The Muslim Calendar
May 6, 2008
Although this blog is named “The Jesus Myth,” I like to discuss other “religions” as well.
One thing I find interesting about Islam is its calendar.
One would think the year ‘1′ in the Islamic calendar would coincide with a particularly noteworthy event — perhaps the most important event. After all, Christians date their calendar from the birth of Christ (or at least very close to it). One would think Islam would have year ‘1′ start at Muhommed’s birth (or death). Yet that is not the case.
In 622, when Muhommed was more than fifty years old, he and his followers made the Hijra from Mecca to the oasis of Yathrib — later renamed Medina — some 200 miles to the north. He had already angered the pagan leaders of Mecca, and there had already been an attempt on Muhammad’s life. Muhammad had sent emissaries to Medina to ensure his welcome. He was accepted by the Medinan tribes as the leader of the Muslims and as arbiter of inter-tribal disputes.
Shortly before Muhammad fled the hostility of Mecca, a new batch of Muslim converts pledged their loyalty to him on a hill outside Mecca called Aqaba. Sira p208 conveys the significance of this event:
Sira, p208: When God gave permission to his Apostle to fight, the second {oath of allegiance at} Aqaba contained conditions involving war which were not in the first act of fealty. Now they {Muhammad’s followers} bound themselves to war against all and sundry for God and his Apostle, while he promised them for faithful service thus the reward of paradise.
That Muhammad’s nascent religion underwent a significant change at this point is plain. The scholarly Ishaq clearly intends to impress on his (Muslim) readers that, while in its early years, Islam was a relatively tolerant creed that would “endure insult and forgive the ignorant,” Allah soon required Muslims “to war against all and sundry for God and his Apostle.” The Islamic calendar testifies to the paramouncy of the Hijra by setting year one from the date of its occurrence. The year of the Hijra, 622 AD, is considered more significant than the year of Muhammad’s birth or death or that of the first Quranic revelation because Islam is first and foremost a political-military enterprise. It was only when Muhammad left Mecca with his paramilitary band that Islam achieved its proper political-military articulation. The years of the Islamic calendar (which employs lunar months) are designated in English “AH” or “After Hijra.”
This only underscores the primacy of violence in Islam.
Of course, your Islam apologists would, yet again, complain that we’re reading a “translation” and that the only true Quoran (or Haddith, or whatever) is Arabic and that we must only talk about the Arabic version.
What’s absurd about that claim is that the vast, vast majority of Muslims don’t read Arabic at all. So I guess all those Muslims aren’t real Muslims.
I don’t think I need to speak fluent German in order to understand “Mein Kampf.” Any idiot could translate that book into English, and I’d have a pretty good idea how sad Hitler’s brain was.
It is time for the human race to move beyond this kind of superstitious nonsense, this root of intolerance, bigotry, racism and genocide.
Sam Harris
April 24, 2008
It just doesn’t get much clearer than this.
Infidel
April 24, 2008
One November morning in 2004, Theo van Gogh got up to go to work at his film production company in Amsterdam. He took out his old black bicycle and headed down a main road. Waiting in a doorway was a Moroccan man with a handgun and two butcher knives.
As Theo cycled down the Linnaeusstraat, Muhammad Bouyeri approached. He pulled out his gun and shot Theo several times. Theo fell off his bike and lurched across the road, then collapsed. Bouyeri followed. Theo begged, “Can’t we talk about this?” but Bouyeris shot him four more times. Then he took out one of his butcher knives and sawed into Theo’s throat. With the other knife, he stabbed a five-page letter onto Theo’s chest.
The letter was addressed to me.
Whether you a re a person of faith, an agnostic, or an atheist, I highly recommend Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Africa (born Somali), the product of a Muslim upbringing, ultimately bravely abandoning her roots and becoming a controversial member of the Dutch parliament. Her story is one of incredibly bravery and an amazing capacity to overcome all obstacles. At the same time, it is a painfully clear indictment of Islamic misogyny, absolutism, intolerance, and the price we all pay for religious beliefs that contribute to insane actions.
Some of her criticisms could just as easily be leveled at any other organized religion, but her critique is certainly most scathing of Islam. But she holds back no punches against the West for failing to address the fundamental conflict between Islam and the West. For example, she faults multiculturalism:
“We in the west would be wrong to prolong the pain [of the transition of Islam to the modern world] by elevating cultures full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternative ways of life.
This is not just a critique, however. This is her personal story. It is filled with vivid detail, personal trials, the charming and beautiful moments of adolescence, the tragedy of war and her conflict between faith and reason. It is both tragic and uplifting
I found this book so compelling I am reading it all over again even though I just finished it. This is one of those books which, when you close the final chapter, you ask yourself “what exactly do I have to complain about? Wow …”
I also recommend looking her up on YouTube.
