(Cross posted on
LGF Watch Watch)
I left off at the horrific murders of
Meriav Hatuel, along with her mother and sisters and
Nick Berg's horrible beheading video. I could not read for weeks after these events and blogged more about Nick Berg,
his moronic "father",
Michael "Americans are dumb" Moore and the
beheadings that followed than the Qur'an. I restarted reading, but found it very hard to get anywhere. To this day, it is a chore to pick up the Qur'an and read for the required period of time to get anything out of it; the Qur'an translation I have is a
very hard read even in the best of circumstances. The beheading theme continues to
this day.
Since the restart, I have seen
many recurring themes in the Qur'an. I have commented a number of times how the text repeats itself over and over again on the same points. Here are just some of the "Qur'an hit parade" themes:
It seems the Allah never destroys anyone or anything (even though he could without effort if he wanted). When the righteous are destroyed, Allah has favored them with paradise; when the unbelievers are destroyed it is a lesson from Allah to be a believer.
The Qur'an refers to "Clear Signs" ad nausem. Rarely are they defined except in the most general terms. Often works of man are included as "Clear Signs" as are the workings of nature. One could argue that these are indeed signs of a higher being, another could argue that it is nature in a universe without a God. In any case, the "Clear" part of "Clear Signs" always eludes me. At least Christianity has tales of miracles and events that would be hard pressed to be explained as "nature" or "works of man".
Allah also seems to be a big fan of "ridicule" and "humiliation". He
really hates it when someone ridicules the "Clear Signs" or his messengers. Hell is often described as a place of "humiliating torture".
The Qur'an relates many stories of leaders that lead their people away from "The Path". They always fail and the people that followed them are consigned to "humiliating torture" and usually cry out to have the leaders cast down with them. Yet, the people are urged to respect and blindly follow the prophet or risk the same fate.
Early Conclusions on the Qur'an
(This should cause a number of regular LGFWW commenters' heads to explode)
My main conclusion is that Islam is a more a
cult of personality than a religion. The same could be said for Christianity, but that is another topic for another time (
HINT). The evidence points to the prophet being a man that needed to use religion to control his people and to build an empire.
The Future
The long-term plan is to continue with the small amount of the Qur'an left to read and then move into more of Islamic history and culture. It goes without saying that the central focus will be terrorism.
In the short term, I will be preoccupied with election blogging.
Announcement
Now that the LGFWW readers are caught up, I will make an announcement. The hosts of LGF Watch Watch have graciously invited me to continue my weekly posts. I am happy to take them up on this offer. I will be posting on Islam, Islamic history and culture every Friday (the day that Imams give their sermons in the mosques, appropriate? I think so.)
So look for my posts every Friday, I hope to bring some interesting topics forward as well and start the occasional fracas.
