When the webmistress sleeps: The PRINCESS OF BAGHDAD

Just when I thought I couldn't face anything more on Iraq, this comes along and tickles my funny bone, while making me shake my head in horror. I even comparedn it to the White House transcript (thanks for that), which isn't all that different, at least not in spirit.Keep it up. Humour and politics always wins

Posted by: Bomba | May 18, 2005 at 04:23 AM

Great piece, well written with horror in the funny bone.

best,
Stewart Nusbaumer, Editor
Intervention Mag
www.interventionmag.com

Posted by: Stewart Nusbaumer | May 19, 2005 at 04:13 PM

Well written! Underlying the humour is of course the fact that many Americans would feel that was a most patriotic and righteous speech! Having listened to similar speeches without the overt humour,(as shown in your piece), whilst residing in the USA, the ring of truth was clanging quite loudly.

Posted by: NPR | May 21, 2005 at 01:13 AM

Dear Richard,

I enjoyed your article in the Byron Guide, "State of the nation...future of dissent"

Regarding Kyoto/Global Warming the respected journal the Scientific American
for march 2005 (www.sciam.com) had an interesting article: "Did Humans stop an ice age". We have been inexoriably altering the global climate for 8,0000 years since the advent of agriculture apparently. This is according the ice core samples based over 250 million years.If we hadn't global ice sheets would now cover Nth America and Europe. This isn't to downplay the extent of accelerated climate change post industrial revolution but raises an interesting hypothesis.

Also why do so many people put such faith in such a dysfunctional and inefective organisation such as the UN. They were never going to act decisively over Iraq, quite content with sanctions that according to Pilger were killing about 50,000 Iraqi children a year. They were so embedded in 'oil for bribes' and Iraq's status a a client state to France and Russia that they were never going to act to dislodge Saddam. Just as they were remiss in Rwanda, Kosovo etc..The UN is hardly a paragon of democratic values or the font of legality that you propose.

Your polemic against the US is probably quite right in many cases but at least they do act. The underlying motives maybe oil, Israli security or breaking the cosy French/Russian oil cartel in Iraq, whatever. The isurgent group are a bunch of nihilists out to destroy the Iraqi nation and impose their will, the only thing between them and these people are the coalition forces at present at least until Iraq establishes their own security forces.

Keep up the good work, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of course, we all look at the world through distorted lenses based on our own past experiences.

Josef Vagunda
Byron Bay

Posted by: Josef Vagunda | May 21, 2005 at 06:05 PM

A black, female secretary of state- it must really yank your chain that she's a conservative. Tee Hee.

Posted by: PB | May 25, 2005 at 07:53 PM

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit Richard. Apparently you are incapable of anything more.

Posted by: Simon | May 25, 2005 at 08:49 PM

There can be no value created without there being a transaction between two human beings. One can have all the oil in the ground but fat lot of good would it do except to keep one warm in winter unless some other one can figure on a use for it and then another has to drill it pump it and sell it.

No transactions between humans = no value. Whatever Wall St might pretend with their financial products that produce nothing, the difference between the real value of an economy and Wall St's evaluation of it is the amount of times they have parlayed the future of our children.

Humans must work, to create value.

Therefore if only human work can create value, all wealth is stored labour.

Adam Smith said if people were paid equally although things would have the appearance of being more costly they would actually be cheaper, simply because everyone would be able to buy them.

All governments (ok, most) run budget deficits. This means that in order to stay in office and implement their manifestos they have play ball with their financiers.

This is why when one accepts what the World Bank actually is (amply demonstrated by the picture published around the world of Wolfensohn with Anan and Gayoom on their post-Tsunami tour, where Anan is in a Saville Row suit, Gayoom in an elegant Safari suit and Wolfensohn in an open necked shirt) Wolf II is probably the first direct challenge to the hegemony of the financier, insofar as the American economy is concerned. The fact is the financial regualtors of the world have turned their attention to China, who quite apart from her just recently ordering her THIRD bullet train is also doing cutting edge research on superconducters, and making her own geo strategic movements vis a vis the gas pipeline brokering peace between Pakistan and India, while also taking the pipeline through gas rich Bangladesh into Burma.

Long term it can only be in America's interest to make China and India go the way of the USSR, and as authority returns to more local regions, whose to say that is entirely a bad thing? More and more across the globe as Big Brother strives to standardise the grand parade of human packaging individual voices screech to be heard.

The thing is to understand that we cannot depend on governments, nor do we want to fight them. We need to understand that nationalism serves only the purposes of the ruling elites.

We need a level playing field. This is only something we can give ourselves. We have to accept that government is a tax we have to bear for being human. Look even if their was a revolution and everyone picked up their pitchforks and sallied forward for truth justice and liberty once the battle is won, they put down their weapons and return to their farms and who are left but the political... What we have done is let that small minority exploit our humanity to their profit. In its purest sense only a financier can profit, because it is only a financier who makes something out of nothing. A promise.

We need to enhance the means of exchange between humans on an individual basis. Cooperative Capitalism could be a way out, please check out www.ied.info.

Posted by: Feizal Mansoor | June 06, 2005 at 01:27 PM

Below average post Richard - I shit the equivalent out my arse every morning and flush it away. 4.5 out of 10. (p.s) you probably swallow my turds down at Bondi during your morning 'swim'... hehehe

Posted by: Area ____15 | June 12, 2005 at 01:01 AM

Condi Rice VS Richard Neville. Condi first.... Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001.

In June 1999, she completed a six year tenure as Stanford University 's Provost, during which she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer. As Provost she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students.

As professor of political science, Dr. Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors -- the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching.

At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions.

From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender -- Integrated Training in the Military.

She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula . In addition, her past board service has encompassed such organizations as Transamerica Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Carnegie Corporation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Rand Corporation, the National Council for Soviet and East European Studies, the Mid-Peninsula Urban Coalition and KQED, public broadcasting for San Francisco.

Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C. (condi will also become the first African American female President of the United States Of America). Now lets review Richard Neville's career. Was charged with obscenity in Britain in the 1960's. Recent achievements include the ability to maintain a 'bowl-cut' hairdo at age 60 plus. If anyone has anything else to add to Richard's resume please feel free.

Posted by: Neo-Con DeathMachine! | June 16, 2005 at 02:01 AM

Packs a good cone ?

Posted by: Simon | June 16, 2005 at 04:01 PM

Haha! Neo-Con DeathMachine. What a name. It has a kind of naziesque appropriateness.

Condi must be one tough bitch to get where she is, sucking up to the descendants of slave owners. In Baghdad they call her 'The Vampire', which isn't a bad analogy. Dark and powerful. She's not very popular with the African American community either. Michael Jackson gets more support and he's not even black anymore. I always think of her as a real life version of Cherie Palmer from the TV series 24.

I'm sure Rupert the kingmaker will be firmly in Condi's camp, which means we probably will see a President Rice.

Posted by: Root | June 16, 2005 at 07:13 PM

'Root' watches 'T.V'. LOL! plebian!

Posted by: Defcon | June 21, 2005 at 03:19 AM

Good take-down Richard some one got to put that fucken nigger bitch in her goddamm place yeahboy!

Posted by: Dean0 | June 24, 2005 at 02:53 AM

You seem to me to be an actual example of the Kygmie, from Gulliver's Travels; I haven't struck such a glutton for punishment as yourself, Dick. It must be a huge dissapointment to you and your fellow '60s London bores that Clive James has turned out to be a right wing death beast. The onlt good thing about the baby-boomer generation is that you are very close to being carted off to a maximum security twilight home, and subjected to the kero baths and funding cuts you richly deserve.

