Here Thar Be Monsters!

From the other side of the argument to the other side of the planet, read in over 149 countries and 17 languages. We bring you news and opinion with an IndoTex® flavor. Be sure to check out the Home Site. Send thoughts and comments to bernard atradiofarside.com, and tell all your friends. Note comments on this site are moderated to remove spam. Sampai jumpa, y'all.
Showing posts with label Eid al-Adha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eid al-Adha. Show all posts

6.6.17

Practice Makes Puppet

READER NOTE: If you aren't following @RadioFarSide on Twitter, then you are missing half the major news stories in the world.  We've been covering stories that Western media haven't even touched, like the Philippines ISIS war and the Melbourne bombing.  We go where your nightly news fears to tread, from the other side of the argument, to the other side of the planet!

Every year, a couple of months or so after Ramadhan, there's an Islamic holy day called Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.  Animals, usually goats and cows, have their throats slit with a ceremonial knife and their blood is sloshed all over the mosque in a cleansing ritual.

Keep this in mind as you read details of the London Bridge attack, where the perpetrators used long hunting knives to slit the throats of their victims as they invoked Allah.  If you are open minded enough, you might see a connection between Eid al-Adha and the attack.

Islam began as a backward religion.  It borrowed heavily from the Old and New Testaments of Judaism and Christianity.

At the time Islam was being formed, around AD500, Judaism had mostly ceased live animal sacrifices, and Christianity had replaced them with a ritualistic sacrifice called the Eucharist.  In other words, the two existing monotheisms had begun a reformation process that eschewed barbaric bloody sacrifice, at least insofar as it involved actual, living creatures.

Islam, however, sought to return to an earlier incarnation of these religions, adopting many of the (even then) ancient practices outlined in the Old Testament.

In this way, there is an existing mentality within Islam that the slaughter and spilling of blood is a sacred offering to Allah, who apparently enjoys the sight of innocent blood.  By extension, the more radical elements within Islam would transfer the concept of bloody sacrifice from animals to humans.  After all, if Allah is pleased with animal blood, he must find human blood even more so.

In other words, to the warped minds of the terrorists, if they are killed in the process of slaughtering innocents, then they are cleansed by the blood and eligible for great rewards in heaven.  It is as if their bodies are representative mosques, and the sloshing of innocent blood on their bodies is a ritual cleansing that is most pleasing to Allah.  Thus, the oft-cited "72 virgins" reward for being so pure when standing at the Pearly Gates, or however it is rendered in Islam.

This built-in mentality has been weaponized by certain elements in the West.  It has been fostered and promoted since at least the days of Lawrence of Arabia.  This mentality has been made a tool of Western policy and used to herd the citizens of the US and Europe in whatever direction is needed at the moment.

The weaponization reached a peak under the Nazi regime, where the natural rivalry between Jews and Muslims was a ready tool for those wishing to rid Europe of Jews.  The network developed by the Nazis in the Middle East was taken over by the US after WW2, and put to use in recent times as a means of steering the masses.

This goes a long way toward explaining why Western governments are loath to stop the Muslim influx, and why these bloody attacks occur even when the perpetrators are known to be radicalized and have been under surveillance for some time.  This is why Muslims are allowed to run amok in European countries and have the red carpet rolled out for them.

The radicalized Muslims are tools.  They are created and controlled by Western governments as a means to herd the masses into surrendering their rights.  The radicals are not out of control, they are completely under control.  They have been brainwashed and sold a bill of goods by evil slime hiding in the shadows of Western power centers.

This is a condemnation not only of Western elites who foster and use the radicals, but of the radicals who allow themselves to be manipulated and used in such a way.

It is time for Islam to recognize that it is being manipulated by Western elites, and to reform itself in order to free Muslims from this crass manipulation.  There is no glory in slaughter of innocents, there is only hell on Earth and elsewhere.

The other religions of the world have long since reformed and ceased the senseless and barbaric practice of bloody sacrifice.  Isn't it about time Islam took a long, hard look at itself?

23.10.12

Rodeo Daze In Jakarta

OK, so it's not REALLY a rodeo, but for a Texas boy, it sure looks like one.

You see, Friday is Iddul Adha, or if you prefer the original Arabic, Eid al-Adha.  That's the Feast of Sacrifice for those who aren't Muslim.  It celebrates one of the most contentious events in history, since it is the basis of all the problems in the Middle East today.

According to Jews, "Abraham" was told by Yahweh to go sacrifice his son, Issac.  According to Islam, "Ibrahim" was told to go sacrifice his son, Ishmael.  If you're not up on your Old Testament, old Abe wanted a son, but at well over 100 years old, his wife wasn't up to the job, so he did the deed with a handy maidservant.  The offspring was Ishmael, who went on to father the semitic races.  Later, Yahweh told old Abe that He was fixing things so Abe could have another son with his wife.  Sure enough, she plumped right up and eventually had Isaac, who went on to father the Hebrews.

At some point, Yahweh (thinking this would be great fun apparently) told Abe to sacrifice his son, and here's where the fun really starts.  Abe took either Ishmael or Isaac up a mountain and prepared to let one of them have it.  Reports are that Abe's wife was so distressed by this that she died on the way.  Just as Abe was about to do in Ishmael/Isaac, Yahweh stopped the show and provided a lamb instead.

This incident set up one of the hottest family feuds in history, and even though the Hebrews have all but vanished off the face of the Earth, the Jews (actually Russians from the Caucasus mountains), along with their Christian dupes, have carried on the tradition of killing and hating.  Needless to say, this makes the Jews the most anti-semitic people around.  How's that for screwball?

So anyway, back to the rodeo.

Celebrating Idul Adha involves sacrificing goats, or if you're particularly rich, cows, to atone for one's sins.  In order to pull this off, this past week has seen truckloads of goats and cows being brough into the city.  Make-shift bamboo pans have sprung up around every mosque in town, with the attendant sounds and smells of livestock assaulting one's senses every 200 meters.

On Friday, the festival begins at sunrise.  Families pool their resources to buy one of the animals for sacrifice.  Afterwards, the meat is divvied up, with the poor folk getting a share of the bounty.  The scene is replicated at mosques all over the country, and even on vessels at sea, though I have no reports of this occuring on airplanes as yet.

A few years ago, a particularly corrupt politician (but I repeat myself) was showing off his pocket change and bought a cow for sacrifice at the main mosque in city center.  After the sacrifice, it was discovered that the animal's liver was riddled with worms.  Keep in mind that the liver in this culture is the seat of the soul and emotions, much as the heart is in Western cultures.  This was taken as a sign that the politician's sins were quite extensive and there was a minor scandal over the following weeks.

Much like Houston, the week has been full of trucks, push carts and any other rolling vessel delivering hundreds of animals across the city.  And like Houston, the got-rocks folks will show off their wads of cash by buying the most expensive and showiest animals.  Unlike Houston, they will be slaughtered on the street, rather than the butcher shop, and none of them will be ridden, as far as I know.  But the overall effect is very similar.

It's enough to make one homesick.  Similar events a world apart for very different reasons and histories, but still one of those interesting little quirks of Life on the Far Side.