Shows like this, once again, beg the question: why is it only Islam that always needs to be "demystified”? Why is Islam the only religion that is so “misunderstood”? Where are the series dedicated to "demystifying" Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism—you know, so we can “clear the air,” once and for all? As with the canard that, one need be fluent in Arabic to truly understand the commandments of the Koran, the hackneyed concept that Islam is so “profound” that only some sort of transcended sage can truly understand it—and in the meantime, the rest of humanity are better keeping silent on the matter—is no more than a shameless smokescreen. Indeed, that's Suffi and, to a much lesser extent, Shia talk. Sunni Islam, on the other hand (which makes up well over 90% of all Islam) is of all the major religions the most straightforward, black and white, totally legalistic and therefore totally “demystified” religion there is.
"Channel 4 continues to ‘de-mystify Islam,’" from AIM, July 14:
A week-long television series starting on Channel 4 on 14th July, titled ‘The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World’, will travel into the heart of Muslim-majority countries from across the world.This series is part of a special week of programmes which aims to de-mystify Islam, offering an insight into the lives and beliefs of Muslims all over the world.
It will start with Mecca in Saudi Arabia the city where the religion started and which is the birth place of its founder. The guides are six pilgrims from different parts of the world - including a young Spanish pizza chef, a newspaper boy from Jerusalem, and a PR professional from Pakistan.
They all have a dream, to visit Mecca for pilgrimage.
On Sunday 20th July, building on the people and themes introduced earlier, Channel 4 will screen a 90-minute documentary with unprecedented access to Mecca.
The season on de-mystifying Islam also includes the first in-depth documentary on the Qu’ran and a website ‘Osama Loves’, which explores the diversity of the Muslim world by finding as many people called Osama as possible in a journey ranging from Indonesia to New York.
Also from New York, there is a special series of Sharia TV, giving young Muslims the chance to pose questions to experts drawn from a spectrum of Islamic opinion.
Ha ha ha ha...demystified. Gosh you know the love affair with Islam continues. The west seems rather stupid and foolish. I mean you we can send probes to Mars, we can build awesome technology but when it comes to Islam a 7th century barbaric political movement western minds fail. Islam and Muslim behavior is simple to understand. You know to model success we look at those who have achieved what we want. Similarly for Muslims to model success they look at Muhammad their prophet who is considered the perfect man by Islam. We know he was a robber, murderer, a liar, a pedophile, a rapist etc. So to know the Muslims mind and predict every behavior just think what would Muhammad do and you will always outwit Islam. There is more of course you need to look at the directives of war, deceit and bigotry in the Islam doctrines as well.
How can we de-mystify dummies who think mohammedism needs to be de-mystified? This cowardly attitude that we can reach an accommodation or understanding with Islam is very close to treason. Maybe suicide is a better term but treason it is. Our President calls mohammedism a Religion of Peace, now that Dali Llama does too. We have tried the Liberal Democracy business with them; they are not interested.
But in the Spirit of of Accomodation let me de-mystify mohammedism for our weaker brothers and sisters:
Submitt or die
Will they show the particularly harsh castration procedure of negro slaves? They could get Minister Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam to justify that, or perhaps Bro Barry Hussein Obama.Live under sharia or die
Keep out of tall building and airplanes
Keep out of all public places
Have a nice Jihad
Learn to herd goats
The harem line forms to the right
Yes the burqa is hot in the summer, get use to it
Unless this show has already been filmed, and in post production, I'm not so sure any filthy kaffir will be going to Mecca, of all places.
Remember Capricorn One? The movie about the moon landing being faked in a studio? LOL...
Islam? It's a filthy, misogynistic, death-obsessed cult started by a perverted pedophile, rapist, thief and murderer. No mystery there.
To me, the biggest mystery about Islam is how the deep and profound misunderstanding of infidels causes Muslims across the globe to strap on bombs to mass murder those infidels.
Whereas when other people are misunderstood, they typically (and often quite humbly) set about attempting to explain themselves, Muslims set about exterminating misunderstanders of Islam with genocidal hatred in their hearts. It's a mystery.
As with the canard that, one need be fluent in Arabic to truly understand the commandments of the Koran
And when you become fluent in Arabic the move the goal posts and declare that you need also to be a Muslim to understand it, witness Aziz Poonawalla.
Any "mystery" evaporates when one comes to realize, by studying its clearly stated doctrines, that Islam is not a religion--it is a fascist totalitarian political cult with the unambiguous goal of world conquest. Its standard methods of advancing that goal are propaganda, sedition, terroristic bullying, piracy, and open warfare.
Those infidels who wishfully cling to the idea that Islam is a religion, and who then falsely project Christian (or Buddhist, or Hindu) concepts of peaceful and tolerant religious piety onto Islam, will perpetually be confused and hesitant to act in self defense. The Islamic deception doctrines of taqiyya and kitman exploit that conceptual confusion, with its concomitant political paralysis, in order to advance Islam in all directions.