Posted by: Habib | June 24, 2005 at 06:14 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a collection of quotes from the Koran. Unless otherwise noted, the source of reference is is the Dawood translation, published as a Penguin Classic, ISBN 0 14044.052 6. To avoid charges that Dawoodís translation is an aberrant translation of the Koran, some of the passages are augmented with the ìinterpretationî by Arthur J Arberry, published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283501-7.
Arberry writes in his introduction ìprevious versions of the Koran, like the original text itself, [have] been printed as continuous prose...I have called my version an interpretation.î Arberry explains that he has done so because ìthe rhapsodic nature of its composition has been largely lostî in prose, and that he hopes ìsome faint impression may be given of its dramatic impact and most moving beauty.î Thus the Oxford version seeks with sometimes archaic language and convoluted grammar to impress upon the reader a profundity to the message of the Koran which the ìinterpreterî feels is missing in faithful prose translations. This is a peculiar position. Even in Dawoodís faithful prose translation the impression gained is one of passages which are commenced with calm but which become increasingly frantic, and fervent which reach a fevered crescendo culminating in a maniacal rant often calling for the killing of unbelievers! Arberry as becomes evident is keen only to fudge the Koranís message to make it palatable to non-Muslims who might be horrified by what the Koran actually calls for.

There is nothing beautiful in the Koran - it is profoundly ugly with no single redeeming feature. Indeed the Koran would have to rank along side Mein Kampf as one of the most profoundly ugly pieces of uninspired populist thought ever expressed by humankind. Like Mein Kampf it plundered humanityís cultural closet adopting and altering the knowledge of its time to suit its need. Mein Kampf employed Darwinist ideas distorted as a pseudoscience (social Darwinism) to incite hate. The Koran employed the knowledge of Hellenistic science, Ptolemyís cosmology (evidenced in the description of the "seven heavens"; the sun, moon, and 5 known planets, which revolve in the "firmament", itself an adaptation of Babylonian cosmology), a crude understanding of foetal development (known since the time of Aristotle* nearly one thousand years before hand), as a means of impressing upon the credulous that the Allah of the Koran was the causal element in these otherwise ìinexplicableî ìwondersî. Muslim propagandists use these often garbled references to argue a scientific basis for the Koran. This is not the case. Mohammed merely used these "wonders" as the proofs of godís existence in which science is not necessary. Mohammed retells the stories of the Jewish people, gets them wrong, and uses these stories to stake a claim in ìprophethoodî. In the Koran, Biblical stories, like the flood, are retold to demonstrate godís punishment of unbelievers - and as these stories were Jewish, Mohammed uses them to illustrate godís distaste for Jews, and ultimately, Christians, punished by god for their unbelief (instead of their sins). A hatred no matter how fervently expressed does not constitute great literature.

Any reading of the Koran demonstrates inconsistencies with Jewish and Christian scripture in the retelling of "Biblical" stories. Unsurprisingly the Jews who could demonstrate that their scriptures predated Mohammed's very birth refused to accept him as a prophet and refused to convert to his religion. This has fuelled an ineffable hatred of Jews which is expressed in unambiguous language in the Koran. The inconsistency between the Koran and pre-existing Jewish/ Christian stories is explained by Muslims thus: that although texts of the Jews and Christians existed well before Mohammed was born, the Koran is older because it is the exact word of an eternal God and has always existed. The Jewish and Christian texts are not eternal, are the imperfect work of men and therefore a corrupt rendition of God's message. The Koran pretty much says as much... It must also be emphasised that whereas Buddhists emulate Sidarta, Christians emulate the acts of Jesus (theoretically), & Muslims emulate the deeds of Mohammed.

*îAristotle compiled a whole book on his dissections but this is now lost. The process of growth was observed, in one case by placing a hen over a clutch of eggs and removing and breaking open an egg each day so that the formation of a chick embryo could be charted.î p. 277 The Greek Achievement: The foundation of the western worldî Charles Freeman. Penguin ISBN 0-14-029323-x.

the Koran is apparently intended for all humanity -whether we want it or not:

Many Muslim apologists claim that the Koran was only intended to unite the Arabs and that the spread of that religion was a consequence of the attractiveness of its message, and that the perpetual violence against unbelievers was never part of that religionís call. The Koran though is unequivocal in the duty Mohammed claimed he was called to perform on behalf of god which, to our misfortune, was intended for all of humanity. Muslims continue to commit atrocities against non-Muslims whether they be Zoroastrian, Hindu, Jews, Christians, atheist and apostates (those who abandon Islam, convert to other religions) on the basis of this call.

Sheba 34: 27
"We have sent you forth to all mankind, so that you may give them good news and warn them."

Sheba 34: 27 (Arberry, Oxford)
ìWe have sent thee not, except to mankind entire, good tidings to bear, and warningî (the kind of pseudo-profundity engineered by Arberry in his ìinterpretationî)

Repentance 9 :29
"Fight against such of those to whom Scriptures were given as believe neither Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued."

The Koran is inscribed in Heaven indefinitely - on its own say-so:

The Constellations 85: 21-22
"Surely this is a glorious Koran inscribed on a preserved tablet."

The Forgiving One 40:36
"Those who dispute Allah's signs without proof are held in abhorrence by Allah and by the faithful."

The Believers 40:37
ìThose who dispute concerning the signs of God, without any authority come to them, very hateful is that in the sight of God and the believers.î (Arberry, Oxford. Dawoodís ìThe Forgiving Oneî is interpreted as ìThe Believersî by Arberry. Arberryís version hardly makes any sense.)

The message of Islam is to be disseminated thus:

The Imrans 3:149:
"Believers...put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers."
(In Arberryís ìinterpretationî ìThe Imrans appears as ìThe House of Imranî. The above passage is missing or ìinterpretedî to such a point that it does not make sense.)

Repentance 9:123:
"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you."

Repentance 9:4-6
"Proclaim a woeful punishment to the unbelievers...When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and pay the alms-tax, let them go their way. Allah is forgiving and merciful[!]"

Repentance 9:5
ìWhen the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent and perform the prayer and pay the alms, then let them go their way: God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.î (Arberry, Oxford. ...In the event that the Dawood translation is challenged Arberryís concurs ...)

The Spoils 8:60:
"Let the unbelievers not think they will escape Us... Muster against them all the men and cavalry at your disposal, so that you may strike terror into the enemies of Allah..."

The Table 5 : 33
"Those that make war against Allah and His apostle and spread disorders in the land shall be put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the country. They shall be held to shame in this world and sternly punished in the next."

