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Islam: The Next American Religion?
Question:
> Mike Wolfe is a liberal charlton that teaches a truncated > heretical to Islam proper! And they have been murdered and persecuted for > centuries by the more mainstream sects of Islam!! > Indeed, Sufism has about as much hinduism owing to its existence as it does
The caravan passed but dogs still bark!
Response:
> Islam: The Next American Religion?
in a pig’s eye
Response:
> Islam: The Next American Religion?
Don’t you just love how eager are muslims to export their "advanced culture"? Ha-ha!… Yeah, right! That’ll be the day!!!…
Response:
Only if murder, rape, and armed robbery continue unabated. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. > Islam: The Next American Religion? > From a Western Minaret > Michael Wolfe > The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion > fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam. > Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a > nominally Christian nation. Didn’t the Pilgrims come here for freedom > to practice their Christian religion? Don’t Christian values of > righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America’s democratic, > capitalist ideals? > True enough. But there’s a new religion on the block now, one that > fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It’s Islam. > [...] > Who knows? Perhaps it won’t be long now before words like salat > (Muslim prayer) and Ramadan join karma and Nirvana in Webster’s > Dictionary, and Muslims take their place in America’s mainstream. > http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?boardID=12198&pageloc=/story/69… > We are certain that you will do your utmost to > force it upon the less-than-human infidels!!!! — Muhammad al-Husain > http://islamicweb.com/history/mahdi.htm > The term "MAHDI" is a title meaning "The Guided one". > Mahdi is a normal man who is going to follow the true Islam. > His name will be Muhammad and his father name will be ‘Abdullah. > He is a descendant from Ali and Fatima (daughter of the prophet > Muhammad (pbuh)) so he will be descendant from al-Hasan or > al-Husain. Mahdi will be very just and his capital will be > Damascus. Allah told us that Jews will master the world two times > (we live now 1998 during the first one) and Mahdi will appear > between those two periods and will rule through the last one. > Mahdi is NOT a prophet but he is the final Rightly Guided Khalifa. > Mahdi will lead Muslims to a great victory against the Christian > Romans (i.e. All the white Europeans including the Americans). > This great war is called al-Malhamah al-Kubrah or Armageddon. > It will end up with a great victory to Muslims against Romans > after six years. Muslims will take over their capital Rome (this > can be any city). In the seventh year, the Anticrist will apear > and a greater war will start between Jews and Muslims for > 40 days (longer that usual days) and will end when Jesus (pbuh) > will come and Muslims will kill all Jews. All people > will convert into Islam. Peace will pervade the whole world. > http://islamicweb.com/history/mahdi.htm > History of Damascus: http://syria.arabicnet.com/damas.asp > "… All that you do makes it impossible for what already > is there to express itself. That is why I call this ‘your > natural state’. You’re always in that state. What prevents > what is there from expressing itself in its own way is the > search. The search is always in the wrong direction, so > all that you consider very profound, all that you consider > sacred, is a contamination in that consciousness. You may > not like the word ‘contamination’, but all that you > consider sacred, holy and profound is a contamination. > "So, there’s nothing that you can do. It’s not in your hands. > I don’t like to use the word ‘grace’, because if you use the > word ‘grace’, the grace of whom? You are not a specially > chosen individual; you deserve this, I don’t know why. > If it were possible for me, I would be able to help somebody. > This is something which I can’t give, because you have it. > Why should I give it to you? It is ridiculous to ask for a > thing which you already have." [...] > "What is necessary for man is to free himself from > the entire past of mankind, not only his individual > past. That is to say, you have to free yourself > from what every man before you has thought, felt > and experienced — then only is it possible for you > to be yourself. The whole purpose of my talking to > people is to point out the uniqueness of every > individual. Culture or civilization or whatever you > might call it has always tried to fit us into a > framework. Man is not man at all; I call him a > ‘unique animal’ — and man will remain a unique > animal as long as he’s burdened by the culture." > The "Anti-Krishnamurti": > — Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (Born 9 July 1918) > http://www.well.com/user/jct/mystiq1.htm > * * * > THE EIGHTFOLD PATH > Part Five: ISOLATION > by Inanna Arthen > Excerpt: > http://www.earthspirit.org/fireheart/fhefiso.html > "… At the farthest extreme, sensory deprivation > and perceptual deprivation experiments in > laboratories have explored the influence of > isolation, not