For such infidels, the "mystery" ends only when they have already lost their every freedom and their every dignity, as they bow disgraced heads under the Muslim sword in submission to totalitarian Islamic law.
Islam is submission.
Yeah, Yippie , Im real interested in the dietary laws and prayers times of Islam, thats the confusing and important part of the "faith"
We are never told WHO it is exactly it is that is "misunderstanding" Islam--or what it is exactly that they "misunderstand" about it.
It is perfectly clear to me that Islam institutionalizes first degree murder (and teaches it in the Kuran) of all persons not accepting Kuranic teachings. And that is all anyone need "understand" about Islam (now or ever).
If they were serious about 'demstifying' Islam they would have some of the visitors to Mecca non-muslim. For example include a Christian and a Jew in their trip to Mecca. (complete with cross and star-of-david).
The results would be truely enlightening to those who don't already 'know' Islam.
Islam is an insular self-segregated total mind-body theocratic belief system forbidding a separation of ‘mosque and state’ to dominate every aspect of life from science to law to personal faith under draconian punishments for failure to obey in total mind-body submission as exemplified by their ‘perfect man’ and 14 centuries of barbaric jihad of rapine, enslavement, and murder, once again threatening our modern freedoms and human rights with their primitive 7th century ideology dictated by their perverse delusional ‘prophet’ Mohammed and his caliphs into their war-manual called the Koran…. Gee, what is my “mystified” mind missing here? Please 'enlighten' me!
The real mystery about Islam:
why would anyone believe this irrational, intolerant, superstitious drivel?
The season on de-mystifying Islam also includes ... website ‘Osama Loves’, which explores the diversity of the Muslim world by finding as many people called Osama as possible in a journey ranging from Indonesia to New York.
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For me, this is the most inane bit of all. You could pick any common name, anywhere in the world, and do the same thing. "Michael", maybe, or "Jose". Some of these guys would be really sweet, some would be real jerks, and most of them would just be everyday shlubs. A small number would be scary criminals.
What do you want to bet that every single one of these "Osamas" is a really swell guy, in his own diverse way?
True story: my first boyfriend, whose background was Irish and Lithuanian, had a grandfather named Adolf, and a great-uncle named Rudolf.
They had a diner on the Pennsyvania turnpike in the late '30s with what would soon be the unfortunate name of "Adolph's Place".
Well, after the war started, they had several unpleasant incidents with neighborhood kids throwing mud and rocks at the sign. Rudolf, especially, was terribly upset by this, since they weren't even German, and Lithuania was suffering between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as much as any place in the world.
Adolf eventually took the sign down, refusing to replace it with anything else. The diner became popularly known as "Majeska's" (for their surname), "the Majestic Cafe" (this was the name the waitresses liked), or just "that diner out on the turnpike".
What is the lesson from all of this? Hey, kids, don't throw mud at a sign off the highway in rural Pennselvania--chances are that the place is not owned by Germany's fuhrer? That all guys named "Adolf" are nice, and it's just a "misunderstanding" to think they aren't?
As it turned out, I never did meet Adolf, but I did hear about him from my boyfriend and his mom. He was actually, by all accounts, a rather stern, humorless guy--although hardly a genocidal maniac. The real sweetheart in the family, apparently, was Rudolf (who had died years earlier), who loved kids and was very generous with his time.
This is all meaningless, in any objective way. I imagine it's only real purpose is to make Westerners feel guilty for being so insensitive that they feel an unease around Islam. Surely, it has nothing to do with 9/11. or 7/7, or any of the other violent actions of Muslims. No, that unease you may feel around Islam is nothing but "Islamophobia".
As an infidel, I thought islam was just like any other religion.
After 9/11, I realize now that it is not like other religions, and as far as I'm concerned, it barely even qualifies as one.
IMO, it's more like a cult blended into a political party, inspired by SATAN. How else could it justify murder, rape, slavery, hatred, and genocide to the degree that it does?
Sunni Islam, on the other hand (which makes up well over 90% of all Islam) is of all the major religions the most straightforward, black and white, totally legalistic and therefore totally “demystified” religion there is.
Exactly. I remember reading an interview with Tariq Ramadan in which he was asked if he ever doubted the existence of Allah. His answer was no and I think the reason is that would be considered heresy and is therefore "against the law" in Islam. It's at the heart of the circularity of the whole thing. Why do you believe in Allah? Because the law says to. Why does the law say that? Because the law comes from Allah. It's all so maddening from any logical or humanistic perspective and also why it is a complete and utter waste of time to believe that Muslims will ever be anything other than our mortal enemies. There's no space in Muslim consciousness for the possibility that they are wrong. It's like trying to reason with a computer.
Though I only heard about FrontPageMag.com and Dhimmi Watch last year, I have read a few years ago that islam is just an ideology, not a religion. Cult, maybe, but surely an ideology.
I hope they're going to follow it up with a series of week-long in-depth studies 'de-mystifying' [but NOT debunking: the tone adopted should be at least as respectful as that employed towards Islam and Muslims] the following: Judaism both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi; Christianity (in its three major branches: Orthodox [not very well understood by Western Christians at all, and the gap in understanding is mutual], Catholic, and Protestant); Hinduism and Buddhism and the Sikh religion, and Taoist and Confucian philosophy and practice, just for starters.