The Imrans 3:156:
"Believers, do not follow the example of the infidels, who say of their brothers when they meet death abroad or in battle: 'Had they stayed with us they would not have died, nor would they have been killed.' Allah will cause them to regret their words. It is Allah who ordains life and death. If you should die or be slain in the cause of Allah, His forgiveness and His mercy would surely be better than all the riches they amass. If you should die or be slain, before Him you shall all be gathered." (this passage appears as ìThe House of Imran 3:150 in Arberryís ìinterpretationî)

The House of Imran 3:150:
ìO believers, be not as unbelievers who say to their brothers, when they journey in the land, or are upon expeditions, ëIf they had been with us, they would not have died and not been slainí - that God may make that an anguish in their hearts. For God gives life, and He makes to die; and God sees the things you do. If you are slain or die in Godís way, forgiveness and mercy from God are a better thing than you amass; surely if you are slain, it is unto God you shall be mustered.î (Arberry, Oxford)

NOTES on the passage 3:156 / 3:150: In Arberryís ìinterpretationî ìbattleî instead becomes ìexpeditionsî! Indeed this passage is Mohammedís castigation of those who did not fight in the battle of Uhud! The battle of Uhud was at 625 and the Muslims were defeated. This exhortation to battle is made to instead appear as something altogether else by Arberry. In Arberryís text 3:149 reads ì Those of you who turned away the day the two hosts encountered.î where Dawoodís 3:155 reads ìThose of you who ran away on the day when the two armies met.î According to Arberryís ìinterpretationî a clash of 2 armies is rendered to instead be a seemingly innocuous encounter of 2 hosts!

Arberry: 3:140 ìMany a Prophet there has been, with whom thousands manifold have fought, and they fainted not for what smote them in Godís way, neither weakened, nor did they humble themselves.î Dawood: 3:147 ìMany large armies have fought by the side of the prophet. They were never daunted by what befell them on the path of Allah: they neither weakened or cringed abjectly.î

Arberry makes an explanation for loss in battle appear to be some kind of esoteric meditative contemplation on the sincerity of pious belief! Arberry has accomplished here the same type of dishonesty the English have with the ìKing Jamesî distortion of the Bible.

In the introduction ot his translation Dawood writes ìIn preparing this new translation it has been my aim to present the modern reader with an intelligible version of the Koran in contemporary English... the Koran contains many statements which... lend themselves to more than one interpretation. I have taken great pains to reproduce these ambiguities wherever they occur, and have provided explanatory footnotes in order to avoid turning the text into an interpretation rather than a translationî p 11. Conversely, Arberry had a different agenda, and, consistent with his desire to ìinterpretî rather than translate, Arberry writes in his introduction ìAs footnotes and glosses do not interrupt the smooth flow of the Arabic Koran, so in this English interpretation footnotes and glosses have been deliberately avoided.î p. xii.... Arberry has already ìinterpretedî 3:150 in a way in which it is not immediately obvious that the passage refers to an actual battle and that the call from Mohammed is that it is the duty of believers to kill on behalf of god and to gain immediate entry to paradise, or be punished by god for refusing to kill on godís behalf. In avoiding footnotes Arberry completes what is a deliberate deception. The only similar comparison that can be made is with the 1930s translations into English of Hitlerís Mein Kampf. In his Introduction to Mein Kampf D C Watt writes: "The first English version, [was] ... considerably abridged ... The abridgement was violently attacked in many quarters as an attempt to 'bowdlerise' the book and to 'whitewash' the author. One reviewer (in the Daily Telegraph) commented that it was 'marked by an appalling sincerity' which was 'the most respectable' of the secrets of Hitler's success." (p.xv Mein Kampf, translated by Ralph Manheim with introduction by D. C. Watt, published by Hutchinson, isbn 0-09-112431-x)

Women 4 :74
"Let those who would exchange the life of this world for the hereafter, fight for the cause of Allah; whether they die or conquer, We shall richly reward them." (also refer The Bee 16 :107)

Women 4 :74
ì...fight in the way of God who sell the present life for the world to come; and whosoever fights in the way of God and is slain, or conquers, We shall bring him a mighty wage.î (Arberry, Oxford. In this instance it is a wonder that Arberry did not ìinterpretî ìslainî and ìconquersî as ìexpiresî and ìovercomesî...? Maybe the greater familiarity of these verses means that he could not quite get away with the euphemistic language that typifies his ìinterpretationî...?)

Repentance 9:38:
"Believers, why is it that when it is said to you: 'March in the cause of Allah,' you linger slothfully in the land? Are you content with this life in preference to the life to come? Few indeed are the blessings of this life compared to those of the life to come. If you do not fight He will punish you sternly and replace you by other men. Allah has power over all things."

Repentance 9:38:
ìO believers, what is amiss with you, that when it is said to you , ëGo forth in the way of God,í you sink down heavily to the ground? Are you so content with this present life rather than the world to come? Yet the enjoyment of this present life, compared with the world to come, is a little thing. If you go not forth, He will chastise you with painful chastisement, and instead of you He will substitute another people.î (Arberry, Oxford. Again Arberry has fudged the call to wage war on behalf of God, which is what is meant by deriding those that seek this life over the one to come, so that it reads as if it is simply a call to faith.... In this passage Mohammed is urging his followers to sacrifice their life, to die. This is augmented with the threat that those that not willing to sacrifice their life in the advance of Islam will be punished by god.)

Mohammed 47:5-6:
"As for those who are slain in the cause of Allah, He will not allow their works to perish...He will admit them to the Paradise He has made known to them."

The Spoils: 8:38-40
"Tell the unbelievers that if they mend their ways [abandon 'unbelief'/'idolatry'] their past shall be forgiven; but if they persist in sin ['idolatry'] ...Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme."

The Spoils: 8:12
"Allah revealed His will to the angels, saying: 'I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, maim them in every limb!'"

The Spoils: 8:67-68
"It is not for any Prophet to have prisoners until he make wide slaughter in the land. You desire the chance goods of the present world, and God desires the world to come; and God is All-mighty, All-wise." (Arberry, Oxford)

Koran 8:67-68
"It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land. You desire the lure of this world and Allah desires for you the hereafter and Allah is Mighty, Wise." (http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html)

The Table 5 : 35
"Believers, have fear of Allah and seek the right path to Him. Fight valiantly for His cause, so that you may triumph."

The Cow 2:153
"Believers, fortify yourselves with patience and prayer... Do not say that those who were slain in the cause of Allah are dead; they are alive, although you are not aware of them."

The Cow 2:190 - 191
"Fight for the sake of Allah those that fight against you... Kill them wherever you find them. Drive them out of places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse that carnage."

The Cow 2:187 ì And fight in the way of God...And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying.î (Arberry, Oxford. Say what? ìpersecution is more grievous than slayingî? That does not make any sense at all. Is not slaying persecution? Dawoodís passage reads ìIdolatry is worse that carnage" )

The Spoils 8: 16
" Believers, when you encounter the armies of the infidels do not turn your backs to them in flight. If anyone on that day turns his back to them ... shall incur the wrath of Allah and Hell shall be his home: an evil fate."

The Spoils 8: 15 ìO believers, when you encounter the unbelievers marching to battle, turn not your backs to them. Whoso turns his back that day to them, unless withdrawing to fight ...is laden with the burden of Godís anger.î (Arberry, Oxford)

Victory: 48:29:
"Mohammed is Allah's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another."

Repentance 9:21
"Those that have embraced the faith... and fought for Allah's cause with their wealth and their persons are held in high regard by Allah."

Repentance 9:41
" Whether unarmed or well equipped, march on and fight for the cause of Allah, with your wealth and your persons."

Repentance 9:41
ìGo forth, light and heavy! Struggle in Godís way with your possessions and your selves...î (Arberry, Oxford)

Battle Array 61:10-12
" Believers! Have faith in Allah and his apostle and fight for His cause with your wealth and your persons. He will forgive you your sins and admit you ... in the gardens of Eden."

The Ranks 61:10-11
ìstruggle in the way of God with your possessions and your selves.î (Arberry, Oxford. In both 9:41 and 61:10-12,Arberry has ìinterpretedî away the militaristic pursuit as is called for in the Koran in the cause of Islam)

Battle Array 61:2
"Allah loves those who fight for His cause in ranks as firm as a mighty edifice."