just from other people, but from > the physical world itself. Sensory deprivation, > as achieved in flotation tanks like those popular- > ized by John Lilly [<http://www.johnclilly.com/>] > [<http://www.levity.com/mavericks/lily-int.htm> > & <http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id68/pg1/>] > and the film, Altered States, attempts as far as > possible to isolate the very mind, throwing it > completely upon its own resources – or upon input > from other than the five senses being restricted. > Subjects in sensory deprivation experiments > report a wide variety of consistent effects, > including vivid and complex hallucinations, > memory recall, changes in body image, and > persistent, vivid dreams. Flotation tank subjects > who worked with John Lilly found that when the > mind is isolated from the body itself, it begins > to freely recreate reality. In very short periods > of time, Lilly’s subjects experienced vivid > dreamlike encounters. memory playbacks, mythic > visualizations and other effects. > "Although sensory deprivation experiments are > intriguing, they obviously represent an > unnecessary extreme. Social isolation for > extended periods accomplishes equally dramatic > results. But why should simple isolation – > voluntary separation from human company – have > such a profound effect? > "Our definition of what we call ‘reality’ is created > by our minds based on several factors that all > affect one another. We tend to imagine that what > we experience through our senses is ‘reality.’ > In fact, what we think about our sensory input > controls not only our interpretation of our senses, > but what perceptions are allowed to make an > impression at all. Our minds are excellent editors, > and they have been trained in this way by the > constant cues we receive from other people in our > environment. The urge to conform to social patterns > is an overwhelming one. Human beings have proven > themselves capable of adapting not only to the > social structure of thousands of incredibly varied > cultures. but also to the structures of non-human > societies. From the moment we are born, we respond > to countless visual, verbal, emotional and even > psychic cues, which teach us how to build our inner > models of the world. This web of social reinforcement > is so addictive that most people experience great > anxiety when they are separated from it – isolation, > with no other uncomfortable conditions, is recognized > as a source of extreme stress. In the absence of > actual people, individuals in our society often rely > on the constant reinforcement of television or radio. > The instant that societal cues are removed, our grasp > of consensual reality begins to decay. > "Witches, shamans and other kinds of magick workers > often lived on the fringes of their society, and > therefore always occupied a frame of reference that > was more or less different from that of their > community. At the extreme, such a person may have > acted in bizarre ways, responding to perceptions > that were invisible to other people. In other cases, > the magick worker was able to effectively live in > both worlds, acting as a translator or conduit. > But in order to maintain this position she had to > stay semi-isolated. This is often true for Witches > and Pagans today. Many of us grew up more or less > isolated from our social peer group, and our personal > reality includes many concepts that we easily forget > are not shared by those around us. The training of a > magick worker, now as in the past, involves the > restructuring of his or her experience of reality > more than it does the imparting of specific skills. > We cannot learn to travel on the astral plane until > the astral plane is included in our definition of > reality. In order to accomplish this restructuring, > a certain degree of detachment from society is > needed. Serious students of magick may withdraw > from old friends and begin spending far more time > alone than they once did. > "But living apart from society, and, hence, in a > slightly different reality, is not the same as > applying isolation as a specific magickal tool. > When we choose to isolate ourselves from other > people and turn away from the cushion of human > society in a concentrated, controlled way, we are > thrown into confrontation with ourselves. > By deliberately separating from the consensual web > for an extended period (closing our door, turning > off the television, walking into the woods), we > open ourselves to a profound – and possibly > permanent – change. Cutoff from the unending stream > of external cues, the mind begins to rely upon its > own perceptions to fill in the growing cracks. We > find ourselves seeking more and more perceptual > material, and doorways that we were taught to close > long ago slowly creak open." [...] — INANNA ARTHEN > Scientists Discover Planetary System Similar to Our Own: > http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0373.htm > The Permian > http://geology.er.usgs.gov/paleo/geotime.shtml > 290 to 248 Million
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Response:
Doncha just love articles with headlines containing question marks? Howsabout, "Abu Alwafa, Serial Rapist?"
