World of Religions & Bizarre Rituals
Including Cannibalism, Murder, Torture, Sacrifice and more!
Postings - Feb. 2008 to Sept. 2009

 

The Bizarre World in which we all live!

These postings are not meant to create or instill hatreds or prejudices against any person or group. They are simply to alarm, awaken and a request for readers to question their own beliefs. All people and all religions share blame for the world's turmoil.

Click on the link posted near the bottom of the page to watch the videos of the severity of inhuman atrocities committed daily by Islamic Radicals. The videos, like most of the postings on this site, are not for Children or the faint hearted.

Aug. 2009 headlines;

Catholic bank in Germany has some unethical investments

A German bank owned by the Roman Catholic church has admitted to having stocks in defense, tobacco and birth control companies worth over a million dollars. Do a little researching and you will be quite surprised at what is owned by churches...

The bank was 'outed' by Der Spiegel newspaper after it was discovered that the bank had invested 580,000 euros in BAE Systems. BAE Systems is a British arms company. Further investigation revealed that the bank invested in Wyeth who makes American birth control pills and had invested in various tobacco companies. The bank has apologized for not keeping within ethical standards. The Catholic Dynasty is well worth over a few Trillion dollars and yet millions of impoverished people continue perishing without hope. So think about that before you empty your pockets into their countless bank accounts.

Raped Nine-Year-Old’s Abortion Outrages Brazil’s Catholic Church
March 8 2009

Recife - Brazil

The case of the pregnant 9-year-old was shocking enough. But it was the response of the Catholic Church that infuriated many Brazilians. Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of the coastal city of Recife announced that the Vatican was excommunicating the family of a local girl who had been raped and impregnated with twins by her stepfather, because they had chosen to have the girl undergo an abortion. The Church excommunicated the doctors who performed the procedure as well. “God’s laws,” said the archbishop, dictate that abortion is a sin and that transgressors are no longer welcome in the Roman Catholic Church. (I see ignorance and totalitarianism is still strong in the Church)

Shocking facts and acts

For instance, 16 cultists died a few years ago in a clash of gunfire against lawmen, believing they were invulnerable against bullets. Alfredo Obsioma, leader of the Catholic God's Spirit cult, claimed that their magical powers did not work because many of them were sinners. The former army soldier declared that amulets made of paper scribbled with Latin prayers would be enough to make his followers invincible to bullets.

Another instance was the arrest of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association leader Ruben Ecleo Jr. of Cebu that has ignited a new conflagration of controversy. The PBMA claims to have more than 10,000 followers, most of whom are also practicing Catholics. The difference is that they worship Ecleo, their "divine master" whom they believe to be the living incarnation of Jesus Christ. At the moment, Ecleo is being detained in Manila with charges of murdering his wife and use of illegal drugs. But this did not stop legions of his followers to flock to the prisons to pay homage to him.

Warning; The below article in it's entirety is not suitable for people under 18 years of age, nor for the feint hearted. The below postings may be offensive to some people and the photos/videos, while genuine, are quite graphic!

Religion in one form or another, actually in thousands of forms have been with, and in my opinion plagued, mankind since the beginning.

If you ask how many different faiths there are around the world it depends totally on what you consider a faith. Is agnostic a faith? Is atheism a faith?

If you are looking for a number of faiths in Christianity. . . several years ago there were more than 30,000 Christian varying faith structures. The easiest way to answer your question is to look at faith structures around the world. Islam and Christianity are two of the larger faith systems. Again the Islamic faith system breaks down in many different belief systems. The religion of Judaism, for example, has many different faith structures based upon the belief or creed of the individual belief group.

All of this is a long way to come around to an answer. The 'correct answer' is that the number of religions changes almost on a daily basis, but the overriding faith structure are manifold.

It is impossible to accurately predict the number of religions individuals obtain. There are many small, isolated religions in certain parts of the world. Groups living in areas that hinder communication and interaction often tend to be small, thus preventing diffusion from occurring.

It should also be noted that in the "Humanist" philosophy, each persons religious theology is unique, therefore the answer would be equal to the current population of the Earth.

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities" -- Voltaire (1694-1778)

Throughout history, religion has been responsible for a large proportion of the suffering in the world - yet religious beliefs are based in ancient myths and legends that should have been discarded centuries ago.

China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, US The World's main executioners: They all use this extreme and diabolic form of punishment,” China has carried out executions by shooting or lethal injection, Saudi Arabia by beheading, Iran by hanging or stoning and the United States by electrocution or lethal injection.

The below Video betrays the  deliberate lies and distortions of the Religion Doctrines

 

 

Disclaimer

This is not a hate site - the contributors are not inciting violence towards any individual or group because of their beliefs. Much of the content of this site however will be offensive to many believers. We make no apology for ridiculing both the beliefs and, in some cases, the believers themselves. Despite what many people think, religion - like any other system of belief or philosophy - does not automatically deserve respect.

Please note that the comments in the blog are generally uncensored and do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors of this site.

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The below postings of some of the world's most bizarre religions, practices, rituals and other abnormalities are simply to bewilder, and perhaps instill a shocking awareness to the odd, bizarre and violent nature of mankind and his primitive beliefs. Religion was born of carnage, ignorance, superstition and self righteousness...it remains basically unchanged.

Indeed, as Dr. M. La Ritvo (1974) says in his discussion of my paper (La Porta, 1974), I treat the religious ritual mainly as an external situation acting on religious people. I emphasize the word mainly because, as we know, there is a basic and internal need for religious feeling and for belief. We are also familiar with Freud's ideas about religion: firstly, the internal source of the father as a God, and secondly, his hypothesis of the origins of morality and religion as being derived from the sacrifice of the father in mankind's prehistory. Above all, the human mind was structured through contact between biological impulses and needs, and the external world.

Nowadays the human mind is a complete historical archive of this contact and its prehistory. Internal reality is a product of this encounter and the external world is in part also a product of internal necessity, principally through the projection of internal fantasies, wishes and conflicts.

" In paying reference to the author of the below article; The Biggest Lie Ever Told; Please buy and read the books that detail and explain the founding of the Christian Religion; Purchase Books Online

At this point, we shall explore a correlation that has direct bearings to the astrological (astronomical) foundations of the Christ Myth. Humanity has, since time immemorial looked upon December 25, as the birth of the Sun (Son) God. Witness a quote from my previous book:

"The Biggest Lie Ever Told"-

"As I stated at the beginning of this chapter, the key to the connection between the Sun God and the Son of God is the number 3. The bible is replete with verses stating that the major sign for identifying the Son of God is that he would lay in a grave for three (3) days and then be resurrected-Born Again. Jesus Christ is the Personification of the Sun-God. I will not delve into the subject, at this point, but if you searched from now till doom's day, you will not find any Secular History of a person living 2,000 years ago, in Palestine, by the name of Jesus Christ, that accomplished the feats that are attributed to him, in the bible. The source of all knowledge concerning a person (prophet) called the Christ or Jesus are the biblical scriptures and other literature that was derived from the original biblical sources. Furthermore the bible was compiled and translated and revised by proponents of the Christian faith who established that religion, during the early centuries of this era (this era began approximately 2,000 years ago).

The pre-Christian Europeans practiced a variety of paganistic rituals that culminated each year, at the dawning of the winter type weather, on Dec. 25. They celebrated this day as the day of the Birth or Resurrection of the Sun God. Not as a symbol. They actually looked upon Dec. 25 as the day when the Sun was Born anew- Resurrected into new life. This ritual worship of the resurrection (birth) of the Sun-God on Dec. 25 goes back thousands of years into pre-history. The primary, motivating factor that inspired early man to worship god, was his fear and dread of the potential fierceness of his environment. His ( primitive man) major impetus for worshipping and sacrificing to the Sun God was to assure that the Sun God would continue protecting mankind from the ravages of the dreaded winter. So for primitive man, the inception of winter, December 22, was the worst day of every year for him. This day (December 22, the start of winter) marked the beginning of the worst stage of his yearly struggle for survival. This day (December 22, the start of winter) was the harbinger of his potential perdition. This day December 22, is referred to by astronomers as the Winter Solstice. This word, Solstice, according to Webster's Dictionary means "to stand still, pause, a turning point". On December 22 of each year, the Sun reached its Winter Solstice, the lowest point of trajectory (angle of rays) of the entire year. After December 22 (the turning point), the Sun again Rises northward, which is a sign that summer shall come again! Even though December 22 marks the beginning of winter and the weather turns progressively worst from that point (December 22) until the start of spring (March 21), all is not lost. Because the fact that the angle of Sun's rays projecting on the earth, was moving progressively northward told early man that the Warmth and Comfort of the summer Sun would eventually prevail. But there was a period of doubt, for early primitive civilization. Primitive man did not understand our universe and solar system as we do today. In this age of science we, today, know exactly what causes the four seasons of the year. But early man knew absolutely nothing about solar system, the axis of the earth--it's rotation and revolving around the sun. He did not understand that these forces operated by a Natural, Providential Law would stay it's course, no matter what. Early man only understood the result, not the cause.

So each year, early society awaited the approach of December 22, with foreboding. December 22, the day of the Winter Solstice (definition is to stand still) was a day of reckoning for them. Because it seemed to them, as they observed and tracked the North to South movement of the Sun, that on this day December 22, the sun entered its grave. The North to South progression of the Sun can be likened to a swinging pendulum. You know that when a pendulum reaches its solstice (the point where it swings back - its turning point), that for a slight imperceptible moment, it actually stands still. But in terms of our vast solar system, the point of solstice is not imperceptible. It lasts for days, three days to be exact.

For three days, after the sun reaches its solstice, it appears to stand still. This period of pause, between the Suns descent and Ascent, wrought paralyzing dread and fear into the hearts and minds of the early pre-Christians. Over Time, they established rituals and traditions concerning this period (December 22 to December 25). They passed the word through oral tradition, and eventually, after their societies established writing, wrote it down, concerning their Sun God: the sun shall lay in a grave (point of solstice) for 3 days. But after 3 days the sun shall rise, be resurrected, (according to Webster's dictionary, the word resurrect is linked to the word resurge, which means To Rise Again, to revive), and ascend toward heaven, (progressively ascend northward to the position of the summer sun). And when the sun completes its ascent upward toward the point of its summer solstice, it will comfort us and bless us with warm weather and long days and will save us (be a savior) from the ravages of winter."

So, this, that I have explained to you here, is the Original, authentic, true Concept of the resurrection. When the pre-Christians spoke and wrote of the resurrection of the Sun; they meant exactly that. It did not refer to a person, but to the Solar Sun. But, when the priesthood founded and established Christianity, they changed the Sun (s-u-n) to Son (s-o-n). The priesthood told the pagans that the Son (Christ) was born on December 25, just like their Sun. They told them that the Son had been dead in a grave for three days and then was resurrected (revived) and ascended to heaven (upward), just like their Sun. As stated in this excerpt from my other book, the reverence for December 25, as the Day of Birth for the Sun (Son of God) goes back into pre-history.

Related Article

The hollowed reckoning for this day did not begin two thousand years ago with the Christ. Jesus Christ, so called , was simply the latest personage to be linked to this ancient date of December 25, depicted as the birth of the Sun God. Some of the others that were revered on this day are as follows: Krishna, of India, born on December 25, his mother was a virgin, mother's name was Maia . The name Krishna means Black or Dark. His uncle , Kamsa, the ruler at the time of his birth sought to kill him (Krishna) because he had heard a Prophecy that Krishna would overthrow him. Krishna escaped death by being smuggled out of the area to safety.

Mithra, of Persia , born on December 25, his birth was witnessed by Shepherds that brought gifts to honor him. He was styled as a Mediator between God and Man. Witness this quote from my Encyclopedia Encarta: Mithraism was similar to Christianity in many respects, for example, in the ideals of humility and brotherly love, baptism, the rite of communion, the use of holy water, the adoration of the shepherds at Mithra's birth, the adoption of Sundays and of December 25 (Mithra's birthday) as holy days, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, and the resurrection. Mithraism differed from Christianity in the exclusion of women from its ceremonies and in its willingness to compromise with polytheism. The similarities, however, made possible the easy conversion of its followers to Christian doctrine. "Mithraism," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. ----

Horus, of Egypt, born on December 25. His mother, Isis , gave birth to him in the swamp, she was warned by the god Thoth, to flee and conceal the child from the evil Set. Set had killed the father of Horus, whose name was Osirus, and sought to kill Horus, also. Isis was able to keep Horus hidden from Set, till he (Horus) grew to manhood. Horus sought to avenge the murder of his Father, and made war against Set , and defeated him.

Buddha, of India, born on December 25, his mother's name was Maya, she was a virgin. He was immaculately conceived, and at birth , he announced that he was a savior to the world. His birth was announced by a star. At his birth, he was visited by Wise Men who declared that they had seen Signs of his birth, that is to say , signs of the royal birth.

Beddou (Fot), was a god of the orient born 1027 BC, his mother was a virgin, he was born of royal blood. The king sought to kill him at birth, because he felt the newborn infant posed a future threat to his Throne. The god child was saved by shepherds, and lived in the desert till he reached the age of thirty, at which time he commenced teaching his spiritual doctrine to that region.

Quetzalcoatl, a god the Western Hemisphere , was born of a virgin. He sojourned in the wilderness, fasted forty days. Was crucified. He was variously represented as the God of light that struggled against the god of darkness called Tezcatlipoca.

Hercules, son of the god Zeus, predestined by birth to inherit the throne of Argos. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus desired the throne for another and sought to delay the birth of Hercules, and subsequently tried to kill Hercules while in his crib , by sending two snakes to strangle him. Hercules killed the snakes, though he was less than a year old. Later, He was sent away to the countryside where he became a shepherd.

Attis, of Phrygia , His mother was a virgin, her name was Nana. He was a shepherd, and reported to have died by self emasculation under a pine tree. He was alleged to have risen from the dead at Easter i.e. The vernal Equinox.

Tammuz. hailed as the only begotten son of the god Ea. His mother was a virgin , by the name of Ishtar. As an infant he was hidden in a chest by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and entrusted to Persephone, the goddess of the nether world. Persephone later opened the chest, and was so stricken by the beauty of the babe, that she refused to return the child to Aphrodite. The two goddesses fought each other for possession of the child, till finally the god Zeus mediated the matter, and declared that the child shall spend half it's year with Aphrodite and the other half in the nether world with Persephone.

There were many, many more gods and saviors born of virgin mothers, than I have listed here. To explore this subject in detail, read The World's Saviors, by Charles Vail - The Worlds Sixteen Crucified Saviors, by Kersey Graves, and The Golden Bough, by George Frazer.

The fact that so many saviors were alleged to have been born on the same day of the year, under the same and similar circumstances, in vastly scattered locations of the world, throughout thousands of years of history, indicates a worldwide dissemination of a common mythology. The sameness of these various myths that are widely separated geographically and in language and racial affiliation indicates an extremely ancient source as well as a coalescence of thought and philosophy within the ancient world that, perhaps many of us had not envisioned. The Son of God in all religious texts is representative of the most powerful entity in our known universe at that time...The Sun...giver of all life!

America's Christian Puritanism - History of war & bloodshed;

From the Revolutionary War against foreign evil agents preventing the birth of a new body politic; on through a Civil War with competing assertions about the evil oppressors existing within the body politic; up to this very moment, with war being waged against unseen terrorizing evil agents bent on the ultimate destruction of the body politic, America defines itself through identification of evil mortal enemies and by shared grief for glorified heroes who die in the battle against them. America is one of the most violent nations in the world, a country gripped by fears of violence from others, an economy driven by propped up global threats of self-made violent forces, with the majority fascinated by graphic depictions of violent acts from early Puritan sermons to contemporary interactive computer games, rap music and extremely violent movies.

American history is a tale of death and destruction from the beginning; a warrior’s story unfolding in the New World with the earliest English settlers establishing warfare as a fundamental ingredient of social progress and as fundamentally religious in its social consequences. The present terror war is no exception. The lifeblood of the nation, its spiritual vigor and moral convictions that move the social body onward in time, is nourished by broken bones and bodies of soldiers who die violently in bloody combat for unknown causes. With their self righteousness and God's ordained blessings they march..."Onward Christian Soldiers." Bush...patriotism...terrorism...oil...religion, profit...all just words...words men die for!

 Present day atrocities

 Japan
As most of the world is now aware, Japan is by far one of the worst in attitude towards animals. They slaughter whales, dolphins, turtles and pretty much everything that lives and breathes. They hold to some of the world's oddest and cruelest rituals, such as the murder of Black bears;

The Lyomante ritual is supposed to be the most important ritual within the Ainu tribe. Their disgusting ritual involves the killing of hibernating mother bears in caves. After the brutal slaughter they then take the cubs back to their villages, raising them for one to two years, at which time they choke the young bears to death. The people state that it is the core of their culture, but the sick methods used clearly show it is nothing more than the acts of disgustingly demented dark minds. In that they do not make a living bear hunting there can be no other reason to torture and murder these beautiful animals. It seems to be the instrumentation of the commercial tourism industry. Personally, I would not care to know anyone that thought this act was entertaining. (Pic on rt. Yet another sick ritual of bear being choke to death with logs)

The Ministry of Environment Japan published their view last October; “The ritual does not violate the law as long as it is observed in an appropriate manner for justifiable purposes”.

If they regard such ceremonial killings of innocent bear cubs as harmless, educationally and ethically...I dread to think of what these people are capable of? But then again, I am aware of their atrocities in war world 2.

Japan also allows the hunting of black & brown bears and last year 5000 Japanese bears were shot and killed. The Japan government caters to thousands of ancient, sick and barbaric rituals, including the allowance of the beating to death of trapped dolphins and the murder of endangered whales. They also allow the slaughter of literally millions of sharks; the fishermen catch and cut off the fins and throw the bleeding and suffering sharks back into the sea, where they sink to the bottom where they slowly and painfully bleed to death.

Japan claims that the hunting is necessary as bears are hazardous to human safety. However, this view is false as hunting is controlled by Hunting Associations in local areas. Hunters apply for expensive hunting permits “in order to eliminate human hazard.” The hunters kill the bears, take out their livers and sell each for around Yen \200,000 (£870 Euro) and up to \600,000 (£2,600Euros)!!

Permitted hunting period is between 15 November and 15 February. (1 October to end of February in Hokkaido), and of course bears are killed perfectly legally within these periods.

Last year, a ceremony called, “Marat Opnika” the ritual of killing grown bears instead of cubs was revived in Asahikawa Hokkaido after a 7 years ban. 60 people attended the ceremony from all over Hokkaido where a male bear which was 4-5 years old was sacrificed.

When bears feel in danger of being attacked by humans in the caves, mother bears sometimes eat their cubs to keep them from being captured by humans. Some hunters go so far as cutting off the bear’s paws with an axe if the bear resist coming out from the cave.

Please get involved and voice your detest of their murderous actions against animals and wildlife by calling or writing to;

Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan Godochosha No.5,1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Cho-ku, Tokyo 100-8975, JAPAN. Tel: 81-(0)3-3581-3351, Email:

Governor Harumi Takahashi Hokkaido Government Nishi 6-chome, Kita 3-jo, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8588 JAPAN Tel: 81-(0)11-231-4111

Mr. Kazushi Abe. {This organization promotes the ceremony.} Vice Chairman Utari Association Presto 1.7 (7F), North 1, West 7, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0111 JAPAN, Tel: 81-(0)11-271-4171 Email: ainu@frpac.or.jp

Your letters, calls and emails will help! Please let them know the world does care and we demand action.

 Canada

The Money Ritual
The clubbing murders of thousands of Baby Seals. You might ask if the below article is of a religious nature, and I would state that yes, as all driving forces in our genetic makeup are self driven, such as rituals, superstitions, dogmas and yes...especially greed. The below falls into the greed category and clearly expresses our barbaric nature and vile contempt for all things...especially if we can make a buck.

The Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island is primarily noted for four things. The most famous of these is an author named Lucy Maud Montgomery and her books about Anne Shirley – Anne of Green Gables.

Anne Shirley is one of the most famous Canadians known in Japan. The Japanese love her and every years thousands of Japanese travel to the island Province of Prince Edward Island to see Green Gables, the home of Anne. Actually it is the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery but those who visit it envision Anne, and not Lucy when they tour Green Gables. In Japan, the book is entitled Akage no An.

The second thing that Prince Edward Island is famous for is that it is the birthplace of the nation of Canada. It was in Charlottetown on July 1st, 1867 that Canada became a country. (Pic on right showing thousands of clubbed baby seals in Canada)

The third thing that Prince Edward Island is noted for is potatoes and the rich red soil of the island situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is the source of potatoes sold throughout the world.

The fourth thing that Prince Edward Island is famous for is not so romantic as Anne and not so tasty as the potatoes. It is a horrid thing, a bloody, nightmarish, cruel, and evil thing and that is the annual slaughter of beautiful, newly born, fluffy white, baby harp seals.

During the days when Anne lived at Green Gables, the month of March saw men from Anne’s province put on spiked boots, and then armed with clubs they walked out onto the hard ice offshore the beaches of Prince Edward Island, and began to bludgeon the defenseless seals in their nursery. Before the eyes of the baby seals helpless mothers, these men kicked the pups in the face, smashed their fragile skulls with their clubs and sometimes, because they were lazy or inclined to be cruel, they would skin the little creatures alive. Any mother that tried to protect her baby was shot or clubbed in the face.

The icy shores of Cavendish Beach is annually saturated with the the blood of these helpless baby seals. The skinned little bodies of baby seals, thousands of them, their glazed large black eyes staring sightlessly into the cruel skies, reflecting the horror of the clubs and vicious boots of the sealers. Born on the ice, and nursed by their mother for only a few days...just to be ruthlessly assaulted and slaughtered.

In 2003 the Canadian government targeted 350,000 seals for slaughter with another 350,000 to be killed in 2004 and another 350,000 to be killed in 2005 and continues these horrific numbers even today. A million and a half defenseless seals have been murdered in the last 4 years not far from Green Gables. I wonder how many of the tourists who make the pilgrimage to Green Gables every summer would be horrified to have their vision of the innocence and simplicity of Green Gables to be shattered by the knowledge that Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Reaper of Death continues to inflict horrific cruelty and slaughter on the innocents on the shores of Anne’s beloved province of Prince Edward Island. (What on heaven or Earth gives us the right to murder what nature has taken millions of years to create?)

Canada's Governor General eats raw Seal Heart

Canada's governor general ate a slaughtered seal's raw heart in a show of support to the country's seal hunters, a display that a European Union spokeswoman on Tuesday called "too bizarre to acknowledge."

Governor General Michaelle Jean, the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as Canada's head of state, gutted the seal and swallowed a slice of the mammal's organ late Monday after an EU vote earlier this month to impose a ban on seal products on grounds that the seal hunt is cruel.

The Canadian Gov. justifies the slaughter of the harp seals by managing them and referring to them as fish. It is called the seal fishery. Well, if this is justification, then I guess we humans should still be classified as monkeys and put in zoos and fed bananas!!!

If eating a seal's raw heart isn't barbaric...what is! She said it tasted like sushi...I wonder what her calloused heart would taste like...yuck! Sic...sic and sic! MS. 06-16-08.

Email, call and write the Canadian Gov. and in support of protecting the world's species, boycott all Canadian fish & game products!

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Ritual Human Sacrifices of The Aztecs & Mayans
Ritual Sacrifice does serve a practical purpose, actually. It serves to reinforce support for the Ruling Elites from the Populace. Behold the awesome and terrible power of your rulers!

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Executing someone is by all forms of the meaning...a ritual sacrifice, which, sadly, is surprisingly effective, even though it has no direct benefit to the populace itself. It’s a carefully crafted fantasy, justified by precedent and authority, just as carefully crafted. Today...like yesterday...not much ever changes!

Aztecs waged “flower wars” to capture prisoners for sacrifices they called nextlaualli, “debt payment to the gods” so that the sun could survive each cycle of 52 years. Every 52 years a special “new fire ceremony” occurred. All fires were extinguished, and in the middle of the night a sacrifice was made. They then waited for dawn. If the Sun appeared, it meant that the sacrifices for this cycle had been enough.

The practice of sacrifice is found in the oldest human records. The archaeological record contains human and animal corpses with sacrificial marks long before any written records of the practice. Sacrifices are a common theme in most religions, and though the frequency of animal, sacrifices are said to be rare...they are still practiced daily in Nepal and India, as I personally have seen hundreds of animal sacrifices in those regions. Even worse...human sacrifices are still going on in many parts of India, even now.

Judaism

On Sept. 06 2009 a diplomatic feud erupted between Israel and Sweden over an unsubstantiated article in a Swedish tabloid that accused Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs from dead Palestinians and suggested a connection with an international organ trafficking ring run by Jews. Israeli officials condemned the article as anti-Semitic and reminiscent of medieval blood libels against Jews. The Jews use that verbal defense for every negative comment or action even if it's all true! Stating facts is not anti-semitic...it's anti bull-shit! MS.

The Forever Warring Israelis; Before the Israelites ever saw Chanaan the people there were peaceful.

QUOTE. So the five men ( Israelites ) went on and came to Lias. They saw that the people dwelling there LIVED SECURELY after the manner of the Sidonians, QUIET AND TRUSTING, with no lack of any natural resources. ( Judges 18:7)

Then after their God taught his Egyptian slaves to make war, he gave them orders on how to take a city outside their territory.

QUOTE. When you march up to attack a city, first offer it terms of peace. If it agrees to your terms of peace and opens it's gates to you, all the people to be found in it shall serve you in forced labor. But if it refuses to make peace with you and instead offers you battle, lay siege to it, and WHEN THE LORD, YOUR GOD, DELIVERS IT INTO YOUR HAND, PUT EVERY MALE IN IT TO THE SWORD; but the women and children and livestock and all else in it that is worth plundering you may take as your booty, and you may use this plunder of your enemies which the Lord, Your God, has given you. That is how you shall deal with any city at a considerable distance from you, which does not belong to the peoples of this land. (Deuteronomy 20:10)

But God had a much different set of rules for his army in the lands He did intend Israel to occupy. He wanted to occupy the land with a clean slate.

QUOTE. But in the cities of those nations which the Lord, your God, is giving you as your heritage, YOU SHALL NOT LEAVE A SINGLE SOUL ALIVE. You must doom them all - the Hethites, Amorrites, Chanaanites, Pherezites, Hevites and Jebusites - as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. (Deuteronomy 20:15)

QUOTE. The Crusades, for example, were an attempt to TAKE BACK the lands that were taken, by violence, by the Muslims.

QUOTE. Islam was spread, by the sword (violence) from the Atlantic (Spain and North Africa) to the Pacific (Indonesia).

QUOTE. But in the cities of those nations which the Lord, your God, is giving you as your heritage, you shall not leave a single soul alive. You must doom them all - the Hethites, Amorrites, Chanaanites, Pherezites, Hevites and Jebusites - as the Lord, your God, has commanded you. (Deuteronomy 20:15)

And if you take notice, God didn't ask, or suggest, He commanded! Which religion is the most violent is a question that can only be answered by looking inside each faith and marking the propensities of its doctrines in encouraging its adherents to commit acts of violence for the sake of that religion and as an article of faith.

The God of the Jews did not teach, he demanded genocide time and time again. I don't have to wait for adherents to commit acts of violence. The God of the Jews ordered them to do it now.

I became curious about the number of deaths in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, so I did a line-by-line search for the numbers that are printed there. The number of human beings that died directly, or indirectly, because of the God of the Jews was 6,548,935. I don't know if any other book in print records the number of deaths attributed to the religious leader or God, but 6 1/2 million is a very big number. As for God teaching death and destruction, I don't know how you can deny these passages from the Bible.

Since the Muslim and the Christian religions both stem from Abraham's sons Isaac and Ismael, I have no doubt that the descendants of God's chosen, Abraham, are responsible for more violent deaths than any other group of people. If you want to narrow it down between the two, The God of the Jews was responsible in his time directly, or indirectly, for over six and one half million deaths.

 Korban and Shechita

In response from his peoples concern over Israel's treatment of Palestinians; “Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that...I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, October 8th, 2004.

In Judaism, a sacrifice is known as a Korban, from the Hebrew root karov, meaning "to [come] close [to God]" (Pic on left shows one of Israel's more recent atrocities of rolling people in tin and burning them)

The centrality of sacrifices in Judaism is clear, with much of the Bible, particularly the opening chapters of the book Leviticus, detailing the exact method of bringing sacrifices. Sacrifices were either bloody (animals) or unbloody (grain and wine). Bloody sacrifices were divided into holocausts (burnt offerings, in which the whole animal was burnt), guilt offerings (in which part was burnt and part left for the priest) and peace offerings (in which similarly only part of the animal was burnt). Yet the prophets point out that sacrifices are only a part of serving God and need to be accompanied by inner morality and goodness.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, ritual sacrifice ceased except among the Samaritans. Maimonides, a medieval Jewish rationalist, argued that God always held sacrifice inferior to prayer and philosophical meditation. However, God understood that the Israelites were used to the animal sacrifices that the surrounding pagan tribes used as the primary way to commune with their gods. As such, in Maimonides' view, it was only natural that Israelites would believe that sacrifice was a necessary part of the relationship between God and man. Maimonides concludes that God's decision to allow sacrifices was a concession to human psychological limitations. It would have been too much to have expected the Israelites to leap from pagan worship to prayer and meditation in one step. In the Guide for the Perplexed, he writes:

"But the custom which was in those days general among men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up consisted in sacrificing animals... It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God...that God did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service. For to obey such a commandment would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; it would in those days have made the same impression as a prophet would make at present [the 12th Century] if he called us to the service of God and told us in His name, that we should not pray to God nor fast, nor seek his help in time of trouble; that we should serve Him in thought, and not by any action." (Book III, Chapter 32. Translated by M. Friedlander, 1904, The Guide for the Perplexed, Dover Publications, 1956 edition.)

In contrast, many others such as Nachmanides (in his Torah commentary on Leviticus 1:9) disagreed, contending that sacrifices are an ideal in Judaism, completely central.

The teachings of the Torah and Tanakh reveal Judaism's abhorrence of human sacrifices. (Above Pic. on left of Israelis Stoning a Woman)

 Judaism, cont.
Current religious thinking views the Akedah as central to the replacement of human sacrifice; while some Talmudic scholars assert the replacement was the sacrifice of animals at the Temple - using Exodus 13,2.12f; 22,28f; 34,19f; Numeri 3,1ff; 18,15; Deuteronomy 15,19 - others view that as superseded by the symbolic pars-pro-toto sacrifice of circumcision. Leviticus 20,2 and Deuteronomy 18,10 specifically outlaw the giving of children to Moloch, making it punishable by stoning; the Tanakh subsequently denounces human sacrifice as barbaric customs of Baal worshippers (e.g. Psalms 106,37ff).

Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by grasping a live chicken by the shoulder blades and moving around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast. In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. The ritual is preceded by the reading of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.

On the eve of Yom Kippur 2005, more than 200 caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of a Kaparot operation in Brooklyn, NY; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jew from Williamsburg, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of these chickens. In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, animal rights organizations have begun to picket public observances of kaparot, particularly in Israel. (Pic. on left; Rabbi flogs (beats) child)

 Judaism, cont.
Infant circumcision; "The method to be adopted is laid down thus: 'One excises the foreskin, [that is] the entire skin covering the glands, so that the corona is laid bare. Afterwards, one tears with the finger-nail the soft membrane underneath the skin, turning it to the sides until the flesh of the glands appears. Thereafter, one sucks the membrane until the blood is extracted from the remote places, so that no danger [to the infant may ensue; and any circumciser who does not carry out the sucking procedure is to be removed [from his office] The operation itself, then, consists of three distinct acts: the excision of the prepuce; the laceration of the mucous membrane covering the glands; and the sucking of the blood from the interior of the wound." Immanuel Jakobovits. Jewish Medical Ethics: A Comparative and Historical Study of the Jewish Religious Attitude to Medicine and Its Practice. New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1959.

The Bloody Passovers of Dr. Toaff — By Israel Shamir

(Pic. on rt. of Rabbi performing circumcision by biting off the foreskin of a baby and sucking out the blood)

Blood, betrayal, torture, and surrender are interwoven in the story of an Italian Jew, Dr Ariel Toaff, as if penned by his compatriot Umberto Eco. Dr Toaff stumbled onto a frightful discovery, was horrified but bravely went on, until he was subjected to the full pressure of his community; he repented, a broken man.

Dr Toaff, the son of the Rabbi of Rome and a professor in the Jewish University of Bar Ilan, not far from Tel Aviv. He made a name for himself by his deep study of medieval Jewry. His three-volume; Love, Work, and Death (subtitled Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria) is an encyclopedia of this admittedly narrow area. While studying his subject he discovered that the medieval Ashkenazi Jewish communities of North Italy practiced a particularly horrible form of human sacrifice. Their wizards and adepts stole and crucified Christian babies, obtained their blood and used it for magical rituals evoking the Spirit of Vengeance against the hated Goyim.

In particular, he dwelt on the case of St Simon of Trent. This two-year old child from the Italian town of Trent was kidnapped by a few Ashkenazi Jews from his home on the eve of Passover 1475 AD. At night, the kidnappers murdered the child; drew his blood, pierced his flesh with needles, crucified him head down calling “So may all Christians by land and sea perish”, and thus they celebrated their Passover, an archaic ritual of outpouring blood and killed babies, in the most literal form, without usual metaphoric “blood-wine” shift.

The killers were apprehended, confessed and were found guilty by the Bishop of Trent. Immediately, the Jews took their protest to the Pope and he sent the bishop of Ventimiglia to investigate. The bishop allegedly accepted a hefty bribe from the Jews and concluded that the child was murdered by a Hamas mine in order to besmirch Israel, as there was no Tsahal ordnance found on the beach of Trent. “Simon had been killed by Christians with the intention of ruining the Jews”, said the pre-war Jewish Encyclopedia, in a clear case of premonition: the same argument was used by Jews in 2006 while explaining away the mass murder of children in Kafr Qana.

Jewish ritual murder has classically been characterized as extremist Jews ritually murdering Christian children and then using their blood in ritual foods. Some Jewish scholars have attacked the book’s thesis by saying the use of blood that way would be completely against Jewish laws, because Jews view any blood as unclean. These rabbis conveniently forgot to mention that some Orthodox rabbis actually suck the blood from the freshly circumcised penises of infants. This sounds very strange, but is true and one Jewish organization even published pictures of the ceremony.

