In George Orwell's novel 1984, the people of Oceana spent one week each year being whipped into a purple froth of fury against a government-designated enemy.
Our neocon rulers could teach Orwell's Party a few lessons. In today's USA, Hate Week has gone on for almost a decade. The enemy, of course, is Islam in general, and Muslims who dare to defend themselves and their religion in particular.
Many of the brainwashed haters seem to take a devilish delight in slandering the Prophet Muhammad, peace upon him. The spiritual father of these people, I pointed out a while back, is the Flaming father of Islamophobia, Abu Lahab. Someone named Jay responded:
"I like your translation (of Sura 111) better than all others I have read. But we are uncomfortable to one degree or another with those who disagree with us. If Abu Lahab was just pointing out the obvious, that Muhammed was a narcissistic plagiarist with tendencies towards sociopathy, manifested later by mass murderer, political assassinations and paedophelia, then maybe he was right to say something. If I were Mohammed, I would not like anybody pointing out those things either! Just because Muhammed lived and Abu Lahab didn't doesn't make Muhammed right. Where is Abu Lahab's side of the story?"
Jay pretends to be looking for "the other side of the story," like a fair and balanced reporter. But behind this pose lurks the irrational fury that has led ignorant peoples to revile and sometimes kill the prophets who were sent by God to guide them, as evidenced by Jay's gross distortion of history. The sources tell us that Muhammad, saas, was known as "al-Amin," "the completely trustworthy one," a characterization that was never disputed even by his enemies. What those enemies didn't like was not his character--everyone admitted it was spotless--but rather the threat his message posed to the greedy, materialistic Meccan oligarchy and its polytheistic profiteering. In short, it was the usual case of prophet vs. profits, not unlike Jesus vs. the moneychangers. See Suras 102, 104, and 107.
When people feel threatened by a message they can't refute (9/11 truth, for example) they attack the messenger. And the message of Islam is irrefutable to anyone with an ounce of spiritual common sense. Here are some core precepts of that message, in no particular order:
God is one, not three. The Christian obsession with the crucifixion is a bloody mistake. Jesus should be valued for his message, not for being supposedly tortured to death by his alleged father. In fact, "God the father" is the wrong metaphor--instead, the first two tangible characteristics of God, compassion and mercy (ar-rahman al-rahim) are linked etymologically to the word for "womb." Moses, Jesus, and all the other countless prophets should be loved, honored and respected. God created us as spiritual equals--there is no "chosen people." God created us pure and innocent--there is no "original sin." Salvation doesn't require being drenched in the blood of a human sacrifice; instead, we just need to remember who we really are (see Wordsworth on Intimations of Immortality). We must take care of the needy and work for social justice. In the struggle for social justice and truth, we should resort to force only when other alternatives have been exhausted--but we do have the right to use force to defend ourselves. Spiritual development is for everybody, not just an elite, so everybody should pray regularly, fast for a whole month each year, give to the needy, avoid debauchery, and seek to make a pilgrimage to the house of God. Since all of us are equal, and spiritual development is for everybody, there should be no priests or rabbis or popes or ministers or any other spiritual bureaucrats. And since enjoying the beautiful things that God has given us (including sexuality) is a good thing, there should be no monks either. Charging interest on loans (usury), like other forms of selfish cheating, is completely and utterly unacceptable. A good society should be run by these and related rules, which organize the society around maximizing the possibilities for the spiritual development of all its members, rather than by the doomed attempt to channel selfishness and greed into material production (the Western capitalist paradigm which has nearly destroyed the planet).
Western Civilization, like most so-called civilizations, is run by a satanic cabal dedicated to promoting the culture of ego-desire (the nafs) and thereby impeding the spiritual growth of humankind. Our leaders are our prison wardens, telling us that there is nothing beyond the bars of our cage, nothing beyond the shadows on the cave wall, so just hurry on, nothing to see here, you're just a desiring material body condemned to death (and you'd better fear death so we can control you! So be VERY afraid of those Muslims who don't fear death! They must be some kind of death cult or something!)
Islam is the biggest remaining threat to this cabal's quest for world domination. That's the bottom-line reason for 9/11 and the rest of the Islamophobic brainwashing operation.
So if you're getting bored with Hate Week, ask yourself "why this particular hatefest?" then check out Islam. The best two introductions to Islam in English are Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an, and Murata and Chittick's The Vision of Islam, while the best historical interpretation is Marshall Hodgson's The Vision of Islam. I don't think Sells and Chittick are even Muslim, and Hodgson was a Quaker, so don't worry, these are NOT proselytizing books. But they are moderately demanding. If you're looking for an easier read, start with Muhammad Asad's The Road to Mecca.Labels: Approaching the Qur'an, hate week, Islam, Islamophobia, Koran, Marshall Hodgson, Michael Sells, Mohammed, Muhammad, Orwell, Orwellian, Qur'an, William Chittick
