Several days ago, Bruce Wilson posted a rather shocking entry over at The Huffington Post. In it he delves into Sarah Palin’s involvement in the Third Wave Movement, a Christian sect whose beliefs include…

“… [that] the universe is populated with millions of superhuman/supernatural beings bent on destroying humanity and God’s designs.”

[…]

“According to the Third Wave ideology, there has been a cosmic conflict between God’s forces and the rebellious demonic powers originating even before the creation of the world and extending into human history. It is believed that some of these demonic beings have been left free to roam the earth as an opposing force to humankind. This was necessary, for only in conflict could humanity attain the fulfillment of its true destiny. But war and conflict are not only present at the eve of creation and necessary for the fulfillment of human destiny; it characterizes human existence. God created the human race as a warrior race. The logic of this perspective is that God’s intentions for humanity to be a warrior race required an environment containing the opposition necessary for the human race to fulfill its true destiny.”

Personally, those two quotes alone scare the hell out me. Religious fundamentalism, it seems, isn’t limited to radical ideologues plotting in caves after all.

I’m going to go on a bit of a tirade, so prepare yourself.

Let’s cut the shit and be honest - Muslims blow people up, right? Since September the 11th, and even preceding it, that has been much of the Western world’s perception. Since 9/11, Islam has been attacked by right-wing hacks the world over as being a faith that is steeped in intolerance and hatred. Of course, those same people, even if they’ve read the Qu’ran, usually have zero experience with regards to Muslim cultures. Their intolerance of Islam is steeped in a perspective that lumps an entire faith into a single category – that being one represented by extremists.

That said; how many of you Catholics out there appreciate being branded child molesters simply because there are those within the church that have been guilty of it? What if I were to say that you’re all child molesters – every last despicable, Papist one of you?

Let’s get off our high horse and, for once, smell the bullshit. The current tensions in the Middle East have roots. One of them is the creation of Israel without the involvement of the Arab League. The other is that much of the region was exploited by imperial powers for centuries.

The latter of those two was reason enough for the people of the American Colonies to rise up against the British and employ both conventional military force and the use of militias to oppose them. Of course, some of those same freedom loving people, now historically glorified, were also responsible for genocidal practices with regards to various Native American peoples. But we needn’t dwell on that.

A very long time ago, numerous Popes - that would be God’s chosen representative on earth - proclaimed that killing Muslims was the path to heaven. In fact, that belief held water for two entire centuries. During that time, Christian nations in Europe sent armies into Palestine, among other places, to retake what they deemed rightfully theirs and to wipe out whomever happened to disagree with their views. And the Jews? Well, they were demonized as well.

Interestingly, if you open a history book, you’ll discover that during the 4th Century Jews were banned from Jerusalem altogether by a Christian Roman Emperor, lasting until 638. And what happened in 638? Well, Arabs captured the city and, believe it or not, allowed Jews access to it again. In fact, up until the first Crusade, Jews and Muslims both worshipped openly in Jerusalem. And then, in 1099, Christian Crusaders murdered the majority of its population, Jews and Muslims alike, during and after their siege of the city.

In the centuries that followed, Jerusalem was ruled by a variety of others – Muslims again, Christians again, the Turks, the Mamelukes, the Ottomans and the British. Ultimately, thousands of years after last controlling it, the creation of Israel established much of Palestine as a Jewish state, including parts of Jerusalem.

But I digress.

One of the highest crimes during the Inquisition was being labeled a ‘Jewdite’. The punishment? Death. If you were suspected of being Jewish in Spain during that time you faced ‘The Question,’ were imprisoned, and then put to death. Of course, conversion was always an option, but that didn’t automatically mean that your life would be spared. The same went for Protestants, though they would employ their own special brand of intolerance in those parts of Europe that were under their control, doing the same to Catholics.

In any event, you’ve got well in excess of a thousand years of Christian brutality, extremism and murder to reflect on. And that’s not even taking into account those conquests of the new world sanctioned by Rome that inevitably led to the eradication of entire peoples.

So do you honestly believe that when it comes to religious extremism we possess the moral high ground? If you do, you’re one of two things – either on crack or looking for some.

If you scan the headlines right now, you’ll be confronted by the news that militants killed eight Israelis today in Jerusalem. In Gaza, news of the murders was met with celebratory gunfire. Given what’s happened in Gaza over the last two weeks, it doesn’t surprise me that sympathetic morons would shoot bullets into the air to celebrate the cold blooded murder of innocent people. But that’s to be expected, just as Western bias regarding what transpired over the last two weeks in Gaza is to be expected. As for the Israeli government, what happened today shouldn’t come as a surprise. I mean, after the events of last two weeks, what did they expect? In the words of Forrest Gump – stupid is as stupid does.

