyes upon heaven, and when thou seest the
sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven,
and be led astray to worship them, and serve them,' and in 17:3
the punishment of stoning is prescribed for the person who 'hath
gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun,
or moon, or any of the host of heaven . . . ' The Lord predicts
(Jer. 8:2) that the bones of kings and princes of Judah will
not be buried, but spread 'before the sun, and the moon, and
all the hosts of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they
have served, and whom they have worshipped.'"
Astrotheology at Mecca
One of the sites for this worship of the "hosts of heaven"
was Mecca. Regarding the Kaaba of Mecca, that holiest of Muslim
holies, Walker writes:
"Shrine of the sacred stone in Mecca, formerly dedicated
to the pre-Islamic Triple Goddess Manat, Al-Lat (Allah), and
Al-Uzza, the 'Old Woman' worshipped by Mohammed's tribesmen the
Koreshites. The stone was also called Kubaba, Kuba, or Kube,
and has been linked with the name of Cybele (Kybela), the Great
Mother of the Gods. The stone bore the emblem of the yoni, like
the Black Stone worshipped by votaries of Artemis. Now it is
regarded as the holy center of patriarchal Islam, and its feminine
symbolism has been lost, though priests of the Kaaba are still
known as Sons of the Old Woman."
And a translator of the Koran, N.J. Dawood, says:
"Long before Muhammad's call, Arabian paganism was showing
signs of decay. At the Ka'bah the Meccans worshipped not only
Allah, the supreme Semitic God, but also a number of female deities
whom they regarded as daughters of Allah. Among these were Al-Lat,
Al-Uzza, and Manat, who represented the Sun, Venus, and Fortune
respectively."
The Arabian Matriarchy
Concerning the nation of Arabia, Walker asserts that, prior
to the encroachment of Islam, it was a matriarchal culture for
over 1,000 years:
"The Annals of Ashurbanipal said Arabia was governed
by queens for as long as anyone could remember. . . .
"Mohammed's legends clearly gave him a matriarchal family
background. His parents' marriage was matrilocal. His mother
remained with her own family and received her husband as an occasional
visitor. . . .
"Pre-Islamic Arabia was dominated by the female-centered
clans. Marriages were matrilocal, inheritance matrilineal. Polyandry
- several husbands to one wife - was common. Men lived in their
wives' homes. Divorce was initiated by the wife. If she turned
her tent to face east for three nights in a row, the husband
was dismissed and forbidden to enter the tent again.
"Doctrines attributed to Mohammed simply reversed the
ancient system in favor of men. A Moslem husband could dismiss
his wife by saying 'I divorce thee' three times. As in Europe,
the change from matriarchate to patriarchate came about only
gradually and with much strife.
". . . However, the history of early-medieval Arabia
is nearly all legend. Like Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and other
founders of patriarchal religions, Mohammed lacks real verification.
There is no reliable information about his life or teachings.
Most stories about him are as apocryphal as the story that his
coffin hangs forever in mid-air 'between heaven and earth,' like
the bodies of ancient sacred kings.
"With or without Mohammed, Islam succeeded in becoming
completely male-dominated, making no place for women except in
slavery or in the seclusion of the harem. Islamic mosques still
bear signs reading: 'Women and dogs and other impure animals
are not permitted to enter.'
"Nevertheless, traces of the Goddess proved ineradicable.
Like the virgin Mary, Arabia's Queen of Heaven received a mortal
form and a subordinate position as Fatima, Mohammed's 'daughter.'
But she was no real daughter. She was known as Mother of her
Father, and Source of the Sun . . . "
Who Wrote the Koran?
As to the Koran, the Muslim holy book, Walker says:
"Mohammedan scriptures, often erroneously thought to
have been written by Mohammed. Moslems don't believe this. But
many don't know the Koran was an enlarged revised version of
the ancient Word of the Goddess Kore, revered by Mohammed's tribe,
the Koreshites (Children of Kore), who guarded her shrine at
Mecca.
"The original writing was done long before Mohammed's
time by holy imams, a word related to Semitic ima,
'mother.' Like the original mahatmas or 'great mothers'
of India, the original imams were probably priestesses
of the old Arabian matriarchate. It was said they took the scripture
from a prototype that existed in heaven from the beginning of
eternity, 'Mother of the Book' - i.e., the Goddess herself, wearing
the Book of Fate on her breast as Mother Tiamat wore the Tablets
of Destiny. Sometimes the celestial Koran was called the Preserved
Tablet. There was some resemblance between this and other legendary
books of divine origin, such as the Ur-text, the Book of Thoth,
and the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.