Another interesting corollary is that on Purim, Orthodox Jews have some very strange rituals and dietary habits. Purim is a major Jewish celebration of the murder of Haman, all of his sons and 70,000 Persians that Jews claim plotted a pogrom against them. In Synagogues at Purim, Jewish children beat willow branches which symbolizes the beating of Haman, a fairly hateful ceremony to be sure. Even stranger is the cuisine made up for Jewish Purim feasts. They make and eat with glee Hamantaschen, which are triangle shaped cookies that symbolize Haman’s ears. But, the height of their dietary oddness might be the dish they call Kreplach, which are dough pockets filled with ground beef, the ground beef is meant to represent the beaten flesh of Haman. Some of you who are new to the world of Jewish extremism might not believe me but I document these facts from mainstream Jewish sources in my book Jewish Supremacism.

Kapparot Ritual

Jewish Ritual of passing their sins to a chicken
 

I had never heard of the ancient Jewish rite of Kapparot until I came across the headline Rabbi Battles PETA Harassment in Fight for Kapparot Ritual.

Performed on the eve of Yom Kippur, the ritual involves lifting a chicken over one's head while saying a prayer in an act of atonement..... whereby the chicken symbolically carries away your sins. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor. Strange People!

Israel's Crimes, America's Silence

John Dugard

Palestinians Fenced like cattle in their own land by Israel. Is there really a difference between Israelis & Nazis?
 

____________________________________________________________________________________

June 24, 2009

US President Obama's recent speech to the Muslim World failed to address allegations that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. Palestinians and people throughout the region were shocked at the firepower Israel brought to bear against Gaza's civilians and do not want Palestinians' ongoing misery to be further ignored. Many were surely waiting to hear from President Obama that the way to peace does not lie through the devastation of civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza. (Pic. on left of Palestine child killed in latest Israeli attack) (Pic. on rt. of bombed out Gaza in 2009)


The below slides are but a few examples of the Palestinian suffrage from the Israelis.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

Jewish Theologies of Sacrifice

The theology of sacrifice remains an issue, not only for religions that continue to practice rituals of sacrifice, but also for those religions that have animal sacrifice in their scriptures, traditions, or histories, even if sacrifice is no longer made. Religions offer a number of reasons for why sacrifices are offered.

• Gods need sacrifice to sustain themselves and their power, without which they are diminished.

• Sacrificed goods are used to make a bargain with the god, who has promised some favour in return for the sacrifice.

• The lives or blood of sacrificial victims contains mana or some other supernatural power whose offering pleases the god.

• The sacrificial victim is offered as a scapegoat, a target for the wrath of a god, which otherwise would be visited on the followers.

• Sacrifice deprives the followers of food and other useful commodities, and as such constitutes an ascetic discipline.

• Sacrificed goods actually become part of a religious organization's revenue; it is a part of the economic base of support that compensates priests and supports temples.

• The sacrifice is actually a part of a festival and is ultimately consumed by the followers themselves.

• In the Hebrew Bible, God issues a number of commandments for Israelites to offer animal sacrifices in the portable sanctuary, known as the TabernacleTabernacles redirects here. For the Feast of Tabernacles, see Sukkot. The Tabernacle is known in Hebrew as the Mishkan ("Place of [Divine] dwelling"). It was to be a portable central place of worship for the Children of Israel from the time they left anci. Once the Israelites were settled in the land of Canaan, all sacrifices were ordered to be ended except those offered in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Temple ( Hebrew: beit ha-mikdash was the center of Israelite and Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot''. It was located on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. According to the Bible, the First Temple was built. In the Bible God asks for sacrifices as a sign of a covenant between himself and the Israelite people. Haven't the animals suffered enough without being slaughtered to appease fantasy deities? And we call animals dumb! MS. 07-25-09

Intermarriage and Monotheistic Religions

 

Qur'an 2:221 and 24:3 forbid Muslims, men and women alike, to marry idolaters, unless the idolaters convert to Islam. A non-Moslem man of whatever religion is compelled to embrace Islam if he is to marry a Moslem woman.' (Islamic Institute for Information and Education).

 

 

Disparity of worship embraces and renders null and void the marriage of a Catholic with pagan, Mohammedan, Jew, catechumen, heretic and schismatic.' (Catholic Encyclopedia).
 

 

Intermarriage has created a silent holocaust in this generation. Intermarrying may have become fashionable, but it is still wrong and destructive' (Judaism Online).

 

Although most secular bans on intermarriage were repealed, religious invectives against intermarriage abound. Entering 'intermarriage' into the Google Internet search reveals hundreds of sites, overwhelmingly against the intermarriage and predominantly Jewish. Most arguments against the intermarriage revolve around

Deuteronomy 7:3-4: 'You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son, for he will cause your child to turn away from after Me and they will worship the gods of others then the L0rd’s wrath will burn against you, and He will destroy you quickly.'

And;

Exodus 19:5,6): 'Now if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be my special treasure among the nations, even though all the world is Mine. You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'

These quotations are followed by commentaries such as

'In these few words lies the task for which the Jews were chosen – to be a kingdom of priests. That is his God-given responsibility and privilege. To shirk this responsibility is to deny oneself the ultimate privilege. To intermarry is an open violation of that responsibility.' Oh yeah! MS.

Allies in Apartheid

It is by no means difficult to recognize from afar, as leader of South Africa, Verwoerd, had been able to do, that Israel is indeed an apartheid state. Verwoerd’s successor Balthazar John Vorster visited Israel after the 1973 October War, when Egypt in a rare victory regained the Suez Canal and Sinai from Israel. After that Israel and South Africa were virtually twinned as military allies for Pretoria helped supply Israel militarily in the immediacy of its 1973 setback and Israel came to support apartheid South Africa at the height of sanctions with weaponry and technology -- from naval ships and the conversion of supersonic fighter planes to assistance in building six nuclear bombs and the creation of an arms industry.

The burgeoning global abortion industry is the most notable example of Jewish ritual murder, and is viewed as such by most Jews, especially the Orthodox and Hasidic. Forced abortion and infanticide of Gentiles by design of the Jews has been particularly prevalent under the Jew invented Asian socialist regimes; and Jews have been entirely responsible for establishing the pro-abortion lobby and for achieving legalization of abortion of Gentiles in the Western World.

Jews have been disproportionately prominent among owners and staff of abortion clinics in the United States, where Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League, NARAL Pro-Choice America, etc, have their roots in a global programme to satisfy the Jews’ lust for the blood of innocent Gentiles and Christians, and a scam to make covetous Jews lots of money. Jews doubtless derive satisfaction from and are soothed in their spirit by performing an abortion; because they know they’ve by that successfully destroyed a child of their Gentile enemies. Jewish anarchist and assassin, Emma Goldman, provided plenty of inspiration for feminist/birth control/pro-abortion organizations in America; and Betty Friedan (b. Betty Naomi Goldstein) was active in Marxist and Jewish circles and a co-founder of NARAL. (Above photo of aborted fetus)

Whereas Catholicism expresses the interests of the landed nobility and of the feudal order, while Calvinism (or Puritanism) represents those of the bourgeoisie or capitalism, Judaism mirrors the interests of a pre-capitalist mercantile class. MS. 07-30-09

Israel - Friend or Foe

Jews Kill USS Liberty Crew and The US accepts the Big Lie and Covers it up!

Watch the actual attack by the Israeli Forces On An American Ship

 

Picture on left of Liberty before the Attack - a $40 million state-of-the-art NSA fitted surveillance vessel

Picture on right; After the Attack - a wreck sold for scrap.

More of the Jews' 'collateral war damage' - 34 US crew members dead and more than two-thirds of the 297 on board wounded. (below Pic.)

On June 8, 1967, Israeli air and naval forces violated the Geneva Conventions and gained lasting notoriety among honest Americans for deliberately and viciously attacking the surveillance vessel USS Liberty, 13 nautical miles (24km) off Arish, in international waters, during the ‘67 Six-Day War; and since then the Jews and their acolytes in U.S. government and the media have lied about and provided blatantly fraudulent accounts of what really happened on the day.

The facts are really quite simple and straightforward, and can be summarized by saying that the Israeli air force and navy carefully monitored the Liberty on June 8 for several hours in broad daylight and with nothing to hamper their visibility; and they correctly reported the vessel’s identity to their headquarters. Shortly after that, the command was given to Israeli fighter pilots and the Israeli navy that the USS Liberty must be immediately sunk without trace or survivors.

Israeli fighter jets then proceeded to callously batter the Liberty with machine-gun fire, rockets, and napalm bombs; and the Israeli navy backed that up with a treacherous torpedo attack from three Israeli boats. The assault lasted for seventy-five minutes, leaving 821 holes in the ship – a hundred were rocket-sized, as well as a 40-foot wide torpedo hole in the hull.

Not being particularly competent at sinking the vessel, the Israeli war criminals decided to leave the Liberty disabled; but not before firing indiscriminately from the torpedo boats at medical personnel and firefighters onboard the stricken vessel from as little as 50 feet away, completely disregarding the American flag unfurled in the breeze from a mast in front of them.

The Israelis also vented their frustration and failure to fulfill their mission to sink the vessel by machine gunning the life rafts the crew had lowered into the water to receive survivors, so that they could at least say to their superiors that they did everything they could to ensure that no one was left alive to inform on them after the atrocity.

A Jew-spun Wikipedia entry on the USS Liberty actually has the cheek to call all of the foregoing Israeli violence “an error – a friendly fire incident”!

The death toll among the Liberty’s crew was 34 and more than two-thirds of the 297-man crew were wounded.

USS Liberty's American flag was flying and very visible on that day!

The callous and vicious Israeli operation was intended to ensure that data collected on the surveillance vessel couldn’t adversely affect Israel’s plans to invade the Golan Heights before a new cease-fire agreement with the Arabs came into effect.

By June 10, the IDF had concluded the Golan offensive and a ceasefire agreement was signed the following day. Israel had thus secured the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank of the Jordan River (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights, increasing her overall territory by a factor of three and placing about a million Arabs under her direct control.

Now for the cover-up:

According to an article at the USS Liberty Memorial Web site:

“Despite a near-universal consensus that the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8 1967 was made with full knowledge that it was a US Navy ship, the Johnson administration [Johnson was of Jewish pedigree, an ardent Zionist and complicit in JFK's assassination] began an immediate cover-up of this fact.

Though administration officers continued individually to characterize the attack as deliberate, the Johnson administration never sought the prosecution of the guilty parties or otherwise attempted to seek justice for the victims. They concealed and altered evidence in their effort to downplay the attack. Though they never formally accepted the Israeli explanation that it was an accident, they never pressed for a full investigation either. They simply allowed those responsible literally to get away with murder.

In an ongoing effort to reveal the truth about the attack, the USS Liberty Veterans Association has filed with the Secretary of the Army in the manner prescribed by law a detailed, fully documented Report of War Crimes describing the circumstances of the attack on our ship and evidence that it was a crime under international law. In accordance with international law and treaties, the United States is obligated to investigate the allegations. So far, the United States has declined even to acknowledge that the report has been filed.”

James Ennes; According to another article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2007, by James Ennes, a lieutenant on the USS Liberty’s bridge during the attack and author of the notable Assault on the Liberty book (AET Book Club):

“The lies started almost immediately. Even before crewmen could give their eyewitness accounts, the Israeli government concocted a preposterous “tragic accident” story, claiming that the Liberty had been mistaken for an out-of-service Egyptian horse carrier designed to carry 40 horses and their riders for the Egyptian cavalry of the 1920s.

According to this story, the Liberty was recognized as American only after torpedoes were launched. Since torpedoes can’t be recalled or redirected, however, Americans died. According to the Israeli story, the attackers immediately ceased fire and apologized for their “mistake.”

But this was not true. The torpedo men continued to fire long after they claim the last shot was fired. In fact, they continued to fire until they heard that air support from the Sixth Fleet was on the way.

Survivors of the attack fully expected to refute the Israeli lie during one of the investigations that would be sure to follow, and show that the attack was no accident. That, however, was not to be.

Despite the presence of more than 200 men eager to testify, the Navy Court of Inquiry inexplicably did not ask about deliberateness, and did not allow survivors to testify freely—nor did Congress or anyone else. Israel’s “Big Lie” was accepted at face value, and no questions were ever asked about whether the attack was deliberate or whether the Israeli story was true.

According to a sworn affidavit by the Court’s own legal officer, the official Navy transcript was fraudulently changed and rewritten in Washington after it was signed by members of the Court. The official record, therefore, is a forgery. Yet despite several appeals to the secretary of the Navy and others, the Navy refuses to investigate or even to contact the senior legal officer making these very serious charges).”

The Liberty’s survivors’ frustration was made worse by sayanim (helpers of the Jews) of the ilk of the notorious ADL, a Jewish Florida bankruptcy magistrate by the name of Ahron Jay Cristol, and Gerardo Joffe, president of the pro-Israel group FLAME.
Florida Jewish Bankruptcy Judge Jay Cristol.

This is Cristol according to one flatterer:

“A Renaissance man of the old school, Judge Cristol has accomplished in one lifetime what most people would need nine lives to do and he does it all with good humor and a genuine respect for and interest in his fellow man.”

But James Ennes again writes:

“[The Jew] Cristol first gave serious currency to “The Big Lie” when his book, The Liberty Incident, falsely claimed that up to 15 investigations “including five congressional investigations” had all inquired into the attack and exonerated Israel of any wrongdoing.

As we have demonstrated previously in these pages and elsewhere, that is totally untrue. No American investigation has ever inquired as to whether the attack was deliberate. Certainly no congressional inquiry has done so. Cristol’s dishonest tactic is to find a mention of the attack in some official record and call this an “investigation that exonerated Israel …

Sadly, other sycophants pick up Cristol’s ball and run with it. Perhaps most persistent is one Gerardo Joffe, president and chief cheerleader for the pro-Israel propaganda group FLAME—an acronym its critics maintain stands for “Fallacies and Lies About the Middle East.” In kneejerk letters to the Washington Report and in his FLAME Web site Joffe consistently parrots Cristol’s line that the Liberty attack has long been proven accidental and that it has been given too much attention, while other incidents are given too little.

Similarly, the Anti-Defamation League, whose stated mission is to stop defamation of the Jewish people and “to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” has no problem supporting the Cristol/FLAME fiction by pretending, according to its Web site, that “Several government investigations have concluded that the attack…was carried out in error” and that “every piece of information declassified to date…has supported this conclusion.”

Survivors repeatedly have asked Cristol and others to provide copies or other evidence of these so-called “investigations.” None has done so. They cannot. There are no such investigations. Similarly, we have asked them to remove their false statements. They refuse. These lies serve their purpose.

In fact, when survivors have sought details of such investigations from their congressmen, from the Navy Judge Advocate General, from the Library of Congress, from the Congressional Research Service, or from any other government agency, we have repeatedly been advised that there has never been any congressional investigation of Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty.“

According to an article by William Hughes, titled: “Liberty Smearing Backfires”:

“When Ahron Jay Cristol, a self-described “amateur historian,” showed up at the National Security Agency’s (NSA) National Cryptologic Museum at Fort George C. Meade, MD., on Jan. 14, 2004, there was something almost sacrilegious about his presence there.

He was there to peddle his pro-Zionist Israel book, “The Liberty Incident.” It is a clever, but seriously flawed, apologia, that attempts to mask the wrongdoing associated with Israel’s premeditated attack on the USS Liberty, an NSA-fitted spy vessel, on June 8, 1967. That attack killed 34 brave Americans and wounded 172 others. His book also smears those demanding justice in the Liberty matter as “conspiracy theorists …

Recently, two individuals from the U.S. intelligence community have come forward to verify that they had viewed intercepted real-time transcripts, on June 8, 1967, between Israeli jet pilots and their ground controllers, in which the Israelis clearly acknowledged that they knew that they were attacking, and worse still, trying to sink, “the American ship” (http://www.ussliberty.org/smoking.htm).

NSA’s Cryptologic Museum was built in 1993. It houses code-breaking, and related artifacts, from our country’s past. It also displays, the actual 5’ by 8’ American flag the Liberty was flying, when it was deliberately assaulted by unmarked Israeli jet planes and torpedo boats for over one hour and 15 minutes …

Also, at the book signing, Cristol made a big deal about the transcripts of NSA-released communications of June 8, 1967, between Israeli helicopter pilots. At best, these transcripts mimic an improvised vaudeville skit of the [Jewish] Marx Brothers [c.f., First Light Forum's recent post under the title of "Sarah Silverman- Comic or Just another Jew Cot Case"] and prove absolutely nothing, since the helicopter pilots arrived AFTER the attack. These particular pilots weren’t part of the original assault force …

When I queried Cristol whether it was a war crime or not, under any circumstances, for the Israelis to have machine-gunned the Liberty’s life rafts, he replied, “It’s one of the myths that has grown up,” about the Liberty. He said that story “isn’t accurate.”

It was a terrible mistake,” Cristol said, as the Liberty survivors, and their supporters, in the audience shook their heads in total disbelief."

USS Liberty survivors and many researchers into the atrocity tried for years to find out why the Israeli gun camera photography that was provided by the Jew Ahron Jay Cristol, on the cover of his book: The Liberty Incident, had blurred the US flag flying and showed a large white area near the starboard bow that looked like an explosion but in a part of the vessel that suffered no major strike, and when ordinary gun camera photos are usually quite sharp.

This question was finally answered by Ken Halliwell who proved that the Jew Cristol and his acolytes had surreptitiously altered the photograph in a manner similar to the way the Jew Zapruder’s film of the JFK assassination had been so successfully altered a few years earlier.

To quote one source:

“A close look at the two photos, with matching points circled by Halliwell, reveals that they are in fact almost the same picture — but the “gun camera” view has been doctored to hide the flag and other identifying marks. If a viewer will look carefully, the American flag is flying from the stern in both pictures.

Flags fly from a Navy ship’s stern only in port; the flag flies from the mainmast at sea. This is a picture taken in port in July, not taken during the attack as claimed by the Israelis. It cannot possibly be a gun camera photo taken during the attack as the Israelis claim.

If you look carefully, identical groups of men can be seen standing in identical places on the ship in both images. The white “splash” on the starboard bow is a doctored image of the tug boat that helped Liberty move to the pier at Little Creek.

Click here to see a very revealing side-by-side comparison of the docking photo and the fake gun-camera photo taken from the same series.

Upon close inspection, one can also see in the fake gun camera photo that the ship is floating high in the water. When the ship was attacked, it was heavily loaded and floating low in the water. The docking photo shows the ship lightly loaded and floating high after having just completed a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea — the same height as shown in the fake gun camera photo.

A close examination of the bow wave shows that this is also faked. Since the image used as “gun camera photography” was actually of the ship alongside the pier at Little Creek, it was necessary to create a fake bow wave to sustain the illusion of movement. This can be seen clearly if one compares the fake bow wave with a bow wave of a similar ship underway.

Yet their fakery knows no bounds. A close examination of the “smoke” in their faked gun camera pictures reveals that the smoke is actually depicted moving crosswise to the wind, and in fact there were no fires in that area.

Still further analysis of the four photographs, supposedly taken by a Mirage jet on the second attack run of the day, reveals that all four photos are taken from an identical position, which would not be the case if they were actually taken from a fast-moving jet aircraft. The fakers placed the supposed firing ring, the circle of dots, on the photographs to simulate a gun camera image, moving the ring from frame to frame.

But the fakery is revealed by the fact that all four photos are taken from an identical position, not from a high speed jet approaching the ship on an attack run.”

On June 8, 2007, USA Today carried a story on the 40th anniversary of the Liberty attack, by a reporter of Israeli citizenship (a fact not disclosed in the article), and based on interviews with survivors who testified after reading the article that the reporter had ignored much of what they told him.

The article was loaded with falsehoods, fabrications and snow jobs; and was even introduced with the wicked lie [see the excerpt from James Ennes article above] that: “Eleven US investigations over the years have reached the conclusion that it was a case of mistaken identity” – a blatant error that to date USA Today has never bothered to correct.

One independent, blue-ribbon commission formed to reach a conclusion about the Jews’ attack on the USS Liberty was constituted of the following distinguished persons:

* A former ambassador to one of the United States most significant allies
* A US Navy rear admiral and former head of the Navy’s legal division
* A Marine general, America’s highest ranking recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the former Assistant Commandant of Marines
* A US Navy four-star admiral, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the highest military position in the country), former Chief of Naval Operations, a World War II hero, and the only Naval admiral to have commanded both the Pacific and the Atlantic fleets

The panel was moderated by a former ambassador who served as Chief of Mission in Iraq and Deputy Director of Ronald Reagan’s White House Task Force on Terrorism.

The commission’s findings were:

* » That the attack, by a US ally, was a “deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew”
*

* » That the so-called ally committed “acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States”
*

* » That the attack involved the machine-gunning of stretcher-bearers and life rafts
*

* » That “the White House deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of the [ship]… never before in American naval history has a rescue mission been cancelled when an American ship was under attack”
*

* » That surviving crewmembers were later threatened with “court-martial, imprisonment or worse” if they talked to anyone about what had happened to them; and were “abandoned by their own government”
*

* » That due to the influence of the ally’s “powerful supporters in the United States, the White House deliberately covered up the facts of this attack from the American people”
*

* » That due to continuing pressure by this lobby, this attack remains “the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress”
*

* » That “there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history”
*

* » That “the truth about Israel’s attack and subsequent White House cover-up continues to be officially concealed from the American people to the present day and is a national disgrace”
*

* » That “ A danger to the national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of any foreign nation…” and that this policy “endangers the safety of Americans and the security of the United States”

President Johnson, not wanting this incident to become public, was heard in the White House yelling 'That he wanted the Liberty Sunk with no Survivals!'

The following statement was posted by a blogger! "Devious, traitorous and criminal. Israel is a terror state, created by military might and maintained by military might, heavily funded by the red, white and blue – the U$A. STOP ALL AID TO ISRAEL."

 Christianity

*Notation; Having lived and traveled throughout Mexico, Central and South America I am fully aware of the Spanish Christians murderous conquest of the vast land and its tribal peoples. Yet another morbid time in history. During the many years of my adventures in the region I rode mules, old cars, traveled the back roads, visited small villages and large cities. I talked, I researched and opened my eyes to this religious and murderous land-grab by the Catholic Dynasty. I visited countless museums and libraries, heard the tales, read the old Spanish memoirs to absorb the dominative cruelty of the Jesus freaks. The broad swords and pistoleros laid a path of destruction as they did whatever they liked to these simple natives of the 14th and 15th century. They came, the killed, they burned, stole, and literally enslaved a free people in their religious namesake. The demonic and inhumane Spaniards forced the young native children to guard their supplies and if caught dozing they would slice off their eyelids...in preventing it happening again. The blood thirsty Spaniards made necklaces from the nipples of young local girls. They spread their vile diseases, raped, tortured, murdered, enslaved, thieved and wrecked mayhem across the entire continent and beyond...and all in the name of their morbid God. MS. 06-18-08*

By what right did Castile lay claim to the sovereignty over the Americas? Religion and cruelty.

Did you know that Venezuela was named by one of Columbus' men that thought the coastline villages and homes on stilts reminded him of Venice...thus...Venezuela.

In clarity; THE SELF CLAIMED BIBLICAL PROPHETS DID NOT "PROPHESY." THEIR "PROPHECIES" DISCUSSED PAST HAPPENINGS, NOT THOSE OF THE FUTURE.

The world-famous Swiss Rabbi, Alexandre Safran, describes what the word "prophecy" means to Jews who live by the Torah: "The Hebrew language has its own representation of the divisions of time. It proceeds to a curious grammatical representation. It transforms the future into the past and the past into the future. And the passage from one epoch of time to another is made by the simple addition of the letter "vad", which indicates the sum… time, in its essence is unity." (La Cabala, p.101.) In short, when the Old Testament prophets "predicted," the "prediction" was not the future but past tense.

When Ezekiel predicted what would or was happening to the Mesechs, Tubal, Gomer, etc., he was telling us about something that happened in the past.

From the earliest times, Christianity has endorsed and promoted the death and torture of anyone that did not convert to Christianity, even other Christian sects. Even from the time of Paul, Turtillian documents the persecution and executions of the Gnostics by the earliest Christians. In fact, the first thing Constantine did after making Christianity the state religion, and indeed the required religion, was to conquer and kill in Christ's name. Christianity has never had a time in which it was not killing other Christians or pagans.

In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian, had over 3000 Christians executed because their interpretation of the Bible did not agree with his.

In 777, Charlemagne, a devout Christian, after conquering the Saxon rebels, gave them a choice between baptism and execution. When they refused to convert, he had 4500 of them beheaded in one morning.

Queen Isabella, famous for sending Columbus to the New World in 1492, was well known also for her 'Spanish Inquisition', the gruesome torture and murder of tens of thousands of Spanish Jews, Muslims, homosexuals, people who read or wrote, uppity women, and anyone else not up to the Queen's strict standards. Isabella was a champion of the faith, piously congratulating herself as her victims writhed to their deaths in the flames and the many other ingenious methods of torture invented by her inquisitors.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Inquisition was born, with Christians killing Christians, during what was known as the Albigensian heresies. Hundreds of thousands of people died because their Christianity did not agree with official dogma. This adds to the irony of murder in the name of Christ, when the majority of victims of the early inquisitions were themselves Christians.

English Catholics suffered horribly under Protestant regimes. American historian William T. Walsh writes: "In Britain, 30,000 went to the stake for witchcraft; in Protestant Germany, the figure was 100,000" (, p. 275).

Rome became Christian because of Emperor Constantine, who had a vision the night before a battle in 312 C.E., against Maxentius at Saxa Rubra. The vision supposedly told him to conquer in Christ's name. He killed every soldier of Maxentius to a man.

At the time of Constantine's conversion, Christianity was still collection of minor cults. Pagan Romans thought they had another nutcase-Emperor on their hands. And indeed, persecution of the pagans began in earnest, by 390 CE. Bureaucratic mismanagement had reduced the government to a morass of wasted money, and the roads were falling apart.

Notates that totals of people killed over the centuries by everyone, deaths contributed to the Christian crusaders are massive. The tortures incurred by the inquisitors is enormous, not to mention the entire annihilation of several indian cultures after forced conversion to christianity.

The beautiful thing about christianity in it earliest form, is that they completely justified the killing of anyone who disagreed with dogma and had no problem documenting their conquest for christianity. These numbers have been documented in part or whole by the actual people involved in them. There was no shame, and their cruelty pre-dated any religion that forced conversion. In short, Islam wasn't invented yet, and Paganism was extremely tolerant. In fact, the toleration of Greek and Roman paganism allowed the growth of christianity. But once christianity was in play, it did not allow, or suffer, any other religion to exist. It would spend over a thousand years trying to stamp out every other religion, including other sects of christianity that existed at the time such as the Gnostics, Marcionites, Ebonites, and Arians. Christianity is the most violent religion by means of documented deaths and atrocities, far more than any other religion dared.

Greek Christianity - Ascetics

Orthodox Monasteries Throughout the World

Greece - Russia - Europe & Far East - North America - Middle East

Fabulous Greek Monasteries in the Air

by Louie Jerome on 15/07/09 at 10:51 am.

Meteora Monasteries are located in a high, isolated and inaccessible part of Greece, near Kalabaka in the central region of Thessaly. These old monasteries are perched right at the top of rock pinnacles which look impossible to reach, let alone perch a building on.

The word ‘meteora’ means ‘in the air’ and these buildings really are as high up in the air as it is possible to get in this region.

These Greek monasteries are perched on rock pinnacles above the mountains of central Greece. Some of these locations look impossible to reach, let alone built upon. Even into the twentieth century, anyone who wanted to visit one of these monasteries clinging to the mountain top like an eagle’s nest had to climb up a rickety rope ladder which was secured to the rock face, or even have the hair raising experience of sitting in a basket which was then manually hauled up the mountain side. Traditionally, Christian ascetics hid themselves away in high and remote places and in this case it is the Greek Orthodox monks who first built the monasteries and settled in these wild mountainous places around 1350.  Life in a Meteora monastery was hard and very simple. There were a few minute cells for the monks to sleep in, a church, a refectory where they ate and a cistern which was cut into the rock face to collect the rainwater.  If rainfall was low, water was in short supply, but fortunately this area does have a very high annual rainfall.

The idea was to build them as close to heaven as it was possible to get them. Some of the rocky pinnacles on which they are built are up to 1800 feet, or 549 metres above the ground.

They are situated on the very edge of the Pindus Mountains and they overlook the beautiful Pinions Valley. This was the only view most of the monks had of the outside world because many of them, once they had entered the monastery, spent their entire lives there.

 

In the mountains of central Greece the Monks stored the skulls of all past deceased Monks in their monasteries! Eerie! (Photo shot by Mike Smith)

 

 

 

Orthodox Monasteries and Monasticism of Sinai

---

"By a special privilege, the head of the monastery of St. Catherine (left) built by Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century near the spot where Moses is said to have received the Tablets of the Law, enjoys the rank of an archbishopric, and the monastery has the status of an autonomous church. The archbishop-abbot is elected by the chapter of monks but receives episcopal consecration at the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He only has jurisdiction over the monastery and the Bedouins who live in the neighborhood. The Archbishop of Sinai generally resides at the metochion (priory) of his monastery in Cairo. The monastery of Sinai possesses a very rich library of ancient Greek, Georgian, and Slavic manuscripts, and an interesting collection of icons." -- The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today by Fr. John Meyendorff

 

The Christians Merciless God

Quotes of God. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.--Amos 9:4

Were we allowed to read the Bible as we do all other books, we would admire its beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd, grotesque and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude, barbaric times. -- Robert Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses There is no text more barbaric than the Old Testament of the Bible--books like Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Exodus. The Quran pales in comparison. -- But you ask me what the scariest things are in Christianity: this infatuation with biblical prophecy and this notion that Jesus is going to come back as an avenging savior to kill all the bad people. -- Sam Harris, Beliefnet inverview The God of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous, and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, and a definite racist. -- Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil?

*There are actually some 200 gospels, epistles and other books concerning the life of Jesus Christ. Writing such material was a popular literary form, particularly in the 2nd century. The pious fantasies competed with Greek romantic fiction. Political considerations in the late 2nd century led to the selection of just four approved gospels and the rejection of others. After three centuries of wrangling 23 other books were accepted by the Church as divinely inspired. The rest were declared 'pious frauds'. In truth, the whole lot belongs to a genre of literary FICTION.

Burning Times – Auto-da-fé

Christian Hell on Earth

Attendance at an auto-da-fé (Portuguese for "Act of Faith") was not merely a major social event and civic occasion: it was a religious act which even the king himself was obliged to attend. It was a collective act of sacrifice in which victims were roasted to appease the Christian godman.

The first auto was held in Seville in 1481, the last in Mexico in 1850. Such Church/State terror (a pretence was maintained that the secular authorities carried out the actual murders) not only enforced religious devotion and conformity: it provided substantial income from property confiscated from the victims.

		Solemn Procession Doomed prisoners were led in procession to the place of execution. The burning would be held on a Sunday or other holy day so that the maximum number of people could attend. A Jesuit priest would walk on either side of each victim, gagged to prevent any words of outrage.The priests would intone the gospels and 'wrestle for his soul.'
		Caricatured Victim Decked out in a yellow 'san benito' penitential garment and wearing a 3' pointed 'coroza' cap – both painted with effigies, the flames of hell and devils, the victims would be given opportunities to recant and suffer a less painful death.
		Garroting for last minute repentance If a victim 'converted' to Catholicism at the last minute ("fuego resuelto") in its loving kindness the Church would sanction strangulation before burning.
		Burning for the unrepentant Those about to be murdered would first have their faces burned, a bit of fun to excite the crowd. The corpses of those who had died during torture would also be burnt; those who had fled burnt in effigy.
	A Fine Christian Sacrament, Exported to the Colonies too...
		Mexico, Brazil and Peru would enjoy the delights of the auto-da-fé long after it lost its charm in Europe. Mexico witnessed its last auto-da-fé as late as 1850. Did wonders for the conversion of the natives.

 Tariff for Torture, 1757

All the costs of conducting a trial and torture had to be paid by the hapless victim or by his relations. But that was not always possible.

In the German lands, the city of Cologne (originally established as a Roman colonia) had grown into a leading commercial and ecclesiastical centre. The town profited hugely from a 10th century fabrication of mass martyrdom – Saint Ursula and, variously, 5, 8, 11 and eventually, 11,000 virgin victims! – and a major trade in bones (probably taken from pagan graveyards). Monasteries proliferated and the local prince-bishop rose to become one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire.

Church-sanctioned murder was no stranger to the Rhineland and in the mid-18th century the bishop of Cologne was most concerned that his High Executioner did not profit at his expense by claiming for tortures and murders not performed.

He set out, in "exquisite detail", the precise payments that would be made for diverse acts of sadism.

The Church's Grandeur built on the backs of beggars

If walls could talk…

Cologne Cathedral took seven centuries to complete. The Coliseum in Rome took 8 years. 

To dazzle the credulous the sacred precincts of Cologne Cathedral house a gold sarcophagus said to contain the bones of the Magi or Three Kings. These bones are also to be found in Milan; sacred relics have that miraculous ability to be in more than one place at the same time.

For centuries the city of Cologne was famous for the opulence of its churches and the remarkable army of beggars that frequented them.

Christianity was the first creed in history to exterminate its adversaries in the name of love.

 

 

 

The Insanity Begins – The Closing Mind

Ignorance and intolerance – the midwives of Christian Europe

 

 

Roasting the Heretics

 

 

 

SIN – Drowning Humanity in Guilt & Fear

Criminalizing Humanity

 

 

 

The World that was Lost – Christianity Wrecks Civilization

Degradation of Law, trade, cities, women, language and human rights

A World Sunk in Piety – The Death of Science, Art, Technology

 

Medieval obsession with death included the display of clothed corpses.
(Capuchin vaults, Palermo) The Christians ignorance bestowed upon themselves great plagues with their filthy lifestyles.

In stark contrast, the ancient Greeks celebrated the healthy, perfected human form. (Below Photo)

                 
                   Greek Warrior, found nr. Riace, Italy, 5th century BC

Christianity's Savagery versus Pagan Wisdom

'Pagan'			'Christian'
	Surgery 2nd - 3rd centuries AD – Roman surgical instruments Almost indistinguishable from their 21st century counterparts.		Butchery	1100 AD Christian cure for illness - cauterising! The idea was that the blister caused by a hot iron would draw out a bad 'humour'.

	Eye Surgery Roman suction couching needle for removal of cataracts (next to modern electric suction needle)! Through an extremely fine inner tube a Roman surgeon could suck the cataract out of his patient's eye.		Prudery	1300 AD Christian medical journal. The patient keeps his drawers on!