Killing on behalf of Allah is a demonstration of piety and fidelity to Allah!
The Spider 29 : 7
"He that fights for Allah's cause fights for himself. Allah does not need His creatures' help." (basically, killing for Allah is done by humans for their own salvation, not because Allah is weak...)

The Cow 2: 216
"fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you..."

2:216
"Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, you knew not." (http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/index.html)

The Cow 2: 212
ìPrescribed for you is fighting, though it be hateful to you. Yet it may happen that you will hate a thing which is better for you.î (Arberry, Oxford - Arberryís passage is numbered differently than the others)

The purpose of war is part of Allah's test of the faithful:

The Imrans: 3:140-141
"If you have suffered defeat, so did the enemy. We alternate these vicissitudes among mankind so that Allah may know the true believers and choose martyrs from among you ...that He may test the faithful and annihilate the infidels."

And, ultimately, the purpose of relentless war and terror against non-Muslims is:

Al-hijr 15:1
"The day will surely come when the unbelievers will wish that they were Muslims."

El-Hijr 15:1
ì Perchance the unbelievers will wish that they had surrenderedî (Arberry, Oxford)

In light of the Koranís insistent inculcation of a divine demand in the pursuit of violence it is a curiosity that Muslim propagandists deny that Islam is a religion of violence. Unless, behind this denial is an agenda...

The Paradise those who kill for Allah will go to:

The Ranks 37 :40 -46
"But the true servants of Allah shall be well provided for... in the gardens of delight. They shall sit with bashful, dark-eyed virgins, as chaste as the sheltered eggs of ostriches."

The Merciful 55:46-58
"But for those that fear the majesty of their Lord there are two gardens... Each is watered by a flowing spring... They shall dwell with bashful virgins whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before... Virgins as fair as corals and rubies."

The Koran on women:

The Forgiving One 40 : 63
"It is Allah who has given you the earth for a dwelling-place and the sky for a ceiling. He has moulded your bodies into a comely shape..." (which begs the question: why do women have to hide their ìcomely shapeî?)

Women 4:34
"Men have authority over women because Allah has made one superior to the other...Good women are obedient...As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Allah is high, supreme." (*refer notes on this passage)

Women 4: 37-39
"Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they obey you, look not for any way against them; God is All-high, All-great." (Arberry, Oxford)

Women 4:31
"Men have authority over women because God has made one superior to the other and because they spend their wealth [to maintains them]. So good women are obedient, guarding their unseen [parts] because God has guarded [them]. As for those from whom you fear disobedience admonish [them] and banish them to beds apart and beat them; then if they obey you seek no occasion against them." Alfred Guillaume translation Islam Pelican, ISBN 0 1402 0311 7
(Indeed Guillaume writes: ìSince some Muslim propagandists in this country persistently deny that women are inferior to men in Islam it is worth while to set out the facts [in] Sura 4:31.... To a Muslim who takes this stand on the law of Islam the gulf is unbridgeable, but in actual practice in the civilized communities of the Muslim world a more liberal view of womenís place in human society is coming to the fore.î)

The Cow 2:223:
"Women are your fields: go, then into your fields as you please."

The Cow 2:223:
ìYour women are a tillage for you; so come unto your tillage as you wish, and forward for you souls;î (Arberry, Oxford)

The Cow 2:228
"Women shall with justice have rights similar to those exercised against them, although men have a status above women."

Light 24: 31
"Enjoin believing women to turn their eyes away from temptation and to preserve their chastity; to cover their adornments - except such as are normally displayed; to draw their veils over their bosoms and not to reveal their finery except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their step-sons, their brothers, their brother's sons, their sisters' sons, their women-servants, and their slave-girls; male attendants lacking in natural vigour, and children who have no carnal knowledge of women. And let them not stamp their feet in walking so as to reveal their hidden trinkets."

Light 24: 60
"It shall be no offence for old spinsters who have no hope of marriage to discard their cloaks without revealing their adornments. Better if they do not discard them." (?)

The Night Journey 17: 31
"You shall not kill your children for fear of want."
The translator's note explains: "In allusion to the pre-Islamic custom of burying alive unwanted newborn girls." (Is this what Muslim apologists mean when they declare that Islam gave women rights that they never before had?)

The Believers 23 :1-3
"Blessed are the believers... who restrain from their carnal desires - except with their wives and slave-girls, for these are lawful to them - and do not transgress through lusting after other women; who are true to their trusts and promises and never neglect their prayers." (... which means that women who are not married, or do not pray - infidel - are open season? It corresponds to the fate of Egyptian Coptic women, & their being raped by Muslim men as per SBS documentary 1995)

Women 4:15-16
"If an of your women commit fornication, call in four witnesses from among yourselves against them; if they testify to their guilt confine them to their houses till death overtakes them or till Allah finds another way for them. If two men among you you commit indecency [sodomy/homosexual union] punish them both. If they repent and mend their ways, let them be. Allah is forgiving and merciful."

..But not equal. Women have no means of seeking forgiveness & are condemned to death. Further, all you have to do is convince your friends to back you and the woman's say-so is irrelevant!

Mohammed had additional rights to ordinary Muslims...

The Confederate Tribes 33: 49-51
"Prophet We [Allah] have made lawful to you the wives to whom you have granted dowries and the slave-girls whom Allah has given you as booty...This privilege is yours alone... You may put off any of your wives you please and take to your bed any of them you please. Nor is it unlawful for you to receive any of those whom you have temporarily set aside."
(the translator's note reads: "At this time Mohammed had nine wives, apart from slave-girls.")

Slavery

Light 24: 33
"As for those of your slaves who wish to buy their liberty, free them if you find in them any promise ... You shall not force your slave-girls into prostitution in order that you may make money, if they wish to preserve their chastity. If any one compels them, Allah will be forgiving and merciful to them. " (thus if they don't care about their chastity, make as much money from them as you want, but even if forced against their will into prostitution, Allah will forgive the believer!)

Light 24: 57 " ...let your slaves... ask your leave when they come to see you before morning prayer..."

She who Pleaded 59: 3
"Those that divorce their wives by so saying and afterwards retract their words shall free a slave [as a penalty]."

Anti Christ anti Jew

Essentially the Koran is antithetic to all religions. Its antipathy to the "west", that is countries of Christian background, and of Jews, is essentially because the Koran claims itself to be the correct interpretation of the word of God which has been corrupted by Christians and Jews:

The Table 5:11-17
"Allah made a covenant with the Israelites ... But because they broke their covenant We laid on them Our curse ...They have perverted the words of the Scriptures...You will find them deceitful except for a few of them ... With those who said they were Christians We made a covenant also, but they too have forgotten much of what they were enjoined... We stirred among them enmity and hatred... Unbelievers are those who declare: 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.'"

Iron: 57: 26-29
"We sent forth Noah and Abraham, and bestowed on their offspring prophethood and the Scriptures...We sent other apostles, and after those Jesus the son of Mary, We gave him the Gospel and put compassion and mercy in the hearts of his followers.... but they did not observe it faithfully... Let the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] know that they have no control over the gifts of Allah; that these gifts are in His Hands alone, and that He vouchsafes them to whom He will."

Women 4:45-46
"Some Jews take words out of their context and say to the Apostle: 'We hear but Disobey.' Allah has cursed them in their unbelief. They have no faith, except a few of them."