Response:
Mike Wolfe is a liberal charlton that teaches a truncated heretical to Islam proper! And they have been murdered and persecuted for centuries by the more mainstream sects of Islam!! Indeed, Sufism has about as much hinduism owing to its existence as it does Therefore, this rank liar Mr. Wolfe is no more a Orthodox Muslim then I am and has no credibility when it comes to speaking about Islam orthodoxly! Calling Sufism proper islam is like calling Nation of Islam proper islam!! I can’t stand those people that stand up and claim to say that Islam is benign but yet themselves practice a entirely different ideology as presented by Muhammed!! At least the Bin Ladins and Wahhbies are being honest to Muhammed’s version of Islam to a unsuspecting public! Devon Hill
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. > Islam: The Next American Religion? > From a Western Minaret > Michael Wolfe > The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion > fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam. > Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a > nominally Christian nation. Didn’t the Pilgrims come here for freedom > to practice their Christian religion? Don’t Christian values of > righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America’s democratic, > capitalist ideals? > True enough. But there’s a new religion on the block now, one that > fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It’s Islam. > Islam is the third-largest and fastest growing religious community in > the United States. This is not just because of immigration. More than > 50% of America’s six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like > these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the > beliefs that Muslims hold. Americans who make the effort to look > beyond popular stereotypes to learn the truth of Islam are surprised > to find themselves on familiar ground. > Is America a Muslim nation? Here are seven reasons the answer may be > yes. > Islam is monotheistic. Muslims worship the same God as Jews and > Christians. They also revere the same prophets as Judaism and > Christianity, from Abraham, the first monotheist, to Moses, the law > giver and messenger of God, to Jesus–not leaving out Noah, Job, or > Isaiah along the way. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition only > came to the fore in the 1940s in America. Now, as a nation, we may be > transcending it, turning to a more inclusive "Abrahamic" view. > In January, President Bush grouped mosques with churches and > synagogues in his inaugural address. A few days later, when he posed > for photographers at a meeting of several dozen religious figures, the > Shi’ite imam Muhammad Qazwini, of Orange County, Calif., stood > directly behind Bush’s chair like a presiding angel, dressed in the > robes and turban of his south Iraqi youth. > Islam is democratic in spirit. Islam advocates the right to vote and > educate yourself and pursue a profession. The Qur’an, on which Islamic > law is based, enjoins Muslims to govern themselves by discussion and > consensus. In mosques, there is no particular priestly hierarchy. With > Islam, each individual is responsible for the condition of her or his > own soul. Everyone stands equal before God. > Americans, who mostly associate Islamic government with a handful of > tyrants, may find this independent spirit surprising, supposing that > Muslims are somehow predisposed to passive submission. Nothing could > be further from the truth. The dictators reigning today in the Middle > East are not the result of Islamic principles. They are more a result > of global economics and the aftermath of European colonialism. > Meanwhile, like everyone else, average Muslims the world over want a > larger say in what goes on in the countries where they live. Those in > America may actually succeed in it. In this way, America is closer in > spirit to Islam than many Arab countries. > Islam contains an attractive mystical tradition. Mysticism is grounded > in the individual search for God. Where better to do that than in > America, land of individualists and spiritual seekers? And who might > better benefit than Americans from the centuries-long tradition of > teachers and students that characterize Islam. Surprising as it may > seem, America’s best-selling poet du jour is a Muslim mystic named > Rumi, the 800-year-old Persian bard and founder of the Mevlevi Path, > known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. Even book packagers are > now rushing him into print to meet and profit from mainstream demand > for this visionary. Translators as various as Robert Bly, Coleman > Barks, and Kabir and Camille Helminski have produced dozens of books > of Rumi’s verse and have only begun to bring his enormous output > before the English-speaking world. This is a concrete poetry of > ecstasy, where physical reality and the longing for God are joined by > flashes of metaphor and insight that continue to speak across the > centuries. > Islam is egalitarian. From New York to California, the