Accurate illustration of Yarrow	Herbal Wisdom Fragment from De Materia Medica by Dioscurides - 6th century copy of 1st century AD herbal guide which detailed 500 herbs and their usage. (Prepared for Julia Anicia, daughter of Emperor Olybrius)			15th century - astrology and numerology passes for medical science.
			Astrology

The plant Mullein (Johnson Papyrus)	Fragment from 4th century AD herbal guide The Roman/Greek world had an extensive knowledge of herbalism.			1400 AD 'Cupping' – Heated glass bowls used to draw the blood
	Dentistry Roman, 3rd century AD The rich diet of wealthy Romans ruined their teeth. False teeth, set in gold.			1500 AD Bleeding – cure-all for centuries. Leeches often used.
	Sanitation 1st century AD: Roman public flushed toilets, Ephesus By 315 AD Rome had 144 public toilets which were flushed clean by running water.			16th century AD: emptying the potty in Christian Europe
			” Because of frequent rains, the streets of the city of Nürnberg are full of garbage and other wastes flushed by the rain water, so that the rider has always to worry that the horse will fall in a deep layer of the dirt and will look and smell like a dirty swine or that his clothes will be stained by the mud splashed by other horsemen.” Not to mention the rampant diseases. M. Strell (Die Abwasserfrage)
Hospitals – 2nd century AD				1600 AD Approved clothing for dealing with plague victims – no kidding! The beak was filled with sweet-smelling herbs.
'Valetudinarium' Roman Military Hospitals	During the reign of Marcus Aurelius the first true hospitals were built to serve the needs of the Roman army. They had separate wards, operating theatre, kitchens, baths, latrines, dispensary, mortuary and even a herb garden.
Neusser: Roman military hospital. 60 rooms, 300 patients
	Childbirth 2nd century AD. Relief showing Roman birthing stool.			1700 AD Birthing with all due decorum!
	Hygiene Hadrian's Baths - Leptis Magna (North Africa). Bath houses were a feature of all Romano-Greek cities.			Pieces of wood – medieval VD 'cure'
	Repair 2nd century AD. Traction tables used to put tension on a displaced bone or joint, such as a dislocated hip, to realign the bone correctly			"Theriac" – dried and powdered snake. Useless 'cure-all' for centuries
	Clean Water 1st century AD - aqueducts bring fresh water hundreds of miles. Public baths and a culture of daily bathing kept many diseases in check. Contrary to popular understanding, for most of their length Roman aqueducts ran underground, in sealed earthenware pipes similar to modern water mains.			19th century – water carriers hawk buckets in teeming city streets. Their source – a stand pipe, drawing water from sources polluted with human waste – worked delightfully well in spreading cholera and typhoid.

Surgery: Crude, blunt and horribly painful

Surgery in the Middle Ages was crude and blunt and … PAINFUL! Surgeons had a very poor understanding of human anatomy, anesthetics and antiseptic techniques to keep wounds and incisions from infection. It was not a pleasant time to be a patient, but if you valued your life, there was no choice. To relieve the pain, you submitted to more pain, and with any luck, you might get better. Surgeons in the early part of the Middle Ages were often monks because they had access to the best medical literature – often written by Arab scholars. But in 1215, the Pope said monks had to stop practicing surgery, so they instructed peasants to perform various forms of surgery. Farmers, who had little experience other than castrating animals, came into demand to perform anything from removing painful tooth abscesses to performing eye cataract surgery.

But there were some great successes. Archeologists in England found the skull of a peasant man from about 1100 who had been struck in the head by a heavy, blunt object. Close examination shows the man had been given life-saving surgery called trepanning, where a hole was drilled and a section of the skull was lifted, allowing smashed bone segments to be removed. The surgery alleviated pressure on the brain and the man recovered. We can only guess how painful it must have been!

Spells: Pagan rituals and religious penance as a form of cure

Early medieval medicine was often a mix of the pagan, religious and scientific. As the church gained more control, pagan “rituals” were made punishable offences. One such punishable offence might have been the following:

"When [the healer] approaches the house where the sick person lies, if [the healer] finds a stone lying nearby, [he turns] the stone over and looks in the place where the stone was lying [to see] if there anything living under it, and if [the healer] finds there a worm or a fly or an ant or anything that moves, they [the healer] avers that the sick person will recover." (From The Corrector & Physician).

Patients who had contracted the bubonic plague were told to perform penance – the practice of confessing one’s sins, then performing a religious devotion prescribed by a priest – a common “treatment.” They were told they might be spared death if they correctly confessed their sins. (Photo by: motv)

Eye Cataract Surgery: Painful procedure that rarely saved patients’ sight

An early operation for removal of a cataract included inserting a sharp instrument, such a knife or large needle, through the cornea and forcing the lens of the eye out of its capsule and down to the bottom of the eye.

Once Islamic medicine became more widely followed in medieval Europe, cataract surgery improved. The syringe was used for the extraction of cataracts by suction. A hollow metallic hypodermic syringe was inserted through the white part of the eye and successfully extracted the cataracts through suction.

Blocked Bladders: Metallic catheters inserted into the bladder

Blockage of urine in the bladder, due to syphilis and other venereal diseases, was fairly common at a time when antibiotics were not available. The urinary catheter – a metal tube inserted through the urethra into the bladder – was first used in the mid-1300s. When a tube could not easily be passed into the bladder to relieve the obstruction, other procedures to enter the bladder were devised, some quite novel, though all probably as painful and dangerous as the condition itself.

Here is a description of the treatment of kidney stones: "If there is a stone in the bladder make sure of it as follows: have a strong person sit on a bench, his feet on a stool; the patient sits on his lap, legs bound to his neck with a bandage, or steadied on the shoulders of the assistants. The physician stands before the patient and inserts two fingers of his right hand into the anus, pressing with his left fist over the patient's pubes. With his fingers engaging the bladder from above, let him work over all of it. If he finds a hard, firm pellet it is a stone in the bladder... If you want to extract the stone, precede it with light diet and fasting for two days beforehand. On the third day, ... locate the stone, bring it to the neck of the bladder; there, at the entrance, with two fingers above the anus incise lengthwise with an instrument and extract the stone." (Photo by: McKinney Collection)

Surgeons on the Battlefield: Pulling of arrows was a nasty business

Use of the longbow – a large powerful bow that could shoot arrows great distances – flourished in the Middle Ages. This created a real problem for battlefield surgeons: how to remove arrows from the bodies of soldiers.

The heads of war arrows weren’t necessarily glued onto the shafts, but attached with warm beeswax. After the wax set, they could be handled normally, but once shot into something if the shaft was pulled, the head would come off inside the body.

One answer was the arrow spoon, based on a design by an Arab physician, named Albucasis. The spoon is inserted into the wound and attaches itself around the arrowhead to be drawn from a wound without causing further damage as the barbs rip out.

Wounds such as these were also treated with cautery, where red hot irons were applied to the wound so that the tissue and veins sealed over, preventing blood loss and infection. Cautery was especially used in amputations.

A famous illustration for surgeons was called, “The Wound Man,” which showed the various kinds of wounds a battlefield surgeon might expect to see. (Photo by: FM)

Bloodletting: A cure-all for almost any ailment

Physicians in the Middle Ages believed that most human illnesses were the result of excess fluid in the body (called humour). The cure was removing excess fluid by taking large amounts of blood out of the body. Two of the main methods of bloodletting were leeching and venesection.

In leeching, the physician attached a leech, a blood-sucking worm, to the patient, probably on that part of the body most severely affected by the patient's condition. The worms would suck off a quantity of blood before falling off.

Venesection was the direct opening of a vein, generally on the inside of the arm, for the draining of a substantial quantity of blood. The tool used for venesection was the fleam, a narrow half-inch long blade, which penetrates the vein, and leaves a small wound. The blood ran into a bowl, which was used to measure the amount of blood taken.

Monks in various monasteries had regular bloodletting treatments – whether they were sick or not – as a means of keeping good health. They had to be excused from regular duties for several days while they recovered. (Photo by: McKinney Collection and FM)

Childbirth: Women told to prepare for their death

Childbirth in the Middle Ages was considered so deadly that the Church told pregnant women to prepare their shrouds and confess their sins in case of death.

Midwives were important to the Church due to their role in emergency baptisms and were regulated by Roman Catholic law. A popular medieval saying was, "The better the witch; the better the midwife"; to guard against witchcraft, the Church required midwives to be licensed by a bishop and swear an oath not to use magic when assisting women through labour.

In situations where a baby's abnormal birth position slowed its delivery, the birth attendant turned the infant inutero or shook the bed to attempt to reposition the fetus externally. A dead baby who failed to be delivered would be dismembered in the womb with sharp instruments and removed with a "squeezer." A retained placenta was delivered by means of counterweights, which pulled it out by force. (Photo by: Wikipedia)

Clysters: A medieval method of injecting medicines into the anus

The medieval version of the enema was known as the clyster, which is really an instrument for injecting fluids into the body through the anus. The clyster was a long metallic tube with a cupped end, into which the medicinal fluid was poured. The other end, a dull point, which was drilled with several small holes, was inserted into the anus. Fluids were poured in and a plunger was used to inject the fluids into the colon area, using a pumping action.

The most common fluid used was lukewarm water, though occasionally medical concoctions, such as thinned boar’s bile or vinegar, were used.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the medieval clyster was replaced by the more common bulb syringe. In France, the treatment became quite fashionable. King Louis XIV had over 2,000 enemas during his reign, sometimes holding court while the ceremony progressed. (Photo by: CMA)

Hemorrhoids: Agony of the anus treated with hot irons

Treatment of many diseases in the Middle Ages included prayers to patron saints for possible divine intervention. A seventh century Irish monk, St. Fiacre, was the patron saint for hemorrhoid sufferers. He developed hemorrhoids from digging in his garden, one day, and sat on a stone which gave him a miraculous cure. The stone survives to this day with the imprint of his hemorrhoids and is visited by many hoping for a similar cure. The disease was often called “St. Fiacre’s curse” in the Middle Ages.

In more extreme cases of hemorrhoids, medieval physicians used their cautery irons to treat the problem. Others believed that simply pulling them out with their fingernails was a solution, a solution that the Greek physician, Hippocrates suggested.

The 12th century Jewish physician Moses Maimonides wrote a seven-chapter treatise on hemorrhoids and disagreed with the use of surgery, instead prescribing the most common treatment used to this day: the sitz bath. (Photo by: McKinney Collection)

Highlights from the Christian Menu of Death

 1. For tearing apart and quartering by four horses  … 5 Thaler, 26 Albus

4. For hanging the four quarters in four corners, the necessary rope, nails, chains, and the transport included   … 5,26

5. For beheading and burning, everything included … 5,26

9. For burning alive   … 4,0

11. For breaking alive on the wheel  … 4,0

17. For beheading and tying the body on the wheel   … 4,0

19. For cutting off a hand or several fingers and for beheading, all together  … 3, 26

20. The same: in addition, for burning with a hot iron  … 1,26

24. For beheading and tying the body on the wheel and for sticking the head on a pole, all together  … 5,0

28. Before the actual execution starts, for squeezing the delinquent with red-hot tongs, apart from the above-mentioned fee for hanging, for every application  … 0,26

29. For cutting out the tongue entirely, or part of it, and afterwards for burning the mouth with a red-hot iron  … 5,0

31. For nailing to the gallows a cut-off tongue or a chopped-off hand  … 1,26

38. For putting in the pillory, branding, and whipping, including coals, rope, and rods, also the branding ointment   … 2,0

41. For terrorizing by showing the instruments of torture   …1,0

Quotes from the Bible;

Puerile God

"If ye will not give glory unto my name saith the LORD ... I will spread dung upon your faces."
– Malachi 2.2,3.

 

Making "every thought captive."

"For the weapons of our warfare are casting down imaginations ... and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

– St Paul, 2 Corinthians 10.4,5.

 

"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned"

– John (15:6)

How many people did God kill in the Bible?

It's impossible to say for sure, but plenty. How many did God drown in the mentioned flood or burn to death in Sodom and Gomorrah? How many first-born Egyptians did he kill? There's just no way to count them all.

But sometimes the Bible tells us exactly how many were killed by God. The below numbers were taken directly from the Old Testament and do not include the billions killed in God's, Ali's, name!

So far I come up with a total of 2,301,427 (not including, at least in some cases, women and children).
Verse Number killed Cumulative total
1 Lot's wife for looking back Genesis 19:26 1 1
2 Er who was "wicked in the sight of the Lord" Genesis 38:7, 1 Chronicles 2:3 1 2
3 Onan for spilling his seed Genesis 38:10 1 3
4 Pharaoh and 600 chariot captains (plus his entire army) Exodus 14:8-26 600 603
5 Israelites for dancing naked around Aaron's golden calf Exodus 32:27-28, 35 3000 3603
6 Aaron's sons for offering strange fire before the Lord Leviticus 10:1-3; Numbers 3:4, 26:61 2 3,605
7 A blasphemer Leviticus 24:10-23 1 3,606
8 God killed ten scouts with a plague.. Numbers 14:35-36 10 3,616
9 A man who gathered firewood on the sabbath Numbers 15:32-36 1 3,617
10 Kora, Dathan, and Abiram (and their families) Numbers 16:27 9 3,626
11 Burned to death for offering incense Numbers 16:35 250 3,876
12 For complaining Numbers 16:49 14,700 18,576
13 Israelites for "committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab" Numbers 25:9 24,000 42,576
14 Achan (and his his sons and daughters) for taking the accursed thing Joshua 7:10-12, 24-26 5 42,581
15 The city of Ai Joshua 8:1-25 12,000 54,581
16 Joshua kills 5 kings and hangs their dead bodies on trees Joshua 10:24-26 5 54,586
17 God delivers the Caananites and Perizzites Judges 1:4 10,000 64,586
18 Ehud delivers a message from God: a knife in the belly Judges 3:15-22 1 64,587
19 God delivers the Moabites Judges 3:28-29 10,000 74,587
20 God forces Midianite soldiers to kill each other Judges 7:22, 8:10 120,000 194,587
21 The spirit of the Lord comes on Samson Judges 14:19 30 194,617
22 The spirit of the Lord comes mightily on Samson Judges 15:14-15 1,000 195,617
23 Samson's God-assiste act of terrorism Judges 16:27-30 3,000 198,617
24 "The Lord smote Benjamin." Judges 20:35-37 25,100 223,717
25 God smites more Benjamites Judges 20:44-46 25,000 248,717
26 For looking into the ark of the Lord 1 Samuel 6:19 50,070 298,787
27 God delievered Philistines to Jonathan 1 Samuel 14:12 20 298,807
28 Samuel hacks Agag to pieces before the Lord 1 Samuel 15:32-33 1 298,808
29 "The Lord smote Nabal." 1 Samuel 25:38 1 298,809
30 Uzzah for trying to keep the ark from falling 2 Samuel 6:6-7, 1 Chronicles 13:9-10 1 298,810
31 David and Bathsheba's baby boy 2 Samuel 12:14-18 1 298,801
32 The seven sons of Saul hung up before the Lord 2 Samuel 21:6-9 7 298,818
33 God sends a plague to punish David for his census 2 Samuel 24:15, 1 Chronicles 21:14 70,000 368,818
34 A lion is sent by God to kill a prophet for believing another prophet's lie 1 Kings 13:1-24 1 368,819
35 Religious leaders killed in a prayer contest 1 Kings 18:22-40 450 369,269
36 God delivers the Syrians into the Israelites' hands 1 Kings 20:28-29 100,000 469,269
37 God makes a wall fall on Syrian soldiers 1 Kings 20:30 27,000 496,269
38 God sent a lion to eat a man for not killing a prophet 1 Kings 20:35-36 1 496,270
39 Ahaziah is killed for talking to the wrong god 2 Kings 1:2-4, 17; 2 Chronicles 22:7-9 1 496,271
40 Burned to death by God 2 Kings 1:9-12 102 496,373
41 God sends two bears to kill 42 children for making fun of Elisha's bald head 2 Kings 2:23-24 42 496,415
42 An unbeliever is trampled to death 2 Kings 7:17-20 1 496,416
43 Jezebel 2 Kings 9:33-37 1 496,417
44 God sent lions to kill "some" foreigners for not fearing him 2 Kings 17:25-26 3 496,420
45 Sleeping Assyrian soldiers 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36 185,000 681,420
46 Saul for not inquiring of the Lord 1 Chronicles 10:14 1 681,421
47 God delivers Israel into the hands of Judah 2 Chronicles 13:15-17 500,000 1,181,421
48 Jeroboam 2 Chronicles 13:20 1 1,181,422
49 "The Lord smote the Ethiopians." 2 Chronicles 14:9-14 1,000,000 2,181,422
50 God kills Jehoram by making his bowels fall out 2 Chronicles 21:14-19 1 2,181,423
51 Judean soldiers killed for forsaking God 2 Chronicles 28:6 120,000 2,301,423
52 Job's chidren Job 1:1-19 10 2,301,433
53 Ezekiel's wife Ezekiel 24:15-18 1 2,301,434
54 Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5:1-10 2 2,301,436
55 Herod Acts 12:23 1  Total people God Killed as detailed in the Old Testimoney.2,301,437

Violence in the Bible, cont.

Genesis

# Lot refuses to give up his angels to the perverted mob, offering his two "virgin daughters" instead. He tells the bunch of angel rapers to "do unto them [his daughters] as is good in your eyes." 19:7-8

# God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family. 19:24

# Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, is "defiled" by a man who seems to love her dearly. Her brothers trick all of the men of the town and kill them (after first having them all circumcised), and then take their wives and children captive. 34:1-31

# The sons of Jacob trick Shechem into getting circumcised. Then they murder him, his sons, and all the males of the city, while taking their wives captive. 34:24-29

# "The terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them." 35:5

# A child who hits or curses his parents must be executed. 21:15, 17

# An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 21:24-25

# If an ox gores someone, "then the ox shall surely be stoned." 21:28

# If an ox gores someone due to the negligence of its owner, then "the ox shall be stoned, and his owner shall be put to death.". 21:29

# If an ox gores a slave, the owner of the ox must pay the owner of the slave 30 shekels of silver, and "the ox shall be stoned." 21:32

# "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Thousands of innocent women have suffered excruciating deaths because of this verse. 22:18

# Wash up or die. 30:20-21

# Whoever puts holy oil on a stranger shall be "cut off from his people." 30:33

# Those who break the Sabbath are to be executed. 31:14

# Whoever works, or even kindles a fire, on the Sabbath "shall be put to death." 35:2-3 Leviticus

# Moses does it all for God. First he kills an animal; wipes the blood on Aaron's ears, thumbs, and big toes. Then he sprinkles blood round about and waves the guts before the Lord. Finally he burns the whole mess for "a sweet savour before the Lord." 8:14-32

# More killing, sprinkling of blood, waiving animal parts, and burning carcasses "before the Lord." 9:2-21

# "Whosoever shall commit any of these abominations ... shall be cut off from among their people." 18:29, 19:8

# Don't eat sacrifices on the third day or God will cut you off from among your people. 19:6-8

# Kill anyone who "gives his seed" to Molech. If you refuse, God will cut you and your family off. 20:2-5

# "For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." Couldn't we try spanking first? 20:9

# Both parties in adultery shall be executed. 20:10

# If a man has sex with his father's wife, kill them both. 20:11

# If a man "lies" with his daughter-in-law, then both must be killed. 20:12

# If a man has sex with another man, kill them both. 20:13

# A man curses and blasphemes while disputing with another man. Moses asks God what to do about it. God says that the whole community must stone him to death. "And the children of Israel did as the Lord and Moses commanded." 24:10-23

# Anyone who blasphemes or curses shall be stoned to death by the entire community. 24:16

# God tells the people to expel from camp "every leper, every one that hath an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead." So by God's instructions, the sick are abandoned and left to suffer and die alone. 5:1-4

 Christianity, cont.
The majority of the early Christian Church Fathers saw the sacrifice of Jepthah's virgin daughter as foreshadowing, like Isaac, the death of Jesus Christ not least because Jepthah's vow in the biblical account was made whilst under the influence of the Holy Spirit (Judges 11:29).

In the Christian religion the belief developed that the story of Isaac's binding was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus, whom Christians believe was God's only son and simultaneously God Himself, and who gave up his life so that sins could be forgiven. There is a tradition that the site of the binding of Isaac, Moriah, was also the city of Jesus' future crucifixion, i.e. Jerusalem. However no archaeological or historical evidence supports this assertion. The beliefs of most denominations of Christianity hinge upon a single, specific human sacrifice: that of the Christ. Most Christians believe, at least nominally, that in order to gain access to paradise in the afterlife each individual person must somehow become a partaker in that all-important human sacrifice for the atonement of their personal sins. Some Christians, including Orthodox and Roman Catholics, believe they participate in the sacrifice of Calvary through the Eucharist which they believe is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Many Protestants, however, reject this, and rather believe that the bread and wine of communion are merely symbolic, trusting that it is their faith in Christ's finished work on the cross that atones for their sins.

Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed (taken control of). The practice is quite ancient and still part of the belief system of many religions, though it is seen mostly in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can only be exercised by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) enjoined: “Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite."

• "The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating" - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions."

• "Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans."

The Truth About the Dark Ages

We gain tremendous power by understanding the truth about the past and the present. The truth does set us free from ignorance and suicidal acquiescence to present policies which are destroying the very fabric of our culture.

We'll examine what actually happened in the time called "the Dark Ages" -- nullifying the false histories of Christian apologists who would have us believe that this era of retrogression was caused solely by the "heathen barbaric hordes." As more honest historians such as Gibbons have discovered, the Dark Ages was largely brought on by the corruption of a counterfeit Christianity.

As is made clear in my recently published book The Perennial Tradition, only a few persons associated with Jesus of Nazareth truly understood his message. Paul had experienced Jesus in a mystical encounter. Peter and other of the disciples completely misunderstood Jesus' intentions, turning their brand of Christianity into a neo-Judaism, requiring converts to undergo circumcision and follow the Jewish law.

The true dissemination of Jesus' teaching proceeded with Paul, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Marcion, Valentinus, and others, while the so-called apostles began to turn Christianity into a sacerdotal religion of dogma and ritual.

Within a few years, the leaders of what was called the Christian church were nothing more than bosses of vicious gangs who murdered their rivals for power and position. We can trace the rapid degeneration of these so-called Christians, as they helped to destroy the Roman Empire and plunge the Western world into the Dark Ages.

In 198 CE a cleric named Zephyrinus became Bishop of one of the Christian factions in Rome. During Zephyrinus's long tenure as Bishop from 198 - 217 CE, factional rivalry in the city became endemic. A group of soothsayers led by Montanus built a strong following, even among the bishop's own followers, and a third group, led by Sabellius, rejected ridiculous dogmas that were being put forward.

Zephyrinus was succeeded as "Christian" Bishop by a young man named Callistus. As a youth, Callistus had been the slave of a Christian master named Carpophorus, a freedman in the imperial household. Callistus had stolen funds collected by fellow-Christians for the care of widows and orphans. When Callistus tried to make a run for it, he was apprehended aboard a ship in the port of Portus. He was imprisoned and forced to work on a hand-mill. After being released, Callistus was arrested again, this time because of a brawl in a synagogue where he had tried to extract money from a group of Roman Jews.

Commodus Dragged before city prefect Fuscianus, Callistus was denounced by Carpophorus and sentenced to a penal colony, the silver mines of Sardinia. But during his checkered career, Callistus had somehow gained friends in high places. He had been a "counselor" to Bishop Victor and also a friend of a certain Marcia, a concubine of Emperor Commodus, the dissolute son of Marcus Aurelius. Marcia had been "brought up" by the presbyter Hyacinthus before being passed on to Commodus. This young "Christian" woman named Marcia was party to the conspiracy that ultimately strangled Commodus.

During his reign as Roman Emperor, Diocletian had divided the empire into the eastern and western provinces. In 306 CE, on the death of the western Augustus (province ruler), Constantius I, his son Constantine quickly claimed his father's throne. Constantine wanted to seize power in the east as well as the west, and he saw the Christian cult as the means to his goal.

Constantine
The Christians constituted only about five per cent of the total population of the Roman Empire, but they were concentrated in enclaves in the key cities of the east. The eastern Christians were an organized cult of fanatics, in many cities holding important positions in state administration. Some held posts even within the imperial entourage. The main body of the church confronted the Roman State as a "Republic within the Republic," with its own treasury, laws, magistrates and command structure.

The ambitious thug-ruler of the west, Constantine, realized that he could use the "Christian" fanatics and their hierarchical structure, as part of his plan to become Emperor of a united Rome. He declared Christianity as the official religion of his regime. By championing the cause of the Christians, Constantine put himself at the head of a "fifth column" in the eastern province, through which he was able to seize power.

By 330 CE Constantine had taken control of both the western and eastern provinces and declared himself supreme Caesar over all of the Roman Empire. He appointed one of the rival "Christian" chieftains Lucius Lactantius as his official Latin theologian, propagandist, and tutor to his son Crispus. Lactantius soon lost the job of tutor when Constantine had his son murdered for adultery with his stepmother. Lactantius praised Constantine as "a model of Christian virtue and holiness" (De Mortibus Persecutorum).

Among many other insane policies that Constantine enacted--leading to the fall of the Roman Empire--was that of disbanding the praetorian guard and replacing them with a special imperial guard, an elite cavalry regiment of 500 soldiers, mainly Germans. This left Rome essentially defenseless, and within a century the Visigoths were sacking Rome and other imperial cities.

"Constantine abolished security by removing the greater part of the soldiery from the frontiers to the cities that needed no auxiliary forces. He thus deprived of help the people who were harassed by the barbarians and burdened tranquil cities with the pest of the military, so that several straightway were deserted. Moreover he softened the soldiers, who treated themselves to shows and luxuries. Indeed (to speak plainly) he personally planted the first seeds of our present devastated state of affairs."

Zosimus, sixth century CE Greek historian, Historia Nova

Succeeding "Christian" leaders influenced the Caesars of the Roman state, assuring a position of power for themselves in this deteriorating empire. In 370 CE, the Emperor Valens ordered a total persecution of non-Christian peoples throughout the Eastern Empire. The philosopher Simonides was burned alive and the philosopher Maximus was decapitated. The twilight of civilization was fast approaching.

The ruins of Eleusis In 380 CE, Christianity became the exclusive religion of the Roman Empire by an edict of the Emperor Flavius Theodosius. The Roman Empire was now a "Christian" theocracy. The corrupt "Christian" leaders were ecstatic at the prospect of being able to loot all the "pagan" temples and monuments. Ambrosius, bishop of Milan, began the destruction of pagan temples throughout his area. "Christian" priests led a vicious mob against the temple of the goddess Demeter in Eleusis and attempted to lynch the hierophants Nestorius and Priskus. The ninety-five year old hierophant Nestorius terminated the Eleusinian Mysteries and announced "the predominance of mental darkness over the human race."

From that time on, pagan temples throughout the Roman empire were torn down or refurbished as "Christian" churches. The fourth Church Council of Carthage in 398 CE prohibited everybody, including "Christian" bishops, from studying pagan (non-Christian) books--on penalty of death. Illiteracy became official Christian policy. Roman society by the fifth century was becoming ever more rigid and hierarchical, with eroding social and geographic mobility and an immense and widening gulf between rich and poor. Rome's urban middle class was being taxed out of existence, freedmen were being confined in indentured labor and slavery and the soldiery was being reduced to a peasant-farmer militia.

In Alexandria in 415 CE, a "Christian" mob, incited by the bishop Cyril, attacked a few days before the Judeo-Christian Pascha (Easter) and cut to pieces the famous and beautiful female philosopher Hypatia. 1 The "Christian" mob carried pieces of her body through the streets of Alexandria, finally burning her remains together with her books in a place called Cynaron.

In 429 CE depraved "Christian" mobs sacked the world-famous Parthenon, the temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis of Athens. From 440 to 450 CE, the "Christians" demolished all the monuments, altars and temples of Athens, Olympia, and other Greek cities.

Roman emperor Theodosius II in 448 CE ordered all non-Christian books to be burned. In 529 CE emperor Justinian ordered the Platonic Academy in Athens closed and its property confiscated. The bonfires set by Christian zealots reduced the science of a millennium to ash. In the new Christian tyranny all scientific thought which contradicted the Bible was suppressed. If rationality and observation contradicted the "revealed Word of God" then it was rationality and the observer who were in error.

"For the Christian, it is enough to believe that the cause of all things, whether in heaven or on earth, whether visible or invisible, is nothing other than the goodness of the Creator."

Augustine, Enchiridion, 3.9

Ammianus Marcellinus, Rome's last great historian (died in 395 CE) lamented that

"Those few buildings which were once celebrated for the serious cultivation of liberal studies, now are filled with ridiculous amusements of torpid indolence. . . The libraries, like tombs, are closed forever."

The "Christian" church had no interest in preserving the Roman Empire; it now had its own empire to build. As the Roman Empire crumbled, career opportunities now lay exclusively within the hierarchy of the church and a Christianized state bureaucracy--for those few bright and privileged enough to be able to seek education. With the active cooperation of the imperial court the Church had seized complete control over education and now restricted instruction to potential priests. Initially, rhetoric and grammar remained in the syllabus but knowledge which did not serve the purposes of the Church was suppressed.

Some classic writers such as Homer (in whose work Christians saw allegories), Plato and Aristotle (philosophies which were said to have "anticipated" Christianity), and some poetic and rhetorical works (Juvenal, Ovid and Horace) were seen as useful as teaching aids. But Christian hostility to general learning and practical knowledge was so pervasive that access to scripture itself was forbidden to any lay-person who might happen to be literate.

Preoccupied with ceremonial and propagandistic pageants, within a few generations most priests could not even read the Bible. Ritual had replaced reading, iconography had replaced language. The scientific method--empirical observation and the testing of hypotheses--had no place in an age in which eternal truth was made known to man by the revealed Word of God. In the Christian world-view, "Nature" was now seen as the domain of evil, not a realm worthy of respect and exploration.

As Christianity led humankind into a mindless life of obedience to its dogmas and leaders, the light of human intelligence began to go out. Christendom lost the art of brick and tile making, of bridge building and public sanitation. A despotic theocracy did not want people to think or to examine the world about them.

One of the major parts of pseudo-history created by Christian propagandists, is the myth that Christianity won over the barbaric hordes to Christ. We are given the unbelievable image of the heroic priest, armed only with his Bible and Christian courage, who subdues the savage warriors with homilies from the Good Book.

Barbarian groups became "Christian" whenever their chiefs felt it was to their advantage to take on the nominal title of Christian. Power in a barbarian clan was fragile and leadership changed often and violently. Barbarian tribes raided neighboring territories out of military and economic necessity, By acquiring "prestige goods"--such as slaves, jewelry, gold pieces, fine weapons, Christian titles--the barbarian ruling elite preserved its rule and raised its social status. Success at raiding strengthened the link between a chief and his warriors.

From the third to the fifth centuries, the barbarian tribes migrated constantly; territories were ill-defined, ever-changing, tribal alliances were continuously made and remade, and warriors of the same tribe fought both for and against the Romans.

Contact with leaders of the Roman Empire--both civil and religious--brought prestige to tribal chieftains. They saw the Roman Empire as everything barbarian society was not: stable, universal, and eternal. By emulating Roman characteristics the barbarian aristocracy gained a semblance of "civilization" and power.

"Every Goth wishes to be like a Roman, " said Theodoric, "but only the humblest Roman wants to be like a Goth."

So strong was barbarian desire to establish a "Roman" legitimacy for their new kingdoms that the illiterate Charlemagne, centuries later, styled himself "King of Franks and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans." He was crowned Emperor and Augustus.

Once a warrior king embraced "Christianity"--an adoption of form and formality with basically no regard to content--the warrior aristocracy followed its king. Thus, for example, when Clovis accepted Christ as his new god, he compelled 3,000 of his retainers to follow him into the baptismal font. Among the common tribesmen religious allegiance was not an issue of conscience. This was not an age of individual opinion or preference. When the tribal leadership adopted a new god the tribe followed suit. Not to have done so would have been tantamount to rebellion. When Charlemagne insisted on baptism as the sign of submission, he punished with appalling barbarity any resistance, as when, in cold blood, he beheaded, in a single day, 4,500 Saxons at Verden, in 782 CE.

The barbarian kings sought marriage into the Roman imperial bloodlines. And they wanted Roman patricians in their entourage, men who could advise them in the governance of their newly acquired lands and peoples. Everywhere, the indigenous "Romans" outnumbered their warrior overlords. The outstanding example is the court of Theodoric, Ostrogothic king of Italy. His administration was modeled on that of his imperial predecessors and was staffed by Romans. Among "men of letters" at his court was Aurelius Cassiodorus, senator, statesman, monk and writer. As the local "statesmen," the pseudo-Christian Bishops "spoke" for the native people and served as "administrators" of cities and districts on behalf of the barbarian king. Theodoric's reign can best be judged by his vicious murder of Boethius, with the collaboration of his "Christian" advisers.

Thus arose the Dark Age elite--a fusion of ex-pagan chiefs who were in awe of all things Roman (including its Christianity), and degenerate Roman landowners who survived by foisting Christianity on superstitious tribesmen. The very heart of this veneer of legitimizing romanitas was the pseudo-Christian religion by which the emperors had legitimized and made "divine" their own rule. Hence the rise of the Christian bishops and in particular the Bishop of Rome--the custodian of the corpse of the empire and self-styled bestowal of its legacy.

With his book of Christian spells and the inheritance of more than a thousand years of Roman "gravitas" behind him, the patrician-bishop easily swayed the untutored mind of a barbarian king.

As well as "Christ magic" (salvation through mere belief in the "founder" of the Roman church, Christ) the head of the Roman church offered "legitimacy" and the power of the written word as a kingly imprimatur. With his help, an upstart king's authority could now be proclaimed everywhere. With bribes and baubles, he gained access; he took on the role of ambassador and agent; he lent support to one side against another in fratricidal conflict; he advised; he provided "virgin brides" and officiated at royal weddings and ceremonials; he governed the locals on behalf of his barbarian overlord.

Through it all, the wealth and authority of the "Christian" leader grew. And the nonsense he peddled - pseudo-Christianity - became official dogma. Before the closing years of the fifth century the Christian Church showed no interest in converting barbarians. God, it seems, had chosen the Roman Empire to spread his Word. Yet when the fierce tribesmen arrived at the city gates, that event was "God's Judgement" and the Christian bishops were all too ready to abandon the empire and throw in their lot with the invader.

