Mohamed. Prophet Without a Religion Well, there probably was once a Religion, out in that God Forsaken Desert. I’m guessing Zoroastrianism – the first and perhaps finest of the Higher Religions (now practiced exclusively by the Sufis), being the first Religion to discern Good and Evil and to develop a sense for Morality. But what bothers me about Mohamed was that he seemed to have insisted that his own Revelation should entirely wipe out everything that had come before him. Islam has no Bible, has no Torah. It has Mohamed’s personal diary. It has stories of his Table Talk. Then we have complete Sects of Islam obsessing over the Political Succession Struggles. And we have no religious context at all for any of it. And this is why I suppose that Islam, generally, has had such a problem discerning right from wrong, good from bad, wisdom from folly. Why Islam has usually been its own worst enemy, when it hadn’t been busy provoking even worst enemies. It’s because it is a Religion without any solid Religious background or content. Well, what exactly was Mohamed’s Revelation? First he insisted that all Religious Idols should be abandoned. When the Idol Merchants of Mecca refused, he went to war with them. Bloody war. Religious Truth would take priority over Life and Love. Kill Kill Kill. Incidentally, perhaps no Religious ‘Truth’ has ever been more bloody. For awhile the Jews had killed people for Idol Worship. They used it as a pretense for genocide, to clear out the valleys they wanted to occupy. They needed to find a reason to hate their enemies and so they invented the hatred for Harmless Little Religious Statuettes. Of all the Religious Revelations in the World to choose from, this became Mohamed’s Pet Cause. And it didn’t stop with at Islam – killing over idols – it spread to the Greek Orthodox Church, and they became killers. Then the European Protestants caught the bug and used it as an excuse for stealing any number of monasteries and raping any number of nuns. Now, shouldn’t we wonder about Doctrines that turn Religions into Huge Storms of Death. When Christ told us we would know a Tree by its Fruit, shouldn’t we wonder of a Revelation which completely centers upon a Doctrine that had only spelled out widespread death at its every irruption, and then ended in Failed, Corrupt and Morally Bankrupt Religion. No Religion that had destroyed its Small Representations of the Divine has ever gone on to either Spirituality or High Moral Inspiration. Jews became Pawnbrokers. Muslims killers. And Protestants are now Republicans, when it became illegal for them to continue as Slave Masters. Well, Religions can insist upon their Truth, and claim that their Truth is more important than Life itself. Well, okay. If somebody really believes that Idol Worship is a sacrilege then what can you do? But the problem with Mohamed was that after he had sent thousands of his men to die for his Anti-Idol Campaign, when he was finally beaten back into the corner himself and the Idol Merchants of Mecca were holding the sword to his own throat, suddenly it all changed. When it was his life on the Line, surprise, surprise – a New Revelation! Suddenly Mohamed was signing a contract that would guarantee that every Muslim would come to Mecca once a year to spend their money on Idols… bowing to Idols… marching around Idols. Idols Idols Idols. Mecca, the City of Idols would become, well, their Mecca! In the very same Koran where we have the damning of Idols, we have the philosophical slam-over to the complete other side of the Thing – a complete surrender of all previous principles. We have Mohamed sign an Eternal Contract that would commit every Muslim for all Eternity to bow down to the Idol Merchants of Mecca, five times a day, and promise that they would and visit and spend their money, even specifying the various Tourist Stops. Any ordinary person would have recognized in all of this the most humiliating of defeats and betrayals, and see in their Leader his and their own worst Traitor to the Cause. But Muslims acclaim this self-contradictory, self-betraying Prophet as the Best of All Prophets. Well, perhaps if they had a Religion, they could have somebody to compare him with. Mohamed can only be a Best Prophet if he is an only Prophet. Compared to absolutely anybody else, Mohamed would have had to come in Second Place. Or maybe I don’t know enough Arabs. It may be that he seems so good in comparison to the rest of the Home Town Crowd. Or maybe the Koran just sounds so much better in Arabic. But we still have the Newspapers that describe a Dysfunctional Islam. The Principles of Religious Tolerance should only go so far. When a Religion obviously has serious moral and spiritual problems, it needs to be fixed. Islam should consider listening more to its Sufi Minority, rather than persecuting them. Islam needs a Religion. Resurrect Zoroastrianism. It can do without its Prophet… it has enough enemies already and doesn’t need that one more.
I didn't get past this line. Zoroastrianism in only practiced by Sufis? WTF. Sufis are Islamic mystics, and while they may have been influenced by Zoroastrianism (as well as Hinduism, etc.) since they are open to different traditions none that I've ever read about practice Zoroastrianism. I have, however, met Zoroastrians in the US and there is still a Zoroastrian population in India (and a smaller one in Pakistan). Actually, there are still probably some in Iran although they have certainly been persecuted.
I've read that zoastrianism is on the rebound in Iran as a result of many young peoples disillusionment with the mullahs. Some pics of the fire festival taken inside iran in 2006 are here :m: Almost forgot, muhammed = teh crap
Sufis SAY they are Islamic. Guess why? But examine their History. The Muslims themselves don't seem to think so. Sufis have always been persecuted. The Sufis lie and pretend to be Muslims, because they are too smart to see much of a virtue in being turned into instant martyrs. Read the Newspapers. Muslims really play rough and they have never had much of a respect for freedom of conscience. Islam was born in the Sword and lives by the sword. They don't feel they need to convince anybody, since their complete History is one of IMPOSING Islam on vanquished peoples. They are perfectly happy in a system that accepts converts simply because they are more cowardly than religious -- if they would rather live a Muslim than die as a member of their Old Belief System, then they are welcomed with open arms as no better and no worse than any other Muslim. But examine Sufism. It is not Islam. Much of it is traceable to Zoroastrianism. We have Wonders, Miracles, and Mysticism. Mainstream Islam is rather dry of all of that. Indeed, I wonder that Muslims and Protestants don't get along better... they both have Religions that engage neither in Spirituality, Mysticism, Wonders, or take much concern over Morality (we can see in the History of the Slave Trade that the way the business worked was that Muslim Slave Sellers were selling to Protestant Slave Buyers). Oh, and we have the Sufi Experience in Catholic Europe. As soon as these Sufis crossed the frontiers and were safe from Islamic Persecution, then they became most willing Devotees to the Virgin Mary. No, not exactly Catholics, as they recognized in the Belief Systems of the Bishops, as opposed to the Beliefs of the Catholic Religious Orders (mostly Marian), that much of the influence was Paulist, and they, like myself, saw in Paul something of a noxious Anti-Christ. Anyway, it may be something of a Coincidence, but the Areas in Europe today that are STILL Catholic, that did not surrender to the Protestant Rebellion in the 16th and 17th Century, were exactly those areas that described the Zone of influence of the Sufi visiters into Europe. We may suppose that the blend of Sufism and Marian Religious Order Catholicism created an inherently stronger Branch of Catholicism that proved to be more Protestant Proof.
Oh. I did not expect so much attention to be paid to the Zoroastrian aspect of my post. The Zoroastrians have a wonderful Website: http://www.zoroastrianism.cc/mazda_ahura.html Oh, when I used to be a Young Hippy (I am now something of an Old Hippy) I had visited a Sufi Community in Upstate New York. I had read much Sufi Literature over the years. And, yes, the further the Sufis get away from the Threat of having their Heads lopped off by Angry Muslims, the more they are willing to confess that Sufism is indeed a continuation of Zoroastrianism then to suppose that Islam and its Swordplay had anything to do with it. Sufism survived despite Islam, not because of it.
Christians were killing and incorporating pagans and all of the great Gods from before long before Islam.