The Proof 98: 6
"The unbelievers among the People of the Book [Jews & Christians] and the pagans shall burn for ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures."

Jonah 10:68
"They [Christians] say: 'Allah has begotten a son,' Allah forbid! Self sufficient is He. His is all that the heavens and earth contain."

The Table 5:72-74
"Unbelievers are those that say: 'Allah [God] is the Messiah, the son of Mary.' ... Unbelievers are those that say: 'Allah is one of three.'

The Believers 23:90
"We have revealed to them [Christians] the truth, but they are liars all. Never has Allah begotten a son, nor is there any other god besides Him."

Kneeling 45 : 16
" We gave the scriptures to the Israelites and bestowed on them wisdom and prophethood...[but] they disagreed among themselves from evil motives."

The Table 5 : 66 -74
"If they observe the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from Allah, they shall be given an abundance from above and beneath... Believers, Jews, Sabaeans, or Christians - whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does what is right - shall have nothing to fear or to regret... We made a covenant with the Israelites and sent forth apostles among them. But whenever an apostle came to them with a message that did not suit their fancies they either rejected him or slew him... Unbelievers are those that say: 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.' ...Unbelievers are those that say: 'Allah is one of three.' There is but one God. If they do not desist from so saying, those of them that disbelieve shall be sternly punished."

The Table 5 : 82
" You will find that the most implacable of men in their enmity of the faithful are the Jews and the pagans, and that the nearest in affection to them are those who say: 'We are Christians.'" (who does that leave...?)

The Imrans : 3:98 - 100
"'People of the Book, why do you deny the revelations of Allah?' ...Believers, if you yield to some of those who were given the Scriptures, they will rob you of your faith and lead you back to unbelief." and,

Imrans : 3:111
"Had the People of the Book [Jews and Christians] accepted Islam, it would have surely been better for them... most of them are evil-doers."

Mary 19: 88:
"Those who say: 'The Lord of Mercy has begotten a son,' preach a monstrous falsehood, at which the very heavens might crack, the earth break asunder, and the mountains crumble to dust."

The Cave 18: 2 -5
" ...admonish those who say that Allah has begotten a son... a monstrous blasphemy is that which they utter. They preach nothing but falsehoods."

Repentance 9:30-33
"They worship their rabbis and their monks, and the Messiah the son of Mary, as gods besides Allah; though they were ordered to serve one God only... They would extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths."

The Table 5:64-65
ìThe Jews say: ëAllahís hand is chained.í May their own hand be chained! May they be cursed for what they say! ...We have stirred among them enmity and hatred, which will endure till the Day of Resurrection... They spread evil in the land, but Allah does not love the evil-doers.î

Example of Biblical stories employed against ìunbelieversî

Noah 71:27
ìAnd Noah said: ëLord do not leave a single unbeliever in the land. If you spare them they will mislead Your servants and beget none but sinners and unbelievers.î
(Thus here we have an example of a Biblical story told by Mohammed and used against unbelievers, Jews and Christians - even though it is part of their Bible!)

Zoroastrians - believers?

Pilgrimage 22:17
"As for the true believers, the Jews, the Sabaeans, the Christians, the Magians, and the pagans, Allah will judge them on the Day of Resurrection."

Do not befriend unbelievers

The Unjust 83: 8
"Woe ...to the disbelievers who deny the Last Judgement! None denies it except the transgressors, the evil-doers who, when Our revelations are recited to them, cry: 'Fables of the ancients!'"

The Table 5: 51
"Believers, take neither Jews or Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number. Allah does not guide the wrongdoers."

The Table 5:57:
"Believers, do not seek the friendship of the infidels..."

She Who is Tested 60: 1
"Believers do not make friends with who are enemies of Mine and yours."

She Who is Tested 60: 9
"He forbids you to make friends with those who have fought against you on account of your religion ...or abetted others to do so. Those that make friends with them are wrongdoers."

Women 4: 145
"Believers, do not chose the infidels rather than the faithful for your friends."

The Imrans 3 :28
"Let the believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful - he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah ... Allah admonishes you to fear Him ."

The Imrans 3: 118
"Believers, do not make friends with any men other than your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin."

Omniscient god predetermination:

The Imrans 3 :145
"No one dies unless Allah permits. The term of every life is fixed." and if believers do not fight on Allah's behalf, "they complain: 'Had we had any say in the matter, we should not have been slain here.' Say to them: 'Had you stayed in your homes, those of you who were destined to be slain would have gone to their graves nevertheless; for it was Allah's will to test your faith and courage." (3: 155 )

Iron 57:22
" Every misfortune that befalls the earth, or your own persons, is ordained before we bring it into being."

Cheating 64: 1-4:
"Allah has power over all things... He is cognizant of all your actions... He knows what the heavens and earth contain. He knows all that you hide and that you reveal. He knows your inmost thoughts."
Iron 57 : 6 " He has knowledge of the inmost thoughts of men."

Revelations Well Expounded 41:46
ìNo fruit is borne, no female conceives or is delivered, but with His knowledge.î

Allah created unbelievers solely to punish them:

Smoke 13 : 34
ìNone can guide those whom Allah has led astray. They shall be punished in this life: but more painful is the punishment of the life to come. None shall protect them from Allah." (Thus unbelievers have been made to disbelieve by Allah who intends on punishing them for straying!)

The Heights 7 :186
"None can guide the people whom Allah leads astray. He leaves them blundering about in their wickedness."

Counsel 42 : 8
"Had it been Allah's will, He could have made them all of one religion. But Allah brings whom he will into His mercy."

The Bee 16 :37
"Among them were some whom Allah guided, and others destined to go astray....Strive as yo may to guide them, Allah will not guide those whom He misleads. There shall be none to help them."

The Creator 35 : 6
"Satan is your enemy: therefore treat him as an enemy. He tempts his followers so that they may become the heirs of Hell." (so this Allah had already led unbelievers into disbelief... but here it is satan!!)

cheating 64 : 14
"Believers, you have an enemy in your wives and children: beware of them."

The cow 2 :284
"Whether you reveal your thoughts or hide them, Allah will bring you to account for them."

Why then...
Sovereignty 67: 2
"He created life and death that He might put you to the proof and find out which of you acquitted himself best."
For an omniscient being allah is a malevolent fiend.

In the Chapter "THOSE THAT ARE SENT FORTH" we are advised on the woe that is to befall unbelievers. "Woe on that day to the disbelievers!" is repeated 10 times ... in the event we missed it the first time?

Illegal to kill Muslims

Women 4:92
"It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer except by accident."

However, what is a true believer?

The Koran states that there is no middle ground, no picking & choosing
it is all or nothing:
"Those that deny Allah and his
apostles, and those that draw a line between Allah and His apostles
saying: 'We believe in some, but deny others,' - thus seeking a middle
way - these indeed are unbelievers. For the unbelievers We have prepared
a shameful punishment." (women 4:150)

The consequence is that any Muslim who might be seen to not be completely Muslim can be justified to be an ìunbelieverî.

Apostasy

Mohammed 47: 25
"Those who return to unbelief after Allah's guidance has been revealed to them are seduced by Satan." These apostates are those who say "'We shall obey you in some matters.' Allah knows their secret talk." (Mohammed 47 : 26)

Mohammed 47 :34
"Those that disbelieve and debar others from Allah's path and in the end die unbelievers shall not be shown forgiveness by Allah. Therefore do not falter or sue for peace when you have gained the upper hand."