That way, people would get to contrast and compare the fruits of Islam with the fruits of other belief systems.
I think it would speak for itself. For one thing: the music, both sacred and profane, and the art, inspired and sponsored by all the major non-Muslim religions, coming straight after whatever was shown of the Islamic variety, would expose, devastatingly, the extent to which Islam cramps and diminishes human imagination and creativity.
Imagine the interior of some gorgeous baroque church in Germany with a choir singing Bach's magnificat...or a Jewish family in Israel at dinner on Friday evening, singing the Sabbath Hymn...or the Cambodian temple dancers performing their exquisite dance which is a prayer for peace..
Imagine the bare, bleak, empty space in the average mosque, compared to the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, or the Sistine Chapel, or the great Rose Window of Notre Dame, or just one of those Angel Roofs in a parish church of East Anglia...I leave it to Indian posters to suggest which, of their civilisation's artistic and architectural treasures that have survived, should be displayed to help people understand what they are about.
As for women, their costume, their role in public life...Just imagine the contrast between the streets of your average Mohammedan country, with women all bundled up in black sacks, or almost no women visible at all, as opposed to the streets of, say, Jamaica or Catholic Mexico City? The niqab and burqa, or even the less enveloping headscarf, as opposed to the sari...
Film wedding ceremonies in the different cultures - Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Parsee, Buddhist, Chinese - and let people compare it to the traditional Muslim thing, where one man hands over to another man the possession of a woman, and the woman doesn't even have to be present, and the party involves a men's party and a women's party, held in separate places, and sometimes even on separate days.
Pilgrimage to Mecca, eh? What about 'next year in Jerusalem', and some scenes from Operation Magic Carpet, all those little Yemeni and Baghdadi and Ethiopian Jews whisked from the gates of hell, tumbling out of planes, falling on the soil of eretz Israel and weeping, weeping, laughing for joy? There must be lots of documentary film that could be spliced in.
What about showing Christians travelling the pilgrim trail, to St James of Compostela, or Walsingham, or even Lourdes, or Canterbury, or Rome, or Jerusalem, and the Kinneret/ Lake Galilee?
What about Hindu pilgrims, walking down to the holy waters, or high up into the holy mountains?
And all of these places would be far, far more beautiful and humanly welcoming than hideous Mecca, in Saudi Arabia; and none of them would have signs up saying No-One Allowed Here But Us Believers.
Also from the article:
"a special series of Sharia TV, giving young Muslims the chance to pose questions to experts drawn from a spectrum of Islamic opinion."
I wonder what sort of questions? A program of that kind, done carefully, with a perfectly straight face, so as lure them on, and on, and on, might well result in gales of uproariously disrespectful Infidel laughter.
I'm thinking of Muslim Rules For Using the Toilet, and Farting During Prayer, for example, among the other cultural and spiritual gems that, over the past few years, have been unearthed and brought back here, sometimes with horror, sometimes with irrepressible laughter, by intrepid posters here who have gone eavesdropping on Muslim sites such as 'Ask the Imam'.
Someone should direct Channel 4's attention to, inter alia, 'Mohammed's Believe It...Or Else!', as found at Ali Sina's faithfreedom website.
Dumbledore's Army wrote:
What about 'next year in Jerusalem', and some scenes from Operation Magic Carpet, all those little Yemeni and Baghdadi and Ethiopian Jews whisked from the gates of hell, tumbling out of planes, falling on the soil of eretz Israel and weeping, weeping, laughing for joy?
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I'm proud to say that I had a small--OK, very, very, very, small--role in urging Israel to airlift east African Jews to Israel. In the early '80s I was graphics editor of a University Jewish publication (and here I am a gentile--long story), and I illustrated a story we ran on the plight of the "Falasha" (not a term they use--they refered to themselves as Beta Israel, and for a long time were so isolated that they thought that they were that last Jews in the world).
Even though they were under mortal threat, many multicultural types were loathe to bring them to Israel--because they would eventually lose aspects of their "unique culture" if they were to move. Some even felt that Israel was fundamentally "racist", and that they might face inequalities there.
Of course, genocide can wreck a bit of havok with maintaining a "unique culture", also. Finally, Israel did do the right thing--more than 120,000 people, nearly 85% of the Ethiopian Jewish community, have emigrated to Israel, most notably during Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991).
At one time, the Levant, north Africa, the fertile cresent, Mesopotamia and Persia all had large, vibrant Jewish populations. The pressure of dhimmitude and pogroms drove many out over the years, and following 1948 many Muslim-majority countries drove all their remaining Jewish populations out, seizing their property and goods.
While the "Palestinian refugee" situation is never resolved or forgotten--most Muslim countries will not grant Palestinians citizenship--tiny Israel, with its "right of return", has absorbed hundreds of thousand of Jews from all over the world.