THOSE People…
April 22, 2008
I have nothing against religious people. Hey, some of my best friends are religious. It’s nobody’s business what sort of ignorant, superstitious rituals they perform in their own homes and churches. No one should care what sort of bizarre mythical creatures they worship, or what kind of “holy” objects (statues, icons, and / or books) they revere.
Of course these religious people do need to show some restraint in public. I’ll give you an example: I was at a nice restaurant with my wife the other night. There were these two guys at a table next to us. They looked fairly normal, but I thought by the way they dressed, and the way they styled their hair that they were “that way”. So I kept my eye on them. Sure enough, as soon as their meals came they started praying right there at a table not ten feet away from us. How were we supposed to eat with that going on? Don’t those people have special clubs or something where they can go?
What I really hate is the way they influence the media. I’m not talking about the ones with their own shows. I can spot those a mile away, and avoid them. I’m talking about the ones who sneak their insane agenda into supposedly factual news stories. How often have you seen something like this on the news?
Reporter: “You’ve just lost your house and everything you own. How do you feel.”
Victim: “I just thank the LORD everyone made it out okay, especially my little foofoo.”
Meanwhile, in the background you see the firefighter who actually saved little foofoo being treated for his injuries, with the LORD nowhere to be seen.
But I digress. My point is that we shouldn’t hate these people, but pity them. We should try to help them see past their delusions when we can. When we can’t help them, we should just leave them alone…unless they run for public office, or want to teach in a public school or…
CLOSED CAPTIONED FOR THE HUMOR IMPAIRED
The preceding was a satire of the way people, even some liberals, talk about alternative lifestyles, especially homosexuality. Did it hurt? make you angry? Now do you understand why “those people” get upset when you think you’re being perfectly reasonable?
My thanks to James Huber.
Why Hate Religious People?
April 16, 2008
Sometimes, as someone who is an “unbeliever,” I am asked why I hate believers; why am I so against their beliefs?
It’s a funny question. Maybe I come off arrogant and intolerant. That’s entirely possible (I’ve been known to be so), and if that is the case I must apologize both to people of faith, and atheists. I apologize to the people of faith because I really don’t mean to project hate. I apologize to the atheists because I don’t want to contribute to the stereotype “angry atheist” that is often portrayed.
Let me be perfectly clear: I don’t hate “believers.” I hate their beliefs.
What people of faith are probably picking up from me is impatience and my discomfort with an absolute certainty on their part, and a double standard.
Somehow, it is okay to question and debate someone’s beliefs about physics, astrology, medicine, politics, psychology, parapsychology and astrophysics. Yet it is (as far as I can tell) not acceptable to debate someone’s religious beliefs.
Here I am simply re-phrasing Sam Harris. None of this is new to atheists, though I am sure it is new to some people of faith. For them, I would suggest reading Mr. Harris, or at least spending twenty minutes watching him here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J3YOIImOoYM
He’s not perfect, and I don’t agree with everything he says.
But I do think he makes quite a few good points.
Let me be clear: I don’t hate religious people. I just hate their religion. I’m not entirely sure how different this is from “love the sinner, hate the sin.”
I hate what religion does to people. I hate the evil that has been committed in this world in the name of God/Allah/Jehovah — whatever.
To be honest, that’s kind of a funny thing because I don’t believe in evil. Let me quote Robert Jay Lifton of Harvard (visiting professor of psychiatry):
“…one has to be aware of any claim to absolute virtue, because it’s absolute virtue that you call forth to kill large numbers of people. It may be impossible to do that without that claim.”
I’m hard-pressed to come up with a more apt description of the horrors of history.
Most of the evils of the world can probably be traced back to such sentiments. It is the adherence to absolute virtue, the belief one is serving God, that provides us with the means to commit unspeakable horrors. Some evils can be traced to selfishness, competition for resources, exploitation, racism, untreated mental illness and just plain stupidity. But I still believe the majority of the atrocities that have taken place on our planet were done in the name of “absolute virtue.”
I’m posting this on an atheist site, obviously. I suppose I am posting this to ask all of you atheists to recognize that we don’t hate people, we just hate what their beliefs have contributed to.
In a future post, I’ll address the popular belief that atheism has given us the dictators of the world. What makes that ludicrous is the belief that atheism is a philosophy that has adherents.
But for now, let’s agree that people of faith are not people to be hated, and we (atheists) don’t hate them. We just don’t like the bi-product.
I’m new here. But ….. Is that a fair start?
Freedom of Religion Just a Myth in USA
April 11, 2008
Recently in Texas a polygamist “cult” ( cult seems to be code for religion we don’t like) lost over 400 of it’s young female members in government raid.
As reported from The New York Times
“On Thursday, a Texas ranger described in detail what occurred last week when law enforcement officers, responding to a call for help from a 16-year-old who said she was being sexually abused in the compound, sought entry.