only houses of > worship that are routinely integrated today are the approximately > 4,000 Muslim mosques. That is because Islam is predicated on a level > playing field, especially when it comes to standing before God. The > Pledge of Allegiance (one nation, "under God") and Lincoln’s > Gettysburg Address (all people are "created equal") express themes > that are also basic to Islam. > Islam is often viewed as an aggressive faith because of the concept of > jihad, but this is actually a misunderstood term. Because Muslims > believe that God wants a just world, they tend to be activists, and > they emphasize that people are equal before God. These are two reasons > why African Americans have been drawn in such large numbers to Islam. > They now comprise about one-third of all Muslims in America. > Meanwhile, this egalitarian streak also plays itself out in relations > between the sexes. Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, actually was a reformer > in his day. Following the Qur’an, he limited the number of wives a man > could have and strongly recommended against polygamy. The Qur’an laid > out a set of marriage laws that guarantees married women their family > names, their own possessions and capital, the right to agree upon whom > they will marry, and the right to initiate divorce. In Islam’s early > period, women were professionals and property owners, as increasingly > they are today. None of this may seem obvious to most Americans > because of cultural overlays that at times make Islam appear to be a > repressive faith toward women–but if you look more closely, you can > see the egalitarian streak preserved in the Qur’an finding expression > in contemporary terms. In today’s Iran, for example, more women than > men attend university, and in recent local elections there, 5,000 > women ran for public office. > Islam shares America’s new interest in food purity and diet. Muslims > conduct a monthlong fast during the holy month of Ramadan, a practice > that many Americans admire and even seek to emulate. I happened to > spend quite a bit of time with a non-Muslim friend during Ramadan this > year. After a month of being exposed to a practice that brings some > annual control to human consumption, my friend let me know, in > January, that he was "doing a little Ramadan" of his own. I asked what > he meant. "Well, I’m not drinking anything or smoking anything for at > least a month, and I’m going off coffee." Given this friend’s normal > intake of coffee, I could not believe my ears. > Muslims also observe dietary laws that restrict the kind of meat they > can eat. These laws require that the permitted, or halal, meat is > prepared in a manner that emphasizes cleanliness and a humane > treatment of animals. These laws ride on the same trends that have > made organic foods so popular. > Islam is tolerant of other faiths. Like America, Islam has a history > of respecting other religions. In Muhammad’s day, Christians, Sabeans, > and Jews in Muslim lands retained their own courts and enjoyed > considerable autonomy. As Islam spread east toward India and China, it > came to view Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism as valid paths to > salvation. As Islam spread north and west, Judaism especially > benefited. The return of the Jews to Jerusalem, after centuries as > outcasts, only came about after Muslims took the city in 638. The > first thing the Muslims did there was to rescue the Temple Mount, > which by then had been turned into a garbage heap. > Today, of course, the long discord between Israel and Palestine has > acquired harsh religious overtones. Yet the fact remains that this is > a battle for real estate, not a war between two faiths. Islam and > Judaism revere the same prophetic lineage, back to Abraham, and no > amount of bullets or barbed wire can change that. As The New York > Times recently reported, while Muslim/Jewish tensions sometimes flare > on university campuses, lately these same students have found ways to > forge common links. For one thing, the two religions share similar > dietary laws, including ritual slaughter and a prohibition on pork. > Joining forces at Dartmouth this fall, the first kosher/halal dining > hall is scheduled to open its doors this autumn. That isn’t all: > They’re already planning a joint Thanksgiving dinner, with birds > dressed at a nearby farm by a rabbi and an imam. If the American > Pilgrims were watching now, they’d be rubbing their eyes with > amazement. And, because they came here fleeing religious persecution, > they might also understand. > Islam encourages the pursuit of religious
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> In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Most Merciful? bullcrap! > The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion > fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam.
When hell freezes over! > Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a > nominally Christian nation. Didn’t the Pilgrims come here for freedom > to practice their Christian religion?