Despite the "3-day wonder" of the sack of Rome in 410 CE by the Visigoths, it was Gaul that was in dire straits in the fifth century, not Italy (which enjoyed a late 'Indian summer' under its Gothic king.) In the late fifth century, Salian Franks under Clovis began three centuries of expansion by absorbing the other Frankish tribes. In 486 CE Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and the last Gallo-Roman region of Gaul--Soissons--was overrun. Subjugation of the Thuringians and Bavarians followed.

The Franks were a heathen German tribe, almost the only one untouched by Arianism (the belief that Jesus was not a God), spreading from the east. While the primitive Franks continued to give homage to their old Germanic gods, other, more Romanized, tribes had adopted Arian Christianity as a "national" religion.

Backward and barbarous they may have been but for the beleaguered Catholic bishops the Franks were the great hope. In the Franks, the papal agents found a fierce but malleable tribe and they spared nothing to bring the Frankish overlords under their sway. The dominion of the Franks in the west ensured the triumph of Roman Catholicism.

The "conversion" of Clovis was a crucial event, comparable to the "conversion" of Constantine--and equally surrounded by the same fanciful mythology. Clovis's conversion, like Constantine's, was no "inward experience of grace" but was a military matter. He was convinced that victory in battle lay in the gift of the god of the Christians. Christ for him was a talismanic war god.

According to the myth, in 496 CE, after a close call against the Alamanni, the day had been "saved" by a prayer either from Clovis himself, or the Catholic Bishop Gregory of Tours (or maybe both). A grateful Clovis took baptism to become the first "Catholic" ruler in the west. Of course, he had been softened up somewhat by marriage in 493 CE to a Catholic princess, the Burgundian Clotilda, put forward as his bride "on account of her beauty and wisdom" (and no doubt her Catholicism). Clovis, like Constantine a century and a half earlier, was also aware of the political advantage of posing as a liberator of "those oppressed by religious heresy."

"It grieves me," he said, "to see that the Arians possess the fairest portion of Gaul. Let us march against them, vanquish the heretics, and share out their fertile lands."

In 507 CE Clovis took Aquitaine from the weak Visigothic king Alaric II, and then subjugated Burgundy. Both areas were forcibly converted to Catholicism--to the delight of the local bishops. At Clovis' death in 511 CE, Clotilda went into a monastery at Tours where she stayed until her death in 545 CE. It can be no surprise that a grateful Roman Catholic Church made her a saint.

The weakened and demoralized Roman troops who remained on the frontiers were re-grouped into small units of 1,000 men (compared to 5,000 of the former legions), with limited cavalry support under the command of a "dux." These small detachments were stationed in hill-top forts, where, essentially they avoided any engagement with an enemy they were not expected to defeat.

Training for these demoralized and irregularly paid troops seriously declined. Expensive body armour was abandoned, and simple leather caps replaced the iron helmet. Under such conditions, traditional Roman infantry tactics, driven by harsh discipline and constant training, simply disappeared. The luckless frontier troops, dependent upon payment in rations and only the occasional cash bonus, degenerated into a peasant militia, spending more time in growing food than on the parade ground.

The Light of Truth

To see to what depths the human mind is currently devolving, we must understand the true history of what has been called the Dark Ages. Only by going behind the falsifications of historians prejudiced by their Christian beliefs is it possible for us to understand how degraded people's minds had become during the fifth through sixteenth centuries in Europe: The earlier Dark Ages.

Europe languished in intellectual and cultural retrogression during the Middle Ages, while the light of wisdom was preserved and advanced by those they labeled "the infidel Saracen." The reintroduction of the Classical (Greek) Tradition and the Perennial Tradition through the confluence of European and Muslim thought, beginning around 1000 CE, revitalized earlier conceptions of knowledge as derived from experience--participation in reality. (Pic. on left of Medieval Castle)

As d'Alembert states in his introduction to the French Encyclopedia,

"Most of the great minds during those dark ages . . . were preoccupied with a thousand frivolous questions about abstract and metaphysical being instead of thoroughly investigating Nature or studying man."

During her lifetime, Hypatia was one of the world's leading scholars in mathematics and astronomy. Her knowledge, modesty, and public speaking ability were legendary. Hypatia taught in Alexandria during the era of the Great Library in that city. Hypatia helped to develop the astrolabe, an instrument used to determine earth location by measuring relationships between heavenly bodies. She taught: "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all. To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing."
 

Pope Gregory

'God's Consul' in Rome

(540-604)

Legacy: – Concentrated power in the hierarchs of the Church. Papal Supremacy supported by secular authority given to the clergy, who supplant the imperial civil service – Clergy given regalia and 'privilegia'. – Accumulation of vast papal wealth and landed estates. – Secularization of the Church. Wealthy noblemen chose the pope, usually from among themselves.  Popes with no training as priest. – Illegitimate papal children appointed cardinals – Fantastic, miracle-filled 'Lives of Saints' (Gregory had no mind for theology). – Veneration and sale of 'relics' to gullible pilgrims. – Hostility to secular learning and culture; book burning.
– Purgatory embellished (foundation of sale of indulgences): His words of damnation!

"Unbaptised babies go straight to Hell and suffer there for all eternity."

– Demonology. – Forced conversion of 'pagans' and sequestering of their shrines. – Rome's 'missionaries' take over from local clerics, enforce Roman sacraments. – 'Plain song' (chanting) introduced, even as a cure for plague. – Unloving view of sex:

"Covering The Earth With Darkness"
Three centuries of persecution of the pagan

In the year 314; Immediately after its full legalization, the Christian Church attacks non-Christians. The Council of Ancyra denounces the worship of Goddess Artemis.

In 324 The emperor Constantine declares Christianity as the only official religion of the Roman Empire. In Dydima, Minor Asia, he sacks the Oracle of the god Apollo and tortures the pagan priests to death. He also evicts all non-Christian peoples from Mount Athos and destroys all the local Hellenic temples.

325 Nicene Council. The godman gets a promotion: 'Christ is Divine'

326 Constantine, following the instructions of his mother Helen, destroys the temple of the god Asclepius in Aigeai Cilicia and many temples of the goddess Aphrodite in Jerusalem, Aphaca, Mambre, Phoenicia, Baalbek, etc.

330 Constantine steals the treasures and statues of the pagan temples of Greece to decorate Constantinople, the new capital of his Empire.

335 Constantine sacks many pagan temples in Asia Minor and Palestine and orders the execution by crucifixion of “all magicians and soothsayers.” Martyrdom of the neoplatonist philosopher Sopatrus.

341 Constantius II (Flavius Julius Constantius) persecutes “all the soothsayers and the Hellenists.” Many gentile Hellenes are either imprisoned or executed.

346 New large scale persecutions against non-Christian peoples in Constantinople. Banishment of the famous orator Libanius accused as a “magician”.

353 An edict of Constantius orders the death penalty for all kind of worship through sacrifice and “idols”.

354 A new edict orders the closing of all the pagan temples. Some of them are profaned and turned into brothels or gambling rooms.

Execution of pagan priests begins.

A new edict of Constantius orders the destruction of the pagan temples and the execution of all “idolaters”.

First burning of libraries in various cities of the empire.

The first lime factories are organized next to the closed pagan temples. A major part of the holy architecture of the pagans is turned into lime.

357 Constantius outlaws all methods of divination (astrology not excluded).

359 In Skythopolis, Syria, the Christians organize the first death camps for the torture and executions of the arrested non-Christians from all around the empire.

361 to 363 Religious tolerance and restoration of the pagan cults is declared in Constantinople (11th December 361) by the pagan emperor Julian (Flavius Claudius Julianus).

363 Assassination of Julian (26th June).

364 Emperor Jovian orders the burning of the Library of Antioch.

An Imperial edict (11th September) orders the death penalty for all those that worship their ancestral gods or practice divination (“sileat omnibus perpetuo divinandi curiositas”).

Three different edicts (4th February, 9th September, 23rd December) order the confiscation of all properties of the pagan temples and the death penalty for participation in pagan rituals, even private ones.

The Church Council of Laodicea (Phrygia – western Asia Minor) orders that religious observances are to be conducted on Sunday and not on Saturday. Sunday becomes the new Sabbath. The practice of staying at home and resting on Saturday declared sinful and anathema to Christ.

365 An imperial edict from Emperor Valens, a zealous Arian Christian (17th November), forbids pagan officers of the army to command Christian soldiers.

370 Valens orders a tremendous persecution of non-Christian peoples in all the Eastern Empire. In Antioch, among many other non-Christians, the ex-governor Fidustius and the priests Hilarius and Patricius are executed. The philosopher Simonides is burned alive and the philosopher Maximus is decapitated. All the friends of Julian are persecuted (Orebasius, Sallustius, Pegasius etc.).

Tons of books are burnt in the squares of the cities of the Eastern Empire.

372 Valens orders the governor of Minor Asia to exterminate all the Hellenes and all documents of their wisdom.

373 New prohibition of all divination methods is issued. The term “pagan” (pagani, villagers, equivalent to the modern insult, “peasants”) is introduced by the Christians to demean non-believers.

375 The temple of Asclepius in Epidaurus, Greece, is closed down by the Christians.

380 On 27th February Christianity becomes the exclusive religion of the Roman Empire by an edict of the Emperor Flavius Theodosius, requiring that:

"All the various nations which are subject to our clemency and moderation should continue in the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter."

The non-Christians are called “loathsome, heretics, stupid and blind”.

In another edict, Theodosius calls “insane” those that do not believe to the Christian God and outlaws all disagreement with the Church dogmas.

Ambrosius, bishop of Milan, begins the destruction of pagan temples of his area. The Christian priests lead the hungry mob against the temple of goddess Demeter in Eleusis and try to lynch the hierophants Nestorius and Priskus. The 95 year old hierophant Nestorius ends the Eleusinian Mysteries and announces "the predominance of mental darkness over the human race."

381 At the Council of Constantinople the 'Holy Spirit' is declared 'Divine' (thus sanctioning a triune god). On 2nd May, Theodosius deprives of all their rights any Christians who return to the pagan religion. Throughout the Eastern Empire the pagan temples and libraries are looted or burned down. On 21st December, Theodosius outlaws visits to Hellenic temples.

In Constantinople, the Temple of Aphrodite is turned into a brothel and the temples of the Sun and Artemis to stables.

382 “Hellelujah” (“Glory to Yahweh”) is imposed in the Christian mass.

384 Theodosius orders the Praetorian Prefect Maternus Cynegius, a dedicated Christian, to cooperate with local bishops and destroy the temples of the pagans in Northern Greece and Minor Asia.

385 to 388 Prefect Maternus Cynegius, encouraged by his fanatic wife, and bishop 'Saint' Marcellus with his gangs, scour the countryside and sack and destroy hundreds of Hellenic temples, shrines and altars. Among others they destroy the temple of Edessa, the Cabeireion of Imbros, the temple of Zeus in Apamea, the temple of Apollo in Dydima and all the temples of Palmyra.

Thousands of innocent pagans from all sides of the empire suffer martyrdom in the notorious death camps of Skythopolis.

386 Theodosius outlaws the care of the sacked pagan temples.

388 Public talks on religious subjects are outlawed by Theodosius. The old orator Libanius sends his famous epistle “Pro Templis” to Theodosius with the hope that the few remaining Hellenic temples will be respected and spared.

389 to 390 All non-Christian calendars and dating-methods are outlawed. Hordes of fanatic hermits from the desert flood the cities of the Middle East and Egypt and destroy statues, altars, libraries and pagan temples, and lynch the pagans. Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, starts heavy persecutions against non-Christian peoples, turning the temple of Dionysius into a Christian church, burning down the Mithraeum of the city, destroying the temple of Zeus and burlesques the pagan priests before they are killed by stoning. The Christian mob profanes the cult images.

391 On 24th February, a new edict of Theodosius prohibits not only visits to pagan temples but also looking at the vandalized statues. New heavy persecutions occur all around the empire. In Alexandria, Egypt, pagans, led by the philosopher Olympius, revolt and after some street fights they lock themselves inside the fortified temple of the god Serapis (the Serapeion). After a violent siege, the Christians take over the building, demolish it, burn its famous library and profane the cult images.

392 On 8th November, Theodosius outlaws all the non-Christian rituals and names them “superstitions of the gentiles” (gentilicia superstitio). New full scale persecutions are ordered against pagans. The Mysteries of Samothrace are ended and the priests slaughtered. In Cyprus the local bishop “Saint” Epiphanius and “Saint” Tychon destroy almost all the temples of the island and exterminate thousands of non-Christians. The local Mysteries of goddess Aphrodite are ended. Theodosius’s edict declares:

“The ones that won’t obey pater Epiphanius have no right to keep living in that island.”

The pagans revolt against the Emperor and the Church in Petra, Aeropolis, Rafia, Gaza, Baalbek and other cities of the Middle East.

393 The Pythian Games, the Aktia Games and the Olympic Games are outlawed as part of the Hellenic “idolatry”. The Christians sack the temples of Olympia.

395 Two new edicts (22nd July and 7th August) cause new persecutions against pagans. Rufinus, the eunuch Prime Minister of Emperor Flavius Arcadius directs the hordes of baptized Goths (led by Alaric) to the country of the Hellenes. Encouraged by Christian monks the barbarians sack and burn many cities (Dion, Delphi, Megara, Corinth, Pheneos, Argos, Nemea, Lycosoura, Sparta, Messene, Phigaleia, Olympia, etc.), slaughter or enslave innumerable gentile Hellenes and burn down all the temples. Among others, they burn down the Eleusinian Sanctuary and burn alive all its priests (including the hierophant of Mithras Hilarius).

396 On 7th December, a new edict by Arcadius orders that paganism be treated as high treason. Imprisonment of the few remaining pagan priests and hierophants.

397 “Demolish them!” Flavius Arcadius orders that all the still standing pagan temples be demolished.

398 The 4th Church Council of Carthage prohibits everybody, including Christian bishops, from studying pagan books. Porphyrius, bishop of Gaza, demolishes almost all the pagan temples of his city (except nine of them that remain active).

399 With a new edict (13th July) Flavius Arcadius orders all remaining pagan temples, mainly in the countryside, be immediately demolished.

400 Bishop Nicetas destroys the Oracle of Dionysus in Vesai and baptizes all the non-Christians of this area.

401 The Christian mob of Carthage lynches non-Christians and destroys temples and “idols”. In Gaza too, the local bishop “Saint” Porphyrius sends his followers to lynch pagans and to demolish the remaining nine still active temples of the city.

The 15th Council of Chalcedon orders all the Christians that still keep good relations with their non-Christian relatives to be excommunicated (even after their death).

405 John Chrysostom sends hordes of grey-dressed monks armed with clubs and iron bars to destroy the “idols” in all the cities of Palestine.

406 John Chrysostom collects funds from rich Christian women to financially support the demolition of the Hellenic temples. In Ephesus he orders the destruction of the famous temple of Artemis. In Salamis, Cyprus, “Saints” Epiphanius and Eutychius continue the persecutions of the pagans and the total destruction of their temples and sanctuaries.

407 A new edict outlaws once more all the non-Christian acts of worship.

408 The emperor of the Western Empire, Honorius, and the emperor of the Eastern Empire, Arcadius, order all the sculptures of the pagan temples to be either destroyed or to be taken away. Private ownership of pagan sculpture is also outlawed. The local bishops lead new heavy persecutions against the pagans and new book burning. The judges that have pity for the pagans are also persecuted. “Saint” Augustine massacres hundreds of protesting pagans in Calama, Algeria.

409 Another edict orders all methods of divination including astrology to be punished by death.

415 In Alexandria, the Christian mob, urged by the bishop Cyril, attacks a few days before the Judeo-Christian Pascha (Easter) and cuts to pieces the famous and beautiful philosopher Hypatia. The pieces of her body, carried around by the Christian mob through the streets of Alexandria, are finally burned together with her books in a place called Cynaron.

On 30th August, new persecutions start against all the pagan priests of North Africa who end their lives either crucified or burned alive. Emperor Theodosius II expels the Jews from Alexandria.

416 The inquisitor Hypatius, alias “The Sword of God”, exterminates the last pagans of Bithynia. In Constantinople (7th December) all non-Christian army officers, public employees and judges are dismissed.

423 Emperor Theodosius II declares (8th June) that the religion of the pagans is nothing more than “demon worship” and orders all those who persist in practicing it to be punished by imprisonment and torture.

429 The temple of goddess Athena (Parthenon) on the Acropolis of Athens is sacked. The Athenian pagans are persecuted.

431 Council of Ephesus ("Robber Synod"). Promotion for the godman – "Christ is complete God and complete man."

435 On 14th November, a new edict by Theodosius II orders the death penalty for all “heretics” and pagans of the empire. Only Judaism is considered a legal non-Christian religion.

438 Theodosius II issues an new edict (31st January) against the pagans, incriminating their “idolatry” as the reason of a recent plague!

440 to 450 The Christians demolish all the monuments, altars and temples of Athens, Olympia, and other Greek cities.

448 Theodosius II orders all non-Christian books to be burned.
450 All the temples of Aphrodisias (the City of the Goddess Aphrodite) are demolished and all its libraries burned down. The city is renamed Stavroupolis (City of the Cross).
451 Council of Chalcedon. New edict by Theodosius II (4th November) emphasizes that “idolatry” is punished by death. Assertion of orthodox doctrine over the 'Monophysites' – 'JC has single, divine nature.'

457 to 491 Sporadic persecutions against the pagans of the Eastern Empire. Among others, the physician Jacobus and the philosopher Gessius are executed. Severianus, Herestios, Zosimus, Isidorus and others are tortured and imprisoned. The proselytiser Conon and his followers exterminate the last non-Christians of Imbros Island, Northeast Aegean Sea. The last worshippers of Lavranius Zeus are exterminated in Cyprus.

482 to 488 The majority of the pagans of Minor Asia are exterminated after a desperate revolt against the emperor and the Church.

486 More “underground” pagan priests are discovered, arrested, burlesqued, tortured and executed in Alexandria, Egypt.

 515; full body Baptism becomes obligatory even for those that already say they are Christians.

The emperor of Constantinople, Anastasius, orders the massacre of the pagans in the Arabian city Zoara and the demolition of the temple of local god Theandrites.
 

523 Emperor Justin I outlaws the Arian heresy and campaigns to suppress Arianism everywhere.
 

528 Emperor Justinian outlaws the “alternative” Olympian Games of Antioch. He also orders the execution—by fire, crucifixion, tearing to pieces by wild beasts or cutting to pieces by iron nails—of all who practice “sorcery, divination, magic or idolatry” and prohibits all teachings by the pagans (“the ones suffering from the blasphemous insanity of the Hellenes”).

529 Justinian outlaws the Athenian Philosophical Academy and has its property confiscated.

532 The inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus, a fanatical monk, leads a crusade against the pagans of Minor Asia.

542 Justinian allows the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus to forcibly convert the pagans of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia in Asia Minor. Within 35 years of this crusade, 99 churches and 12 monasteries are built on the sites of demolished pagan temples.

546 Hundreds of pagans are put to death in Constantinople by the inquisitor Ioannis Asiacus.

556 Justinian orders the notorious inquisitor Amantius to go to Antioch, to find, arrest, torture and exterminate the last non-Christians of the city and burn all the private libraries down.

562 Mass arrests, burlesquing, tortures, imprisonments and executions of gentile Hellenes in Athens, Antioch, Palmyra and Constantinople.

578 to 582 The Christians torture and crucify Hellenes all around the Eastern Empire, and exterminate the last non-Christians of Heliopolis (Baalbek).

580 The Christian inquisitors attack a secret temple of Zeus in Antioch. The priest commits suicide, but the rest of the pagans are arrested. All the prisoners, the Vice Governor Anatolius included, are tortured and sent to Constantinople to face trial. Sentenced to death they are thrown to the lions. The wild animals being unwilling to tear them to pieces, they end up crucified. Their dead bodies are dragged in the streets by the Christian mob and afterwards thrown unburied in the dump.

583 New persecutions against the gentile Hellenes by Emperor Maurice.

590 In all the Eastern Empire the Christian accusers “discover” pagan conspiracies. New storm of torture and executions.

The melodrama is familiar enough: barbarians "pouring in" ... Rome sacked ... havoc wreaked everywhere. Words like "horde" and "onslaught" are bandied about, conjuring up images of a human flood of bloodthirsty and predatory warriors, hell-bent on rape and pillage. The only light, we are asked to believe, comes from the flickering lamps of Christian monks in remote fastnesses, keeping alive the dim flame of civilization until a bright new dawn, centuries into the future.

To put things in perspective, in 410, the Visigoths of Alaric (a Christian) actually pillaged Rome for three days before withdrawing. A generation later, in 455, Gaiseric (a Christian) and his Vandals spent just fourteen days in the city, taking what they could.

The conventional 'wisdom' is a travesty, written by the winning side. The barbarians in the 3rd and 5th centuries AD – like the barbarians of the 1st century AD or 2nd century BC – had wanted a share of the good life, not the common ruination of everyone.

What was different in the age of Constantine and Theodosius, compared to the age of Augustus and Hadrian, was the degenerate nature of the Roman state which opposed them.

The barbarians, in the passage of centuries, had learnt from the empire: the practical skills of agriculture and horticulture; the value of armour; the exercise of power within a framework of law; even a version the new Christian religion of the Romans.

But the empire, for its part, had turned in on itself, had wasted its energies on the indulgences of a theocratic tyranny, had narrowed its vision, had ruined itself – a process that began with Constantine and his plans of a Christian dynasty.

 Christianity and the Dark Age:

Rome had been able to resist, defeat and conquer barbarians for a thousand years.
What was different after the triumph of Christianity?

Thanks to Constantine's "religious revolution" and the establishment of a state-endorsed Christian Church, the manpower that might have defended the empire was drawn increasingly into the ranks of the priesthood. The Church offered "the officer class" an alternative career to that of the marching camp or frontier garrison, one superior in rewards of status, wealth and power – and all in safety and comfort. Not for nothing did the Church model its hierarchy on that of the army; it was a fine career for a bright young Roman who preferred to fight the hordes of Satan to the horsemen of Germany or Asia.

The example was set from the top, where the Christian bishops established mind control over the weak and superstitious scions of dynastic monarchy. Most of the 4th century emperors had little in common with the military strongmen who had frequently seized power a century earlier. The feeble sons of Constantine were followed by the equally feeble sons of Valentinian and Theodosius. Tutored from infancy by scheming churchmen, these vicious and 'pious' adolescent emperors essentially waged civil war on their own subjects. The one bright exception – Julian – who jettisoned his purported Christianity the moment he became Augustus, was assassinated (probably by a Christian soldier) within three years.

The Roman patrician class moved wholesale into the higher ranks of the Church when financial penalties made it prudent, and penal legislation made it imperative, to abandon paganism. By and large, the bishops of western Europe were the old Roman aristocracy wearing a new hat. With imperial approval, the Church expropriated for its own purposes more and more of the wealth of the empire – yet ultimately it became indifferent to the fate of the empire; Holy Mother Church was all that mattered.

With the willingness of the Roman elite to engage the invader seriously eroded, the only alternative defender was the hired barbarian, one under increasingly autonomous tribal chiefs. When these mercenaries failed, the enemy was bribed into a temporary quiescence. A degenerate age used the accumulated wealth of a millennium to buy time – and then spent that time on building a plethora of churches, on convening protracted councils to resolve hairsplitting nuances of theology, and to the persecution of internal dissent.

19th century view of Vandals sacking Rome 455.

Too Convenient to be True...

Classic image of "rape and pillage". The melodrama hides the insidious and corrosive influence of the Church on several generations of weak-minded Roman princes.

It is now clear that the migrating tribes, often desperate and on the verge of starvation, had a code of morality and humanity superior to the degenerate Romans. With wagons and cattle, their movement was less of an "onslaught" than a pitiful trek.

Blaming the Barbarians

Hardy perennial: "Real-life barbarians (were) eager to settle down and savor the fruits of civilization: to defeat the enemy, tax him, visit his doctors, marry his daughters." R. Wright (Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny)

The Christians have always lied – and one of their biggest lies remains that of "blaming the barbarians" for the destruction of ancient civilization which they themselves caused.

The Assault upon Paganism

Most of the 5th century emperors were remarkably young – an inevitable consequence of combining the notion of hereditary monarchy with the principal that violence was a legitimate instrument of policy.

Spending their days at court, replete with wig and face make-up, the simple-minded young monarchs – with a bishop at their ear– displayed their 'martial prowess' by issuing increasingly vindictive edicts against heretics and unbelievers. At a time when a regeneration of the legions was most urgent, the Church/State apparatus devoted ever more resources to the persecution of its own people.

Bishop Ambrose, in particular, "guided" no fewer than four monarchs, all of whom were complicit in the disintegration of the western empire. As they laboured tirelessly (but in luxury) over such pressing issues as to whether Christ was actually God and just how virtuous was virginity, the provinces were taxed into destitution, the soldiers went unpaid, and barbarian raids went unopposed.

Throughout the 4th and 5th centuries, seemingly limitless funds poured into the coffers of the Church – though actually that revenue was extracted from a diminishing tax-base as citizens fled the towns to avoid the rapacious tax collectors.

The "bonanza" intensified the ferocious infighting that had always characterized Christianity – Catholic versus Arian, Donatist versus Orthodox, Alexandria versus Constantinople, Milan versus Rome. In every imperial court – and there were now several – a coterie of bishops, female regents and eunuchs vied for influence and power.

Christianity, far from unifying the Roman world with a single faith, rent division and civil conflict throughout the empire. Yet the fanatical intolerance rampaged on, with increasingly more severe rescripts.

Again and again, the pagan religions and the 'philosophies' (that is rational thought and science) were criminalized with the severest of penalties. The repetition of the legislation itself gives evidence that the populace of the empire had to be brought kicking and screaming to the Church of Christ.

Yet every measure designed to crush and stamp out non-Christian belief met with renewed resistance, disaffection from the imperial cause and civil commotion.

In time, many would prefer the more tolerant rule of a barbarian king to the adolescent fanatics in Milan, Ravenna or Constantinople.

The campaign to wipe out heterodox opinion realized its zenith with the reign of Theodosius I late in the 4th century. Barely a decade later, the city of Rome fell to the barbarians. The parasitic Christian religion had fatally weakened the host body; yet as the western empire died, the psychosis of "Christian Faith" had already migrated to the newcomers.

The Assault upon Paganism Cont.'

A triumphant Christian Church, far from unifying the Roman world with a single faith, rent division and civil conflict throughout the empire. Every measure designed to crush and stamp out non-Christian belief met with renewed resistance, disaffection from the imperial cause and civil commotion. Yet the fanatical intolerance rampaged on, with increasingly more severe rescripts from the imperial court. The campaign to wipe out heterodox opinion realized its zenith with the reign of Theodosius I late in the 4th century.

Theodosius - Murdering Fanatic Arrives from Spain

“The statesmanlike decision of Gratian to elevate to the purple the competent son of a convicted traitor was of great significance in Roman history. Ultimately the dynasty of Theodosius presided over the dismemberment of the Roman Empire in the West.” (Ferrill, p68)

Theodosius, one of those luminaries of the Church accorded the honorific “Great”, showed that a Christian Emperor could best any pagan emperor for folly, indulgence and cruelty. While a Caligula or a Nero could unleash murder and mayhem on his family and entourage, Theodosius criminalized and punished a large part of the population of the whole empire, of which his treatment of Thessalonica is one notable example.

In 390 the Romano/Greek population of the city was involved in a riot over the intimidating presence of the local Gothic garrison. In the tumult, Botheric, the garrison commander, died. Enraged, Theodosius ordered his Gothic mercenaries to massacre spectators who happened to be trapped in the circus. Records Theodoret (393-466 AD) in his Ecclesiastical History:

“Thessalonica is a large and populous city, in the province of Macedonia. In consequence of sedition there, the anger of the Emperor rose to the highest pitch, and he gratified his vindictive desire for vengeance by unsheathing the sword most unjustly and tyrannically against all, slaying the innocent and guilty alike. It is said seven thousand perished without any forms of law, and without even having judicial sentence passed upon them; but that, like ears of wheat in the time of harvest, they were alike cut down.”

– ( W. S. Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History)

Unlike earlier tyrants, by the late 4th century – thanks largely to the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine – emperors had at their disposal a formidable and costly state apparatus. Draconian laws now could be energetically enforced.

The world’s earliest totalitarianism – of Catholic Christianity – was inaugurated by Theodosius. No wonder to Christian scribes he became ‘the Great.’ In short order, the Roman world was compelled to be Christian – on pain of death! The fall of empire in the west was an acceptable price for the triumph of the Church of Christ.

Theodosius had, in his privileged youth, been military governor of Moesia. But after a charge of cowardice and his father’s execution for conspiracy he had languished in enforced early retirement in Spain. Yet when disaster hit the Roman world at Adrianople in 378, the debacle led Gratian – an inexperienced and 'pious' nineteen-year-old – to appoint the thirty-two year old Theodosius as Augustus for the east.

It was a reign almost cut short. After falling dangerously ill in 380 (in Thessalonica) Theodosius was baptized by the local Catholic Bishop, Acholius. Unfortunately for the fate of civilization, thereafter Theodosius was more concerned with religious correctness than with the safety of the empire which now fell into his hands.  

Power behind the throne

The women set-to while Theodosius ponders the nature of Christ ...

The elder sister of Theodosius II, the Empress Pulcheria did much to advance the cult of "imperial mystique", and in her brother's name banned pagans from public and military posts, and ordered destruction of synagogues and temples. She also deposed Nestorius and returned John Chrysostom's bones to Constantinople.

Pulcheria receiving 'sacred bones' into Constantinople. Pic. on left

In June 423 Pulcheria declared that the religion of the pagans was nothing more than “demon worship” and ordered all those who persisted in practicing it to be punished by imprisonment and torture.

Her rival, the emperor's wife Eudoxia , not to be outflanked in piety, went off to the Holy Land in 439 and returned with "important relics" to boost her own prestige.

Eudoxia was eventually forced into exile in Jerusalem, where, in a new tactic, she embraced the cause of "monophysitism" later adopted by Theodosius II.

The Menace Behind the Throne – Bishop Ambrose

"Nothing can be found in this world more exalted than priests or more sublime than bishops."
– Bishop Ambrose

Since the days of Constantine Bishops had inveigled their way into the imperial entourage (compare this to the position of Stoic philosophers at an earlier date). Ambrose famously brought Theodosius to heel (and "penitence") over the massacre in Thessalonica, an incident carefully written up by Christian scribes to give maximum credit to the Church. Yet the true character of the ambitious Ambrose was shown in his power struggle a few years earlier with the Empress Justina (regent for the young monarch Valentinian II ) whose authority and faith he rejected out of hand – and used Christian mobs to back up his position.

At the moment when it seemed that the mob might have been seen off by the imperial guard, Ambrose "miraculously" discovered "martyrs' bones" in the besieged churchyard and mob-rule prevailed. The creation of saints and miracles now became a staple weapon in the Christian armoury.

Ambrose, having asserted his authority over the feeble-minded youths Gratian and Valentinian, was not inclined to cede power to the new "Catholic" monarch Theodosius – nor was Theodosius the man to stand up to the senior churchman. In a notable incident, Ambrose, to his horror, learnt that the emperor had ordered Christian arsonists rebuild a destroyed synagogue. The bishop defended the zealots and censured the emperor – who meekly rescinded his decision.

Theodosius maintained an imperial court in both Milan and Constantinople. The year 394 was the last in which a single monarch ruled the Roman world. Yet with Ambrose as the Grey Eminence that "unity" merely amplified the insidious influence of the Catholic bishop. He saw off the challenge of the Arians and successfully propagated the notions of the "Trinity", discipline and regimentation; anti-Semitism became encoded in Theodosius's vast catalogue of intolerant laws; and women were made more subordinate than ever. The prison of the late Roman world now became dark and forbidding.

"Christ," assured Bishop Ambrose, "was now at the head of the legions."

Winning Hearts and Minds – by Capital Punishment!

'It is our will and pleasure that none of our subjects, whether magistrates or private citizens, however exalted or however humble may be their rank and condition, shall presume in any city or in any place, to worship an inanimate idol by the sacrifice of a guiltless victim.'

With these words of an imperial edict, in 384 AD Theodosius made divination from the entrails of a chicken a crime of high treason which could be expiated only by the death penalty. All the many – and popular – manifestations of pagan worship were criminalized: torch bearing processions, the wearing of garlands, the burning of frankincense, the offering of libations of wine. Even harmless household gods were proscribed. Whereas earlier laws enacted against the pagans had often been mitigated or ignored by local magistrates who were themselves pagans or secular 'philosophers', now a magistrate who failed to rigorously enforce the draconian laws would himself become a criminal.

To the delight of the Christian priesthood their 'pious' emperor set the entire machinery of the state against the pagan establishment.

It was the clergy itself, however, who made up the vigilante 'brown-shirts', desecrating temples and destroying idols. At every level the old religions were to be rooted out and – joy of joy! – the accumulated wealth of a thousand shrines and temples, amassed over a millennium, expropriated for the Christian Church.

Once engorged on the wealth of the pagan world, the Church, in an act of sublime cynicism, moved rapidly to reintroduce the rituals and practices it had so assiduously extirpated.

In 381 Theodosius issued the first of 15 edicts directed against heretics and pagans. His edicts supported the destruction of non-Christian temples and places of worship, the burning of heterodox writings and the exile or execution of those holding heterodox or heathen belief and being unwilling to correct or convert. The above is exactly what American settlers did to the natives! MS.07-30-09

Folly & Religious War – Goths and Pagans

Theodosius, entrusted initially with the defense of Thrace, bought peace with the Goths by ceding large tracts of the Balkans for their settlement. Rather than hunt down and defeat the victors of Adrianople Theodosius decided to accept them as allies (“foedesati”). Indeed, when the Gothic King Athanaric died in 382 he was honoured with a state funeral in Constantinople. Unlike most Roman citizens, however, the Goths were armed and ignored Roman law with impunity. Ruled by their own chieftains and not subject to crippling imperial taxation these ‘Christianised tribesmen’ lived off the local populace as conquering heroes.

Having thus accommodated the enemy within the empire, Theodosius then recruited whole regiments of the barbarians – under their own officers – into the army, where they became the dominant influence. Barbarianization of the army went hand-in-hand with the enfeeblement of the legions. Starved of funds which Theodosius instead directed into the church to support a growing army of parasitic clergy, the demoralized troops were forced into part-time farming to feed themselves. The greater part of the legions were downgraded to ‘border guards’. As such, they lacked the pan-continental mobility of an earlier age. Allowed to marry local women, the troops spent much of their time in ‘market gardens’ and the barter economy.

