Why must I convert???

[Ahmad]

peace freeman,


If you want to worship Jesus and devote yourself to a human postman instead of the sender of the message God, then nobody can stop you!

What i can do is to warn you that the direct consequence of believing in a creature instead of God is the torment of hell in the hereafter and the retribution of humiliation in this life.

Bear witness that i submit to the Creator, God alone, nothing and nobody besides Him.

[sablefish]

http://www.israelshamir.net/shamirImages/Shamir/Theopolitics.htm
On the many-coloured Hans Buenting Map (1581), our world looks like a flower; its three petals present the three continents of Europe, West Asia, Africa, united by the Holy Land. The map allows for a different reading, too: the flower is the faith of Christ and Our Lady, and the three petals are Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. While the Westerners preferred to view Islam as an antithesis of Christianity, Eastern Christians, notably St John the Damascene, considered Islam as another Christian Church, on a par with the Western Catholic Church. Indeed, Islam with its veneration of Christ and Sitt Maryam is not farther away from Orthodoxy than icon-less priest-less anti-Marian Calvinists. The three churches offer different readings of the same concept: the Orthodox stress Christ Resurrected, the Catholics concentrate on Christ Crucified, and the Muslims follow the Holy Spirit. The Orthodox rejection of filioque is their additional link with Islam; theological proximity grounded in geographical proximity.

This vision of Islam as of the third great church of our oikouménè is basic to our understanding of the Middle East war. Indeed, there are many ways to interpret the conflict: political economy, demography, geopolitics and race theory offer their conflicting interpretations. The problem is, none work very well. A strong feeling that the problem calls for a religion-derived explanation found its expression in Huntington’s “Clash of Civilisations” doctrine positioning “Islam vs Christianity” as a repeat of the mediaeval Crusades. Its vulgar, down-to-earth application can be found in every mainstream Western newspaper from the NY Times to Berlusconi’s empire, brought to its extreme by Oriana Fallaci and Ann Coulter.

But the conflict between the three great churches is over – for better or for worse, chivalrous knights in red pelerines over shiny armour won’t ride again in the hills of Palestine and the fields of Poitou exclaiming Lumen Coeli towards the equally noble and valiant Saracens with their green banner. Their areas of influence are well established, and small border skirmishes and soul poaching are just for keeping the braves awake. There is no ‘Islamic threat to Catholicism’ or ‘Catholic threat to Orthodoxy’, though many people would bet otherwise.

The Orthodox Christians of Greece and Russia, of Palestine and Syria fully share the views of Muslims and are equally hostile to the American invasion. The attempts to instil pro-American sentiment in Moscow and Athens invariably fail. “Their [the Orthodox] views seem to have more in common with public opinion in Cairo or Damascus than in Berlin or Rome”, admitted The Wall Street Journal. So much for the silly concept of conflict between Christendom and Islam. In my view, and in this article, ‘Christianity’ includes Islam and the great Apostolic Churches of East and West.

Huntington’s theory, albeit erroneous, is based on the deep foundations of theopolitics, a word unknown to the Microsoft Word dictionary but introduced by Carl Schmitt. This great thinker is hard to position, for he is claimed as their own by Nazis and Neo-cons, Deconstructionists and Anti-globalists, thinkers as different as Leo Strauss and Giorgio Agamben, Huntington and Derrida. In Schmitt’s view, “all of the most pregnant concepts of modern doctrine are secularized theological concepts.”

The “liberal democracy and human rights” doctrine carried by the US marines even across Tigris and Oxus is a crypto-religion, an extreme heretical form of Judaised Christianity. Alexander Panarin, a modern (deceased) Russian political philosopher, noticed the anti-Christian character of the American doctrine: “The new American vision of de-contextualised Goods and their de-socialised Consumers is a heathen myth”; in his view the US doctrine represents a lapse into heathendom.

In my view, this new religion can be called Neo-Judaism; its adepts imitate classic Jewish attitudes; Jews often act as priests of the new faith and they are considered sacred by its adepts. Indeed, while mosques burn in Netherlands and churches are ruined in Israel, no emotions are stirred in comparison to those set in motion when graffiti is written on a synagogue wall. The US grades its allies by their attitude towards Jews. The Holocaust Temple [“Museum”] stands next to the White House. Support of the Jewish state is a sine qua non for American politicians.

Everybody can become one of the “Chosen” of the new faith – the choice is yours; the Newest Covenant admits both Gentiles and Jews; worship Mammon, disregard Nature, Spirit, Beauty, Love; feel you’re belonging to a race apart, prove it by some this-worldly success - and you can enter it. On the other hand, every Jew can opt out of it; there is no biological guilt or virtue.