The Pilgrims came here partly to have the freedom to persecute those whom they didn’t like. > Don’t Christian values of > righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America’s democratic, > capitalist ideals?
America’s democratic institutions arose primarily out of Deism, not Christianity. Read a book or two about the founding fathers. A good place to start is Thomas Paine, then maybe Jefferson or Ben Franklin. They were openly against the sort of bigotry and ignorance that we associate with a lot of Christian cults, as well as with Islam. > True enough. But there’s a new religion on the block now, one that > fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It’s Islam.
Islam isn’t new, it’s old and outdated. The Islamic countries are cultural backwaters that are centuries behind the West. > Islam is the third-largest and fastest growing religious community in > the United States. This is not just because of immigration. More than > 50% of America’s six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like > these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the > beliefs that Muslims hold. Americans who make the effort to look > beyond popular stereotypes to learn the truth of Islam are surprised > to find themselves on familiar ground.
Bullshit. And it’s a shame you ragheads don’t all go back home where you belong. Why can’t this country close its borders like most other nations do? Ragheads are causing all sorts of problems in Europe right now, we don’t need you here. Go home!
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. > Islam: The Next American Religion? > From a Western Minaret > Michael Wolfe > The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion > fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam. > Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a > nominally Christian nation. Didn’t the Pilgrims come here for freedom > to practice their Christian religion? Don’t Christian values of > righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America’s democratic, > capitalist ideals? > True enough. But there’s a new religion on the block now, one that > fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It’s Islam. [...] > Who knows? Perhaps it won’t be long now before words like salat > (Muslim prayer) and Ramadan join karma and Nirvana in Webster’s > Dictionary, and Muslims take their place in America’s mainstream. > http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?boardID=12198&pageloc=/story/69…
We are certain that you will do your utmost to force it upon the less-than-human infidels!!!! — Muhammad al-Husain http://islamicweb.com/history/mahdi.htm The term "MAHDI" is a title meaning "The Guided one". Mahdi is a normal man who is going to follow the true Islam. His name will be Muhammad and his father name will be ‘Abdullah. He is a descendant from Ali and Fatima (daughter of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh)) so he will be descendant from al-Hasan or al-Husain. Mahdi will be very just and his capital will be Damascus. Allah told us that Jews will master the world two times (we live now 1998 during the first one) and Mahdi will appear between those two periods and will rule through the last one. Mahdi is NOT a prophet but he is the final Rightly Guided Khalifa. Mahdi will lead Muslims to a great victory against the Christian Romans (i.e. All the white Europeans including the Americans). This great war is called al-Malhamah al-Kubrah or Armageddon. It will end up with a great victory to Muslims against Romans after six years. Muslims will take over their capital Rome (this can be any city). In the seventh year, the Anticrist will apear and a greater war will start between Jews and Muslims for 40 days (longer that usual days) and will end when Jesus (pbuh) will come and Muslims will kill all Jews. All people will convert into Islam. Peace will pervade the whole world. http://islamicweb.com/history/mahdi.htm History of Damascus: http://syria.arabicnet.com/damas.asp "… All that you do makes it impossible for what already is there to express itself. That is why I call this ‘your natural state’. You’re always in that state. What prevents what is there from expressing itself in its own way is the search. The search is always in the wrong direction, so all that you consider very profound, all that you consider sacred, is a contamination in that consciousness. You may not like the word ‘contamination’, but all that you consider sacred, holy and profound is a contamination. "So, there’s nothing that you can do. It’s not in your hands. I don’t like to use the word ‘grace’, because if you use the word ‘grace’, the grace of whom? You are not a specially chosen individual; you deserve this, I don’t know why. If it were possible for me, I would be able to help somebody. This is something which I can’t give, because you have it. Why should I give it to you? It is ridiculous to ask for a thing which you already have." [...] "What is necessary for man is to free himself from the entire past of mankind, not only his individual past. That is to say, you have to free yourself from what every man before you has thought, felt and experienced — then only is it possible for you to be yourself. The whole purpose of my talking to people is to point out the uniqueness of every individual. Culture