Islam: At A Crossroads

Islam: A Religion Going in Two Directions 

Islam is the second largest religion in the world at 1.5 Billion people its catching up with Christianity in terms of population and status and Islam is a religion that has brought a lot of good to the world and knowledge of science and culture. Islam reemphasized Monotheism and to bring it back to the world is the one true path. 

The Prophet Mohammed spoke of the people of the book as fellow Monotheists, i.e. Christians and Jews as people to be protected and looked after in Muslim lands but it hasn't been the case after the Prophet's death in 632 CE in the Arabian Peninsula, Islam became divided into two sects or branches Sunnis and Shias, Sunni Muslims believe that after the death of the Prophet there was not going to be any successor for the Ummah (Body of Believers) and Shias believed that Mohammed appointed his cousin Ali and son in law as successor to the faith. 

The Arabs were united by Mohammed by religion and culture and with it they spread and conquered the middle east and building a empire that stretched from Spain in Europe to Indonesia in Asia and for 800 years it ruled over Spain and brought a golden age in where the only time in history where all three religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism lived side by side in peace and prosperity. 

After 1492 the Spanish Crown under the Queen Isabella reconquered Spain and pushed the Muslims out of Spain and after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks and the creation of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks replaced the Arabs as the Caliphate of the Muslim world and they began to spread into Europe, Africa and the Middle East and Caucasus forming the largest and longest surviving empire that lasted five centuries until the end of World War I. 

There is been a break between Reformers that want to bring Islam into the 21st century and modernized the faith while you have the extremists that want to bring Islam back to the 7th century where it was a primitive and tribal society. 

Islam as with Christianity has done many acts of evil and violence towards Christians and Jews and people of other faiths and especially towards women in countries like Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to drive or leave the home without their husband or male relative. with 9/11 and the creation of ISIS, Muslims need to evaluate themselves and need to discuss about denouncing the extremist elements from within and to bring Islam into the modern world so there may be peace and stability in the world.        

Judaism: Ultra Orthodox Vs. Ultra Secular. The Jewish Problem Among Jews

Judaism: Religion or Culture, Race or Both?

Judaism is one of the world's smallest religions but has made a big impact on the world through the knowledge of the Torah and enlightening the world through the belief and the existence of one God and making the awareness of Monotheism and to be in communion with God through tradition and rituals   

Originally theocratic, Judaism has evolved in the last four centuries as a congregational polity centered around the synagogue and the Torah, Jews are taught from birth to read and prayer in Hebrew and to study the Torah and the Talmud for hours at a time to be closer to God. Since the destruction of the second temple have been dispersed to the four corners of the world, thus creating the diaspora or exile. 

Two schisms formed in the exile after the destruction of the temple, Ashkenazim, Jews that settled in the lands of the Rhine in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe where they developed Yiddish which is a dialect of High German and Hebrew and Sephardim, Jews that settled in the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal and they also developed their own dialect called Ladino which is a dialect of Castilian Spanish and Hebrew. 

During the last three centuries there was the Haskalah  the Jewish enlightenment movement that was swiping across Europe, many Jews became emancipated and they were granted the same rights as their Gentile neighbors and many Jews became assimilated and many decided to abandon their Jewish beliefs which led to the rise of Reform Judaism, while those who refused to become assimilated into European society became to be known as Orthodox Jews or Orthodox Judaism where they stressed that Halacha (Jewish Law) is still binding and uncompromising. 

Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 there is been a uneasy truce between the Religious establishment and the Secular government which has led to making Israel being divided against itself, Religious vs Secular, Sephardic vs Ashkenazi, Orthodox vs Reform (Liberal) and Conservative (Masorti) etc etc. 

The status of who is a Jew? i.e. born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism according to Halacha and the refusal of the Haredi (Ultra Orthodox) authorities to recognize conversions and marriages performed by Conservative and Reform auspices has led to even more division and not to mention of constant racial discrimination of Sephardic and Mizrachi (Orienal) Jews by the dominant Ashkenazi establishment doesn't make things better for life for Jews in Israel and the diaspora. 