They’re extremists, the lot of them. They just conduct their wars of piety and revenge, of ideology and intolerance, in ways that can be spun to suit the rage required to sustain dedication to such moronic behaviour on both sides.

Killing’s, killing’s, killing’s kids. 54 people were blown to bits in Baghdad today, with another 100 more injured. But it’s just another day in Iraq. Iraqi extremists, or foreign extremists that have ventured to Iraq to play their little role in a game as ignorantly old as the sun and the moon, killed innocent Iraqis. It’s to be expected. Muslims blow people up, right?

Old news, or not white people, or not steadfast allies. Eight dead Israelis, on the other hand, is news – and certainly vastly more important than the deaths of innocent Palestinians. Because Muslims blow people up, right? Theirs is a faith steeped in violence and hatred and intolerance and that’s proven to be the case since its inception, right? Ours, on the other hand, is a belief steeped in love and glorious instant noodle salvation.

In God we trust. I’ll tell you this, flat out – God, in his many forms, is an untrustworthy fucker. Because if you’re going to buy into the belief that it’s best to put your faith in placing all of your eggs in one basket, then if you drop it you lose everything. And that, at its core, is nothing but the roots of extremism.

Religion is as old as man. So is stupidity. Coincidence?

I first want to thank Mona Romeh for forwarding me this video. Mona has been a fan for years, and over that time we have gotten to know one another quite well. While she grew up in Ontario, her family is Egyptian, and Mona has lived and worked in both countries. The following video is an episode of Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days entitled Thirty Days As A Muslim. It is about a man from West Virginia who travels to Michigan to live in one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States as one of them.

Misconceptions about the Muslim faith in North America are vast to say the least. Not unlike the intolerance shown Jews for centuries, in the post 9/11 world much of North America has adopted a completely misguided and propagandized view of the world’s second largest religion. As this video shows, most of those questioned about Muslims immediately responded by claiming that images of terrorists were the first to come to mind.

The roots of Islam stem from the same foundation as that of Judaism and Christianity. Unbeknownst to many North Americans, two of Islam’s most revered prophets include Abraham and Jesus Christ. The teachings of the Qur’an are, at their core, no different than that of most major religions practiced in the West. In it the teachings of God are no less enigmatic or empathetic as those of Christianity or Judaism. Thus, it is indeed a profound irony that the Qur’an and the Torah both proclaim one of the most moving observances penned in a holy text - “If you save one life, you have saved all of humanity; if you take one life, you take all of humanity.�?

Historical context is vastly important with regards to religious condemnation. While we live in a world in which so many label Muslims as being connected to a criminal mindset that the vast majority of them both reject and condemn, we often forget our own transgressions. Christianity is, by far, the greatest producer of religious based death and disparity in human history, and yet the teachings of Christ utterly contradict the violent, and even genocidal, actions committed in his name. That reality is something that we commonly, and conveniently, forget, though it should not be overlooked that Christians today cannot be blamed for those transgressions – just as 1.5 billion Muslims cannot, and must not, be condemned for the actions of a minority of radical zealots in their midst.

The Irish politician Edmund Burke once said - “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.�? His words are applicable to those on both sides of this growing ‘cultural battle’ that exists today, especially with regards to the spread of disinformation. It is for good men and women to ensure that the minority of ignorant voices does not drown out reason, compassion, and the shared bond that exists between all peoples, no matter their faiths. If the essence of a just God is compassion for his creations, then devotion to him must be measured in mankind’s ability to apply that to itself.

I watched Jesus Camp tonight. I’m trying to figure out who Becky Fischer is more in love with – Jesus or Joseph Goebbels. After watching her hateful indoctrination of such young, impressionable minds I would have to go with the latter.

Where is the message of Christ in this film, at her camp, or in her ministry? Where are the edicts of Christ? Where are compassion, peace, and forgiveness? For if Christ was anything, he was the embodiment of those three virtues.

During the film a group of children, some perhaps no older than 4 or 5, are asked if they are prepared to die for Jesus, their faith, and belief in a nation governed by individuals of a similar disposition. I had to stop the film at that point and pause. There is no need to die for Jesus because that is precisely what he did for those who believe in him. He died to forgive them their sins and to ensure that his message would not be forgotten or corrupted. That the tenets of love, compassion, and peace, above all things, are of paramount importance.

“It’s a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart. It’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart.” - Josh Ritter, Thin Blue Flame

Unlike last Sunday, I haven’t taken it off this week, so I’m in the studio today for some 15 odd hours and am trying to quickly jot something fun and/or of interest down. So here it is (thanks to a YouTube video sent to me by Raymi).

Last week she sent me a short video clip about Evangelicals who preach Creationism and claim that not only did man and the dinosaur coexist several thousand years ago, but that there is reference to dinosaurs in the bible.