or civilization or whatever you might call it has always tried to fit us into a framework. Man is not man at all; I call him a ‘unique animal’ — and man will remain a unique animal as long as he’s burdened by the culture." The "Anti-Krishnamurti": — Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (Born 9 July 1918) http://www.well.com/user/jct/mystiq1.htm * * * THE EIGHTFOLD PATH Part Five: ISOLATION by Inanna Arthen Excerpt: http://www.earthspirit.org/fireheart/fhefiso.html "… At the farthest extreme, sensory deprivation and perceptual deprivation experiments in laboratories have explored the influence of isolation, not just from other people, but from the physical world itself. Sensory deprivation, as achieved in flotation tanks like those popular- ized by John Lilly [<http://www.johnclilly.com/>] [<http://www.levity.com/mavericks/lily-int.htm> & <http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id68/pg1/>] and the film, Altered States, attempts as far as possible to isolate the very mind, throwing it completely upon its own resources – or upon input from other than the five senses being restricted. Subjects in sensory deprivation experiments report a wide variety of consistent effects, including vivid and complex hallucinations, memory recall, changes in body image, and persistent, vivid dreams. Flotation tank subjects who worked with John Lilly found that when the mind is isolated from the body itself, it begins to freely recreate reality. In very short periods of time, Lilly’s subjects experienced vivid dreamlike encounters. memory playbacks, mythic visualizations and other effects. "Although sensory deprivation experiments are intriguing, they obviously represent an unnecessary extreme. Social isolation for extended periods accomplishes equally dramatic results. But why should simple isolation – voluntary separation from human company – have such a profound effect? "Our definition of what we call ‘reality’ is created by our minds based on several factors that all affect one another. We tend to imagine that what we experience through our senses is ‘reality.’ In fact, what we think about our sensory input controls not only our interpretation of our senses, but what perceptions are allowed to make an impression at all. Our minds are excellent editors, and they have been trained in this way by the constant cues we receive from other people in our environment. The urge to conform to social patterns is an overwhelming one. Human beings have proven themselves capable of adapting not only to the social structure of thousands of incredibly varied cultures. but also to the structures of non-human societies. From the moment we are born, we respond to countless visual, verbal, emotional and even psychic cues, which teach us how to build our inner models of the world. This web of social reinforcement is so addictive that most people experience great anxiety when they are separated from it – isolation, with no other uncomfortable conditions, is recognized as a source of extreme stress. In the absence of actual people, individuals in our society often rely on the constant reinforcement of television or radio. The instant that societal cues are removed, our grasp of consensual reality begins to decay. "Witches, shamans and other kinds of magick workers often lived on the fringes of their society, and therefore always occupied a frame of reference that was more or less different from that of their community. At the extreme, such a person may have acted in bizarre ways, responding to perceptions that were invisible to other people. In other cases, the magick worker was able to effectively live in both worlds, acting as a translator or conduit. But in order to maintain this position she had to stay semi-isolated. This is often true for Witches and Pagans today. Many of us grew up more or less isolated from our social peer group, and our personal reality includes many concepts that we easily forget are not shared by those around us. The training of a magick worker, now as in the past, involves the restructuring of his or her experience of reality more than it does the imparting of specific skills. We cannot learn to travel on the astral plane until the astral plane is included in our definition of reality. In order to accomplish this restructuring, a certain degree of detachment from society is needed. Serious students of magick may withdraw from old friends and begin spending far more time alone than they once did. "But living apart from society, and, hence, in a slightly different reality, is not the same as applying isolation as a specific magickal tool. When we choose to isolate ourselves from other people and turn away from the cushion of human society in a concentrated, controlled way, we are thrown into confrontation with ourselves. By deliberately separating from the consensual web for an extended period (closing our door, turning off the television, walking into the woods), we open ourselves to a profound – and possibly permanent – change. Cutoff from the unending stream of external cues, the mind begins to rely upon its own perceptions to fill in the growing cracks. We find ourselves seeking more and more perceptual material, and doorways that we were taught to close long ago slowly creak open." [...] — INANNA ARTHEN Scientists Discover Planetary System Similar to Our Own: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr0373.htm The Permian http://geology.er.usgs.gov/paleo/geotime.shtml 290 to 248 Million Years Ago The Permian period lasted from 290 to 248 million years ago and was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. The distinction between the Paleozoic and the Mesozoic is made at the end of the Permian in recognition of the largest mass extinction recorded in the history of life on Earth. It affected many groups of organisms in many different environments, but it affected marine communities the most by far, causing the extinction of most of the marine invertebrates of … read more »