In order for Jews and Judaism to survive in the next century there needs to be unity, Jewish unity and whatever differences Jews may have with each other must be put aside and they need to unite and more forward as a nation and as a religion and people, Because history has shown us when there is religious, moral and social decay it leads to societies and countries to collapse and disappear. 

Failure of Christianity

Why has Christianity failed?

For 2000 years, since Jesus Christ walked this earth and went, his followers have spread Christianity from its humble beginnings to what it is today the world's largest religion. But it was been done peacefully at first though the disciples of Christ through the sermon of the mount to the conversion of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, where Christianity really flourished. 

But the question is why has Christianity declined? For several reasons, one the Catholic Church and the theocracy of the Pope that the western world had for nearly 500 years up until the Protestant Reformation of 1517 by Martin Luther, two the inquisitions, mass murders of anyone that owned a bible and the crusades where Christian Soldiers invaded and pillaged lands and raped and massacred entire populations of Jews, Muslims, Pagans and Orthodox Christians through out the Byzantine Empire.  

America when it was founded by European colonists, originally were fleeing from the unholy union between church and autocracy of the King and wanted to have a wall between the church and state so people would be free to follow what religion they wanted or to have freedom from religion if they choose so. It's written in the Constitution on the declaration of independence stating:

Amendment I. Congress shall make no law an establishment of religion.

But overtime as America became independent and became a powerful country, the Christian extremists from within have tried for many years to impose its own interpretation of Christianity and Biblical law and they have pushed many people away from the faith and as people have become more educated and secularized people have decided to either renounce Christianity completely or embrace other beliefs and practices that they feel are more compatible with the modern world and to discard Christianity as outdated and uncompromising. 

During the middle half of the 20th century after the end of World War II European and Western Civilization has become post-christian, Christianity has no influence in public life, references to God and Jesus are removed from schools and secular institutions and Christianity is seen as a religion of superstition and backwardness and people don't want to be associated with Christianity in general. 

The Roman Catholic Church continues to loses millions of people yearly and many churches are being shut down due to the lack of congregants, the Orthodox Church has also lost millions of people due being a national church and church more based on ethnicity and nationality than faith, Mainline Protestant Churches have shrunk due to the lack of spirituality and closeness to God and the Evangelicals and Pentecostals and born again Christian cults due to their fundamentalist and extremist views on the bible and wanted to impose on others though proselytizing and street and television evangelism which has turned off many people, because of their racist, xenophobic, judgmental and intolerance towards progressive and secular views and values. 

Until Christianity especially in America finally comes to terms with its past and face the consequences and properly atone for its past sins and make amends with the world, Christianity will continue to dwindle in a exhilarating rate and people will continue to abhor it as a disease and a ideology that is comparable to Fascism.    

Steve Bannon and The Future of White Nationalism

Meet Steve Bannon 

With the election finally over and Donald Trump elected as president you would think the political freak show would be over but its just beginning... Meet Steve Bannon he is a controversial conservative filmmaker and the publication chairman of Breitbart News, which is a online news website which serves as a platform for the Alt-Right Movement which is a loose organization composed of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Antisemites and the extreme far right. 

Before becoming chief strategist and senior adviser to the president Mr. Bannon was the number one figure for the Alt-Right Movement and he is well known to be a open Neo Nazi and White Nationalist that is a conservative that believes that traditional and conservative views are under assault by multiculturalism, immigration, intermarriage and the political left. He has been a man that is in my opinion very dangerous because of past and his current association with Breitbart and White Nationalist organizations. 

Steve Bannon wants to bring the Angry, White, Male population that is angry and frustrated with the status quo into the mainstream and with Donald Trump's election, Steve Bannon is doing a great job fanning the flames of hatred and exploiting the fact that the economy is down and unemployment is widespread and rampant and making the Alt-Right the perfect place for all the hate groups to voice their opinions and views out in the open and its working very well. America has embraced fascism and ultra-nationalism why? because Trump has promised the White, Blue-Collar Worker with dignity and pride which many feel White Americans has been taken away from them though Affirmation Action, Multiculturalism and Liberalism. 