In the raid, 416 children were removed and placed in temporary state custody on suspicion of being abused or under the threat of abuse or neglect; 139 women voluntarily left the ranch to care for them.
The women and children are at the Fort Concho National Historic Landmark and other temporary shelters in San Angelo.”
Apparently the state believed the girls were being forced into relations with older men resulting in rape and emotional abuse. Regardless of your personal feelings on this, is this not what the constitution protects? Who is the state to say that what they’re doing is wrong? More importantly, why is the state so motivated to break up a religious community?
I believe the state doesn’t like the polygamist lifestyle and is attempting to destroy it completely. Where was the government when Catholic Priests were raping boys like it was going out of style? They couldn’t have cared less. The Catholic Religion teaches a one man one woman philosophy, something more in line with the government program.
Is this something that Atheists support? I have to believe that even Atheists would defend that ones spiritual belief is not the province of Government.
Fear and Bribery
March 26, 2008
In my previous post, a discussion was born with Chris with regards to morality and whether or not it means anything without a god being present. He contends that morality means nothing without a god. I, of course, have a different opinion on the matter. I promised you a post on this matter, Chris, so here goes! Enjoy, and I welcome your feedback. Read more
I want the Witnesses to leave me alone!
March 24, 2008
I can’t stand it anymore! I came home from the store the other day and found my husband standing at the back door talking to a young lady. In the driveway, blocking my way into the garage is a minivan being driven by a young man dressed in a suit. Great, I thought, another one. My husband and I have lived in our new home for less than a month and this is the third time we have had a Witness on our door step. The first thing that I wanted to do was whip the door open and apologize to the girl, maybe tell her that he was visiting for Easter from his group home or something…anything to save her from all of his questions. The poor girl had no idea what she had gotten herself into when she knocked on our door. None of them ever do. She finally left after stuttering a little about Easter and her beliefs. I don’t know if she cried. Maybe she got into the van and they all prayed for our family. Maybe (please please PLEASE) they crossed us off the list of places to stop. Either way, we got noticed, for you see, I am married to a special man. My husband is TJM admin, and the Witnesses will never leave me alone. First I was invited to the memorial service for Jesus, and then they had a meeting of some sort to talk about who was qualified to rule the world. I would have LOVED to go to that one. I can’t remember why this poor girl was here this time. She told him that she had talked to me before, so I guess I am in her precinct. I should go back and read the “Porch Monkeys” article again. When we were first married we lived literally right next to a meeting hall. We would watch those little 6 year olds run into the building carrying their little brief cases. We were there for 4 years and were only visited once. I miss those days. My hubby told me that those “No soliciting” signs don’t work either. Did you know that? They aren’t solicitors. I guess I will just have to let TJM admin keep answering the door! Poor little Witnesses…
You Disgust Me…
March 20, 2008
I saw you. Yeah, you. Driving your Honda Insight with the “Got Jesus?” bumper sticker placed above the license plate, ever so carefully centered. Expressing your love for your omnipresent, yet always just out of sight God. In your rear window is the obvious sign of a “holy man,” your sacred fish symbol.
Guess what else I noticed? Even though Jesus taught that you should obey the laws of man, there you go, a good 15-20 MPH over the speed limit. Even though it is quite dry and brown in this part of the country, I find myself swerving to the right ever so slightly to avoid the smoldering cigarette you have so carelessly tossed out your window while fumbling with your cell phone.
We’re coming up to a set of lights now. A gentleman approaches your vehicle, obviously homeless and in dire need. Tonight is the night of the Last Supper. You know, where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples in an effort to show what it means to be humble and to teach them the lesson of servitude. While he may have taught compassion and encouraged his followers to “give all you have to the poor,” you don’t hesitate to roll up your window before the man even gets to you. You avert your gaze. He has seen the look on your face several times before on the faces of others. He knows what you feel. The light changes from red to green. No sooner than it does, you are already in the crosswalk, narrowly missing the small child that was crossing the street. Her mother yells at you as you drive off. You simply gesture to her with a one fingered salute.
I take my attention off of you and look at the homeless fellow that was trying to make his way to your car. He had fallen down and seemed to be in some pain. I put on my four-ways, pull the e-brake and get out to help him up. “I wonder if that idiot knows that his tire is flat,” he says as I help him to his feet. I can’t help it. I laugh out loud, almost to the point of tears.
As Ken and I finish our Whoppers and talk over our Cokes, I can’t help but to think about all the times that I have seen you; all of you. Driving around with your “love of God” pasted all over your vehicles. As I take Ken back to the spot that you so hurriedly drove off from, he says, “God bless you, man.” I don’t say anything. He doesn’t need to know that I am an atheist. “Thank you,” I reply.
And THAT’S why you disgust me, you hypocritical bastard.
For the Bible Tells Me So (Movie for Your Review)
March 9, 2008
-
Atheist Blogroll