You know, it’s interesting. I’ve read the histories of a fair number of ancient Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and not one ever mentioned dinosaurs, or, for that matter, anything larger than an elephant. Then again, I suppose to those that rely on blind faith, the histories of ancient civilizations aren’t applicable. I would hope that that isn’t the case for the sake of those young minds being robbed of the full breadth of historical knowledge by narrow-minded charlatans.

The reality is that 2500 years ago Rome was in its ascendancy and Confucius was appointed the governor of Chung-tu in China. Had there been tyrannosaurs running about, I’m sure someone, somewhere, would have painted one on a pot or sculpted its likeness. In fact, it’s more probable that ancient cultures would have been using their likenesses as power symbols, which didn’t actually become a widely popular occurrence in human culture until after the release of Jurassic Park (Toronto Raptors et all).

Elsewhere

+ Mercenaries are second largest force in Iraq: UN official

+ U.S. can’t prove Iran link to Iraq strife

+ Saturday: 210 Iraqis, 5 GIs Killed; 418 Iraqis Wounded

+ Under-18s sent to war in Iraq, says MoD

+ Carbon Dioxide Rate is at Highest Level for 650,000 Years

+ UK policy in tatters as Afghan town falls

+ Weekend Scare Underscores Very Real Danger of Sudden Death for Hunger Striking Detainees at Canada’s Guantanamo North - Still No Medical Monitoring After Two Months Without Food

+ What is a Democracy? The Empire and Inequality Report, no. 9

From The Washington Post (Crooks And Liars has the video while Corrente comments on the slippery Constitutional slope)…

“A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate whether seven Army and Air Force officers violated regulations by appearing in uniform in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization.

In the video, much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon, four generals and three colonels praise the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders, politicians and diplomats in Washington. Some of the officers describe their efforts to spread their faith within the military.

“I found a wonderful opportunity as a director on the joint staff, as I meet the people that come into my directorate,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack J. Catton Jr. says in the video. “And I tell them right up front who Jack Catton is, and I start with the fact that I’m an old-fashioned American, and my first priority is my faith in God, then my family and then country. I share my faith because it describes who I am.”

Pete Geren, a former acting secretary of the Air Force who oversaw the service’s response in 2005 to accusations that evangelical Christians were pressuring cadets at the Air Force Academy, also appears in the video. The Christian Embassy “has been a rock that I can rely on, been an organization that helped me in my walk with Christ, and I’m just thankful for the service they give,” he says.

The 10-minute video is on the group’s Web site, Christianembassy.com. The organization was founded nearly 30 years ago by the late Bill Bright, who also founded Campus Crusade for Christ. The Christian Embassy Web site says the group holds prayer breakfasts each Wednesday in the Pentagon’s executive dining room and organizes small groups to help military leaders “bridge the gap between faith and work.”

Direct link - Christianembassy.com.

1.6 million Iraqis have fled their own country since the 2003 invasion. That’s 12% of the entire population. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of the city of Vancouver disappearing and a million more suburbanites along with them.

What’s one to do? Leave Hussein in power? Allow his non-existent weapons of mass destruction program to carry on until such a point is reached that it becomes too difficult to justify the invasion of a sovereign nation so that it can’t be used as a regional footprint? No post war Pentagon planning at the insistence of the Secretary himself? Fourteen permanent military instillations currently in the works according to the likes of Chalmers Johnson, and we’re supposed to sit here and swallow seasoned horseshit about pseudo democracy and radicalism? Has the war in Iraq not helped radicalize the Islamic world? That seems to be the general consensus. But maybe that’s what the neo-Christian warriors plaguing the political landscape of the United States are after. I don’t know, but I can tell you that they, along with their radical Islamic bedfellows, can chip in to help build a giant spaceship so that they can fuck off Mars together and fight it out there, because this sailor has had enough.

What do you need other than being struck upside the head with a shovel not to see the occupation of Iraq for what it is. Like the lame, historic textbook ‘domino’ defense given to justify ten disastrous years in South East Asia that no one had the guts to put an end too because it would have been domestic political suicide, Iraq has become the latest pit of arrogance and deceit in which a nation historically too proud to admit to any fault has once again found itself. And, as is always the case, young men and women, along with countless innocents, are paying the price for it. While the nation sleeps, gorged on burgers and fries and shakes and Prison Break, the conned in camouflaged do their best to stay low enough to make it home. And when they get there, well, there’s always the chance that they could be the victims of loopholes and sent back, or discover that veterans funding has been diminished by the same administration that had the balls to exclaim – “bring it on�?.

The problem with this world isn’t the differences of its peoples, be they political or religious or otherwise. The problem is that none of us can seem to admit that while clowns are entertaining at first, they’ll always eventually start hitting each other over the head with bowling pins.