Offending Islam

This may be made easier to call it what doesn't offend Islam. 

Being a very vocal minority they seem to have an exaggerated sense of 

They seem to believe a society they find themselves in bear the responsibility to change so to not offend them. This is backwards. But there is also more than a little hysterical behavior on the part of people here in the U.S.  But there is some basis for it. Look at parts of France where Muslims have all but taken over parts of cities. The police do not even go there. They are enclaves of sharia law. 

So in order to offend as many followers of Islam, I bring you the following. 

Mohammed was a pedophile. 

In all likelihood Mohammed had sex with animals as well as men and little boys. 

In the truest spirit of Old Testament teachings he subjugated women. 

Mohammed did not fly off into the sky. 

Islam is no better and no worse than any of the other monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism. The so called prophets are not super natural, they never spoke to Yahweh, Allah or God. And despite what the believers of those three faiths believe, it is all the same being they worship! But because they believe their faith is the one true faith, they will never accept that fact. And that is ignorant. 

Muslims can pray how ever and wherever they chose. I will defend that. But the second they begin to impose restrictions on those who don't believe as they do, all bets are off. 

They can eat what ever they like. But tell me I have to give up ham or bacon, and we will have a rather large problem. If they are offended by the mere sight of it in a store, too bad. Open your own store! Get together and open a market to cater to your taste or beliefs. But walking into a supermarket and being offended by pork, that is childish. And by childish I mean it in the worst manner possible. A little spoiled, bad tempered child throwing a hissy fit. 

The Oxford publishing in England has edited a children's book to remove any mention of the word pork or any derivative like sausage. Is this wrong? I think it is. Is it silly? Yes. 

If someone is offended by the mere mention of anything regarding a pig, they have the problem. 

What harm does the mere mention of a pig, pork or sausage have on a Muslim? Nothing. 

So this whole Islam issue is going to lead to even larger issues for all religions. The fact that borderline fundamentalist Christians are leading this charge is a bit amusing. Islam and Christianity believe in the same God, and also share many of the same basic tenants, whether they like it or not, it is true. The fact radical Islam is more aggressive is almost irrelevant. 

Fundamentalist Islam and Christianity share more in common than many people realize. Their views on women, political and social objectives, expanding the influence of their respective beliefs and non believers are very similar. Though I will admit Islam does does have a bit more militant action lately. 

So in reality Christianity and Islam aren't really all that different. And the differences are more superficial sort of like the differences between sects of Christianity, small doctrinal differences but basically the same. They worship the same deity. Calling them a different name doesn't change the fact they both worship the Abrahamic god. 

God

Yahweh

Allah

Same deity

Abraham

Moses

Elijah

Elisha

Jonah

Zachariah

Just to name a few. All prophets shared by Islam and Christianity. But according to followers of both religions there are "differences". Spelling of a name, differences in the narratives do not make a bit of difference. All of the scriptures are creations of men. Created to further an agenda, control the population and are in no way "the word" of a deity. That is the plain and simple truth. 

The reasons given for the silence of the deity are the worst examples of rationalization. You simply have to look at history to see that. How the accepted view of the world has changed over the past few thousand years. But excuses are made, poor excuses at best to explain it away. 

Ten Commandments

1- No gods before me
2- No graven images
3- Dont take the lords name in vain
4- Keep the sabbath
5- Honor your father and mother
6- Dont kill
7- Dont commit adultery
8- Dont steal
9- Dont bear false witness against a neighbor
10- Dont covet

It has always struck me a little odd that the top four commandments are all about how god wants to be viewed, spoken about and treated as the one true god.

No gods before me? I understand that a jealous god would demand unwavering dedication to it. Exodus 34:14 Was god so afraid of his followers being promiscuous with some other god? Well, I guess he should be, look what happened when god was preoccupied making the tablets for Moses, the people went crazy and made golden calf and worshiped it. My question is, if god is all powerful, how did he miss these events going on? God does seem to be jealous, but also vindictive. Give people just enough proverbial rope to hang themselves and then run down the mountain, smash the commandments and slaughter 3,000 of his people as an example? Jealous god indeed!

No graven images. If you have ever been in a synagogue, you will notice there are no depictions of god, no images, nothing. Go to just about any christian church what do you see? lots of images, paintings, murals, statues, etc. Aren't these explicitly forbidden? For me personally I am creeped out by the image of some poor soul hanging off a cross.Many christians believe idolatry is just about the golden calf and worshiping false gods. But that is not the case. The word idoltry is the problem I believe, and this heads off to the ignorance many christians have of the bible. But that is for another posting.

Taking the lords name in vain. I believe it is not in reference to exclaiming "god damn it" or as some believe saying the word god. I think it refers to not making a statement in gods name. for instance saying that god demands this, when it is not written any where. You are in essence putting words into gods mouth, and god doesn't like that. 

Keep the sabbath. Despite what christians believe, according to biblical belief, the sabbath is Saturday not Sunday. And aside from some hassidic jews I cant think of anyone who actually follow this commandment. Keeping the sabbath means, no work at all, no work for people and animals. According the bible work is something as mundane as collecting firewood. So typing on a computer, opening a refridgerator door or even the door to a house, driving a car, taking the dog for a walk, all forbidden!

Honor your father and mother. Didn't Jesus tell his followers to turn against their father and mother. It was in reference to the beginning of the end, kind of. Its not very specific, at least what I could find. But no, Jesus did not mean to turn against your parents.

Dont kill. This is one that has lead to lots of arguements. According the jewish law, it means don't kill another jew. Sometimes the word murder is used, which has a whole other set of meanings. Murder is wrong, killing can be justified according to the bible. I might need to come back to this one.

Don't commit adultery. According to the bible (OT), this is not as simple as it may seem. Since men were able to have more than one wife, to accuse a man of adultery was not so easy. Adultery was a capital offense, meaning you could be put to death for it. But since a man could have more than one wife, if he was caught having relations with a woman who was not his wife, he avoid death by making her his wife, unless the womans father forbade it. But for a woman it was worse. If she was caught with a man who was not her husband, with at least two witnesses, she would be put to death. If the woman was raped and did not cry out for help, she would be put to death. If she cried out it would signify it was not consensual. It goes on, but basically, sex outside of marriage is forbidden.

Don't steal. This has some interesting basis in another interpretation. I have been reading that it is not simply taking what is not yours, but refers to slavery and kidnapping. The word steal was misinterpreted, which is not surprising. But it refers to kidnapping or enslaving people. But in the OT there was lots of slavery, lots of stealing of women, so what gives? It goes back to the don't kill commandment. It means don't steal a fellow jews slaves, don't kidnap a fellow jew. Kind of brings this one into a new light.

Don't bear false witness against a neighbor. This is really a legal term in the bible. It literally means giving false testimony in court. That simple.

Coveting. This is really the commandment dealing with stealing, not the previous. It began in the OT as dealing with treasure of destroyed cities that god commanded be utterly destroyed. All the gold and silver in the cities was to be destroyed and not brought back. Coveting leads to lust, and lust leads to all sorts of ill behavior.

So how many of these commandments are actually followed?