This man Steve Bannon is a Fascist and a hatemonger and a threat to political stability and racial hegemony to the United States and by becoming part of the government we will start to see Bigotry, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Antisemitism getting worse and worse by the day. There have been violent clashes between Anti-Trump protesters and Neo-Nazis and White Nationalists and hate crimes are on the rise, this is not what we need at this moment we need healing, unity and peace not division and polarization that already have and Mr. Bannon is doing just that dividing the people and the nation and making hate normal and acceptable.           

The Fourth Reich

Donald Trump and the Fourth Reich

Its like a really horrible dream that Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States, but its not he really won and its very scary because this is a man of pure and a man of perdition as they say. Donald Trump represents everything with what is wrong with America, all the White Nationalists and Neo-Nazis and KKK groups have gotten together and have become a big force and they are responsible for bringing Trump to power. 

The Nazis have spoken of a Fourth Reich later in the future and it would be the future restoration of the Nazi Empire many people assumed it would be a united Germany that is the dominant economy of the European Union but in reality America is the future and currently the new Fourth Reich.

The Election of Donald Trump has come to many as a surprise to many people because many thought that someone that is irrational and extreme as Trump would have lost to Hillary Clinton being that Trump has no experience as a politician or has any formal political education or training, he is just a mere businessman with no college degree. 

But in a way its not a surprise because history has shown us that during times of economic crisis and high unemployment the people will listen to anyone that promises to get the economy out of the hole and to restore ethnic and national pride to the country. Whites in America feel that they were becoming a minority in their own country and their civil rights were being trampled on and they blamed the Jews, Hispanics,Blacks, Immigrants and Liberals for society becoming morally and ethically corrupt. 

Fascism has taken over America and White Nationalism and Neo-Nazism has become mainstream and the demonetization of Hispanics and Muslims and of Immigrants and Women will be accepted and tolerated and hatred has become open and very vocal and I worry that people will be humiliated and abused and be accused of treason just for having a difference of opinion. 

There will be more acts of political violence towards opponents and more clashes between White Nationalists and Minorities and the divide will separate people even more instead of uniting them and that is not what we need we don't need anymore division then what we already have. Division, political and urban decay caused the Roman Empire to collapse. 

I feel that we are in the end of days and the man of perdition has been revealed and the devil incarnate has been manifested though Donald Trump whoever has voted for him has blood on their hands and they will be held responsible for destroying the little of what;s left of this once great nation. 

When people forgot the past, history repeats itself.  

Breathe

I fade to black
If i search for the light
Can you bring me back
Of this unconscious life
Can you show me the way
I'm lost in the dark
I've fallen apart
Can you not break my heart?

So i can breathe
Before i suffocate
Before it's all too late
Before i die this way
I need to breeeeeeathe
Before i slip away
Why there's nothing i can say
Can you help me?
I need to...breathe

I hear the angels calling
Can you send one down?
I see the demons crawling
Everywhere around
Can you pull me out?
From the mess i've made
Before my lungs collapse
And there's no turning back

I need to breathe
Before i suffocate
Before it's all too late
Before i die this way
I need to breeeeeeathe
Before i slip away
Why there's nothing i can say
Can you help me?
I need to breeeeeeathe
I NEED TO BREEEEAAAEAEEAETHE

CAN YOU HEAR ME?
I'M SCREAMING
I'M BROKEN DOWN AND BLEEDING
CAN YOU MAKE IT THROUGH
I NEED YOOOOOOOU

I fade to black
If i search for the light
Can you bring me back
Of this unconscious life

AAAAH
Breeeeeeeathe
Before i suffocate
Before it's all too late
Before i die this way
I need to breeeeeeathe
Before i slip away
Why there's nothing i can say
Can you help me?
I need to breeeeeeathe
(Before i slip away)
((RESCUE NOW))
I need to breeeeeeathe
(Before it's all too late)
((RESCUE NOW))
I need to breeeeeeathe
(Before i die this way)
((RESCUE NOW))
I need to breeeeeeathe
I need to
I need to
((RESCUE NOW))
I NEED TO...BREATHE