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In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Islam: The Next American Religion? From a Western Minaret Michael Wolfe The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam. Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a nominally Christian nation. Didn’t the Pilgrims come here for freedom to practice their Christian religion? Don’t Christian values of righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America’s democratic, capitalist ideals? True enough. But there’s a new religion on the block now, one that fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It’s Islam. Islam is the third-largest and fastest growing religious community in the United States. This is not just because of immigration. More than 50% of America’s six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the beliefs that Muslims hold. Americans who make the effort to look beyond popular stereotypes to learn the truth of Islam are surprised to find themselves on familiar ground. Is America a Muslim nation? Here are seven reasons the answer may be yes. Islam is monotheistic. Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. They also revere the same prophets as Judaism and Christianity, from Abraham, the first monotheist, to Moses, the law giver and messenger of God, to Jesus–not leaving out Noah, Job, or Isaiah along the way. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition only came to the fore in the 1940s in America. Now, as a nation, we may be transcending it, turning to a more inclusive "Abrahamic" view. In January, President Bush grouped mosques with churches and synagogues in his inaugural address. A few days later, when he posed for photographers at a meeting of several dozen religious figures, the Shi’ite imam Muhammad Qazwini, of Orange County, Calif., stood directly behind Bush’s chair like a presiding angel, dressed in the robes and turban of his south Iraqi youth. Islam is democratic in spirit. Islam advocates the right to vote and educate yourself and pursue a profession. The Qur’an, on which Islamic law is based, enjoins Muslims to govern themselves by discussion and consensus. In mosques, there is no particular priestly hierarchy. With Islam, each individual is responsible for the condition of her or his own soul. Everyone stands equal before God. Americans, who mostly associate Islamic government with a handful of tyrants, may find this independent spirit surprising, supposing that Muslims are somehow predisposed to passive submission. Nothing could be further from the truth. The dictators reigning today in the Middle East are not the result of Islamic principles. They are more a result of global economics and the aftermath of European colonialism. Meanwhile, like everyone else, average Muslims the world over want a larger say in what goes on in the countries where they live. Those in America may actually succeed in it. In this way, America is closer in spirit to Islam than many Arab countries. Islam contains an attractive mystical tradition. Mysticism is grounded in the individual search for God. Where better to do that than in America, land of individualists and spiritual seekers? And who might better benefit than Americans from the centuries-long tradition of teachers and students that characterize Islam. Surprising as it may seem, America’s best-selling poet du jour is a Muslim mystic named Rumi, the 800-year-old Persian bard and founder of the Mevlevi Path, known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. Even book packagers are now rushing him into print to meet and profit from mainstream demand for this visionary. Translators as various as Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, and Kabir and Camille Helminski have produced dozens of books of Rumi’s verse and have only begun to bring his enormous output before the English-speaking world. This is a concrete poetry of ecstasy, where physical reality and the longing for God are joined by flashes of metaphor and insight that continue to speak across the centuries. Islam is egalitarian. From New York to California, the only houses of worship that are routinely integrated today are the approximately 4,000 Muslim mosques. That is because Islam is predicated on a level playing field, especially when it comes to standing before God. The Pledge of Allegiance (one nation, "under God") and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (all people are "created equal") express themes that are also basic to Islam. Islam is often viewed as an aggressive faith because of the concept of jihad, but this is actually a misunderstood term. Because