Mohammed 47 :38
"You are called upon to give to the cause of Allah. some of you are ungenerous; yet whoever is ungenerous to this cause is ungenerous to himself. Indeed, Allah does not need you, but you need Him... He will replace you by others different from you."

The Bee 16 :107
"...those who deny Allah after professing Islam and open their bosoms to unbelief shall incur the wrath of Allah and shall be sternly punished. For such men love the life of this world more than the life to come." (my italics)

Repentance 9: 73 - 75
" Prophet make war on the unbelievers and hypocrites and deal rigourously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate... they uttered the word of unbelief and renounced Islam after embracing it...Allah will sternly punish them both in this world and in the world to come."

Repentance 9:8-10 ì...[In] giving you satisfaction with their mouths but in their hearts refusing; and the most of them are ungodly...truely evil is that they have been doing, observing neither bond nor treaty towards a believer they are the transgressors... If they break their oaths after their covenant and thrust at your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief... Fight them, and God will chastise them at your hands and degrade them.î (Arberry, Oxford)

Women 4 : 137
"Those who accept the faith and then renounce it, who again embrace it and again deny it and grow in unbelief - Allah will neither forgive them nor rightly guide them."

Proofs of god's existence

Thunder 13 : 2 -3 " It was Allah who raised the heavens without visible pillars... He ordains all things [and upon the earth he] placed upon it immovable mountains."
(Damn inconvenient .... that the sky has no pillars whether visible or not... & those damn tectonic plates that create mountains where once were none!)

Ta Ha 20:51
"It is He who has made the earth your cradle and traced on it paths for you to walk on. It is He who sends down water form the sky with which He brings forth every kind of plant...Surely in this there are signs for men of understanding."

Thunder 11: 9 -13
"He knows the visible and the unseen... If He seeks to afflict them with a misfortune, none can ward it off... It is He who makes the lightning flash upon you, inspiring fear and hope, as He gathers up the heavy clouds. The thunder sounds His praises, and the angels, too, for awe of Him. He hurls His thunderbolts at whom He pleases. Yet unbelievers wrangle about Allah."

The Forgiving One 40 : 36
"Those who dispute Allah's signs without proof are held in abhorrence by Allah and the faithful."

Defining Hell

The Forgiving One 40 :69-70
"...those who dispute the revelations of Allah...[and] who have denied the Scriptures ... [will] with chains and shackles round their necks they shall be dragged through boiling water and burnt in the fire of Hell."

Pilgrimage 22 : 20
"Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with rods of iron."

The Merciful 55:35
"Flames of fire shall be lashed at you, and molten brass. There shall be none to help you."

Dominion over animals

The Forgiving One 40 : 80 "It is Allah who has provided you with the beasts, that you may ride on some and eat the flesh of

The right to bear arms

Women 4 :102
"When.... conducting their prayers [believers can pray] armed with their weapons. It would much please the unbelievers if you neglected your arms and your baggage, so they can swoop upon you with one assault. But it is no offence for you to lay aside your arms when overtaken by heavy rain or stricken with an illness, although you must always be on your guard."

(This same passage in Arberryís ìinterpretationî: ì ...let a party of them stand with thee, and let them take their weapons. When they bow themselves, let them be behind you; and let another party who have not prayed come and pray with thee, taking their precautions and their weapons. The unbelievers wish that you should be heedless of your weapons and your baggage, then they would wheel on you all at once. There is no fault in you, if rain molests you, or you are sick, to lay aside your weapons; but take your precautions. God has prepared for the unbelievers a humbling chastisement.î)

Arabic language as holy thus reinforcing arab racism.

Smoke 13: 37
ìWe have revealed it [the Koran], a code of judgements in the Arabic tongue."

Counsel 42: 6
"We have revealed to you an Arabic Koran."

Revelations Well Expounded 41 : 1
"...an Arabic Koran for men of understanding."

Revelations Well Expounded 41 : 44
ìHad we revealed the Koran in a foreign tongue they would have said: ëIf only its verses were expounded! Why in a foreign tongue, when the prophet is Arabian?íî

It is evident that Mohammed felt compelled to explain why his Koran was not recited in the Greek, Hebrew, or Persian languages. The Greek world, represented by Byzantium was the repository of Classical learning. Sasanid Persia was the Greekís main adversary. The Jews where custodians of purported ìholy textsî. Mohammed found himself in a position of having to defend why Arabic suddenly became the language of choice for god. This attempted justification for using Arabic has come to be used as a justification of Arab racism. Contrary to the claims of Muslim propagandists, Arabs are racists. The most contemporary manifestation of Arab racism can be found in the example of the genocide in the Sudan of the sub-Saharan (black) Africans who are being eradicated in the Darfur region by Arabs. Faith in Islam has not spared them being slaughtered enmasse, enslaved, or raped. Faith in Islam does not prevent black women being captured for the purpose of sexual enslavement by Arabs as yebit. A recent book Slave by Mende Nazer, is the recounting by the author of her abduction and forced subjection to sex-slavery by her Arab abductors. In Indonesia the Muslim priesthood is composed of people of Arab lineage, of which the best example is ìabuî Bakar Bashir. Arberry, in his introduction to his ìinterpretationî, claims ìSince the Koran is to the faithful Muslim the very Word of God, from the earliest times orthodox opinion has rigidly maintained that it is untranslatable, a miracle of speech which it would be blasphemous to attempt to imitate. it is thus the duty of every believer to learn to understand its meaning in the original Arabic.î (p. ix) Thus we have a holy language (Arabic) spoken by a therefore holy people (Arabs) whose own land (Arabia) must therefore be holy. Mohammed's attempt at explaining in plain language what he claimed to be the message of god becomes instead a justification of Arab racism. In this respect Arberryís convoluted ìinterpretationî betrays the spirit in which the Koran was written.

No need for science

The Ranks 37
"We have decked the lower heaven with constellations. They guard it against rebellious devils... Meteors are hurled at them ...Eavesdroppers are pursued by fiery comets. (37 : 3-10)"

Ya Sin 36: 37 - 40
" The night is another sign for men... We have preordained phases for the moon... The sun is not allowed to overtake the moon, nor does the night outpace the day."

Light 24: 43
"...Allah drives the clouds, then gathers them and piles them up in masses which pour down torrents of rain... He sends down hail, pelting with it whom He will... The flash of His lightning almost snatches off men's eyes."

ìOne Fundamentalist Muslim website (among many) declares that the Koran mentions that the universe originated from a gaseous material. (Koran 41:11). This is a paradigm example of the type of "evidence" that is offered, and one hardly needs to point out why it is unpersuasiveî (Richard Carrier: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/islam.html )

Revelations well Expounded 41:10-11
"He set upon the earth mountains towering high above it. He pronounced His blessing upon it and in four days provided it with sustenance for all alike. Then He made His way to the sky, which was but a cloud of vapour, and to it and to the earth He said: 'Will you obey me willingly, or shall I compel you?'"

Distinguished 41: 9-10
"Him who created the earth in two days,... And therein firm mountains over it, and blessed it, and He ordained therein its diverse sustenance in four days, equal to those who ask. Then He lifted Himself to heaven when it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth, 'Come willingly or unwillingly!'" (Arberry, Oxford)

Luqman 31:10
"He raised the heavens without visible pillars and set immovable mountains an the earth lest it should shake with you."