In such circumstances the tight discipline and continuous drill which had allowed the Romans to defeat every barbarian enemy from the Scottish highlands to the Syrian desert had to be abandoned. The troopers also set aside their protective armour, which had become burdensome and expensive – ironically at the very time the barbarian cavalries were adopting a simplified version of Roman armour. The ‘border guards’ as a matter of policy avoided pitch battles with the enemy, a task now assigned to a few elite units of a ‘mobile field army,’ which increasingly became little more than an overblown imperial bodyguard.

For the eastern front, Theodosius adopted a cowardly policy of ceding four fifths of Roman Armenia to the Persians (387). Having thus secured his rear and ‘barbarianised’ his legions, Theodosius used them to intervene in the 'religious politics' of the west, where Gratian had been deposed by another Spanish Catholic, his general Magnus Maximus. Gratian was executed in August 383 in Gaul, leaving his hapless 12 year old young half-brother Valentinian II taking instruction from Milan's city boss Bishop Ambrose. The bishop, wary of the rival Arian Christianity, widespread in the east and among the Gothic tribesmen, wrote a tract clarifying the new doctrine of the Trinity for the guidance and edification of the young prince,

It was ostensibly on behalf of Valentinian II, Theodosius used his mercenaries to bring to an end the reign of Maximus (388) using an army mainly composed of Goths, Huns and Alans at the battle of Aquileia.

A few years later, Valentinian was sent packing by another usurper – Eugenius (392-394), a former teacher of grammar and rhetoric – and Theodosius massed his barbarian Christian mercenaries against the regular pagan legions of the west.

The battle of the Frigidus River (6 September 394), on the border of Italy and Slovenia, proved to be the last serious attempt of the senatorial class to resist the Christianization of the empire. Fighting at the head of 20,000 barbarians on the side of Theodosius was the Gothic chieftain Alaric, who sixteen years later would sack Rome itself.

Those Sexually Hung-up Christians

Christ Porn!

Thieves in Hell (Le Trésor de Sapience, Chantilly, Musée Condé – 15th century) 

Bishops of the Christian Church commissioned blatantly pornographic images of Hell.

Such depictions mirrored their own psycho-sexual obsessions, as witnessed by the perverse sexual disposition of the "Fathers of the Church". 

 

 

John Chrysostom (347-407)
Holy Hierarch of Constantinople

Legacy:

– Demagogic oratory.
– Mobs of Gothic 'catechumen' and armed monks, used to destroy pagan shrines.
– Anti-intellectualism:

"Empty your minds of secular knowledge." – Chrysostom

– 'Plain' (literal) interpretation of scripture.
– Anti-sex, prudish, kill-joy morality:

"There ought to be a wall inside this church to keep you apart ... The women have learned the manners of the brothel, and the men are no better than maddened stallions."
– Chrysostom (Lane, Pagans & Christians, p374)

– Morbid solemnity in liturgy. Christian songs replace bawdy folk ballads.
– Anti-semitism:

'The pitiful and miserable Jews ... Certainly it is the time for me to show that demons dwell in the synagogue, not only in the place itself but also in the souls of the Jews ... And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter.

– Chrysostom (Against the Jews, Homily I)

           Defense of slavery: "The slave should be resigned to his lot ... in obeying his master he is obeying God."

10th Century Obscenities
Vile Princes of the Papacy

"Popes maimed & were maimed, killed & were killed... Without question, these pontiffs constitute the most despicable body of leaders, clerical or lay, in history. They were, frankly, barbarians. Ancient Rome had nothing to rival them in rottenness."
– Peter de Rosa (Vicars of Christ, p48)

John XII (955-964).

Born from an incestuous relationship between Pope Sergio III and his 13-year-old daughter Marozie. John, in turn, took his mother as his own mistress.

Pope at 18, he turned the Lateran into a brothel. He was accused by a synod of "sacrilege, simony, perjury, murder, adultery and incest" and was temporarily deposed.

He took his revenge on opponents by hacking off limbs. He was murdered by an enraged husband who caught him having sex with his wife.

11th Century Horror
Church lords over ignorant squalor of millions

1095 - Pope Urban II calls upon the Franks to invade the more civilized Muslim world. Begins five centuries of warfare.

"Let those who have hitherto been robbers now become soldiers."
– Urban II addresses his gangsters.

 1009: Rivalry from Islam prompts eastern churches to break with idolatry. This 'iconoclasm' begins breach with idol-worshipping Catholic west. Centuries of bloodshed ensue.

1079: The Council of Rome: Persecution of Berengarius & his followers who cannot stomach the dogma of 'transmutation of bread & wine into Christ.'

12th Century Criminality
Christian Church ally of murderous kings & rogue princes

"Warrior Monks" - Muslim heads catapulted into the besieged city of Antioch by Christian Knights (Illumination from Les Histoires d'Outremer by William of Tyre 12th century, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris). 

1118: Christian fanatics captured Saragossa; the beginning of the decline of Muslim civilization in Spain.

1184 Council of Verona condemns Waldensians for witchcraft. The charge is later extended to condemn heretics.

 

13th Century Wickedness
Vile Crusaders Plunder & Murder for God

1204 Christian crusaders sack & ruin greatest Christian city, Constantinople.

1209 Pope Innocent III launches Albigensian Crusade against Christian Cathars of southern France. 7000 massacred in La Madeleine Church alone.

1211 Burning of Waldenses heretics at Strasbourg begins several centuries of persecution.   

German Teutonic Knights butcher their way through the Baltic lands, savage Catholic Poles & Orthodox Russians.

1231: Pope Gregory IX authorizes Inquisition for dealing with heretics.

1277 Pope John XXI, alarmed by rumors of pagan heresy among “scholars of arts in the faculty of theology" pressurizes Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, to prohibit 219 philosophical and theological theses. The "Condemnations of Paris" is the first of 16 lists of censorship.

14th Century Catastrophe
Church hostility to medicine allows plague to decimate Europe


Burning of the Jews of Cologne – blamed by Christians for the Black Death (Liber Chronicarum Mundi).

World Domination?

"We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff."

– Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unun Sanctum, 1302

1311-12: Ecumenical Council of Vienne. It authorizes the brutal suppression of the Knights Templar (mercenaries of the church who have outlived their usefulness).

 1316-1334: Pope John XXII, world's richest man and first pontiff to promote theory of witchcraft. Sanctions bull allowing heresy charges to be brought against dead people. In 1320 he instructs French Inquisition to confiscate all property belonging to blasphemers or dabblers in black arts.

 1347-50: The Black Death sweeps across Europe, killing one-third of the population.

"Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany... under torture confessing to have spread the plague by poisoning wells... the poison made from the skin of a basilisk (a kind of mythical serpent)..."

– N. Cantor (In the Wake of the Plague)

1411 Dominican Vincente Ferrer revives anti-Jewish hysteria in Spain: "cohorts of the Devil and Anti-Christ, clever, warped and doomed."

1415 John Huss of Bohemia, critic of papal corruption but guaranteed personal safety, burned at the stake. "When dealing with heretics, one is not obligated to keep his word." – Pope Gregory XII.

1415 Pope John XXIII deposed: "The most scandalous charges were suppressed; the Vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy and incest." – Gibbon (Decline & Fall)

15th Century Malevolence
Tortured Bodies by Sadists of the Lord

1478: Pope Sixtus IV, in alliance with King Ferdinand of Spain, establishes the Spanish Inquisition. Jews, Moors and heretics will be imprisoned, tortured and murdered for centuries.

The bisexual Sixtus, though suffering from syphilis, fathers children from his elder sister.

This unsurpassed nonsense rests on the bench of every magistrate and judge in Europe for three centuries and leads to tens of thousands of judicial murderers.

1498 Dominican reformer, Savonarola – burner of books & ornaments of 'pagan immorality' – is himself burned for criticizing the degenerate Pope Alexander VI.

 

16th Century Mayhem
Pogroms & civil wars in the name of Jesus
 

"My advice... is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire.."

Martin Luther ("On the Jews and their lies" 1543)

1517: Martin Luther posts 95 theses at Wittenberg. The Reformation will turn Europe into a battleground.

1517 A Dominican monk Johann Tetzel swells papal coffers by selling indulgences ('souls freed from purgatory'!)

1524: Luther – no friend of the downtrodden – encourages savagery of German princes in putting down the two-year Peasants’ Revolt.

 

Book Burners for Christ–
Dominican monks in the service of Ferdinand proudly consign the wisdom of Moorish Spain to the flames (Berruguete, Prado Museum, Madrid)
 

                                     

 

 

 

1553 John Calvin, the "Protestant Pope" of Geneva proves his Christian credentials by having Michael Servetus, the Spanish physician, burned at the stake for heresy. Servetus had opposed Trinitarianism and infant baptism.

Servetus, the discoverer of pulmonary blood circulation (an advance on Galen) had fled the Inquisition and had thought himself safe among Protestants. Oh dear.

1559 Introduction of Index of Forbidden Books (lasts until 1966)
 

1563 Following the Council of Trent, Jesuit Order becomes 'Defender of the Faith'. Huguenots are persecuted in France.

 17th Century Barbarity
Burning Witches for Christ


Urbain Grandier, burned in Loudun, 1634. Cardinal Richelieu orchestrated his murder.

1600 After a seven year trail before the Inquisition, Giordano Bruno, who had the audacity to suggest that space was boundless and that the sun and its planets were not unique, is condemned and burned at the stake.

 

1605: The Gunpowder Plot. Catholic fanatics attempt to blow up James I of England.

1600 After a seven year trail before the Inquisition, Giordano Bruno, who had the audacity to suggest that space was boundless and that the sun and its planets were not unique, is condemned and burned at the stake.

 

1633 Galileo is brought before the Inquisition. Under threat of torture and death, he is forced from his knees to renounce all belief in Copernican theories. He is sentenced to life imprisonment. He dies in 1642 and the charges against him stand for another 350 years.

  1618-1648 Central Europe devastated by Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants

1411 Dominican Vincente Ferrer revives anti-Jewish hysteria in Spain: "cohorts of the Devil and Anti-Christ, clever, warped and doomed."

1415 John Huss of Bohemia, critic of papal corruption but guaranteed personal safety, burned at the stake. "When dealing with heretics, one is not obligated to keep his word." – Pope Gregory XII.

1415 Pope John XXIII deposed: "The most scandalous charges were suppressed; the Vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy and incest."
– Gibbon (Decline & Fall)

1478: Pope Sixtus IV, in alliance with King Ferdinand of Spain, establishes the Spanish Inquisition. Jews, Moors and heretics will be imprisoned, tortured and murdered for centuries.

The bisexual Sixtus, though suffering from syphilis, fathers children from his elder sister.

This unsurpassed nonsense rests on the bench of every magistrate and judge in Europe for three centuries and leads to tens of thousands of judicial murderers.

1498 Dominican reformer, Savonarola – burner of books & ornaments of 'pagan immorality' – is himself burned for criticizing the degenerate Pope Alexander VI.

18th Century Scandal
Christian Church endorses Slavery, Racism & subordination of women

"And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant."

Genesis 9.24-26

"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from the nations that are round about you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property." Leviticus 25:44-45

More from Leviticus.

"For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him." (Leviticus 20:9)

"If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has discovered her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from her people." (Leviticus 20:18)

"If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." (Leviticus 20:13)

"...and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you." (Leviticus 11:7)

"But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which is in the water, they are an abomination to you." (Leviticus 11:10)

Jesus said; Think not that I am come to destroy or change my fathers laws, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill them. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.' (Mathew 5:17-18)

Summary of the Above Biblical Contradictions;

We have a non-ethical morality that depends for its grounding on the word of god only and which clearly contradicts our moral instincts. It won't do to say that the differences between what we naturally feel to be right and biblical law are a result of our being unguided or misguided, as if that were true then Christians, for example, would be following the above passages to the letter, stoning children and adulterers every Sunday in the park (or I guess maybe Monday, Sunday being the sabbath and all). No, the only conclusion, and the point of this essay, is that we use our extant morality to determine which bits of religious texts are those we should follow and which bits are those we should ignore. Religion uses the morality we already have to try and buttress its claims to deep truths. The mismatch between natural and biblical morality is a consequence of the attempt to mold our existing feelings of what is right and wrong into a power structure that wants to hijack our own nature and claim it for itself - it is parasitic on our naturally evolved sense of morality.

738: Freemasonry is condemned by Clement XII and Catholics are forbidden to join.

1793: Last 'witch' burning at Poznen in Germany

19th Century Evil

Christian Church Rejects Science & social reform; Christian 'missions' go hand-in-hand with colonialism.

1814: Society of Jesus, suppressed since 1773, is restored. The Inquisition continues until 1834, Church-sanctioned torture until 1917.
1844: 'Protection of Children Act' allows Church missionaries in Australia to kidnap aboriginal children.
1854: Pius IX proclaims the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the bull Ineffabilis Deus. Lourdes shrine introduced.

1864: Pius IX issues the encyclical Quanta cura and the Syllabus of Errors. It condemns some 80 propositions derived from scientific method and rationalism. Liberalism & socialism are denounced.

1870: Vatican Council declares the Pope "infallible".

'Bible Societies' & 'Missions' in European colonies destroy indigenous cultures

20th Century Iniquity

Christian Church allies itself with Fascism; opposes advances of science & personal freedom

1907 Pius X condemns Modernism in the decree Lamentabili and the encyclical Pascendi.

Hitler's Pope - Pius XII (1939-1958)

Hitler, a Roman Catholic, is never excommunicated for causing the death of millions; whereas Martin Luther was excommunicated for criticism of the papal system.

Friends of Fascists Everywhere:

Germany

Spain

Croatia

21st Century Menace

Churches the Stalking Ground of Pedophiles & Sex Offenders

On March 12, 2000 Pope John Paul II attempted to purify the soul of the Catholic Church by apologizing for 2000 years of "sins" committed by the church – quite some compensation for twenty centuries of terrorism, extortion and murder!

And yet – September 2000 – the same John Paul II issues "Dominus Jesus (Lord Jesus)", reaffirming intolerance: "Only one path to God – the Roman Catholic Church."

And the story does not end:

Still the evil continues...

Child sex abuse scandal rocks the Catholic Church

"The Roman Catholic Church has removed 218 priests from their positions this year because of child sexual abuse allegations, but at least 34 known offenders remain in church jobs"- Reuters (June 9 2002) Never met a Priest or Rabbi that was a nut-case! MS. 09-08-09

Anti-abortion

Anti-birth control

Creator of "saints"

31 July, 2003 "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" condemns same sex deviants who seek marriage. In contrast, no Vatican condemnation of priestly pedophiles.

Pagan Orgies to Human Sacrifice: The Bizarre Origins of Christmas
By Kristi Harrison.

Christmas was not, as it turns out, miraculously handed down as a fully formed holiday, complete with wrapped gifts and blinking lights. Rather, it is a rich tapestry woven from countless inexplicable and pointless customs. (Above photo of Pagan Orgy)

Why December 25th? The Bible doesn't give a lot of clues as to what time of the year the supposed birth of Jesus happened (i.e., "they met many travelers along the way, for it was just three days before the final game of the NFL Season") So, why December 25th? No one knows for sure. One likely explanation is that early church leaders needed a holiday to distract Christians from the many pagan revelries occurring in late December. One of the revelries was The Saturnalia, a week-long festival celebrating the Romans' favorite agricultural god, Saturn. From December 17 until December 23, tomfoolery and pagan hijinks ensued, and by hijinks we mean gluttonous feasting, drunkenness, gambling and public nudity.

The Romans would also switch roles between masters and slaves for the occasion, so not only did the slaves get to pathetically lower their own sense of self-worth by participating in the charade of freedom, they also got to wear a Pileus (roughly translated, "Freedom Hat").
One other pagan celebration that might have given Christmas its date was Natalis Solis Invincti, which roughly translates to "Birthday of the Invincible Sun God," giving it officially the most awesome holiday name ever.

Our favorite morbidly obese, undiagnosed diabetic trespasser is actually a bastardization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, which was actually a bastardization of Saint Nikolas, the holier-than-thou Turkish bishop for whom the icon was named.

By the 12th century, the Christian Church had incorporated a few of the less-sinful pagan traditions into the 12 days of Christmas. We only wish the public nudity could have been left in ... maybe on the 10th or 11th day. Along with the gambling. And the drinking. Then again, it appears everyday is Saturnalia in Vegas so maybe we'll just go there instead. Our favorite morbidly obese, undiagnosed diabetic trespasser is actually a bastardization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, which was actually a bastardization of Saint Nikolas, the holier-than-thou Turkish bishop for whom the icon was named.

The actual saint was not, in fact, famous for making dispirited public appearances at shopping malls. Rather, he was known for throwing purses of gold into a man's home in the cover of night so that the man wouldn't have to sell his daughters into prostitution.

Later, Martin Luther invented his own Christmas symbol, Kristkindl, as part of his rejection of all things Catholic. What he came up with is by far the gayest of all Christmas symbols, as Kristkindl is portrayed as a "blond, radiant veiled child figure with golden wings, wearing a flowing white robe and a sparkling jeweled crown, and carrying a small Christmas tree or wand." This is why you sometimes hear Santa referred to as "Kris Kringle."

Not surprisingly, most of the world has rejected his weird-ass version and over the years we've cobbled together our own Santa Claus: part Saint Nikolas, part Sinterklaas and part Norse god Odin. By the 19th century American writers were describing Santa as wearing a red sash with a skin-tight red suit with white spotted fur at the fringes. Writers at the time were still calling Santa an "elf," including Clement Clark Moore in his famous poem The Night Before Christmas. Perhaps the image of a dwarf-sized intruder seemed less threatening than a Chris Farley-sized version, but we're pretty sure we'd be more likely to piss our pants if an overly jolly costumed dwarf magically appeared and started hopping around our living room floor. The little person might just end up with a bullet in the head. Not that there's anything wrong with frolicking little people with a propensity for wearing elf garb, of course. Except that there totally is.

Some of you are disappointed that we explained Santa without mentioning that the modern image of him was invented for a Coca-Cola ad, as the Internet has probably told you. That's because it isn't true. Come on, guys. Not everything in the Western World is based on some crass marketing campaign.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, however, is; This signature character in Christmas folklore, with his own song and movies and a mountain of yearly merchandise, was slapped together by the Montgomery Ward marketing team for a coloring book they were giving out. Prior to inventing Rudolph, they used to just buy the books and hand them out each Christmas, but in 1939 they figured it'd be cheaper to have one of their guys draw one up in his spare time. It's not like toddlers are great at detecting quality in these things.

So copywriter Robert L. May wrote it up, and created what turned out to be a marketing bonanza ... of which he didn't get paid a penny. A few years later the company actually let May have the rights to Rudolph, which was either an act of amazing corporate generosity or else they just assumed the Rudolph fad was over. After that, May's brother-in-law wrote up the song that you've no doubt heard every Christmas since you were born. It became a huge hit and the Rudolph marketing empire was born, along with a permanent addition to the Santa legend.

That's right; Europe brought their real-life saints, Norse gods and rich cultural traditions to the table, and America slapped on a promotion from a department store. Who knows, maybe 300 years from now Santa's sleigh will be towed by Energizer Bunnies, long after society has forgotten what an "Energizer" is. And, maybe Santa will sport a cheap cardboard crown and a creepy frozen grin.

Question: What customary Christmas holiday decoration bases its origins in ritualistic human sacrifice?

Answer: The Christmas tree!

Back in the pagan day, all inanimate objects were fair game for worship. Trees, rocks, mountains, funny shaped sticks that look like phalluses, whatever. So supposedly some of the Norsemen got it in their heads to worship a thunder god named Thor by ritualistically sacrificing humans and animals at the tree they designated "Thor's Oak."

However the tree did not, according to legend, spring out of the ground with little blinking lights and tin foil on it's branches. The thing with decorating the tree goes as far back as the 16th century, when people in Germany used to decorate their trees with apples, a tradition we can only assume stemmed from some crooked tree salesman who ran out of apple trees one year and wouldn't admit it. Other decorations included nuts and cheeses which again appears to be the same salesman testing the gullibility of his clients.

A guy brought the tradition to America in the 1800s, and when we say "a guy" we literally know who it was: a German immigrant named August Imgard. He was the first to stick little candy canes on it, and to put a star at the top. Whatever German strand of mental imbalance caused him to do that, this guy's spur-of-the-moment decoration idea now utterly pervades the imagery of the holiday. He was just a very bored German dude that needed a place to hang his candy canes.

We can go on and on about how different Christmas would be without him, but of course his contribution pales in comparison to St. Boniface. Without him, when little Timmy runs down the stairs this Christmas the only present he would find would be the gift of human sacrifice.

Merry Christmas! Or as Timothy O'Leary always says...Merry Fucking Christmas!

Christianity Cont.'

A Former Nun's Memoirs Rock India's Catholic Church

After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of a Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women's order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India.

"All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20]," Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that "he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings." In other episodes, she tells of a coerced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated and being accused of mental instability after she complained to her superiors. (See pictures of young nuns in the U.S. who have taken their vows.)

Since the book's release on Jan. 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a reprint has been ordered. The Catholic Church is miffed. "There is no dearth of anti-religion people in Kerala society," said Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. "They are using this for their antisocial, antichurch activities." In 1957 Kerala voted in the world's first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006.

A spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, said Raphael's allegations stem from "some wounded feelings," which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of "maligning the life of religious nuns." He added that Raphael's allegations are "not especially serious." "The church never claims there's no sin within the church," he said. "We're not angels — we're human beings of flesh and blood — so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation. We're trying to deal with these problems and such allegations."

There has been no shortage of them in recent months. On Feb. 11, Sister Josephine, a nun in the Daughters of Mary congregation in Trivandrum, Kerala's state capital, was found dead in her room in an apparent suicide. Members of the congregation said the 38-year-old nun had been under treatment for depression. After news of the incident spread, a crowd gathered around the house and shouted slogans alleging that harassment had led Sister Josephine to kill herself. The police had to intervene, and an inquiry into the case was later ordered. Six months earlier, on Aug. 11 of last year, 23-year-old Sister Anoopa Mary had been found hanging in her room in St. Mary's Convent in Kollam, north of the capital. In what was purportedly her suicide note, she had said she could no longer withstand the senior nuns' harassment. Her father, a cook in the local bishop's house, charged that sexual exploitation had led his daughter to take her life. The convent has denied the allegations, though a court investigation is still ongoing.

Even the world renown Mother Theresa had written in her diaries, in regard to the world's unceasing suffrage, that she had ceased to believe in God decades before her death and continued her work for her love of children and the sick!

The cost to humanity of fifteen centuries of Christian savagery – of hundreds of millions of lives brutalized and truncated, sacrificed to war, torture, pogrom, burning, pestilence and plague – is incalculable.

Christianity is the worst disaster in human history!!

The Bizarre Religion of Scientology

by Dennis Pollock

It happened during the filming of a quickly forgotten horror film, The Devil’s Rain, in 1975. John Travolta had come down with a severe cold and sore throat. Actress Joan Prather told young Travolta that she could help him, using a technique known as “touch assist.” Travolta declared later, “The sore throat went away, so then I knew something was really working here … I needed to find out more about it.”

Such was John Travolta’s introduction to the doctrine of Scientology. It turned out to be more than a passing fad. Over twenty years later, Travolta still holds to the doctrines enunciated by Science Fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. “I don’t know why people are afraid of it,” he said. “It’s given me a better quality of life and a hope for mankind.”

Scientology has received a lot of free publicity in recent days due to the proportionately high incidence of celebrity converts. Along with Travolta, Tom Cruise and his former wife Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Mimi Rogers, Shirley Maclaine, Kirstie Alley, Demi Moore, Priscilla Presley and daughter Lisa Marie have all been reported to have been involved in this mysterious “church.” When Germany tried to crack down on Scientology, Hollywood rallied around the faith of its box office brethren, taking out a full page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune. It was addressed to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and likened the government’s restrictions on Scientology to the Nazi’s persecution of the Jews in the 1930’s. The ad was signed by Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling, and 30 other Hollywood luminaries.

THE MESSAGE

So what is Scientology? Founder Ron Hubbard was convinced that the answer to all life’s problems and pressures could be found in the principles of “dianetics” (a word he coined first in a science fiction novel). Dianetics is a type of therapy which weaves pop psychology with eastern mysticism. One of the primary means of applying the principles of dianetics to one’s problems is by use of an “E-meter.” This consists of a small box with two electrodes attached that passes a current of 1.5 volts through the body and registers the result on a needle that swings all over the place in a manner similar to a lie detector. A more experienced Scientologist listens as the participant is encouraged to discuss their past failures and problems. When the subject can talk about these without causing the needle to careen across the gauge, they are said to be “clear” (freed from all bondage).

The theology that is behind all of this is almost too incredible to be believed. According to Hubbard, seventy-five million years ago a tyrant named Xenu ruled the Galactic Confederation, an alliance of 76 planets, including Earth. To control overpopulation and solidify his power, Xenu instructed his loyal officers to capture beings of all shapes and sizes from the various planets, freeze them in a compound of alcohol and glycol, and fly them by the billions to Earth in planes resembling DC-8s.

These beings were deposited or chained near 10 volcanoes scattered around the planet. After hydrogen bombs were dropped on them, the spirit beings that inhabited their bodies (called body thetans or en-grams) were captured by Xenu’s forces and implanted with sexual perversion, religion, and other notions to obscure their memory of what Xenu had done. Soon after, however, a revolt erupted and Xenu was imprisoned in a wire cage within a mountain where he remains today. These body thetans that he had perverted have been running rampant ever since attaching themselves to human bodies and bringing about all sorts of miseries and bondage.

Thus, in the gospel according to Hubbard, all our problems have to do with these twisted little spirit critters that attach themselves to our body. By means of the principles of dianetics, and the use of the “E-meter” we can be freed from these engrams and join the enlightened ones. That anyone would believe such nonsense is surprising; that sophisticated Hollywood types would buy such bizarre ideas is amazing. When many of their secret writings got posted on the Internet, Scientology leaders went ballis-tic. Lawsuits flew in every direction, along with dire warnings that anyone reading some of their deep teachings without proper training could die. One Internet denizen quipped about their threats, “This may be true … while reading OT (Advanced Technology or Operating Thetan manuscript) I almost died laughing.”

The Church of Euthanasia
"Save the Planet, Kill Yourself"

The Church of Euthanasia (CoE) is a Dadaist organization started by Rev. Chris Korda in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States. According to the church's website, it is "a non-profit educational foundation devoted to restoring balance between Humans and the remaining species on Earth." The CoE uses sermons, music, culture jamming, publicity stunts and direct action combined with an underlying sense of satire and black humor to highlight Earth's unsustainable population. The CoE is notorious for its conflicts with anti-abortion Christian activists.

According to the church's website, the one commandment is "Thou shalt not procreate". The CoE further asserts four principle pillars: suicide, abortion, cannibalism ("strictly limited to consumption of the already dead"), and sodomy ("any sexual act not intended for procreation"). The church stresses population reduction by voluntary means only. Therefore murder, rape and involuntary sterilization are strictly forbidden by church doctrine.

Slogans employed by the group include "Save the Planet, Kill Yourself", "Six Billion Humans Can't Be Wrong", and "Eat a Queer Fetus for Jesus", all of which are intended to mix inflammatory issues to unnerve those who oppose abortion and homosexuality.

The Church gained early attention in 1995 because of its affiliation with paranoia.com which hosted many sites that were controversial or skirted illegality. Members later appeared on an episode of The Jerry Springer Show titled "I Want to Join a Suicide Cult".

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the CoE posted to its website a four-minute music video titled I Like to Watch, combining hardcore pornographic video with footage of the World Trade Center collapse. The montage featured an electronic soundtrack recorded by Korda and the lyrics, "People dive into the street/ While I play with my meat." Korda described the project as reflecting his "contempt for and frustration with the profound ugliness of the modern industrial world."

The church's website previously had instructions on "how to kill yourself" by asphyxiation using helium. These pages were removed in 2003 after a 52-year-old woman used them to commit suicide in St. Louis County, Missouri, resulting in legal threats against the church.

Nation of Yahweh:
"Black people are the true Jews"

Nation of Yahweh is a predominately African American religious group that is an offshoot of the Black Hebrew Israelites line of thought. They were formed in the late 1970s in Miami-Dade county. While the Nation of Yahweh falls under the umbrella of Black Hebrew Israelites, their beliefs are unique and distinct from that of other known Black Hebrew Israelite groups. The founder and creator of the religion is Yahweh ben Yahweh. The group has engendered controversy due to legal issues of its founder. It also faced accusations of being a black supremacist cult by the Southern Poverty Law Center and The Miami Herald.

The SPLC criticized the beliefs of the Nation of Yahweh as racist for the following reason. They state the group believed blacks are "the true Jews" and that whites were "white devils." In addition to this they claim the group believed Yahweh ben Yahweh had a Messianic mission to vanquish whites and that they held views similar to the Christian Identity movement. They quote Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance as saying groups like theirs are "the black counterpart of us."

Despite the recent death of their leader (see Yahweh ben Yahweh), the Nation of Yahweh is still active. Its members also claim to have abandoned their past racism; the leader's daughter has apparently stated that all people are children of God. An attorney and member of the group, Wendelyn Rush, insists their current war with the U.S. government is a non-violent verbal battle. The group is currently spread throughout the US and is no longer concentrated in one location (formerly Miami-Dade county). Their present literature downplays and has nearly erased all past racism.

Despite some of these present changes, much of the same rhetoric and codes of behavior have remained essentially the same as when the group began. Most still insist that Yahweh ben Yahweh is "Grand Master of All, the God of the Universe, the Grand Potentate, the Everlasting Father and the persecuted Messiah." A few elderly members consider 9-11 to have been a punishment from God for his imprisonment. Pledges of devotion to him and war against infidels allegedly still exist.

Raëlism
"Scientifically advanced humanoid extraterrestrials created humans"

Raëlism is the religious, naturalist belief system promoted by the Raëlian Movement, an atheist UFO religion founded in 1970s which focuses on the social ideas of sexual self-determination, individualism, and humanitarianism in the spirit of sharing and responsibility, which, they claim, will bring a new age of wealth and peace guided by those with greater intelligence, as predicted by main religions. They also believe in scientifically advanced humanoid extraterrestrials known by our primitive ancestors as Elohim (or "those who came from the sky"). Raëlism espouses belief that Elohim synthesized life on Earth through mastery of genetic engineering, and that human cloning and "mind transfer" are mechanisms by which eternal life may be achieved.

According to Raël, a message explaining our origins and future was dictated to him in December 1973, during personal meetings with a 25,000-year-old extraterrestrial named Yahweh who came in a UFO. The story goes that after terraforming the Earth, human beings from another planet — the "Elohim" (Hebrew for the word "God" as found in the Hebrew Old Testament, which the extraterrestrial himself translated as meaning those who came from the sky in ancient Hebrew) — created humans and all life on earth using DNA manipulation and genetic engineering. The message dictated to Raël during his encounter with the Elohim states that the Elohim contacted about forty people to act as their prophets on Earth, among which are those who founded the world's major religions (Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, etc.)

The Raëlians believe, furthermore, that the Elohim will visit the earth officially when enough of its population is peaceful and come to know about them. They believe this is foretold in all religious texts - the predicted "Age of Apocalypse" or "Revelation" (unveiling of the truth).

Heaven's Gate:
Committed suicide to take their souls to a spaceship behind Comet Hale-Bopp

Founders of Heaven's Gate, M. Applewhite and B. Truesdale, claimed to have arrived via UFO from another dimension (a "level above human") and would return via a secretive "Process", which was taught to cult members. One of the group's publications, "How To Build A U.F.O." purported to describe an interplanetary spacecraft built out of materials such as old tires.

The cult's end coincided with the appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. In 2007, Applewhite convinced thirty-eight followers to commit suicide so that their souls could take a ride on a spaceship that they believed was hiding behind the comet carrying Jesus. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike tennis shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's gate away team".

Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese religious group created by Shoko Asahara. In 1995 the group was reported as having 9,000 members in Japan, and as many as 40,000 worldwide. The core of Aum doctrine are Buddhist scriptures included in the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.

The cult started attracting controversy in the late 1980's with accusations of deception of recruits, and of holding cult members against their will and forcing members to donate money. A murder of a cult member who tried to leave is now known to have taken place in February 1989. The cult is known to have considered assassinations of several individuals critical of the cult.

On the morning of 20th March 1995, Aum members released Sarin gas in a coordinated attack on five trains in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 commuters, seriously harming 54 and affecting 980 more. Prosecutors allege that Asahara was tipped off about planned police raids on cult facilities by an insider, and ordered an attack in central Tokyo to divert attention away from the group. At the cult's headquarters in Kamikuishiki on the foot of Mount Fuji, police found explosives, chemical weapons and biological warfare agents, such as anthrax and Ebola cultures, and a Russian MIL Mi-17 military helicopter. There were stockpiles of chemicals which could be used for producing enough Sarin gas to kill four million people. After Asahara's arrest and trial, the cult re-grouped under the new name of Aleph in February 2000.

Creativity Movement
"Inferior colored races are our deadly enemies"

The Creativity Movement is a racialist, and White-supremacist organization that advocates a "White Religion" called Creativity. Though "Anti-Christian" in a contemporary sense, the Creativity Movement is a surrogate of Positive Christianity, and is guided by elements of a pseudo-Christian racial Manichaeanism. The group also denies the Holocaust, embraces racial neo-eugenics with a religious mission that is dedicated to the "survival, expansion and advancement of the White Race exclusively."

The organization was initially founded as the Church of the Creator by Ben Klassen in early 1973. In the summer of 1993, Klassen committed suicide. It was later led by Matthew F. Hale until his incarceration on January 8, 2003 for plotting with FBI informant Anthony Evola to murder a federal judge. On July 22, 2002, two members of the organization were found guilty in federal court of plotting to blow up Jewish and Black landmarks around Boston, in what prosecutors said was a scheme to spark a "racial holy war."

Some of the "16 Commandments of Creativity": It is our sacred goal to populate the lands of this earth with White people exclusively.

Inferior colored races are our deadly enemies, and that the most dangerous of all is the Jewish race.

Destroy and banish all Jewish thought and influence from society.

The Body of Christ
Founder's son was not fed and died; they were "waiting for a sign from God to feed him"

The Body of Christ is a small authoritarian group that relies on "direct revelation" and not the Bible for its direction. This small cult has been in the news because it is believed that two children have died unnecessarily. Samuel Robidoux, the ten month old son of the cult founder's son, Jacques, died of malnutrition. He was not fed because they were waiting for a sign from God to feed him. Rebecca Corneau's child, Jeremiah, died shortly after childbirth reportedly due to the lack of basic medical care. Corneau is now eight and one half months pregnant (as of September, 15th, 2000) and the courts have intervened to try to protect it. The American Civil Liberties Union and other Pro-Choice Advocates worry that this case might set a dangerous legal precedent by showing more concern for an unborn child than the wishes of the mother.