Tell me what you think avout this one...O.K.?.. I like you.

http://www.israelshamir.net/shamirImages/Shamir/Theopolitics.htm

[marypopinz]

Sable... great perspective, thank you

Maryx

[nohope187]

So much to read on this topic, my eyes starting to hurt. As I have nothin' useful to add and it's past my bed time, later all. :-P

[Akbar]

It's foolish to present Christanity as a religion that came in peace. The history of Christanity is established in blood through war. The only people it has helped are Caucasians. Christanity has only gone into the third world after Western governments has destroyed those governments through war ( fiancial, psychological, and spiritual). What group of people outside of Caucasians have established a great self sufficient civilization under Christanity. Islam can point to several groups of people outside of Arabs who have built great civilizations that were self sufficient. In fact Islam is the only religion or ideology that has been proven successful with the most races.

[marypopinz]

Akbar

No religion comes in peace. Region is the oldest form of politics in the world. Teliing the people what to believe and controlling them through fear.

Almost all people are scared of death and religion supposes to have the answers. Religion may offer ideas of absolute truths, like murder is bad and yet, in some cases, it is good. Not quite so absolute...

Religion is what divides us, not what unites us.

Religion is my God is greater than yours.

Faith is my God is your God.

Faith is I'll see you in heaven, my brother

Faith is tomorrow, this whole ball game could change... if we only had faith, instead of religion and fear.

We place so much blind faith in evil. Is is beyond our programming to believe in anything good? I believe in my children. They are good and they are worth fighting for. I believe in a bright future, sans corruption. We just need a miracle to set it in motion. It'll come.

You may not have faith and I do.
God does help those who help themselves.

That's my conclusion. Religion can be a tool to conquer and divide or unite, like a book. I trust God will shine the light of truth. The mushroom sheeple are just having a hard time getting used to the light.

Mary XXX

[marypopinz]

55132 I have read the bible and the Quran. I started at genesis. And U?

Every study any other religions to find their common ground or were you only looking for difference?

Think with your Christian heart

mary XXX

[Akbar]

Mary,
It's true that religion has been used for violence. I agree with you 100%. I disagree when Islam is being attacked in the name of defending Western Civilization. Both sides of the socalled Muslim fanatics and Christian fanatics are being used to bring about a third world war. We must study our history. Western Civilization borrowed most of it's great ideas from Islam. A point of reference is Spain under the leadership of the Muslims for over 500 years. This was a time when Spain was the light of the world. This light spread to the rest of Europe and resurrected the people. I am not against Christianity, Jews, any race or idealogy. We should seek common ground to work through our differences. Islam and the Western world can work together to bring in a new peace for all of humanity. It will take a lot from both sides to get to this point. The West must finally tell the people what they have borrowed from Islam and how it helped them get to the point where they are now. The Muslim world must learn from the West and leave behind all superstitions and false pride. The Muslim world is told in the Holy Quran to educate all of humanity. Due to their failure to do this Allah is currently punishing them for their disobedience. The West led by the United States is educating it's people, so Allah blesses them. Allah wants man to be educated so he will study the environment with his mind and come to the conclusion that there is a God behind this creation. The first word in the Holy Quran is Read! It's not talking about the Holy Quran, it's referring to the nature environment.

peace

[666]

my 2 cents concerning Islam

If Muslims are so smart with over 1 BILLION

believers how come less than 13 million Jews

make them not look too smart ?

In other words wouldn't whoever has The Truth

rule over those who do not have The Truth or

less of it ?

[marypopinz]

Akbar... well said.

How about the same idea from a different perspective?

Instead of my religion does this right and your religion does that wrong...

How about what is the truth?

God is good. There are good things in both our cultures and religions and religious books; this I believe. We also have a lot of bad things on both sides.

If we start talking and become friends, a true friend will not tell me what to believe. He will not try to assert his thoughts upon my own.

A true friend will tell me the truth; day to day, family stories, things they've witnessed and their ideas of what works for them.

Praying lots is good in my books. Moslem pray a lot. To me that is good. I do not believe the dogma is so important as is the when in time or the where, facing east or in a church; I believe an open heart is what matters.

If we share our thoughts, in an honest fashion without trying to degrade or belittle the other... and started to see the beauty of each others cultures.

Unfortunately, the myth that was a Western education is a relic of the past. The Deweyites and satanists are denying literacy and numeracy to fewer and fewer each year.

i.e. a high school class in Florida has 70 students. Not good. See sex abuse thread and see exactly what our "christian" government is capable of. And the West wants to criticize the Talliban? They may have brutalised women and they aren't the ones molesting the children,last I heard.

Peace Mary XXX