A Flat Earth

The Tidings 78:10
"Did We not spread the earth like a bed and raise the mountains like pillars?" (like butter over a slice of bread?)

The Cave 18:84
"...he reached the West and saw the sun setting in a pool of black mud." (of course, if the earth is flat & spread in all directions there has to be a place somewhere for it to "sink" into!)

(The Cave 18:84 "We gave him a way to everything: and he followed a way email, when he reached the the setting of the sun and found it setting in a muddy spring." (Arberry)

The Winds 51:48
"We built the heaven with Our might, giving it a vast expanse, and stretched the earth beneath it."
(The Scatterers 51:48 " And heaven - We built it with might, and We extend it wide. And the earth - We spread it forth; O excellent Smoothers!" Arberry)

Qaf 50:5-9
"...the sky above...We built it up and furnished it with ornaments, leaving no crack in its expanse. We spread out the earth and set upon it immovable mountains."

The Bee 16:15
"He set firm mountains upon the earth lest it should move away with you."
( The Bee 16:15 "He cast on the earth firm mountains, lest it shake with you." Arberry) (And since the earth is like a flat tablecloth it has to have weights, mountains, to prevent it blowing away!)

How we were created

According to Muslim propagandists the Koran anticipated modern science in describing (amongst other phenomena) foetal development. However, a cursory glance at the Koran shows instead that the ìwonderî (miracle) of birth is merely offered as a proof of Allahís existence in which Allah is the causal explanation for which there is no need for science. Further, other passages state we were created from clay and are taken almost verbatim from the Jewish/Biblical creation story. In other passages we are grown like a plant. Indeed Mohammed has hedged his bets.

The Blood Clots 96:1
"recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from clots of blood!"
The Star 53 : 40
"Allah created the sexes, the male and female, from a drop of ejected semen"
Noah 71:18
"Allah has brought you forth from the earth like a plant..."
Noah 71:18
"And God caused you to grow out of the earth, then He shall return you into it." (Arberry, Oxford)
Ta Ha 20:55 "From the earth We have created you, and to the earth We will restore you; and from it We will bring you back to life."
The Ranks 37 : 12
"Of coarse clay We created them."
Ya Sin 36: 77
"Is man not aware that We created him from a little germ?"
The Creator 35 : 11
"Allah created you from dust, then from a little germ. Into two sexes he divided you."
Adoration 32 :7
"He first created man from clay, then bred his offspring from a drop of paltry fluid. He moulded him and breathed into him of His spirit. He gave you eyes and ears and hearts: yet you are seldom thankful."
The Believers 23: 10
"We first created man from an essence of clay: then placed him, a living germ, in a safe enclosure [the womb]. The germ We made a clot of blood, and the clot a lump of flesh. This We fashioned into bones, then clotted the bones with flesh, thus bringing forth another creation."
The Bee 16: 4
"He created man from a little germ: yet man openly disputes his judgement."
The Bee 16: 4
"He created man of a sperm-drop; and, behold, he is a manifest adversary" (from the Oxford Translation by Arthur J Arberry)
Man 76:1
"We have created man from the union of the two sexes so that We may put him to the proof."
The Nightly Visitant 86: 6
"Let man reflect from what he is created. He is created from an ejected fluid that issues from between the loins and the ribs."

Breeding for Allah?

Abundance 108:2-3
"Pray to your Lord and sacrifice to Him. He that hates you shall remain childless." Does this mean that you have to prove you are faithful by breeding ... for if you don't breed it would be proof of your hatred of Allah who has left you childless...!

Awareness of Greek knowledge:

Noah 71:13-17
"Why do you deny the greatness of Allah...? Can you not see how He created the seven heavens one above the other, placing in them the moon for light and the sun for a lantern?

The Tidings 78:12
"We built above you seven mighty heavens and placed in them a shinning lamp."
(The Tiding 78:12 "And We have built above you seven strong ones, and We appointed a blazing lamp." Arberry, Oxford)

Noah 71:13-17
"Have you not regarded how God created seven heavens one upon another, and set the moon therein for a light and the sun for a lamp?" (Arberry, Oxford)

Revelations Well Expounded 41:12
"In two days he formed the sky into seven heavens, and to each heaven He assigned its task. We decked the lowest with brilliant stars and guardian comets."

Distinguished 41: 11
"So He determined them as seven heavens in two days, and revealed its commandment in every heaven. And We adorned the lower heaven with lamps." (Arberry, Oxford)

sovereignty 67 : 4-6
"He created seven heavens, one above the other. His work is faultless. Turn up your eyes: can you detect a single flaw? We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, missiles for pelting the devils. We have prepared a scourge of flames for these, and the scourge of Hell for the unbelievers: an evil fate!"

Greek cosmology was very much influenced by that of Babylon. With the earth at the centre, it was surrounded by 7 movable spheres on which the moon, sun, Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn existed, all enclosed in an unmovable "firmament" in which the stars were permanently fixed. Anomalies in the observations were explained away by having the planetary objects revolve around "clusters" of spheres and on "epicycles". Pythagoras, born one thousand years before Mohammed, supposed the movement of these spheres to be musical. The ultimate astronomical tract which described this cosmological system was ClaudiosPtolemy's MaqhmatikhV SuntaxewV biblia ig (Mathematical Collection in thirteen Books). This was altered by the Arabs to H Megisth (the megisti, Gk: the greater; The Great Syntaxis) , and came to be known as al Majisti, or "Almagest", with the Arabic ìAlî replacing the Greek "H" (the). The Arabs thus altered it to mean "the greatest", probably because it described for them the workings of godís mind. To keep the earth at the centre of this universe the mathematics and models had become enormously complex and cumbersome. ìBy the time the Ptolemaic system was perfected, the seven passengers, sun moon and five planets, needed machinery of not less than thirty-nine wheels to move through the sky...î (p.71, Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers. isbn 0-14-055212-x)
.

To augment his bonafides Mohammed couched this Greek cosmology in Jewish creation mythology as described in Genesis. Not content with that however, Mohammedís rendition went on to ëexplainí that meteors exist to pelt devils. Hardly scientific.... But then again, neither was Mein Kampf.... It begs the question of why accept this god on the basis of proofs that are demonstrably erroneous?

Much has been said by apologists for Islam that it preserved the heritage of classical Civilization. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason that we still have the literature of antiquity had all to do with Byzantine efforts to preserve their ancestors' heritage which culminated in their transcribing extant texts onto parchment as the papyrus was hardly archival material. Arab scholars from Baghdad were educated in "the Greek lands" (Byzantine Empire); and Byzantine translators provided the Arabs of Spain with copies of Greek classics and translated them into Arabic as well. The same happened in Sicily where the Norman, Byzantine and Muslim worlds met.

It is unsurprising therefore, that for the Arabs the "Almagest" was the most studied text from antiquity. In describing 7 tiers in the heavens Muslims believed that it lent "scientific" support to the Koran. It is this irrational belief that the Koran is the word of god that meant that the geocentric system persisted in Islam well after it was debunked by the (Copernican) heliocentric one. In the famous dispute between Chinese, Muslim, and European (Christian) astronomers in predicting a solar eclipse in 1629 the Jesuits used the new Copernican system to correctly predict the eclipse. During his reign, Emperor Kangxi Yang called for "Guangxian the [Muslim] court official and Ferdinand Verbiest the Jesuit missionary to forecast the movement of the sun's shadow and the positions of the stars. Verbiest's predictions all came true while Yan Guangxian failed completely." ( http://www.chinasoul.com/e/e-wk/episode03.htm ) (Ironically, the Jesuits employed a system which had been condemned as heresy by the Papacy in 1616!) For Islam this has meant that part of the infallible word of god is incontrovertibly debunked! It is therefore bizarre to read of Islamist propagandists' claims that the Koran is "scientific" and therefore predictive! Indeed....in 1993, Sheik Abdel-Aziz Ibn Baaz, the supreme religious authority of Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa, declaring that the world is flat. Anyone declaring it to be round was declaring themselves atheist which is punishable by law (as an apostate)!