Former member Dennis Mingo left the group after ten years, and gave a diary that described the deaths of the two children to police. Despite months of effort, police have not been able to locate the children's bodies. The group denounces the ''seven systems'' of mainstream society, including education, government, banking, religion, medicine, science and entertainment. Consequently, members of the group have refused to cooperate with all authorities and have refused legal counsel. They have even refused to assert their basic constitutional right against self-incrimination. This Millennial group expects the world will erupt in violence and turmoil at any moment, and that they alone will be saved.

The Church of Maradona

Iglesia Maradoniana (Spanish "Maradonian Church") was created by fans of the retired Argentine football player Diego Maradona, who they believe to be the best player of all time. It was founded on October 30, 1998 (Maradona's 38th birthday) in the city of Rosario. But it wasn't until the year of 2001 that they had their first gathering. They now reportedly count 80,000 members from more than 60 countries around the world.

It could be seen as a type of syncretism. It's clear that the passion between the different members is what glues them together. Supporters of the Maradonian Church, supposedly from all parts of the world, count the years since Maradona's birth in 1960. It is popular, among the followers of this religion (and also among other football fans), the use of the neo-Tetragrammaton D10S as one of the names of Maradona: D10S is a portmanteau word which fuses 10 (diez in Spanish), Maradona's shirt number, and dios, the Spanish word for god.

The Religious Obsessed

Accused Murderer, Decapitator & Cannibal; Vince Li
Winnipeg, Canada March 04, 2009

Vince Weiguang Li, who immigrated to Canada from China in 2004, is charged with second-degree murder while riding a bus  in last Wednesday's slaying of 22-year-old carnival worker Tim McLean -- an attack which witnesses aboard the bus said appeared to be unprovoked. He has yet to enter a plea.

WINNIPEG — He claims voices in his head from God caused him to single out a perfect stranger, stab him multiple times and then decapitate, defile and cannibalize the body in front of dozens of horrified witnesses. But despite committing one of the most gruesome crimes in Canadian history, Vincent Li could be rehabilitated enough to return to the streets one day, according to his doctor. It's an assessment that's frustrating members of Tim McLean's family, who were in court Tuesday to see the man accused of brutally killing their 22-year-old son. Psychiatrist Stanley Yaren told Li's second-degree murder trial the admitted killer has a very strong chance to recover from the major mental illness and extreme psychosis that triggered last summer's slaying of McLean on board a Greyhound bus. He said he could make a significant recovery in the next few years under rigorous treatment and medication. (Oh yeah, give this sick fuck a second chance, but what about the young 22 year old man that was murdered, beheaded and cannibalized in his sleep...does he get a second chance...The murderer is sick and so are those wanting to rehabilitate this lunatic) MS. 09-08-07

Officers at the scene of the bus attack discovered a plastic bag containing an ear, nose and part of a mouth in Li's pocket, according to a police report submitted by prosecutor Joyce Dalmyn as evidence supporting a request for the psychological test.

Solar Temple: killed a baby who was "the Anti-Christ"

 The Order of the Solar Temple was a secret society based upon the new age myth of the continuing existence of the Knights Templar. According to historians, OTS was started by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva. The two convinced their followers that they were members of the 14th Century Christian Order of the Knights Templar during a previous life, and that Di Mambro's daughter Emanuelle was "the cosmic child", and that she was the result of a virgin birth. She would lead them after death to a planet which was said to orbit around the star Sirius, but in order to do so they would have to die in a fire, as was prophesied for the end of the world.

In October 1994 an infant, aged three months, was killed at the group's centre in Morin Heights, Quebec. The baby had been stabbed repeatedly with a wooden stake. It is believed that Di Mambro ordered the murder, because he identified the baby as the Anti-Christ described in the Bible. He believed that the Anti-Christ was born into the cult in order to prevent Di Mambro from succeeding in his spiritual aim.

A few days later, Di Mambro and twelve followers performed a ritual Last Supper. A few days after that, apparent mass suicides and murders were conducted at two villages in Switzerland, and at Morin Heights — 15 inner circle members committed suicide with poison, 30 were killed by bullets or smothering, and 8 others were killed by other causes. Many of the bodies when found were drugged, possibly to prevent the members from objecting. The buildings were then set on fire by timer devices, purportedly as one last symbol of the group's purification. In western Switzerland, 48 members of a sect died in another apparent mass murder-suicide. Many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors and other items of Templar symbolism. The bodies were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head. It is believed that the plastic bags were a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius.

How about the Ohio Black Women Cooking her 1 month old baby in a Microwave?

DAYTON, Ohio  —  A prosecutor says an Ohio mother intentionally put her month-old baby in a microwave oven and cooked the child to death. Voices told her to do it!

Assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Daniel Brandt leveled the charge Thursday during closing arguments in the retrial of 28-year-old China Arnold. Her infant daughter, Paris Talley, died in 2005. Brandt says Arnold could have stopped the microwave but didn't.

 Summary. Religion in general is a belief based in the mysteries of doubt and suffering along with the reunification of spirits. This is in itself a bizarre orthodox, as that in a universe without virtual end that an all knowing and all powerful God would exist only for our redemption, but only if we follow a broken script written by people living an isolated existence in a barren world with no science or concepts of physics and then edited a million times by those with desire for control and power, such as church and state. Yet, even today, in a world of science there remains billions of people believing in this paradox. It is definitely a basic primitive human desire of self-redemption in some archaic belief that we are worthy of universal love, eternal life and bliss. We have been taught to believe that we are the center of the universe and are unique. As that we are the only species on the planet with self awareness...wouldn't that explain, at least to a few, why the weak cling to these beliefs? (If there were a God he would come down and give the planet a shot of antibiotics to get rid of us!) MS. 07-26-09

Religious or just nuts?

San Antonio, Texas; On July 26, 2009; A Spanish Mother Kills, Beheads and Cannibalizes her 3 1/2 week old son!

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer Paul J. Weber, Associated Press Writer –

SAN ANTONIO TEXAS – The father of a newborn baby who was allegedly mutilated, killed and cannibalized by his mother says he wants to see her executed for her crimes.

Scott W. Buchholtz told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Otty Sanchez, the mother of 3 1/2-week-old Scotty Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez, seemed fine in the days before the killing even though she had told him she had been diagnosed with postpartum depression and was going to be admitted to a hospital for depression.

Relatives of Sanchez say she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and postpartum psychosis. Buchholtz says he, too, has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Sanchez has been charged with capital murder and is being held on $1 million bail. She is recovering from self-inflicted stab wounds at a hospital

Officers called to Sanchez's house at about 5 a.m. Sunday, July 26, 2009 found her sitting on the couch screaming "I killed my baby! I killed my baby!" San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

McManus described the crime scene as so grisly that police officers barely spoke to each other while looking through the house.

Sanchez was hospitalized Tuesday with self-inflicted stab wounds and was being held on $1 million bail. Police have said she does not have an attorney. Authorities found the baby with three of his toes chewed off, his face torn away and his head was severed.

Hong Kong man gets life for 'barbaric' murder

 AFP - 07/28/2009

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong man who killed a teenage prostitute before cutting up her body, peeling and flushing her face down a toilet and leaving some of the remains at a butcher’s has been sentenced to life, a judicial spokeswoman said Tuesday. The court heard that Ting dismembered Wong's body, tossed her head in the sea and flushed some of her remains down a toilet in April last year. Ting told police following his arrest last year that he had killed Wong Ka-mui after having sex with her in his flat in April 2008.

Transportation worker Ting Kai-tai, 24, was found guilty by a unanimous verdict at the High Court on Monday of murdering the 16-year-old high school drop-out, a spokeswoman for the Judiciary said.

The judge stated; "It would be no exaggeration to say your conduct was barbaric. You killed a 16-year-old and you disposed of her body in a most horrendous way. The fact we had to sit and listen to what you did was the worst experience ever imaginable,” the judge was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Ting told police following his arrest last year that he had killed Wong Ka-mui after having sex with her in his flat in April 2008.

In a bid to hide his crime, Ting spent hours cutting up the body and flushed some pieces down the toilet. He later disposed of Wong's bones in a basket of pig remains at a butcher's stall and dumped her head in the sea.

Ting's lawyer, Finny Chan Fei-nai, told the court at a previous hearing that Ting claimed he had consumed drugs the previous night and that morning, and had passed out before finding Wong dead on the afternoon of April 27.

Testimony at the trial, however, revealed telephone records showing Ting had received a telephone call on his mobile phone that afternoon.

Jailing Ting, Judge Alan Wright described the crime as “barbaric”, English daily The Standard reported.

Foolish beliefs and comments by zealous Christians.

It seems that praying will even heal your car's problems; That explains why so many innocent children die daily around the world...God is busy healing cars and trucks. MS. 07-24-09

Suricou Raven, I wandered around the web site for a while, and under Testimonies found this entry under Healings:

Hello brethren. About a couple months ago, our truck was having strange wear on its tires. A Christian friend, who was a tire expert, concluded that there was a problem with the front-end of the vehicle. So we scheduled an appointment for the Toyota auto shop. After listening to David's testimonies from his Wilderness DVD as well as other UBM testimonies, we decided to command the truck to be healed in the Name of Jesus. Well, soon after this prayer, the Lord reminded me about the appointment I had already made. So, our works needed to follow our faith. I called and cancelled the appointment. We considered it a done deal. Well, yesterday, our friend who originally looked at the tires said that the wear was now gone AND in fact there was smooth wear distribution on the tires. The Lord fixed the front-end perfectly! Our friend was praising the Lord too! What an awesome God we have!!!

So, God heals hives, hay fever, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and uneven tire wear. Amazing. Just. Amazing.

Christian Superstitions! Smoking out the demons...cough...cough! MS. 07-27-09

Purification Ritual using Smudging

Smudging with smudge sticks is one of the best ways to remove negativity, negative forces, and unwanted spirits and energies from your home.

There are many different ways you can perform a smudging ritual or ceremony on your home that is quick, safe, and effective, however this post will go into just one general ritual that basically anyone can do and use as long as they have the proper smudging materials needed to perform it.

Smudge Sticks

The most important thing you will need to begin a smudging ritual for your home will be a smudge stick. Smudge sticks are normally hand made and rolled, and tightly tied together by yarn or string. There many different variations, scents, and herbs that are used in the making of a smudge stick, however, sage is the most common one used because sage is one of the most potent negativity killers out there today and has been for hundreds of years.

Incense Smudging Rituals

Another added benefit you can have while you are performing your smudging ceremony would be to obtain some incense. Incense comes in many different scents and varieties like smudge sticks, including cones, sticks, and pure natural granular incense. Any of the three will do, however we find that the more natural the better. Natural granular incense however will need to be burned different then cone or sticks. If you are going to use granular incense you will need some charcoal and an incense burner. You light the charcoal first outside the incense burner holding the charcoal with a pair of tongs so you don't get burned. Once the charcoal is lit make sure it is smoking regularly and then place it into your incense burner. Next, place your granular incense on top of the charcoal and then if you have some sand, or gravel, or small pebbles, you can place this over the charcoal and the incense in a mound shape but ensure the smoke can rise from it.

Some scents you can use along with your smudge stick for incense would be sage, cedar, banishing, purification, water (element incense), sweet-grass, copal, dragon's blood, and lavender are some of the most effective.

Before you work with your smudge stick, it is best to place whatever incense you are using into each room of the home and let it burn with the windows open if there are windows in that room.

Gemstones

Another tool you can use along side your incense and smudge stick would be some gemstones. Gemstones are a powerful tool in cleansing. The energies within the stones can be potent, and depending on the size of the gemstone (the larger the more energy it will have) you can have an amazing purifying source in the gemstones. Some gemstones for purification and cleansing purposes are quartz, citrine, amethyst, and malachite. If you happen to have enough stones place one into every room of your home along side the incense. If you only have one stone or only have the means to have one, then you can carry it with you while you perform the smudging ritual.

Begin your Smudging Ritual

The first step with this ritual if you have incense in every room would be to light all the incense and make sure they are burning with all the windows you have in your wide open, the curtains and blinds up.

The next step is to make sure your gemstones are in place next to your incense.

Whenever this particular ritual is performed, it is performed during the day, preferably on a sunny day. The sun and light will help you in this ritual to purge the dark energies and negative forces out of the home.

When you have that all completed, the next step is to go to your front door and hold your smudge stick in your dominate hand. Next, light the smudge stick and let it smolder and smoke real good. The best way to light a smudge stick is to use an elongated lighter that you would use to light candles or pilot lights in stoves.

Once your smudge stick is smoldering and smoking really good, keep that lighter on you (and your gemstone if you only have one, keep it in a pocket or in your hand whichever you prefer as long as it is close to you) and begin to walk around the first room closest to your front door. As you walk through each room say a prayer and say it with POWER and STRENGTH. One such prayer to use is:

"Negativity that invades my sacred place
I banish you away with the light of my grace
You have no hold or power here
For I stand and face you with no fear
Be gone forever, for this I will say
This is my sacred place and you will obey"

Again this is just an example, you can use your own or this one, whichever you prefer. Once you are done with that room, go on to the next room, and the next, until every room in your house is fully covered. Ensure that you hit every corner of each room, and make sure the smudge stick is smoldering and smoking. If it begins to die out then relight it with your lighter. You being the smudging ritual at the front door of your home, and you end it at the back door. If you wish once you have finished going from front to back, you can go back through again starting at the back door and then going to the front door.

Closing Your Smudging Ritual

This is important. Properly closing out your ritual can be vital to ensure the energy you put into it worked. For this ritual the proper way to close would be to first put out the smoldering smudge stick or you can let it burn itself out. One way of putting out a smoking smudge stick would be to get an ash tray, or ceramic plate, or something similar and gently dab the lit end onto it like putting out a cigarette. Another way would be to simply place it onto something where it won't fall and let it burn out on its own (they usually do).

Once your smudge stick is out, let your incense burn out on its own naturally. If you are using gemstones an idea to close the ritual with even more positive energy would be to take an altar bell(or any bell if you have one) and gently ring it right above the stone. The ringing of the bell will send vibrations into the stone and this will trigger the gemstone to release it's energies into the room. If you do not have an altar bell, you can get a glass and a fork and gently ding the glass with the fork over the gemstone as well.

If you do not have gemstones in every room and only have the one you were carrying around with you, take the gemstone and perform the above with the chiming technique and then place the stone by your bed or under your pillow.

If you have performed everything mentioned within this post you will have yourself one purified and blessed home for quite a while. You can re-do this ritual every six months or as needed. The incense and stones are just extra benefits to the ritual, however the smudge stick is essential. If you cannot or do not want to use the incense or gemstones, ensure you walk through your home and say the prayer with your smudge stick as mentioned.

Spanish Castilian Empire

History 1450-1789: Spanish Colonies

A Self-Righteous Spread of Religious Terrorism

The skyline of Toledo, Spain, at sunset, with the Alcázar on the left and Cathedral on the right. The city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and a place of coexistence of Christian, Jewish and Moorish cultures.

In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and led the first European expedition to see the Pacific Ocean from the west coast of the New World. In an action with enduring historical import, Balboa claimed the Pacific Ocean and all the lands adjoining it for the Spanish Crown.

Religious Totalitarianism
 

Theodosius I

The Christian monarch who introduced the world to religious totalitarianism.
"The first Spanish Inquisitor"

 

 

The Origins of The Spanish Empire
1402 to 1521

19th Enero 2009 by admin

Three powers that were to play an important part in the Spanish Empire were the Aragonese, the Burgundian and the Portuguese empires. Meanwhile, during the last 250 years of the Reconquista, the Castilian monarchy tolerated the small Moorish taifa client kingdom of Granada in the south-east by exacting tributes of gold, the parias, and, in so doing, ensuring that gold from the Niger region of Africa entered Europe. Castile also intervened in Northern Africa itself, competing with the Portuguese Empire, when Henry III of Castile began the colonization of the Canary Islands in 1402, authorizing under feudal agreement to Norman noblemen Jean de Béthencourt. The conquest of the Canary Islands, inhabited by Guanche people, was only finished when the armies of the Crown of Castille won, in long and bloody wars, the islands of Gran Canaria (1478-1483), La Palma (1492-1493) and Tenerife (1494-1496).

The marriage of the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) created a confederation of reigns, each with their own administrations, but ruled by a common monarchy. According to Henry Kamen, Spain was created by the Empire, rather than the Empire being created by Spain. (Pic. on right- Venezuela Conquest)

In 1492, Spain drove out the last Moorish king of Granada. After their victory, the Spanish monarchs negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west. Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus instead “inadvertently” discovered the Americas, inaugurating the Spanish colonization of the continent. The Indies were reserved for Castile.

Spain’s claim to these lands was solidified by the Inter caetera papal bull of 1493, and by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, in which the globe was divided into two hemispheres between Spanish and Portuguese claims. These actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from Alaska to Cape Horn (except Brazil), as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The Castilian Empire was the result of a period of rapid colonial expansion into the New World, as well as the Philippines and colonies in Africa: Castile captured Melilla in 1497 and Oran in 1509.

The Spanish Empire was established most notably to the Americas, then spread to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Why was it considered necessary for the Spanish Crown to justify and legitimize the conquest of the Americas and what arguments and means did it employ for this purpose? In the name of their religion, the Spaniards killed, tortured and murdered millions of the SA. natives and did so with callousness and self-righteousness. The high fatality does not include the millions dead from the Spaniards infectious diseases.

At this time in history every colonial country needed an idea to base its conquest and Spain was no different. The ideology behind the Spanish conquest of the Americas was the spread of Catholicism, while stealing land and resources. This fantasized belief in the conversion of the Indians is what drove the Spanish to conquer, settle and govern the New World.

The Castilians modeled their Catholic empire on the Holy Roman Empire of old. They viewed themselves as successors to the Romans. The Castilians regarded themselves as the superior race, who were on a divine mission to achieve a universal Catholic empire. The Castilians felt obligated to extend the faith and conveniently this proved to justify their colonization of the Americas. They understood that by giving the natives the protection of the crown, they would lead a better life. This better life would also arise due to the absence of slavery and the spiritual guidance provided for those "ignorant of Christianity."

If the spreading of the faith was the sole reason for the conquest of the Americas then we must understand how religion was spread. The devout Castilia.

The Spanish Crown had great ecclesiastical power in the newly conquered kingdom. The influx of bureaucratic control gives the illusion that the Spanish were running a civil society and had tamed the �barbaric� Aztec and Inca races. This made the whole exercise pointless in practice but perfect in the Castilians view of fairness. Was this to protect Spanish or Amerindian interests? In truth it helped the natives little, while benefited the Spanish as it provided stability which encouraged other colonists to venture and colonize the Americas.

(Left-Religious Painting/Execution of the Comuneros of Castile)

Further justification arose from the Spanish substituting a diet of human flesh with that of beef, pork, chicken and mutton. These councils had strong judicial and executive authority. This is a contributing factor to the massive decline in population in America due to disease, colonial savagery and war.

This socio-economic viewpoint enables us to see that the Castilians hid their true mission under the arguments of civil and social reform. If this was without the force and mindless pillaging of the land, it would be a legitimate theory.

Did the Spanish Crown wish to use legislative foundations to their conquest to ensure protection against dissident conquistadors? This question is based around morals, loyalty and trust. Unfortunately, I feel this is the case for the Castilians. The Royal Crown put forward "The Requirement" which was a legal obligation and had to be read before battle.

In my opinion the ideology of religious conversions as the basis of conquest is a sound idea considering the savagery of the natives religion. This form of taxation was justified by the need to finance the spread of Catholicism. This legislature clearly did not aid the natives against the ruthless warfare yet merely showed Spanish ignorance.

Having lived and traveled throughout South America I am fully aware of this time in history. I visited every museum and library, heard the tales, read the old Spanish memoirs and learned of their cruelty towards the simple natives of the 14th and 15th century. The Spaniards would force the young native children to watch their supplies and if caught dozing they would have their eyelid cut off...so as never to do so again. Rape, incense, murder, slavery, thievery and mayhem...all carried out in the name of Jesus. They also made necklaces from the nipples of young local girls. MS. 06-18-08

By what right did Castile lay claim to the sovereignty over the Americas? Religion and cruelty. The very sad conclusion is that there was never a conclusion...Central and South America are still bearing the extremely heavy weight of the Catholic Cross. MS. 07-30-09

Did you know that Venezuela was named by one of Columbus' men that thought the coastline villages and homes on stilts reminded him of Venice...thus...Venezuela.

Insurrection Within The Church

Picture on left; On June 28, 1578, five Catholic monks were burnt to death in Ghent for homosexuality. The five holy men being prepared for execution, in this drawing by Franz Hogenberg.

At our scene in the Spanish-controlled Low Countries, the revolt that would become known as the Eighty Years’ War and secure Dutch independence still had about 70 of those years to run.

Stadtholder William of Orange, aka William the Silent, has his hands full with the Habsburg forces determined to crush their disobedient subjects.

Half civil war, half proto-nationalist revolution, this conflict overlaid disputes over both political and religious authority, complicated by a catastrophic Spanish bankruptcy.

Of this compelling history much beyond our scope, the piece of most moment for our unfortunate monks was a grudging agreement to chill out the sectional suppression as part of a temporary truce between the warring sides. Said “slackening of persecution inspired Reformed public worship and attempts to topple the Catholic stewpot.”

Late in 1577, a political coup in the commercial powerhouse of Ghent did just that, part of a mini-Renaissance of Calvinist city-republics that Spanish arms would truncate in the 1580’s. But here in the 1570’s, the newly elevated slate of Calvinists implemented a “Reform” agenda that included aggressive moves against Catholic authority.

On 18-22 May [1578], the Reformed launched an attack on the four mendicant monasteries. Their churches were purified and made ready for Reformed worship. On 1 June the first public preaching was organized in the Dominican and Carmelite churches.

Rumors of homosexuality in the religious orders swept the overheated city (assuming they were not put about intentionally), and this day opened a summer’s terror that saw 14 monks burned for the love that dare not speak its name.

Kenneth Borris translates the inscription on the Franz Hogenberg image linked above thus: “Fve monks are being burned in Flanders, in the city of Ghent. Four are Franciscans (Minnenbruder*) and the fifth Augustinian. Also three have been quickly flogged with switches on the market square as they deserve, because of their outrageous sexual offenses (unzuchtt) that greatly offended the authorities. That is why the four mendicant orders have now been driven out of Ghent.”

William the Silent, made of more statesmanlike stuff than these zealots, would actually enter Ghent himself the next year to disarm the ruling clique, realizing that firebrands were driving Catholic cities back into Spanish arms.

But he could not contain the schism. Spain ultimately kept the Catholic-leaning territories that today comprise Luxembourg and Belgium (including Ghent), while the Protestant Netherlands fought onward to independence.

* “Minnenbroder,” Borris explains, “may be a satiric pun on the word minne (which had come to mean debauchery), suggesting ‘brothers in lust’ as opposed to brotherly love. Hogenberg connects sodomy with ‘godlessness,’ as was common.”

Spain's S. America Catholicism Cont'.

1781: Tupac Amaru II, Incan insurgency against The Castillo's

On this date in 1781, the last name in Incan rebellion met a horrible end in the ancient Incan capital of Cusco.

Picture on right of; José Gabriel Condorcanqui, rechristened Tupac Amaru II, as he was a distant descendant of the last Incan king — was a member of the privileged indigenous population depended upon by the Spanish to administer the forced and extorted labor that made its New World empire worth having.

(Pic. on left, the execution of of both Tupac Amaru and his wife and family)

Condorcanqui evidently had an epiphany. In November 1780, he launched a well-planned rebellion by engineering the public execution of a hated corregidor Antonio de Arriaga at the hands of his own servant.

“From this day, no longer shall the Spanish feast on our poverty!”

This attention-grabbing entry onto the political chessboard was followed with an exemplary victory over Spanish forces. His revolt rapidly metastasized into an ethno-religious crusade, with all the accumulated bitterness of the Indians’ two-plus centuries maltreatment ferociously visited upon the Spanish. It was a heady moment - but only a moment; within a few months, the Spanish had rallied and Tupac Amaru was betrayed into their hands.

The rebel had seized Incan symbology for his own purposes — speaking at ancient shrines, for instance — and the Spanish sentence against him included not only the inevitably horrific execution (of both Tupac Amaru and his wife and family) but a comprehensive and explicit programme of cultural annihilation to consign the Incan identity to the past. This lengthy sentence is well worth the read.

The Eventual Fall of the Spanish Empire;

The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio Español) was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through - in the case of its African holdings - the latter portion of the 20th century. Spain had emerged as a unified monarchy in 1492 following the reconquista of the Iberian peninsula; that very year, Christopher Columbus commanded the first Spanish exploratory voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, leading to Europe's eventual colonial engagement with the Americas. The Western Hemisphere thereby became the focus of this new Spanish Empire.

During the Age of Discovery, Spain began to settle the Caribbean islands and conquistadors soon toppled native empires such as the Aztecs and Incas on mainland America. Later expeditions established an empire that stretched from present-day Canada in North America to Tierra del Fuego in South America. The Spanish expedition of world circumnavigation started by Ferdinand Magellan in 1519, and completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522, achieved what Columbus had longed for, a westward route to Asia, and brought the Far East to Spain's attention, where it established colonies in Guam, the Philippines and surrounding islands. During its Siglo de Oro, the Spanish Empire comprised the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Italy, parts of Germany, parts of France, territories in Africa, Asia and Oceania, as well as large areas in the Americas. By the 17th century Spain controlled an empire on a scale and world distribution that had never been approached by its predecessors.

Trade flourished across the Atlantic between Spain and her colonies; all kinds of goods including precious metals from America were brought back to Spain in annual galleon fleets. The Manila Galleon also linked the Philippines to America through regular convoys across the Pacific. Much of the Spanish trade was used to strengthen the Spanish Navy and protect the Spanish realms in Europe and the Mediterranean. Some of Spain's European possessions were given up at the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, but it retained its vast overseas empire.

The French occupation of Spain in 1808 under Napoleon cut off its American colonies temporarily, and a number of independence movements between 1810 and 1825 resulted in a chain of newly independent Latin American republics in South and Central America. The remainder of Spain's then–four hundred year empire, namely Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the Spanish East Indies, continued under Spanish control until the end of the 19th century, when most of these territories were annexed by the United States after the Spanish-American War. The remaining Pacific islands were sold to Germany in 1899.

By the early 20th century Spain only held territories in Africa, namely Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara and Spanish Morocco. Spain withdrew from Morocco in 1956 and granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968. When Spain abandoned Spanish Sahara in 1976, the colony was annexed by Morocco and Mauritania at first, and wholly by Morocco in 1980, though according to the United Nations it is still technically under Spanish administration. Today, the Canary Islands and two enclaves on the North African coast, Ceuta, and Melilla, are administrative divisions of Spain.

Caucasian Turks

In ancient times, it was known as Turan (by the Caucasian Turks) and Tolan or Tulan (by the Mongol or Hunnish Turks).

The following pictures of gold artifacts, which archeologists recently uncovered in Bulgaria, give an indication of how highly Central Asia was in ancient times. As you look at these pictures, keep in mind that they date from 6,000 B.C.- one thousand years before Noah and the Great Flood!

 

[Above photos;. The Bulgarian civilization that created these masterpieces of golden artifacts was in its heyday before Egypt was in its infancy-even before Noah and the Great Flood. The people who developed this civilization were known as Kurs (Turks), Turs or Tuls (Turks), and Aryans. Even today, the Turks are known as Kurustan, Turanian, Tulanian, and Ari.]

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottomans are one of the greatest and most powerful civilizations of the modern period. Their moment of glory in the sixteenth century represents one of the heights of human creativity, optimism, and artistry. The empire they built was the largest and most influential of the Muslim empires of the modern period, and their culture and military expansion crossed over into Europe. Not since the expansion of Islam into Spain in the eighth century had Islam seemed poised to establish a European presence as it did in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Like that earlier expansion, the Ottomans established an empire over European territory and established Islamic traditions and culture that last to the current day (the Muslims in Bosnia are the last descendants of the Ottoman presence in Europe).

The Ottoman empire lasted until the twentieth century. While historians like to talk about empires in terms of growth and decline, the Ottomans were a force to be reckoned with, militarily and culturally, right up until the break-up of the empire in the first decades of this century. The real end to the Ottoman culture came with the secularization of Turkey after World War II along European models of government. The transition to a secular state was not an easy one and its repercussions are still being felt in Turkish society today, nevertheless, secularization represents the real break with the Ottoman tradition and heritage.

The Ottoman Empire was a vast state founded in the late 13th century by Turkish tribes in Anatolia and ruled by the descendants of Osman I until its dissolution in 1918. Modern Turkey formed only part of the empire, but the terms ³Turkey² and ³Ottoman Empire² were often used interchangeably.

In 1389, the Turkish Ottoman Empire vanquished a Serb army at the Battle of Kosovo and pushed its borders to Croatia, which was part of the Hungarian empire. Many Serbs and some Croatians converted to Islam under Turkish occupation. Their descendants are ...Once, Serbs and Croatians had neighboring kingdoms along the Adriatic coast. But in 1389, the Turkish Ottoman Empire vanquished a Serb army at the Battle of Kosovo and pushed its borders to Croatia, which was part of the Hungarian empire. Many Serbs and some Croatians converted to Islam under Turkish occupation. Their descendants are today's Bosnian Muslims. By the early 19th century, Serb fighters had expelled most Ottoman forces from their territory and formed a new ...

1453 - Islam continued to grow in the east, and at the height of the Turkish Ottoman empire, Constantinople fell to the them in 1453. Scriptures The Qur'an as revealed to Mohammed is the final revelation of God to mankind, and corrects all errors in the Bible. Islam continued to grow in the east, and at the height of the Turkish Ottoman empire, Constantinople fell to the them in 1453. Scriptures The Qur'an as revealed to Mohammed is the final revelation of God to mankind, and corrects all errors in the Bible. Tradition has it that people wrote down the words of the prophet on leather, stones, wood and even the shoulder blades of camels. Soon after Mohammed's death there were no less than five collections of his sayings in use.

1517 - Salah ad-Din enlisted Mamluks (Turkish mercenaries), but they ended up overthrowing his dynasty and ruled for two and a half centuries before Egypt fell to the Turks in 1517. Since most of the Mamluks were of Turkish descent, the Turkish Ottoman sultans, based ...Salah ad-Din enlisted Mamluks (Turkish mercenaries), but they ended up overthrowing his dynasty and ruled for two and a half centuries before Egypt fell to the Turks in 1517. Since most of the Mamluks were of Turkish descent, the Turkish Ottoman sultans, based in Constantinople, largely left the Mamluks alone, as long as they paid their taxes.

Oct 7, 1571 - The Battle of Lepanto was fought between the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic Mediterranean states, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire on 7th October 1571. The Holy League force, led by Don Juan de Austria (1547-78), were victorious against the Ottoman ...The Battle of Lepanto was fought between the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic Mediterranean states, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire on 7th October 1571. The Holy League force, led by Don Juan de Austria (1547-78), were victorious against the Ottoman force including Barbary Corsairs led by Muezzinzade Ali Pasha. This was the last great sea battle involving oared vessels and the largest battle of galleys since Actium in 30BC. Casualties: 8000 Christians, 25000 Turks.

1683 - From the 15th-19th centuries, the Austrian Habsburg and Turkish Ottoman Empires competed for dominance in Europe. In 1683, the Ottomans besieged Vienna, the Habsburg capital. The Viennese sent Georg Kolschitzky to the Habsburg troops who forced an Ottoman ...From the 15th-19th centuries, the Austrian Habsburg and Turkish Ottoman Empires competed for dominance in Europe. In 1683, the Ottomans besieged Vienna, the Habsburg capital. The Viennese sent Georg Kolschitzky to the Habsburg troops who forced an Ottoman retreat. When asked to name his reward, Kolschitzky requested bags of strange beans the Turks had abandoned. Kolschitzky had traveled in the East and knew that these were coffee beans. And so the “Blue Bottle” opened ...

Mar 25, 1821 - In all, 31 colorful groups marched, and city police estimated that more than 10000 observers turned out for the parade commemorating Greece's independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire on March 25, 1821. Sponsored by the Philadelphia Federation of American. In all, 31 colorful groups marched, and city police estimated that more than 10000 observers turned out for the parade commemorating Greece's independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire on March 25, 1821. Sponsored by the Philadelphia Federation of American Hellenic Societies, the annual, daylong celebration began with a church service at the St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Eighth Street and concluded with speeches and Greek folk dances in a Greek Freedom ...
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1878 - When Austrians took over the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1878, they found many cases of people disinterring and burning people as vampires. Vampires were also blamed for diseases that swept through villages. "The first person to die was designated as a vampire ...Conrad said. "The body had to be burned, as well as succeeding victims who were considered to be infested with the vampire's condition." The lore of vampires lives on through movies, books and TV shows.

1914 - When World War I began in 1914, the Turkish Ottoman Empire joined with Germany. The only way the British could get Arab help in defeating the Turks was to promise them freedom when it was all over. This was where Lawrence of Arabia came on the scene and ...helped the Arabs and allies to defeat the Turks. Lawrence was much in favor of the Arabs ruling themselves. The British and French politicians agreed as long as they could appoint the kings and draw the boundaries.

1915 - Ambassador Sonmez Koksal was withdrawn in January, shortly after the French parliament passed a bill asserting that the Turkish Ottoman Empire had committed genocide in 1915. In a further sign of anger, Turkey cancelled a number of contracts with French companies, including a lucrative airports contract. "Turkish-French relations have been hurt by this incident," Mr. Koksal told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, before flying out to France on Sunday.

Jun 3, 1923 - The Allies want the Turks to put in the treaty the declaration that Turkey confirms the decree of Muharrem of IfeSO. recognizing all the obligations .of the Ottoman debt, but Ismet Pasha is not inclined to do this unless the Allies accept a clause offering some relief to the Turkish.

Origins   

The Ottoman state began as one of many small Turkish states that emerged in Asia Minor during the breakdown of the empire of the Seljuk Turks. The Ottoman Turks began to absorb the other states, and during the reign (1451-81) of Muhammad II they ended all other local Turkish dynasties. The early phase of Ottoman expansion took place under Osman I, Orkhan , Murad I , and Beyazid I at the expense of the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria, and Serbia. Bursa fell in 1326 and Adrianople (the modern Edirne ) in 1361; each in turn became the capital of the empire. The great Ottoman victories of Kosovo (1389) and Nikopol (1396) placed large parts of the Balkan Peninsula under Ottoman rule and awakened Europe to the Ottoman danger. The Ottoman siege of Constantinople was lifted at the appearance of Timur , who defeated and captured Beyazid in 1402. The Ottomans, however, soon rallied.

