Episode 16: Christianity vs. Islam

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

                                                                                                         ~ Mark Twain

I was on 9gag and I stumbled upon this and as a Christian I was greatly enraged. Not because it was false but because it fails to encapsulate the whole truth.

To discuss this, much like other academic issues you need to define where you are coming from. This story starts hundreds of years ago, prior to the birth of Christ. In the beginning there was only Judaism. Abraham was a prophet and married to a woman named Sarah. Together they has a son named Isaac. Isaac was a blind old man before he was able to have sons. His first son was Esau, he was born of a slave girl. Esau was tall, hairy and stocky. Isaac also had a legitimate son with his wife, his name was Jacob, Jacob was the opposite of Esau. When the time came for Isaac to give his land to his son Esau, his wife tricked him by dressing Jacob in sheep’s skin and when Jacob gave Isaac his favourite meal and gave his land to Jacob. Esau was furious and then he left Jordan and went to the east. However Jacob stayed there and led the people of Palestine.

This was when Islam was created. Islam was created from Esau, but Jacob went on a Jew and went west to Egypt. Later down the Jacob’s line Moses appeared and he led the people back to the Promised Land. However, God gave Moses strict instructions that when he and the Israelites were to get there they were to kill everything; women, children, farms, cattle, everything. But they didn’t. Later on again in the time after Jesus was born; I am unsure how the story goes but in that time there was a divide between the Jew and some went on as Jews and others became Christians and the Muslims came back to Israel in the time of King David and there was a war between the Muslims and the Christians. The temple of King David was a monolithic structure and it was the centre of the Christian faith. This is where the Israelites are punished, because they did not kill everything when they entered the promised land, the Muslims that were living in Israel at the time revolted and destroyed the temple of King David. Today in Jerusalem the synagogue, the centre of Islamic religion sits on the land where King David’s temple stood. This is the reason for the war in Israel, the west thinks of the war as 200 years old, a childish agitation. NO, it is a war over 2000 years old because the Israelites went into the promised land and they did not follow God’s orders. The land was promised to them by God, that is what the war is about. So when I see a post like this I am enraged. You would not compare Stalin and Churchill or Stalin and JFK, nor would you compare the Dali Lama with Saddam Husain. So do not compare Jacob and Esau. Islam and Christianity are not the same religion by any means and I am sure that my feelings about this are shared with people of Islamic faith.

Episode 15: Above the sound of Ideologies clashing.

'When one voice rules the nation
Just because they're top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists...'

                                  Ideology ~ Billy Bragg


Today I want to rant about wars and particularly the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently I was on tumblr (yes I’m that hipster) and I saw a post about 'veterans day' a day in the US where they acknowledge the people that have died in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The post said to go and remember the people that have died for our country and the fight for Democracy. Most Americans or people would look at that and feel sad and be fully supportive. It makes me angry and be rest assured I'll tell you why. It's because the people they are remembering were not 'fighting for their country' or 'fighting for democracy' they are there as a part of the Bush administration's revenge for 911. His vendetta against the middle-east and Muslims.

Now I just want to pause and reflect on what it is that I just said. I am aware that it is highly controversial and I probably now have the whole Fox News Network and numerous Americans hunting for my body now. BUT, we have days like Remembrance day and Veterans day for incidents that people have deliberately instigated themselves. It taints the reason for Remembrance Day, ie the ANZACs and the people who faught in the Dardanelles in WWI, not a government's vendetta. The Americans DID NOT NEED to go into Afghanistan, but they did. I do not intend to undermine the lives that were lost in the incidents of 911, it was a tragedy with no justification, but it is not reason to start a war and loose more lives. A body for a body is vengeance not justice.