"As in the case of the Judeo-Christian Bible, the Koran
was much rewritten to support new patriarchal laws and to obliterate
the figures of the Goddess and her priestesses."
As Walker says, the Koran was not written by Mohammed. In
The Great Religious Leaders, Potter says of Mohammed,
"It is very doubtful that he read any of the Bible: indeed,
it has not been proved that he ever read anything, or wrote anything.
He called himself 'the illiterate prophet.'"
Who Was Mohammed?
Like that of Buddha, Jesus, Moses, et al., Mohammed's historicity
is questionable. He seems to be yet another incarnation ("Neros")
invented to create a "state" religion. His "history"
is full of fantastic legends, but if we were to find an individual
there, it would not be one of very high or affable character.
As Potter says:
"Of women, his taste ran to widows with a temper . .
. For recreation he delighted in cobbling shoes. Perhaps his
greatest joy was when he beheld the severed heads of his enemies.
"His dislikes were just as varied. He detested silk-lined
clothes, interest charges, dogs, others' lies, Jews and Christians.
He hated poets, and said, 'Every painter will be in hell.'
"He was inordinately vain. A clever woman poet satirized
him. She was slain when asleep with her child at her breast,
and the vengeful Muhammad praised her murderer. Once he tortured
a Jew to find the location of hidden treasure and then had him
killed and added the widow to his harem. Strange indeed was the
character of the prophet. How could such a person inspire such
reverence and devotion? It is one of the puzzles of history.
"It was not that he developed a great theology, either,
for what little theology Islam has, worthy of the name, was built
up after Muhammad had long been dead."
As to how such a character could inspire such reverence and
devotion, we would submit that it was because Mohammed and Islam
were created by yet another faction of "the brotherhood"
for purposes of competition with Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism
and other religions. As N.A Morozov says:
". . . until the Crusades Islam was indistinguishable
from Judaism and . . . only then did it receive its independent
character, while Muhammad and the first Caliphs are mythical
figures."
Behind the creation of such ideologies are usually those who
benefit the most, particularly "third-party" weapons
manufacturers, since these divisive ideologies are forever setting
one culture against another.
"Let My People Go!"
In the end, Islam, which means "submission," is
built upon older myths and was designed to usurp the power of
Christians, Jews and women. While we have no quarrel with Arabian
culture, we do have a big problem with ideologies that are filled
with half-truths and lies. Because of male arrogance and a racist
mentality, ancient cultures, along with their variety, justice
and beauty, have become nearly obliterated. In effect, the Western
monolithic religions represent a massive degradation of culture.
This fact is something no one should be proud of. Unfortunately,
the masses are utterly ignorant of the roots of the traditions
they so mindlessly follow.
If this planet's inhabitants would simply become educated
to the origins of their traditions in full, we could live in
a world of tremendous beauty and knowledge, as opposed to ugly,
superstitious and repressive ideologies that are exclusionary
and bigoted. Islam arose because of the repression of Christianity
and Judaism, as well as the unbalanced female-oriented culture.
Like those traditions, Islam is utterly out of balance, and we
may all suffer for it, particularly if the predictions come true
that Islam will be the most dominant religion in the world in
the next decades. As previously stated, there are few non-Muslim
women or men who would wish to live in such a world. Because
of this aversion, we would expect to see in the future innumerable
ghastly battles and wars waged in the name of one god or another.
If this world is to survive into the coming age, we will need
as many people as possible to drop all of these divisive doctrines,
which are simply racist and sexist ideologies not based in veracity
or stemming from any god person. Indeed, there is no such vulgar
god person who would be perversely pleased by the inhuman, despicable
and grotesque behavior displayed over the past several thousand
years by so-called religious people. What we need on this planet,
right now, are honest, caring and whole human beings who are
motivated not by potential favors and rewards from sadistic and
ethnocentric deities in the sky but by innate decency and integrity.
Only in this way can we all live in peace rather than fear, which
is the weapon wielded by religion to convert the "faithful."
© 2000 Acharya S. [ Source: http://www.truthbeknown.com/islam.htm
] ]