The Period of Great Expansion 

The empire, reunited by Muhammad I , expanded victoriously under Muhammad's successors Murad II and Muhammad II . The victory (1444) at Varna over a crusading army led by Ladislaus III of Poland was followed in 1453 by the capture of Constantinople . Within a century the Ottomans had changed from a nomadic horde to the heirs of the most ancient surviving empire of Europe. Their success was due partly to the weakness and disunity of their adversaries, partly to their excellent and far superior military organization. Their army comprised numerous Christians not only conscripts, who were organized as the corps of Janissaries , but also volunteers. Turkish expansion reached its peak in the 16th cent. under Selim I and Suleyman I (Sulayman the Magnificent).

The Hungarian defeat (1526) at Mohács prepared the way for the capture (1541) of Buda and the absorption of the major part of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire; Transylvania became a tributary principality, as did Walachia and Moldavia . The Asian borders of the empire were pushed deep into Persia and Arabia. Selim I defeated the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria , took Cairo in 1517, and assumed the succession to the caliphate . Algiers was taken in 1518, and Mediterranean commerce was threatened by corsairs, such as Barbarossa , who sailed under Turkish auspices. Most of the Venetian and other Latin possessions in Greece also fell to the sultans.

During the reign of Sulayman I began (1535) the traditional friendship between France and Turkey, directed against Hapsburg Austria and Spain. Sulayman reorganized the Turkish judicial system, and his reign saw the flowering of Turkish literature, art, and architecture. In practice the prerogatives of the sultan were limited by the spirit of Muslim canonical law ( sharia ), and he usually shared his authority with the chief preserver ( sheyhülislam ) of the sharia and with the grand vizier (chief executive officer).

In the progressive decay that followed Sulayman's death, the clergy ( ulema ) and the Janissaries gained power and exercised a profound, corrupting influence. The first serious blow by Europe to the empire was the naval defeat of Lepanto (1571; see Lepanto, battle of ), inflicted on the fleet of Selim II by the Spanish and Venetians under John of Austria. However, Murad IV in the 17th cent. temporarily restored Turkish military prestige by his victory (1638) over Persia. Crete was conquered from Venice, and in 1683 a huge Turkish army under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa surrounded Vienna. The relief of Vienna by John III of Poland and the subsequent campaigns of Charles V of Lorraine, Louis of Baden , and Eugene of Savoy ended in negotiations in 1699 (see Karlowitz, Treaty of ), which cost Turkey Hungary and other territories. Decline   

The breakup of the state gained impetus with the Russo-Turkish Wars in the 18th cent. Egypt was only temporarily lost to Napoleon's army, but the Greek War of Independence and its sequels, the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29 (see Adrianople, Treaty of ), and the war with Muhammad Ali of Egypt resulted in the loss of Greece and Egypt, the protectorate of Russia over Moldavia and Walachia, and the semi-independence of Serbia. Drastic reforms were introduced in the late 18th and early 19th cent. by Selim III and Mahmud II , but they came too late. By the 19th cent. Turkey was known as the Sick Man of Europe.

Through a series of treaties of capitulation from the 16th to the 18th cent. the Ottoman Empire gradually lost its economic independence. Although Turkey was theoretically among the victors in the Crimean War , it emerged from the war economically exhausted. The Congress of Paris (1856) recognized the independence and integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but this event marked the confirmation of the empire's dependency rather than of its rights as a European power.

The rebellion (1875) of Bosnia and Hercegovina precipitated the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, in which Turkey was defeated despite its surprisingly vigorous stand. Romania (i.e., Walachia and Moldavia), Serbia, and Montenegro were declared fully independent, and Bosnia and Hercegovina passed under Austrian administration. Bulgaria, made a virtually independent principality, annexed (1885) Eastern Rumelia with impunity.

Sultan Abd al-Majid , who in 1839 issued a decree containing an important body of civil reforms, was followed (1861) by Abd al-Aziz , whose reign witnessed the rise of the liberal party. Its leader, Midhat Pasha , succeeded in deposing (1876) Abd al-Aziz. Abd al-Hamid II acceded (1876) after the brief reign of Murad V. A liberal constitution was framed by Midhat, and the first Turkish parliament opened in 1877, but the sultan soon dismissed it and began a rule of personal despotism. The Armenian massacres (see Armenia ) of the late 19th cent. turned world public opinion against Turkey. Abd al-Hamid was victorious in the Greco-Turkish war of 1897, but Crete, which had been the issue, was ultimately gained by Greece.

The Muslim Invasion of India & The Magnitude of Their Atrocities

(Ghazanavi to Amir Timur)

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The world famous historian, Will Durant has written in his Story of Civilisation that "the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history".

India before the advent of Islamic imperialism was not exactly a zone of peace. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honoured conventions sanctioned by the Sastras. The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were never molested. The cows were never killed. The temples were never touched. The chastity of women was never violated. The non-combatants were never killed or captured. A human habitation was never attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was never plundered. War booty was an unknown item in the calculations of conquerors. The martial classes who clashed, mostly in open spaces, had a code of honor. Sacrifice of honor for victory or material gain was deemed as worse than death.

Islamic imperialism came with a different code--the Sunnah of the Prophet. It required its warriors to fall upon the helpless civil population after a decisive victory had been won on the battlefield. It required them to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died fighting or had fled. The cows, the Brahmins, and the Bhikshus invited their special attention in mass murders of non-combatants. The temples and monasteries were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill, they captured and sold as slaves. The magnitude of the booty looted even from the bodies of the dead, was a measure of the success of a military mission. And they did all this as mujahids (holy warriors) and ghazls (kafir-killers) in the service of Allah and his Last Prophet.

Hindus found it very hard to understand the psychology of this new invader. For the first time in their history, Hindus were witnessing a scene which was described by Kanhadade Prabandha (1456 AD) in the following words:

"The conquering army burnt villages, devastated the land, plundered people's wealth, took Brahmins and children and women of all classes captive, flogged with thongs of raw hide, carried a moving prison with it, and converted the prisoners into obsequious Turks."

That was written in remembrance of Alauddin Khalji's invasion of Gujarat in the year l298 AD. But the gruesome game had started three centuries earlier when Mahmud Ghaznavi had vowed to invade India every year in order to destroy idolatry, kill the kafirs, capture prisoners of war, and plunder vast wealth for which India was well-known.

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MAHMUD AND MASOOD GHAZNAVI

In 1000 AD Mahmud defeated Raja Jaipal, a scion of the Hindu Shahiya dynasty of Kabul. This dynasty had been for long the doorkeeper of India in the Northwest. Mahmud collected 250,000 dinars as indemnity. That perhaps was normal business of an empire builder. But in 1004 AD he stormed Bhatiya and plundered the place. He stayed there for some time to convert the Hindus to Islam with the help of mullahs he had brought with him.

In 1008 AD he captured Nagarkot (Kangra). The loot amounted to 70,000,000 dirhams in coins and 700,400 mans of gold and silver, besides plenty of precious stones and embroidered cloths. In 1011 AD he plundered Thanesar which was undefended, destroyed many temples, and broke a large number of idols. The chief idol, that of Chakraswamin, was taken to Ghazni and thrown into the public square for defilement under the feet of the faithful. According to Tarikh-i-Yamini of Utbi, Mahmud's secretary,

"The blood of the infidels flowed so copiously [at Thanesar] that the stream was discolored, notwithstanding its purity, and people were unable to drink it. The Sultan returned with plunder which is impossible to count. Praise he to Allah for the honor he bestows on Islam and Muslims."

In 1013 AD Mahmud advanced against Nandana where the Shahiya king, Anandapal, had established his new capital. The Hindus fought very hard but lost. Again, the temples were destroyed, and innocent citizens slaughtered. Utbi provides an account of the plunder and the prisoners of war:

"The Sultan returned in the rear of immense booty, and slaves were so plentiful that they became very cheap and men of respectability in their native land were degraded by becoming slaves of common shopkeepers. But this is the goodness of Allah, who bestows honor on his own religion and degrades infidelity."

The road was now clear for an assault on the heartland of Hindustan. In December 1018 AD Mahmud crossed the Yamuna, collected 1,000,000 dirhams from Baran (Bulandshahar), and marched to Mahaban in Mathura district. Utbi records:

"The infidels...deserted the fort and tried to cross the foaming river...but many of them were slain, taken or drowned... Nearly fifty thousand men were killed."

Mathura was the next victim. Mahmud seized five gold idols weighing 89,300 missals and 200 silver idols. According to Utbi, "The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naptha and fire, and levelled with the ground." The pillage of the city continued for 20 days. Mahmud now turned towards Kanauj which had been the seat of several Hindu dynasties. Utbi continues: "In Kanauj there were nearly ten thousand temples... Many of the inhabitants of the place fled in consequence of witnessing the fate of their deaf and dumb idols. Those who did not fly were put to death. The Sultan gave his soldiers leave to plunder and take prisoners."

The Brahmins of Munj, which was attacked next, fought to the last man after throwing their wives and children into fire. The fate of Asi was sealed when its ruler took fright and fled. According to Utbi, ".... the Sultan ordered that his five forts should be demolished from their foundations, the inhabitants buried in their ruins, and the soldiers of the garrison plundered, slain and captured".

Shrawa, the next important place to be invaded, met the same fate. Utbi concludes:

"The Muslims paid no regard to the booty till they had satiated themselves with the slaughter of the infidels and worshipers of sun and fire. The friends of Allah searched the bodies of the slain for three days in order to obtain booty...The booty amounted in gold and silver, rubies and pearls nearly to three hundred thousand dirhams, and the number of prisoners may be conceived from the fact that each was sold for two to ten dirhams. These were afterwards taken to Ghazni and merchants came from distant cities to purchase them, so that the countries of Mawaraun-Nahr, Iraq and Khurasan were filled with them, and the fair and the dark, the rich and the poor, were commingled in one common slavery."

Mahmud's sack of Somnath is too well-known to be retold here. What needs emphasizing is that the fragments of the famous Sivalinga were carried to Ghazni. Some of them were turned into steps of the Jama Masjid in that city. The rest were sent to Mecca, Medina, and Baghdad to be desecrated in the same manner.

Mahmud's son Masud tried to follow in the footsteps of his father. In 1037 AD he succeeded in sacking the fort of Hansi which was defended very bravely by the Hindus. The Tarikh-us-Subuktigin records: "The Brahmins and other high ranking men were slain, and their women and children were carried away captive, and all the treasure which was found was distributed among the army."

Masud could not repeat the performance due to his preoccupations elsewhere.

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MUHAMMAD GHORI AND HIS LEUTENANTS

Invasion of India by Islamic imperialism was renewed by Muhmmad Ghori in the last quarter of the 12th century. After Prithiviraj Chauhan had been defeated in 1192 AD, Ghori took Ajmer by assault.

According the Taj-ul-Ma'sir of Hasan Nizami, "While the Sultan remained at Ajmer, he destroyed the pillars and foundations of the idol temples and built in their stead mosques and colleges and precepts of Islam, and the customs of the law were divulged and established."

Next year he defeated Jayachandra of Kanauj. A general massacre, rapine, and pillage followed. The Gahadvad treasuries at Asni and Varanasi were plundered. Hasan Nizami rejoices that "in Benares which is the centre of the country of Hind, they destroyed one thousand temples and raised mosques on their foundations".

According to Kamil-ut-Tawarikh of Ibn Asir, "The slaughter of Hindus (at Varanasi) was immense; none were spared except women and children, and the carnage of men went on until the earth was weary."

The women and children were spared so that they could be enslaved and sold all over the Islamic world. It may be added that the Buddhist complex at Sarnath was sacked at this time, and the Bhikshus were slaughtered.

Ghori's lieutenant Qutbuddin Aibak was also busy meanwhile. Hasan Nizami writes that after the suppression of a Hindu revolt at Kol (modern day Aligarh) in 1193 AD, Aibak raised "three bastions as high as heaven with their heads, and their carcases became food for beasts of prey. The tract was freed from idols and idol worship and the foundations of infidelism were destroyed."

In 1194 AD Aibak destroyed 27 Hindu temples at Delhi and built the Quwwat-ul-lslam mosque with their debris. According to Nizami, Aibak "adorned it with the stones and gold obtained from the temples which had been demolished by elephants".

In 1195 AD the Mher tribe of Ajmer rose in revolt, and the Chaulukyas of Gujarat came to their assistance. Aibak had to invite reinforcements from Ghazni before he could meet the challenge. In 1196 AD he advanced against Anahilwar Patan, the capital of Gujarat. Nizami writes that after Raja Karan was defeated and forced to flee, "fifty thousand infidels were dispatched to hell by the sword" and "more than twenty thousand slaves, and cattle beyond all calculation fell into the hands of the victors".

The city was sacked, its temples demolished, and its palaces plundered. On his return to Ajmer, Aibak destroyed the Sanskrit College of Visaladeva, and laid the foundations of a mosque which came to be known as 'Adhai Din ka Jhompada'.

Conquest of Kalinjar in 1202 AD was Aibak's crowning achievement. Nizami concludes: "The temples were converted into mosques... Fifty thousand men came under the collar of slavery and the plain became black as pitch with Hindus."

A free-lance adventurer, Muhammad Bakhtyar Khalji, was moving further east. In 1200 AD he sacked the undefended university town of Odantpuri in Bihar and massacred the Buddhist monks in the monasteries. In 1202 AD he took Nadiya by surprise. Badauni records in his Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh that "property and booty beyond computation fell into the hands of the Muslims and Muhammad Bakhtyar having destroyed the places of worship and idol temples of the infidels founded mosques and Khanqahs".

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THE SLAVE (MAMLUK) SULTANS

Shamsuddin Iltutmish who succeeded Aibak at Delhi invaded Malwa in 1234 AD. He destroyed an ancient temple at Vidisha. Badauni reports in his 'Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh':

"Having destroyed the idol temple of Ujjain which had been built six hundred years previously, and was called Mahakal, he levelled it to its foundations, and threw down the image of Rai Vikramajit from whom the Hindus reckon their era, and brought certain images of cast molten brass and placed them on the ground in front of the doors of mosques of old Delhi, and ordered the people of trample them under foot."

Muslim power in India suffered a serious setback after Iltutmish. Balkan had to battle against a revival of Hindu power. The Katehar Rajputs of what came to be known as Rohilkhand in later history, had so far refused to submit to Islamic imperialism. Balkan led an expedition across the Ganges in 1254 AD. According to Badauni,

"In two days after leaving Delhi, he arrived in the midst of the territory of Katihar and put to death every male, even those of eight years of age, and bound the women."

But in spite of such wanton cruelty, Muslim power continued to decline till the Khaljis revived it after 1290 AD.

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THE KHALJIS

Jalaluddin Khalji led an expedition to Ranthambhor in 1291 AD. On the way he destroyed Hindu temples at Chain. The broken idols were sent to Delhi to be spread before the gates of the Jama Masjid. His nephew Alauddin led an expedition to Vidisha in 1292 AD. According to Badauni in Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Alauddin "brought much booty to the Sultan and the idol which was the object of worship of the Hindus, he caused to be cast in front of the Badaun gate to be trampled upon by the people. The services of Alauddin were highly appreciated, the jagir of Oudh (or Avadh - Central U.P.) also was added to his other estates."

Alauddin became Sultan in 1296 AD after murdering his uncle and father-in-law, Jalaluddin. In 1298 AD he equipped an expedition to Gujarat under his generals Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan. The invaders plundered the ports of Surat and Cambay. The temple of Somnath, which had been rebuilt by the Hindus, was plundered and the idol taken to Delhi for being trodden upon by the Muslims. The whole region was subjected to fire and sword, and Hindus were slaughtered en masse. Kampala Devi, the queen of Gujarat, was captured along with the royal treasury, brought to Delhi and forced into Alauddin's harem. The doings of the Malik Naib during his expedition to South India in 1310-1311 AD have already mentioned in earlier parts.

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THE TUGHLAQS

Muslim power again suffered a setback after the death of Alauddin Khalji in 1316 AD. But it was soon revived by the Tughlaqs. By now most of the famous temples over the length and breadth of the Islamic occupation in India had been demolished, except in Orissa and Rajasthan which had retained their independence. By now most of the rich treasuries had been plundered and shared between the Islamic state and its swordsmen. Firuz Shah Tughlaq led an expedition to Orissa in 1360 AD. He destroyed the temple of Jagannath at Puri, and desecrated many other Hindu shrines. According to 'Sirat-i-Firoz Shahi' which he himself wrote or dictated,

"Allah who is the only true God and has no other emanation, endowed the king of Islam with the strength to destroy this ancient shrine on the eastern sea-coast and to plunge it into the sea, and after its destruction he ordered the image of Jagannath to be perforated, and disgraced it by casting it down on the ground. They dug out other idols which were worshipped by the polytheists in the kingdom of Jajnagar and overthrew them as they did the image of Jagannath, for being laid in front of the mosques along the path of the Sunnis and the way of the 'musallis' (Muslim congregation for namaz) and stretched them in front of the portals of every mosque, so that the body and sides of the images might be trampled at the time of ascent and descent, entrance and exit, by the shoes on the feet of the Muslims."

After the sack of the temples in Orissa, Firoz Shah Tughlaq attacked an island on the sea-coast where "nearly 100,000 men of Jajnagar had taken refuge with their women, children, kinsmen and relations". The swordsmen of Islam turned "the island into a basin of blood by the massacre of the unbelievers".

A worse fate overtook the Hindu women. Sirat-i-Firuz Shahs records: "Women with babies and pregnant ladies were haltered, manacled, fettered and enchained, and pressed as slaves into service in the house of every soldier."

Still more horrible scenes were enacted by Firuz Shah Tughlaq at Nagarkot (Kangra) where he sacked the shrine of Jvalamukhi. Firishta records that the Sultan "broke the idols of Jvalamukhi, mixed their fragments with the flesh of cows and hung them in nose bags round the necks of Brahmins. He sent the principal idol as trophy to Medina."

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THE PROVINCIAL MUSLIM SATRAPS

In 1931 AD the Muslims of Gujarat complained to Nasiruddin Muhammad, the Tughlaq Sultan of Delhi, that the local governor, Kurhat-ul-Mulk, was practising tolerance towards the Hindus. The Sultan immediately appointed Muzzaffar Khan as the new Governor. He became independent after the death of the Delhi Sultan and assumed the title of Muzzaffar Shah in 1392 AD. Next year he led an expidition to Somnath and sacked the temple which the Hindus had built once again. He killed many Hindus to chastise them for this "impudence," and raised a mosque on the site of the ancient temple. The Hindus, however, restarted restoring the temple soon after. In 1401 AD Muzaffar came back with a huge army. He again killed many Hindus, demolished the temple once more, and erected another mosque.

Muzaffar was succeeded by his grandson, Ahmad Shah, in 1411 AD. Three years later Ahmad appointed a special darogah to destroy all temples throughout Gujarat. In 1415 AD Ahmad invaded Sidhpur where he destroyed the images in Rudramahalaya, and converted the grand temple into a mosque. Sidhpur was renamed Sayyadpur.

Mahmud Begrha who became the Sultan of Gujarat in 1458 AD was the worst fanatic of this dynasty. One of his vassals was the Mandalika of Junagadh who had never withheld the regular tribute. Yet in 1469 AD Mahmud invaded Junagadh. In reply to the Mandalika's protests, Mahmud said that he was not interested in money as much as in the spread of Islam. The Mandalika was forcibly converted to Islam and Junagadh was renamed Mustafabad. In 1472 AD Mahmud attacked Dwarka, destroyed the local temples, and plundered the city. Raja Jaya Singh, the ruler of Champaner, and his minister were murdered by Mahmud in cold blood for refusing to embrace Islam after they had been defeated and their country pillaged and plundered. Champaner was renamed Mahmudabad.

Mahmud Khalji of Malwa (1436-69 AD) also destroyed Hindu temples and built mosques on their sites. He heaped many more insults on the Hindus. Ilyas Shah of Bengal (1339-1379 AD) invaded Nepal and destroyed the temple of Svayambhunath at Kathmandu. He also invaded Orissa, demolished many temples, and plundered many places. The Bahmani sultans of Gulbarga and Bidar considered it meritorious to kill a hundred thousand Hindu men, women, and children every year. They demolished and desecrated temples all over South India.

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AMlR TIMUR

The climax came during the invasion of Timur in 1399 AD. He starts by quoting the Quran in his Tuzk-i-Timuri: "O Prophet, make war upon the infidels and unbelievers, and treat them severely."

He continues: "My great object in invading Hindustan had been to wage a religious war against the infidel Hindus...[so that] the army of Islam might gain something by plundering the wealth and valuables of the Hindus." To start with he stormed the fort of Kator on the border of Kashmir. He ordered his soldiers "to kill all the men, to make prisoners of women and children, and to plunder and lay waste all their property". Next, he "directed towers to be built on the mountain of the skulls of those obstinate unbelievers". Soon after, he laid siege to Bhatnir defended by Rajputs. They surrendered after some fight, and were pardoned. But Islam did not bind Timur to keep his word given to the "unbelievers". His Tuzk-i-Timuri records:

"In a short space of time all the people in the fort were put to the sword, and in the course of one hour the heads of 10,000 infidels were cut off. The sword of Islam was washed in the blood of the infidels, and all the goods and effects, the treasure and the grain which for many a long year had been stored in the fort became the spoil of my soldiers. They set fire to the houses and reduced them to ashes, and they razed the buildings and the fort to the ground."

At Sarsuti, the next city to be sacked, "all these infidel Hindus were slain, their wives and children were made prisoners and their property and goods became the spoil of the victors". Timur was now moving through (modern day) Haryana, the land of the Jats. He directed his soldiers to "plunder and destroy and kill every one whom they met". And so the soldiers "plundered every village, killed the men, and carried a number of Hindu prisoners, both male and female".

Loni which was captured before he arrived at Delhi was predominantly a Hindu town. But some Muslim inhabitants were also taken prisoners. Timur ordered that "the Musulman prisoners should be separated and saved, but the infidels should all be dispatched to hell with the proselytizing sword".

By now Timur had captured 100,000 Hindus. As he prepared for battle against the Tughlaq army after crossing the Yamuna, his Amirs advised him "that on the great day of battle these 100,000 prisoners could not be left with the baggage, and that it would be entirely opposed to the rules of war to set these idolators and enemies of Islam at liberty". Therefore, "no other course remained but that of making them all food for the sword".

Tuzk-i-Timuri continues:

"I proclaimed throughout the camp that every man who had infidel prisoners should put them to death, and whoever neglected to do so should himself be executed and his property given to the informer. When this order became known to the ghazis of Islam, they drew their swords and put their prisoners to death. One hundred thousand infidels, impious idolators, were on that day slain. Maulana Nasiruddin Umar, a counselor and man of learning, who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of my order, slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his captives."

The Tughlaq army was defeated in the battle that ensued next day. Timur entered Delhi and learnt that a "great number of Hindus with their wives and children, and goods and valuables, had come into the city from all the country round".

He directed his soldiers to seize these Hindus and their property. Tuzk-i-Timuri concludes:

"Many of them (Hindus) drew their swords and resisted...The flames of strife were thus lighted and spread through the whole city from Jahanpanah and Siri to Old Delhi, burning up all it reached. The Hindus set fire to their houses with their own hands, burned their wives and children in them and rushed into the fight and were killed...On that day, Thursday, and all the night of Friday, nearly 15,000 Turks were engaged in slaying, plundering and destroying. When morning broke on Friday, all my army ...went off to the city and thought of nothing but killing, plundering and making prisoners....The following day, Saturday the 17th, all passed in the same way, and the spoil was so great.that each man secured from fifty to a hundred prisoners, men, women, and children. There was no man who took less than twenty. The other booty was immense in rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, and other gems and jewels; ashrafis, tankas of gold and silver of the celebrated Alai coinage: vessels of gold and silver; and brocades and silks of great value. Gold and silver ornaments of Hindu women were obtained in such quantities as to exceed all account. Excepting the quarter of the Saiyids, the Ulama and the other Musulmans, the whole city was sacked.

Muslim Slaughter of Hindu Afghanistan

EARLY HISTORY OF HINDU KUSH REGION (UP TO 1000 AD)

History of Hindu Kush and Punjab shows that two major kingdoms of Gandhaar & Vaahic Pradesh (Balkh of Bactria) had their borders extending far beyond the Hindu Kush. Legend has it that the kingdom of Gandhaar was established by Taksha, grandson of Bharat of Ayodhya (6). Gandhaar's borders extended from Takshashila to Tashkent (corruption of 'Taksha Khand') in the present day Uzbekistan. In the later period, Mahabharat relates Gaandhaari as a princess of Gandhaar and her brother, Shakuni as a prince and later as Gandhaar's ruler.

In the well documented history, Emperor Chandragupt Maurya took charge of Vaahic Pradesh around 325 BC and then took over Magadh. Emperor Ashok's stone tablets with inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic are still found at Qandahar (corruption of Gandhaar?) and Laghman in eastern Afganistan(3). One such stone tablet, is shown in the PBS TV series 'Legacy with Mark Woods' in episode 3 titled 'India: The Spiritual Empire'. After the fall of Mauryan empire, Gandhaar was ruled by Greeks. However some of these Greek rulers had converted to Buddhism, such as Menander, known to Indian historians as Milinda, while some other Greeks became followers of Vishnav sects (Hinduism)(7). Recent excavations in Bactria have revealed a golden hoard which has among other things a figurine of a Greek goddess with a Hindu mark on its forehead (Bindi) showing the confluence of Hindu-Greek art (8). Later Shaka and KushaaN ruled Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh. KushaaN emperor Kanishka's empire stretched from Mathura to the Aral Sea (beyond the present day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Krygzystan)(9).

Kanishaka was a Buddhist and under KushaaN influence Buddhism flourished in Gandhaar. Two giant sandstone Buddhas carved into the cliffs of Bamian (west of Kabul) date from the Kushan period. The larger Buddha (although defaced in later centuries by Moslem invaders) is about 175 ft tall (10,11). The Kushan empire declined by 450 AD. The Chinese traveller Hsuan-Tsang (Xuan-zang) travelled thru the region in 7 th century AD and visited many Buddhist religious centers (3) including Hadda, Ghazni, Qonduz, Bamian (3,10,11), Shotorak and Bagram. From the 5 th thru 9 th cenury AD Persian Sasanians and Hepthalites ruled Gandhaar. During their rule Gandhaar region was again influenced by Hinduism. The Hindu kings (Shahiya) were concentrated in the Kabul and Ghazni areas. The last Hindu Shahiya king of Kabul, Bhimapal was killed in 1026 AD. The heroic efforts of the Hindu Shahiya Kings to defend the northwestern gates of India against the invaders are described by even al-Biruni, the court historian of Mahmud of Ghazni (12). Some excavated sites of the period include a major Hindu Shahiya temple north of Kabul and a chapel that contains both Buddhist and Hindu images, indicating that there was a mingling of two religions (3).

Islamic invasions on Afganistan started in 642 AD, but over the next several centuries their effect was marginal and lasted only a short time after each raid. Cities surrendered only to rise in revolt and the hastily converted returned to their old religion (Hinduism or Buddhism) once the Moslem armies had passed (3).

THUS TILL THE YEAR 1000 AD AFGANISTAN WAS A FULL PART OF HINDU CRADLE.

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HINDU KUSH AND THE HINDU GENOCIDE

Now Afganistan is a Moslem country. Logically, this means either one or more of the following must have happened:

a) original residents of Hindu Kush converted to Islam, or
b) they were slaughtered and the conquerors took over, or
c) they were driven out.

Encyclopedia Britannica (3) already informs us above about the resistance to conversion and frequent revolt against to the Moslem conqueror's rule from 8 th thru 11 th Century AD. The name 'Hindu Kush' itself tells us about the fate of the original residents of Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh during the later period of Moslem conquests, because HINDU KUSH in Persian MEANS HINDU SLAUGHTER (13) (as per Koenraad Elst in his book 'Ayodhya and After'). Let us look into what other standard references say about Hindu Kush.

Persian-English dictionary (14) indicates that the word 'Kush' is derived from the verb Kushtar - to slaughter or carnage. Kush is probably also related to the verb Koshtan meaning to kill. In Urdu, the word Khud-kushi means act of killing oneself (khud - self, Kushi- act of killing). Encyclopedia Americana comments on the Hindu Kush as follows: The name Hindu Kush means literally 'Kills the Hindu', a reminder of the days when (Hindu) SLAVES from Indian subcontinent died in harsh Afgan mountains while being transported to Moslem courts of Central Asia (15). The National Geographic Article 'West of Khyber Pass' informs that 'Generations of raiders brought captive Hindus past these peaks of perpetual snow. Such bitter journeys gave the range its name Hindu Kush - "Killer of Hindus"'(10). The World Book Encyclopedia informs that the name Kush, .. means Death ..(16). While Encyclopedia Britannica says 'The name Hindu Kush first appears in 1333 AD in the writings of Ibn Battutah, the medieval Berber traveller, who said the name meant 'Hindu Killer', a meaning still given by Afgan mountain dwellers who are traditional enemies of Indian plainsmen (i.e. Hindus)(2). However, later the Encyclopedia Britannica gives a negationist twist by adding that 'more likely the name is a corruption of Hindu-Koh meaning Hindu mountains'. This is unlikely, since the term Koh is used in its proper, uncorrupted form for the western portion of Hindu Kush, viz. Koh-i-Baba, for the region Swat Kohistan, and in the names of the three peaks of this range, viz. Koh-i-Langer, Koh-i-Bandakor, and Koh-i-Mondi. Thus to say that corruption of term Koh to Kush occurred only in case of Hindu Kush is merely an effort to fit in a deviant observation to a theory already proposed. In science, a theory is rejected if it does not agree with the observations, and not the other way around. Hence the latter negationist statement in the Encyclopedia Britannica must be rejected.

IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT ONE OF THE FEW PLACE NAMES ON EARTH THAT REMINDS US NOT OF THE VICTORY OF THE WINNERS BUT RATHER THE SLAUGHTER OF THE LOSERS, CONCERNS A GENOCIDE OF HINDUS BY THE MOSLEMS (13).

Unlike the Jewish holocaust, the exact toll of the Hindu genocide suggested by the name Hindu Kush is not available. However the number is easily likely to be in millions. Few known historical figures can be used to justify this estimate. Encyclopedia Britannica informs that in December 1398 AD, Timur Lane ordered the execution of at least 50,000 captives before the battle for Delhi, .. and after the battle those inhabitants (of Delhi) not killed were removed (as slaves) (17), while other reference says that the number of captives butchered by Timur Lane's army was about 100,000 (18). Later on Encyclopedia Britannica mentions that the (secular?) Mughal emperor Akbar 'ordered the massacre of about 30,000 (captured) Rajput Hindus on February 24, 1568 AD, after the battle for Chitod' (19). Another reference indicates that this massacre of 30,000 Hindu peasants at Chitod is recorded by Abul Fazl, Akbar's court historian himself (20). These two 'one day' massacres are sufficient to provide a reference point for estimating the scale of Hindu genocide. The Afgan historian Khondamir records that during one of the many repeated invasions on the city of Herat in western Afganistan, 1,500,000 residents perished (11).

Since some of the Moslem conquerors took Indian plainsmen as slaves, a question comes : whatever happened to this slave population? The startling answer comes from New York Times (May-June 1993 issues). The Gypsies are wandering peoples in Europe. They have been persecuted in almost every country. Nazis killed 300,000 gypsies in the gas chambers. These Gypsies have been wandering around Central Asia and Europe since around the 12 th Century AD. Until now their country of origin could not be identified. Also their Language has had very little in common with the other European languages. Recent studies however show that their language is similar to Punjabi and to a lesser degree to Sanskrit. Thus the Gypsies most likely originated from the greater Punjab. The time frame of Gypsy wanderings also coincides early Islamic conquests hence most likely their ancestors were driven out of their homes in Punjab and taken as slaves over the Hindu Kush.

The theory of Gypsie origins in India was first proposed over two centuries ago. It is only recently theta linguistic and other proofs have been verified. Even the Gypsie leadership now accepts India as the country of their origin.

Thus it is evident that the mountain range was named as Hindu Kush as a reminder to the future Hindu generations of the slaughter and slavery of Hindus during the Moslem conquests.

DELIBERATE IGNORANCE ABOUT HINDU KUSH

If the name Hindu Kush relates such a horrible genocide of Hindus, why are Hindus ignorant about it? and why the Government of India does not teach them about Hindu Kush? The history and geography curriculums in Indian Schools barely even mention Hindu Kush. The horrors of the Jewish holocaust are taught not only in schools in Israel and USA, but also in Germany. Because both Germany and Israel consider the Jewish holocaust a 'dark chapter' in the history. The Indian Government instead of giving details of this 'dark chapter' in Indian history is busy in whitewash of Moslem atrocities and the Hindu holocaust. In 1982, the National Council of Educational Research and Training issued a directive for the rewriting of school texts. Among other things it stipulated that: 'Characterization of the medieval period as a time of conflict between Hindus and Moslems is forbidden'. Thus denial of history or Negationism has become India's official 'educational' policy (21).

Often the official governmental historians brush aside questions such as those that Hindu Kush raises. They argue that the British version is the product of their 'divide and rule' policy' hence their version is not necessarily true. However it must be remembered that the earliest reference of the name Hindu Kush and its literal meaning 'Hindu Killer' comes from Ibn Battutah in 1333 AD, and at that time British were nowhere on the Indian scene. Secondly, if the name indeed was a misnomer then the Afgans should have protested against such a barbaric name and the last 660 plus years should have been adequate for a change of name to a more 'civil' name. There has been no effort for such a change of name by the Afgans. On the contrary, when the Islamic fundamentalist regime of the Mujahadeens came to power in 1992, tens of thousands of Hindus and Sikhs from Kabul, became refugees, and had to pay steep ransom to enter into Pakistan without a visa.

In the last 46 years the Indian Government also has not even once demanded that the Afgan Government change such an insulting and barbaric name. But in July 1993, the Government of India asked the visiting Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra to change its name because the word Jerusalem in its name is offensive to Moslem Fundamentalists.

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CONCLUSION

It is evident that Hindus from ancient India's (Hindustan's) border states such as Gandhaar and Vaahic Pradesh were massacred or taken as slaves by the Moslem invaders who named the region as Hindu Kush (or Hindu Slaughter, or Hindu Killer) to teach a lesson to the future Hindu generations of India. Unfortunately Hindus are not aware of this tragic history. The Indian government does not want the true history of Hindu Moslem conflicts during the medieval ages to be taught in schools. This policy of negationism is the cause behind the ignorance of Hindus about the Hindu Kush and the Hindu genocide.