NOTES
Some Koranic verses are numbered differently in different translations. For instance, the verse Women 4: 34 in the Dawood translation appears as Women 4: 37-39 in Arberry's "interpretation", and in Guillaumeís Islam appears as 4:31. Some chapters even appear under different titles. In Dawood's translation "Revelations well Expounded" appears as "Distinguished" in Arberry's "interpretation"; Dawood's "Battle Array" appears as "The Ranks" in Arberry's "interpretation"; ìThe Forgiving Oneî in Dawood appears as ìThe Believersî in Arberry - the number and content of the chapters remains the same however. Both translation & interpretation leave spaces between the number of verses, e.g. in Dawood's Noah, chapter 71, verse 71:8 is numbered and so is 71:21, which means an estimation has to be made as to what the actual number of the verse quoted might be if the verse is somewhere in between. This means that some verses may appear either before or after the number I have attributed to them depending on the translation...

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Below are books that are available from Amazon.

Hellenistic civilisation by Sir William Tarn
(Tarn's Hellenistic Civilisation is a classic and still a benchmark summary of Greek civilization post-Alexander. Initially published in 1927 it chronicles the achievements of Hellenistic Greece in science and technology which greatly surpassed those achievements of the classical period. It is this science that the Byzantines preserved and the Arabs sought.)

How Greek Science Passed to Arabs by De Lacy O'Leary
(O'Leary's book is extraordinary. The usual explanation on how Arabs acquired Greek knowledge is one in which it is made to appear that the Arabs happened upon knowledge abandoned by the Greeks. Where this knowledge was abandoned or found is never explained, but accepted unquestioningly nonetheless. This was never the case. This books explains the achievements of Hellenistic civilisation showing how that knowledge was disseminated by Christian Byzantium for reasons not dissimilar to those that led later Christians to seek to impress the Chinese of the superiority of their "Christian science" over "Arab science". From Baghdad to Cordova, Byzantium supplied the Arab civilisation that which the west claims Islam instead preserved ....)

[A special note: There is a supposition that the Arabs happened upon the Library of Alexandria, which seems to form the basis of the myth that the Arabs preserved knowledge we would have lost and which had it not been for them we would not have today. There is also a claim made that Caliph Umar I destroyed the library at c.641AD. His purported edict was that if the books agreed with the Koran then they were superfluous as the Koran already included their knowledge and they need not be preserved; if however they disagreed with the Koran, they were equally useless because the Koran is the ultimate truth and they should be destroyed. This has been denied by Arabists. It poses some interesting problems:

1/ If the library had been destroyed prior to the Arab invasion the Arabs did not find Greek science via that path and did not therefore preserve Greek knowledge for posterity as there was no library at Alexandria for them to gain that knowledge from. Arabs thus came upon this knowledge from someone who did have that knowledge. There thus is no real basis in contending that the Arabs preserved knowledge. It is a moot point if there was nothing there to be preserved;
2/or they gained that knowledge from an extant library - which means that Arabs destroyed the library at Alexandria after Umar I. So the Arabs are the destroyers of knowledge as it is claimed, although someone after Umar is the destroyer.

Either way, it was not the Arabs who preserved knowledge. The west supposes that the history it sees only from its own narrow vantage point provides the answer. In the context of this myopia, when the Normans first came accross Ptolemy's "Almagest" it was in Arabic. This has led to an extraordinary declaration that the Arabs had preserved it and prevented it from being lost... without realising that the Arabs themselves were supplied it by Byzantium! O'Leary's book (above) shows how the Greeks disseminated this knowledge. Treadgold's Concise History of Byzantium (below) outlines how Byzantium preserved this knowledge. The story of the Arab achievement therefore looks increasingly like a modern political necessity: a desire to present the Arabs as responsible for something good ... they can't all be terrorists... Further, Europeans seem embarrassed by the exclusivity of a history which shows the Greeks from classical times, through Hellenistic times, then Byzantium disseminating their knowledge. Maybe, the west is embarrassed by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and is attempting to diminish the savagery of their deed by diminishing the importance of Byzantium? A further problem arises when it is realised that the only Greek texts for which exist Arab versions were solely scientific. Greek plays, from Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus and even Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were not subjects that interested Muslims: "... the Greek writers who influenced the oriental world were not the poets, historians, or orators, but exclusively the scientists who wrote on medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy, the type of scientific thought which does not always come foremost when we speak about classical literature." Chapter 1, p.1 How Greek Science Passed to Arabs, De Lacy O'Leary. Not to belabour the point too much, if the Arabs did not preserve this literature then who did.......? ]

Ptolemy's Almagest by Ptolemy (Author), G. J. Toomer (Translator) (One of the parts of Ptolemy's "Syntaxis".)

The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World by Charles Freeman
(A summary of Greek knowledge.)

A Concise History of Byzantium by Warren Treadgold
(Treadgold's book is a long overdue summary of Byzantium. The survival of Greek knowledge is usually attributed to the Arabs - I suspect because the largely irrelevant outpost of European civilisation, England, first learnt of Greek knowledge when it was part of the French (Norman) Empire... However, were it not for the Byzantine desire to preserve the knowledge of their ancestors & their constant dissemination of that knowledge to the Arabs and to the west we would not have very much of it today.)
Slave By Mende Nazer
(This book is the author's own tale of her enslavement for the purpose of sexual gratification.)

Posted by: Mustafa Faq | June 26, 2005 at 07:39 PM

Defcon: What? You've never watched TV? You poor deprived sap. You should be tied down in front of a set and made to watch Big Brother 14 hours a day. :D

What? You already do? Liar! Plebian! :p

Posted by: Root | June 27, 2005 at 10:53 PM

Sodomites such as Neville will be stoned to death Inshalla.This is a collection of quotes from the Koran. Unless otherwise noted, the source of reference is is the Dawood translation, published as a Penguin Classic, ISBN 0 14044.052 6. To avoid charges that Dawoodís translation is an aberrant translation of the Koran, some of the passages are augmented with the ìinterpretationî by Arthur J Arberry, published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283501-7.
Arberry writes in his introduction ìprevious versions of the Koran, like the original text itself, [have] been printed as continuous prose...I have called my version an interpretation.î Arberry explains that he has done so because ìthe rhapsodic nature of its composition has been largely lostî in prose, and that he hopes ìsome faint impression may be given of its dramatic impact and most moving beauty.î Thus the Oxford version seeks with sometimes archaic language and convoluted grammar to impress upon the reader a profundity to the message of the Koran which the ìinterpreterî feels is missing in faithful prose translations. This is a peculiar position. Even in Dawoodís faithful prose translation the impression gained is one of passages which are commenced with calm but which become increasingly frantic, and fervent which reach a fevered crescendo culminating in a maniacal rant often calling for the killing of unbelievers! Arberry as becomes evident is keen only to fudge the Koranís message to make it palatable to non-Muslims who might be horrified by what the Koran actually calls for.