Muslims believe that God wants a just world, they tend to be activists, and they emphasize that people are equal before God. These are two reasons why African Americans have been drawn in such large numbers to Islam. They now comprise about one-third of all Muslims in America. Meanwhile, this egalitarian streak also plays itself out in relations between the sexes. Muhammad, Islam’s prophet, actually was a reformer in his day. Following the Qur’an, he limited the number of wives a man could have and strongly recommended against polygamy. The Qur’an laid out a set of marriage laws that guarantees married women their family names, their own possessions and capital, the right to agree upon whom they will marry, and the right to initiate divorce. In Islam’s early period, women were professionals and property owners, as increasingly they are today. None of this may seem obvious to most Americans because of cultural overlays that at times make Islam appear to be a repressive faith toward women–but if you look more closely, you can see the egalitarian streak preserved in the Qur’an finding expression in contemporary terms. In today’s Iran, for example, more women than men attend university, and in recent local elections there, 5,000 women ran for public office. Islam shares America’s new interest in food purity and diet. Muslims conduct a monthlong fast during the holy month of Ramadan, a practice that many Americans admire and even seek to emulate. I happened to spend quite a bit of time with a non-Muslim friend during Ramadan this year. After a month of being exposed to a practice that brings some annual control to human consumption, my friend let me know, in January, that he was "doing a little Ramadan" of his own. I asked what he meant. "Well, I’m not drinking anything or smoking anything for at least a month, and I’m going off coffee." Given this friend’s normal intake of coffee, I could not believe my ears. Muslims also observe dietary laws that restrict the kind of meat they can eat. These laws require that the permitted, or halal, meat is prepared in a manner that emphasizes cleanliness and a humane treatment of animals. These laws ride on the same trends that have made organic foods so popular. Islam is tolerant of other faiths. Like America, Islam has a history of respecting other religions. In Muhammad’s day, Christians, Sabeans, and Jews in Muslim lands retained their own courts and enjoyed considerable autonomy. As Islam spread east toward India and China, it came to view Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism as valid paths to salvation. As Islam spread north and west, Judaism especially benefited. The return of the Jews to Jerusalem, after centuries as outcasts, only came about after Muslims took the city in 638. The first thing the Muslims did there was to rescue the Temple Mount, which by then had been turned into a garbage heap. Today, of course, the long discord between Israel and Palestine has acquired harsh religious overtones. Yet the fact remains that this is a battle for real estate, not a war between two faiths. Islam and Judaism revere the same prophetic lineage, back to Abraham, and no amount of bullets or barbed wire can change that. As The New York Times recently reported, while Muslim/Jewish tensions sometimes flare on university campuses, lately these same students have found ways to forge common links. For one thing, the two religions share similar dietary laws, including ritual slaughter and a prohibition on pork. Joining forces at Dartmouth this fall, the first kosher/halal dining hall is scheduled to open its doors this autumn. That isn’t all: They’re already planning a joint Thanksgiving dinner, with birds dressed at a nearby farm by a rabbi and an imam. If the American Pilgrims were watching now, they’d be rubbing their eyes with amazement. And, because they came here fleeing religious persecution, they might also understand. Islam encourages the pursuit of religious freedom. The Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock is not the world’s first story of religious emigration. Muhammad and his little band of 100 followers fled religious persecution, too, from Mecca in the year 622. They only survived by going to Madinah, an oasis a few hundred miles north, where they established a new community based on a religion they could only practice secretly back home. No wonder then that, in our own day, many Muslims have come here as pilgrims from oppression, leaving places like Kashmir, Bosnia, and Kosovo, where being a Muslim may radically shorten your life span. When the 20th century’s list of emigrant exiles is added up, it will prove to be heavy with Muslims, that’s for sure. All in all, there seems to be a deep resonance between Islam and the United States. Although one is a world religion and the other is a sovereign nation, both are traditionally very strong on individual responsibility. Like New Hampshire’s motto, "Live Free or Die," America is wedded to individual liberty and an ethic based on right action. For a Muslim, spiritual salvation depends on these. This is best expressed in a popular saying: Even when you think God isn’t watching you, act as if he is. Who knows? Perhaps it won’t be long now before words like salat (Muslim prayer) and Ramadan join karma and Nirvana in Webster’s … read more »