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Turkish Muslim Atrocities In Armenia

The Tower of skulls - An artist's impression of the signature image of the Armenian Genocide at Turkish hands.

As part of their Jihad against the Christians, the Ottomans encouraged the unlawful transfer of property, the dispossession of the rural Armenian population and compelled their emigration from their homeland. In this the Turks (as do other Muslims) took inspiration and justification from the Quran.

The major portion of the Armenian population of the Middle East came under Ottoman rule after the conquest of Cilicia by the Seljuk Turks in 1071 that was a consequence of the Battle of Manzikert. This battle was followed by the occupation of the rest of Armenia by the successors to the Seljuk Turks ? the Ottoman Turks. This process of occupation went on up to the thirteenth century.

As part of their Jihad against the Christians, the Ottomans encouraged the unlawful transfer of property, the dispossession of the rural Armenian population and compelled their emigration from their homeland. In this the Turks (as do other Muslims) took inspiration and justification from the Quran and what Muslim theologians had to say on the methods of tyrannizing non-Muslims (Dhimmis) under Muslim tyranny.

Under repeated massacres and unrelenting Ottoman tyranny, many Armenians were compelled to embrace Islam at the pain of death, hence the former southern provinces of Armenia that include Van, Bitlis, Erzerum, Kharpert, Sivas, Trebizond, Konya, Kayseri, Adana, Izmir, Bursa, Edirne became Muslim majority provinces, that were eventually absorbed by Turkey.

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Frustrated in their designs by the European powers, the Turks tried to regain through wanton cruelty what they had lost on the battlefield and the negotiating table. The Armenians were easy meat for the Turks and they began a genocide of the civilian Armenian population.

Muslim theologians on tyrannizing Dhimmis (non-Muslim subjects) under Muslim occupation

Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the famous theologian, philosopher, and paragon of mystical Sufism wrote the following about jihad: "one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year...one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them...If a person of the Ahl al-Kitab [People of The Book ? Jews and Christians, typically] is enslaved, his marriage is [automatically] revoked? and his wife becomes the rightful property of a Muslim. One may cut down their trees...One must destroy their useless books. Jihadis may take as booty whatever they decide... the Jihadis may steal as much food as they need..."

European attempts to provide relief leads from Tyranny to Genocide

After successive defeats of the Ottomans by the Russians in the Russo-Turkish wars, succor came to the Armenians through the European Christian powers. Misrule in Armenia prompted the European Powers to obligate Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid (Abdul Hamit) II to reform provincial administration according to the terms of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. This was supposed to bring eight centuries of Muslim tyranny, to an end. But the reverse happened.

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These photos starkly capture on celluloid the crimes against humanity committed by the Muslim Turks (and all other Muslims against the non-Muslims). In 19th century Turkey there were two forces that opposed one another ? the Ottoman Sultan and the Young Turks. But they had one thing in common ? both the Young Turks and the Ottoman Sultan had an equal measure of hatred towards the Armenians. Like the Sultans, the Young Turks also massacred the Armenians with equal brutality, and with no less cruelty and savagery as did the Sultans.

The ensuing repression prompted Armenian revolutionary activity as the Ottomans reneged on their treaty obligations and resisted international pressure to introduce meaningful reform.

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To firmly secure and perpetuate Turkish rule in the remaining territories of the Ottoman state, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid initiated a pogrom of ethnic cleansing through the mass slaughter of vast numbers of Armenians beginning in 1894.

These photos appear raw and disturbing. But imagine how disturbing would have been the actual atrocities that these photos mutely depict. These photos caution us the about oppression that can repeat itself if the Muslims get the upper hand ever again.

Hamidian autocracy also fostered the clandestine Young Turk movement dedicated to the cause of overthrowing the despotic sultan. But nevertheless even the Young Turks though opponents of the Ottoman Sultan, had an equal measure of hatred towards the Armenian. Like the Sultans, the Young Turks massacred the Armenians with equal brutality, and with no less cruelty and savagery as did the Sultans.

 Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians by the Ottomans

The decline of Ottoman Turkish power and the steady territorial losses in the face of Balkan revolts and Russian military advances isolated the Armenian Christians in a precarious situation. To firmly secure and perpetuate Turkish rule in the remaining territories of the Ottoman state, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid initiated a program of ethnic cleansing through the mass slaughter of vast numbers of Armenians beginning in 1894.

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Turkish officers pose with beheaded Armenians. These photos are heart-wrenching and the webmasters of this site were in a dilemma whether to include them. But we decided to do so to educate our generation about the raw savagery of the Muslims. The Muslim mentality is not a thing of the past. They still behead their victims, as they did to Daniel Pearl. Muslims today are as savage as they were all through the 1400 years of their existence. So we need to realize the mentality of the enemy we are facing in the War on Terror and fight the Muslims to their extinction if we are not to face such atrocities in the future.

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In spite of international condemnation, and despite changes in government, these obnoxious policies started by Sultan Abdul-Hamid were applied with regularity over the course of the next thirty years. In a series of genocidal massacres repeated in 1895-1896, 1909, 1915-1918, and 1920-1922, the Armenian population of Turkey was mercilessly annihilated.

These massacres of the Armenians, also called Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896 affected all of historic Armenia and Constantinople. The 1909 or Adana massacre devastated Cilicia. The combined deportations and massacres during World War I acquired the dimensions of a total genocide and was implemented by the Young Turks who had removed Abdul-Hamid from the throne in 1909. So irrespective of who the rulers of the Ottomans was, the genocide of the non-Muslim Armenians continued relentlessly.

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These images are too graphic, and although grainy, they vividly capture the extent of Muslim brutality towards their non-Muslim subjects. The Armenians were the worst sufferers in recent times. And in the case of Armenia, photography was around to capture for posterity the crimes committed by the Muslims against humanity. The atrocities against the earlier victims of the Jihad were as brutal and blood-chilling, but we do not have them on celluloid, only the memory of the sufferings have been passed down to us through the descendants of those victims who survived this inhumane Muslim brutality.

The atrocities between 1920-1922 were committed by the Nationalist Turks who seized power in the Anatolian hinterland in the final years of the Ottoman Empire and created the Turkish Republic.

 Turkey's defeat in WW1 led to the exposure of the atrocities on Armenians

Most of these massacres were carried out with impunity and the majority of these Turkish criminal offenders escaped prosecution. Only in the aftermath of Turkey's defeat in World War I, through a series of military tribunals and parliamentarian investigations convened between 1919 and 1921 in Constantinople, the covert planning, secret organization, and brutal implementation of policies designed to destroy the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire were uncovered.

The evidence was presented in court-martials and guilty verdicts were handed down by the thousands, confirming the mass scale state-sponsored policy of extermination of the Armenians.

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The net effect of the Ottoman era is summed up in the violent transformation of historic Armenia into Turkey. Thus what was once the homeland of Armenians from antiquity ruled by Armenian kings and chieftains from the sixth century B.C.E. till 1071, was finally purged of almost the entire Armenian population and was merged into Turkey. What is today Armenia is only one fourth of the north eastern part of historic Armenia. Till today, Armenians consider the Eastern provinces of today's Turkey to be Armenian's lost provinces. Provinces that have to be someday re-claimed by Armenians and reintegrated into Armenia..

The post-war Turkish government, however, balked at carrying out the sentences and the tribunals were closed under pressure from the Turkish Nationalists. Ironically, in spite of the secularization under Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the Turkish policy as regards the Armenians remained unchanged as it was under the Ottoman Turks.

In 1915 Armenians lived in all the major cities of the Ottoman Empire, Van, Bitlis, Erzerum, Kharpert, Sivas, Trebizond, Konya, Kayseri, Adana, Izmir, Bursa, Edirne, and many others. But after systematic genocides, by 1923 the Armenian population of Turkey had been reduced only to those living in Constantinople. Armenians had participated in all aspects of Ottoman life and had made major contributions to Turkish commerce, industry, architecture, and even music. Yet, in the final analysis, the centuries of Turkish rule resulted in the utter ruin of historic Armenia, the expulsion of the Armenians from Asiatic Turkey and the permanent exile of surviving Armenians only in mountainous regions of the Kavkaz (Caucasus).

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1915-1916, skulls, in various stages of decomposition, of Armenian deportees, some of whom may have been burned to death. Location: Ottoman empire, region Syria.

We are sorry to have to reproduce these gruesome images. We need to remind our shocked viewers, that these images only depict the shocking tale of Muslim Turkish brutality against the Armenian Christians. A brutality which all non-Muslims have suffered ? be they Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Copt, Maronite, Bahai, Druze or any other.

The Armenian experience under the Muslim Turks is one of the savagely bloodiest chapters in the bloodied history of Islam

Armenian suffering is as yet unrecorded in a large way and as yet unknown and unreported in the global media. But it survives in the hearts of many Armenians, who bide their time for justice which they will hopefully get after the War against Terror launched after 9/11, works its way through in the next two decades.

 Abducted Armenian women play the role of concubines of the Turkish Pasha's Harem

In the course of the ten centuries of Turkish tyranny, the Armenians like all non-Muslims under Muslim tyranny had to suffer from repeated waves of abductions of their womenfolk, the most beautiful among them who were made into concubines of the Turkish sultan and Turkish Beys and their camp followers. It is for this reason that the best of Armenia's beautiful women were forced to co-habit with the Turks till their descendants completely forgot, who they originally were.

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1915-1916, murdered Armenian male adult lying in a ditch as children stare at the corpse. Location: Ottoman empire, region Syria.

Armenians hanged in the street in Constantinople before the deportation of the Armenians to the desert had begun. Frightened Armenian prisoners are looking on awaiting their turn, while the Ottoman Turkish soldiers look on as if it were a performance.

Some Turks are embarrassed today and say that the Armenians are lying about the Armenian genocide. Fine let us give the Turks their point. The Armenians are liars. But then why are disparate people like the Egyptian Copts, Russians, Hindus, Berbers, Nubians, Zoroastrians, Croats, Buddhists (remember Bamiyan), Serbs, Indonesian Christians, Austrians, Nigerian Christians, Southern Sudanese (along with the people of Darfur) and many others also saying what the Armenians are saying? Are all these communities liars, while the Muslims are a paragon of honesty and virtue! Looking at the headlines of our daily newspapers and the footage on CNN, Foxnews, ABC, NBC, BBC and even Al Jazeera, does not make us even consider that the Armenians are lying about their genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

History will deliver its verdict soon for the crimes that the Muslims have committed against humanity for 14 centuries. Our wait has been long, but it will soon be over.

__________________________

There are no real Moderate Muslims...they are all savages!

 Some Muslims may appear to be moderate by the language they use, and their etiquette, but that is deception on their part. In fact such Muslims are more dangerous than those who openly declare their murderous intentions towards us. So we need to give up our delusion that there could be a moderate Muslim. We have to have a clear view that a Muslim is an enemy. He can become a friend only if he renounces Islam. If not, he remains a mortal enemy, and so is a legitimate target of destruction.

Ottoman Empire Collapse   

In 1908 the Young Turk movement, a reformist and strongly nationalist group, with many adherents in the army, forced the restoration of the constitution of 1876, and in 1909 the parliament deposed the sultan and put Muhammad V on the throne. In the two successive Balkan Wars (1912-13), Turkey lost nearly its entire territory in Europe to Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and newly independent Albania. The nationalism of the Young Turks, whose leader Enver Pasha gained virtual dictatorial power by a coup in 1913, antagonized the remaining minorities in the empire.

The outbreak of World War I found Turkey lined up with the Central Powers. Although Turkish troops succeeded against the Allies in the Gallipoli campaign (1915), Arabia rose against Turkish rule, and British forces occupied (1917) Baghdad and Jerusalem. In 1918, Turkish resistance collapsed in Asia and Europe. An armistice was concluded in October, and the Ottoman Empire came to an end. The Treaty of Sèvres (see Sèvres, Treaty of ) confirmed its dissolution. With the victory of the Turkish nationalists, who had refused to accept the peace terms and overthrew the sultan in 1922, modern Turkey's history began.

The Infamous Turkish Captain "Red Beard"

BARBAROSSA ("Redbeard"), the name given by the Christians to a family of Turkish admirals and sea rovers of the 16th century, - Arouj and Khizr (alias Khair-ed-Din) and Hassan the son of Khair-ed-Din. As late as 1840, Captain Walsin Esterhazy, author of a history of the Turkish rule in Africa, ventured the guess that "Barbarossa" was simply a mispronunciation of Bala Arouj, and the supposition has been widely accepted. But the prefix Bfiba was not applied to Arouj by contemporaries. His name is given in Spanish or Italian form as "Orux" or "Harrach" or "Ordiche." The contemporary Arab chronicle published by S. Rang and F. Denis in 1837 says explicitly that Barbarossa was the name applied by Christians to Khair-ed-Din. It was no doubt a nickname given to the family on account of their red or tawny beards (Lat. barba). The founder of the family was Yakub, a Roumeliot, probably of Albanian blood, who settled in Mitylene after its conquest by the Turks. He was a coasting trader and skipper, and had four sons - Elias, Isaak, Arouj and Khizr, all said to have been born after 1482. Khizr became a potter and Isaak a trader. Elias and Arouj took to sea roving. In an action with a galley of the Knights of Saint John, then established at Rhodes, Elias was killed and Arouj taken prisoner; the latter was ransomed by a Turkish pasha and returned to the sea. For some time he served the Mamelukes who still held Egypt.

During the conflict between the Mamelukes and the sultan Selim I., he considered it more prudent to transfer himself to Tunis. The incessant conflicts among the Berber princes of northern Africa gave him employment as a mercenary, which he varied by piratical raids on the trade of the Christians. At Tunis he was joined by Khizr, who took, or was endowed with, the name of Khair-ed-Din. Isaac soon followed his brothers. Arouj and Khair-ed-Din joined the exiled Moors of Granada in raids on the Spanish coast. They also pushed their fortunes by fighting for, or murdering and supplanting, the native African princes. Their headquarters were in the island of Jerba in the Gulf of Gabes. They attempted in 512 to take Bougie from the Spaniards, but were beaten off, and Arouj lost an arm, shattered by an arquebus shot. In 1514 they took Jijelli from the Genoese, and after a second beating at Bougie in 1515 were called in by the natives of Cherchel and Algiers to aid them against the Spaniards. They occupied the towns and murdered the native ruler who called them in. The Spaniards still held the little rocky island which gives Algiers its name and forms the harbour.

In 1518 Arouj was drawn away to take part in a civil war in Tlemcen. He promptly murdered the prince he came to support and seized the town for himself. The rival party then called in the Spaniards, by whom Arouj was expelled and slain while fleeing at the Rio Salado. Khair-ed-Din clung to his possessions on the coast and appealed to the sultan Selim I. He was named beylerbey by the sultan, and with him began the establishment of Turkish rule in northern Africa. For years he was engaged in subduing the native princes, and in carrying on warfare with the Christians. In 1519 he repelled a Spanish attack on Algiers, but could not expel his enemies from the island till 1529. As a combatant in the forefront of the war with the Christians he became a great hero in Islam, and dreaded by its enemies under his name of Barbarossa.

In 1534 he seized Tunis, acting as Capitan pasha for the sultan Suleiman. The emperor Charles V. intervened on behalf of the native prince, retook the town, and destroyed great part of Barbarossa's fleet. The corsair retaliated by leading what remained of his navy on a plundering raid to the Balearic Islands. During the remainder of his life - till 1547 - Barbarossa, though still Beylerbey of northern Africa, was mainly engaged as Capitan Pasha in co-operating with the armies of the sultan Suleiman in the east. He was absent from Algiers when it was attacked by Charles V. in 1541. In 1543-1544 he commanded the fleet which Suleiman sent to the coast of Provence to support Francis I. Barbarossa would not allow the bells of the Christian churches to be rung while his fleet was at anchor in the ports. He plundered the coast of Italy on his way back to Constantinople. When he died in his palace at Constantinople he was succeeded as beylerbey of Africa by his son Hassan. Hassan Barbarossa, like his father, spent most of his life in the Levant, but was occasionally in Africa when the influence of his family was required to suppress the disorders of the Turkish garrisons. He left it for the last time in 1567, and is said by Hammer-Purgstall to have been present at Lepanto in 1571. His last years are obscure.

Above picture of; Bodrum or Castle of St. Peter, Turkey, was built by St. Jean Christian Knights on a rocky ground peninsula next to the harbour. The castle has an English, French, German and Italian tower named after the countries of the knights who built these towers.

White European Slaves sold in Africa by Turks

The coastal villages and towns of Spain, Italy and the Mediterranean islands were frequently attacked by Barbary pirates from North Africa; the Formentera was even temporarily left by its population and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. The most famous corsair was the Turkish Barbarossa (”Redbeard”) According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Croats and Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Darko Zubrinic, Zagreb (1995)

The aim of this article is to indicate deep connections between the Croats and Muslim Bosniaks (= Bosnjaci - Muslimani). In order to avoid misunderstanding we shall rather use their descriptive name - Muslim Slavs. The reason is that the Croats in Bosnia are also Bosniaks. Indeed, many of them bear Bosniak as their second name. The meaning of Bosniak is simply - a Bosnian.

In the Zagreb telephone book only (1994/95) you can see a long list of as many as 210 surnames of Bosnjak, with only one Muslim forename, and also more than 30 Bosnjakovic's, with only 3 Muslim forenames.

There is village Bosnjaci in Croatia (4,500 inhabitants prior to 1991, near Zupanja). I did not find any village of a similar name on a map of Bosnia. Also in Hrvatsko Zagorje, near Zagreb, there is a

* small village of Bosna, then
* Bosanci near Bosiljevo and Bjelovar,
* Bosnici near Dreznica and Kijevo,
* Bosanka (that is, Bosnian Woman!) near the famous city of Dubrovnik,
* and two small regions of Bosna near Vrbovac and D. Stupnik.

There is also a village of Mala Bosna (that is, Small Bosnia) near the city of Subotica.

One can find Croatian families bearing the Turkish second name of Ulama even in the NW of Croatia (Hrvatsko Zagorje). The town of Tuhelj in Hrvatsko Zagorje was given by those Croats who had to escape from the region of the village of Tuhelj in Bosnia, between Kresevo and Konjic, see [Gizdelin, pp 44, 53]. Near Varazdin Breg there is a village of Turcin (= The Turk).

Vranduk in 1910.Let us start by describing many traces left by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. This civilization, that was present on Croatian soil from the 15th to the 19th century (in eastern parts of former Yugoslavia until the beginning of the 20th century), left a deep imprint. Many Croats converted to Islam. The Muslim Slavs are in great majority of Croatian descent, and constitute now a nation, recognized according to their own wish in 1968 (Muslimani has been the usual name since the beginning of the 20th century). Except in Croatia they live today mostly in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sandzak (a province in the south of Serbia, between Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia).

Croatian national costume near Tomislavgrad in BiH (photo by Stojan Puretic)There were many disputes even about the name of "Muslimani", which was defined to have only the national content (i.e. one could have been Musliman without being religious at all, as was the case for example with Raif Dizdarevic, former president of former Yugoslavia; of course, his predecessors were Muslims). On the other hand the term "musliman" (with small m) had the meaning of Muslim exclusively in the religious sense. The way out was to choose an old geographical name Bosniak, which traditionally denoted any citizen of Bosnia - either Croat (as we said, many of them have Bosniak as a surname), or Muslim, or Serb. It is strange that this usurpation of the name of Bosniak has been accepted even in the official Croatia. From this easily follows a complete usurpation of the Bosnian name (usurpation of Bosnian literature, language and of the entire history of Bosnia). Of course, we do not deny the right of Muslim - Bosniaks to call themselves Bosniaks. We would like to indicate that the name of Bosniaks does not refer exclusively to Bosnian Muslims, but to Bosnian Croats too.

See also Vladimir Zerjavic: Muslim-Bosniaks did not secure the right of autochthony in Croatia.
In Croatian: "Muslimani-Bossnjaci nisu stekli uvjete authotonosti u Hrvatskoj".

I recommend the interested reader to consult BEHAR, the journal of the Cultural society of Bosniaks (more precisely: Bosniaks - Muslims) in Zagreb called Preporod, for their views on these very sensitive questions, especially an article by Esad Cimic in No22-23, p.12-15, 1996. The society unites outstanding Muslim intellectuals in Croatia. ``Behar'' was founded in 1900 - its first editor in chief had been Safvet-beg Basagic. It was forbidden during the 70 years' ex-Yugoslav period.

Even the historical names of many officials in the Ottoman Empire reveal their origin (Hirwat = Hrvat or Horvat, which is a Croatian name for Croat): Mahmut-pasa Hirwat (= Hrvat), Rusten-pasa Hrvat, Pijali-pasa Hrvat, Sijavus-pasa Hrvat etc. In the 16th century a traveler and writer Marco A. Pigaffetta wrote that almost everybody on the Turkish court in Constantinople knows the Croatian language, and especially soldiers. Marco Pigafetta in his "Itinerario'' published in London in 1585 states: "In Istanbul it is customary to speak Croatian, a language which is understood by almost all official Turks, especially military men."

This can also be confirmed by the 1553 visit of Antun Vrancic, Roman cardinal, and Franjo Zay, a diplomat, to Istanbul as envoys of the Croat - Hungarian king to discuss a peace treaty with the Turks. During the initial ceremonial greetings they had with Rustem - pasha Hrvat (= Croat) the conversation led in Turkish with an official interpreter was suddenly interrupted. Rustem - pasha Hrvat asked in Croatian if Zay and Vrancic spoke Croatian language. The interpreter was then dismissed and they proceeded in the Croatian language during the entire process of negotiations.``

Crazed Religious Behavior;

The USA Columbine School Murders of 1999

The killers at Columbine High School, Jefferson County, near Denver, Colorado, on April 20 1999, were pictured on left; Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. April 20 was Hitler’s birthday, and there is reason to believe the atrocity was, at least in part, intended to answer to what the two psychopaths believed Jews had ostensibly unjustly suffered under the Nazis in WW2 Europe.

Klebold’s mother, Susan (nee Yassenoff), was a shul trained Jewess who attended a synagogue named Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio, where her grandfather, Leo Yassenoff, a construction magnate, built the Jewish Community Centre that bears his name.

Eric Harris, below picture, was from New York and transferred to Colorado two years before the massacre. Harris was evidently on an anti-depressant at the time of the killings, and some of his victims were callously shot without mercy at point-blank range.

Harris was dating a Jewess named Sarah Davis and ran a pro-Jewish Website that let him vent his spleen about persecution of Jews, and other issues of race, politics, and religion, and his diary said his mother was Jewish.

A personality profile for Eric Harris, based on his journal entries and inter-personal communications, indicates that his behavioral patterns were consistent with a “malignant narcissism…(with) pathological narcissism, antisocial features, paranoid traits, and unconstrained aggression.”

Some say the killers’ plan was to use dozens of bombs to cause carnage on a vast scale and to then flee the country to the sanctuary of the Talmudic state of Israel. This sounds plausible, because if any of the bombs in the cafeteria had detonated properly the blast could have caused extensive structural damage to the school and resulted in hundreds of casualties.

It’s also plausible because Jews and their accomplices who have killed Gentiles abroad are often lightly prosecuted or get a reprieve in Israel; and they’re very rarely extradited to face judicial proceedings, primarily because the Talmud commends rather condemns Jews who kill Gentiles and actually commands Jews to perpetrate crimes of that sort whenever possible.

To quote the Jews’ most authoritative sacred literature, the Talmud:

‘Take the life of the kliphoth [egos or souls of the "evil beasts" of non-Jews] and kill them, and you will please God the same as one who offers incense to Him’ (Sepher Or Israel 177b).

And again:

‘Every Jew who spills the blood of the godless [i.e., non-Jew] is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God’ (Bammidber Raba 21c & Jalkut 772).

Dr Bischoff’s authentic translation of the Zohar is even more explicit, where it says:

‘There is a command of slaughtering, which takes place in a ritually valid manner for strangers, who are not human beings but are like unto cattle. For those who do not concern themselves with the Jewish religious law, must be made offerings of prayer, so that they are offered to the blessed God. And when they are offered to God, it is said of them: “for thy sake are we murdered the whole day, slaughtered like sheep at the slaughtering bench”‘

- Note that this is a corrupt rabbinical interpretation of Ps. 44.22.

A journal discovered in Harris’s bedroom implied that he planned to flee to Israel after the massacre because of that country’s extradition policy – a plot possibly inspired by either Harris’s Jewish girlfriend or his Jewish friend Dylan Klebold.

Both killers were also evidently convinced that once they had arrived in Israel some top Jewish movie maker “like Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino” would want to make a movie about the horrific event, which would not only present them in a favourable light, like not a few JewTube videos and books have now done, but also make them lots of money.

There’s some debate about how many shooters there were on the day – the BATF says more than two; and the total number of bombs constructed by the killers (possibly in collusion with accomplices) has been officially cited as ninety-five!

To thicken the plot further, two Columbine students were subsequently mysteriously murdered in a Subway fast food shop.

To quote one source: “At approximately 12:45 a.m. Monday night two Columbine High School students — Nicholas Kunselman, 15, and Stephanie Hart, 16 - were found dead inside a Subway sandwich store located less than a mile from the school. Both suffered fatal gunshot wounds. Hart, at the time, was believed to have been visiting Kunselman, a Subway employee.

The suspect is described as being “a white male in his teens or early 20s who was wearing a red jacket and flared pants.” He was seen near the shopping center about the time the bodies were discovered. A surveillance camera was present inside the shop, though appears to have been turned off.”

The killers’ targets weren’t random – they were selected primarily on racial and religious grounds. In the campus library, for example, Klebold and Harris deliberately singled out a black student and a group called ‘Christians for Young Life.

Members of the Trench-coat Mafia group, who may have been in collusion with the killers, had younger siblings in the library, who were left unmolested – Harris’s father said his son was “involved with the Trench-coat Mafia” in a 911 call he made on April 20, 1999.

One girl was shot because she attracted the Christian hating killers’ attention by holding a Bible.

When Columbine students placed 13 crosses on the campus lawn as a memorial of the tragedy, paranoid local Jews got them removed; possibly to some extent because they thought Christians had associated Jews with what their forebears Klebold-like did to Christ, but more likely because they feared it could issue in some sort of ‘anti-Semitic’ backlash.

The shooters had a typically Jewish aversion for blacks and Christians, and even tormented some of their victims verbally and with gunshot wounds, giving them an opportunity to testify for Christ before dispatching them.

This recently released Klebold and Harris “Basement Tape” video made available by “The Skunk” at judicial-inc.org makes it plain that the hatred both Klebold and Harris had for Jesus Christ and Christians was a major factor in the slaying. And of course this was kept out of all news releases!
 

Crazed Religious Behaviors cont.

Here are some fine examples of people proving their faith, or ignorance...you decide?

A Filipino man allows people to nail him to a cross during an annual Good Friday celebration.
Deeply faithful or deeply disturbed? You decide.

A faithful Buddhist woman walks barefoot across hot embers during a ritual that celebrates the coming of spring.
Let's all hope she didn't trip on the bags she's carrying. Faith or not...that would not be pretty!

A Hindu man in celebration of the birth of the Hindu Guru Shri Bawa Lal Dyal Maharaj.
Why blow out a candle when you can stick a fire-ball in your mouth? Mmmm …delicious!

Shinto believers pray in iced water as a sign of endurance for the annual New Year's purification ceremony.
This act is believed to purify their bodies and souls. And result in significant shrinkage of the genitalia. Yikes!

Believers from the Shugendo religion hang each other from cliffs to overcome fear during their
spring austerity training on the Kumano mountain. You would not want to make enemies in this religion.
And make sure your fellow believers actually like you!

Getting burned in the moment!

Hyderabad, Feb 25 (IANS) Blinded by belief, two devotees of Lord Shiva in an Andhra Pradesh village were charred to death when they jumped into a fire on the night of Shivratri in the hope that the deity would appear before them. The incident took place in the remote tribal hamlet of Shivnoor in Adilabad district, about 350 km from here, on Shivratri night Monday when devotees remain awake to appease the Hindu god.

Ada Sitaram, 27, and Jengle Devidas, 25, immolated themselves on the last day of their 41-day “Shiva deeksha” (ritual of initiation) in a temple, police said. They had spent 40 nights at the temple.

Their charred remains were found Tuesday by Devidas’ younger brother Vishnu, who went to the temple looking for them.

Villagers told police that the duo lit the fire as part of the rituals and jumped into it while chanting “Om Namah Sivaya”.

Family members said they had spoken about their wish to have a visitation from Lord Shiva, police said.

A ritual of "Tossing Babies off of tall buildings."

Take the devotees of a Muslim shrine in Solapur in western India's Maharastra state. For more than 500 years they've been observing a bizarre ritual--throwing their young children off a tall building for luck and to improve their health. They believe it will make their children strong, and they say no accidents have ever happened. (And Michael Jackson got heat for holding his baby over a balcony?)

(In fact, Maharastra is just teeming with good luck. The poverty rate is only 24 per cent, down from 38 per cent back in the '90s. Presumably, the impoverished didn't get dropped).

Christians Violent Behaviors

In the USA, a Corpus Christi, Texas, judge reduced felony charges against the director of a Christian boot camp and an employee to simple assault in connection with the alleged dragging of a 15-year-old girl behind a van after she fell behind during a morning run. The 32-day boot camp for girls ages 13 to 19 includes 28 days at a facility near San Antonio, then four days at a camp in Banquete, about 10 miles west of Corpus Christi. The boot camp is run by the embarrassingly named Love Demonstrated Ministries of San Antonio. Ahhh...religion...gotta love it! MS.07-24-09

But then, sometimes kids just need an old fashioned spanking, but not sure if they need a good dragging? MS 07-24-09.

Killing Jesus? I thought he was already dead? Well, I guess it's to late to spank this nut. MS. 07-24-09.  18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger, a straight-A student who planned to blow up his South Carolina high school. He intended "to die and go to heaven and once he got there, he wanted to kill Jesus," according to police who arrested him. (Kids say the darnedest things). They discovered his journal, which lauded the Columbine killers, contained notes on more than 10 types of explosives that Schallenberger experimented with and evaluated a year ago. He is still in jail...I hope! MS 07-25-09!

3 charged over Malaysian couple’s death in bizarre ritual

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)– A 19-year-old Malaysian and his two cousins have been charged with murder for allegedly beating to death the young man’s parents in a bizarre ritual meant to cure them of a smoking habit and other problems, officials said Wednesday.

Muhammad Nizam Mohamad Ibrahim and his two male cousins did not enter a plea after being charged Tuesday, said magistrate Sazlinidayu Kamarul Baharin, who heard their case.

She told The Associated Press that she ordered the three men to be held for psychiatric observation for a month, after which the trial will start on Nov. 14.

Prosecutor Fazril Sani Mohamad Fadzil said the three were charged with murder, which carries the maximum death penalty.

A 15-year-old daughter of one of the four relatives who carried out the beating was also attacked after stumbling onto the scene and is fighting for her life in hospital.

Police spokesman Ku Chin Wah told the official Bernama news agency that the attack took place when Mohamed Ibrahim Kader Mydin, 47, and his wife Rosina Mydin Pillay, 41, visited their family on Thursday (local time).

They mentioned that Mohamed Ibrahim was seeking help to stop his smoking habit, and that his wife was suffering from asthma and a liver ailment.

"Following this, a 23-year-old male relative suggested that the couple undergo a ritual which involved all family members joining forces to beat up the couple to rid them of their ailments," Mr Ku told Bernama.

The four relatives smashed the couple's heads on a table and assaulted them with crash helmets and brooms, he said.

An ambulance was called only hours later when they had not regained consciousness.

It is the first such ritual that has come to light in recent history in Malaysia, though superstitious beliefs run strong in this majority Islamic country. In villages, it is common for people to seek the help of bomohs, or spiritual healers, for mental and physical illnesses but their rituals are not known to involve violence.

Some of the family members reportedly are believed to have recently joined an underground banned cult the government alleges was preaching deviant Islam.

But even the cult, known as Al-Arqam, is not known to have often practiced such violent rituals. Well, I guess beating their parents to death actually cured them of their smoking and other ailments...mmm. MS. 07-24-09

Worthingtons acquitted on all but one charge in faith-healing death

Carl and Raylene Worthington were acquitted of all other charges. Lets get this straight...you go to jail for petty theft, but these 2 nut cases get acquitted. Ok! MS 07-24-09

Carl Worthington, 29, and Raylene Worthington, 26, had both been charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal mistreatment.

The criminal mistreatment charge carries a sentence of up to one year in jail.

After hearing 12 days of testimony from 21 witnesses, it took the jury more than a week to reach a decision.

The Worthingtons’ daughter Ava died last year of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection. Prosecutors said they could have saved their daughter’s life if they had sought medical attention. Instead, they and members of their Oregon City church, the Followers of Christ, attempted to heal her with prayer, fasting, anointing of oil and laying on of hands.

Jurors announced the verdict Thursday afternoon in a Clackamas County Circuit Courtroom crowded with members of the Worthingtons’ congregation, the Followers of Christ Church.

Of the dozens of children buried in the Followers of Christ cemetery since the 1950s, at least 21 died from medically treatable conditions, according to a 1998 investigation by The Oregonian. Maybe God was busy healing cars! MS 07-24-09

Religious Suicides

(Pic. of Buddhist monk burning himself to death in defiance of USA' Vietnam Invasion)

In a form of ritual suicide, Buddhist monks in Saigon who protested the violence demonstrated by the USA & their Ngo Dinh Diem puppet government, during the Vietnam war, died by self-immolation in an open public square.

 

Muslim sacrifices self at shrine on Eid

New Delhi: A 45-year-old Muslim man on Monday slit his throat with a knife and sacrificed himself at the shrine of Ghazi Baba in Bahraich District in Uttar Pradesh on the occasion of Eid-ul-Zuha, police said. A note was found in which Moharrum Ali had written, "I was sacrificing my life as I once dreamt Allah asking me to offer myself for sacrifice," Superintendent of Police (SP) Pramod Kumar told PTI. He said a sharp-edged weapon was also recovered near his body and added that the case was being investigated. Moharrum Ali had made an attempt to sacrifice himself at the shrine a couple of years ago, the SP said.

Prima facie, it appeared to be an act of suicide with religious fanaticism, Kumar said.

Suicides of non specific nature

It is strange how we humans value little...even ourselves, as we will commit suicide over trivial matters of little importance! MS. 07-24-09