The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> More From Bertrand Russell...

More From Bertrand Russell...
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Tuesday, September 21 2010, 15:01:14 (UTC)
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...speaking of the rapid growth and conquests of the Arabs...

"Various circumstances facilitated this expansion. Persia and the Eastern Empire were exhausted by their long wars. The Syrians, who were largely Nestorian (see? Nobody ever called these people assyrians), suffered persecution at the hands of the Catholics, wheras Mohammedans tolerated ALL SECTS OF CHRISTIANS(emphasis mine)in return for the payment of tribute. Similarly in Egypt the Monophysites, who were the bulk of the population, welcomed the invaders. In Africa, the Arabs allied themselves with the Berbers, whom the Romans (Christians, mine) had never thoroughly subdued. Arabs and Berbers together invaded Spain, where they were helped by the Jews, whom the Visigoths (Christians, mine) had severely persecuted." p. 413

"The religion of the Prophet was a simple monotheism, uncomplicated by the elaborate theology of the Trinity and the Incarnation. The Prophet made no claim to be divine, nor did his followers make such a claim on his behalf....it was the duty of the faithful to conquer as much of the world as possible for Islam, but there was to be no persecution of Christians, Jews or Zoroastrians...'the people of the Book', as the Koran calls them..." p. 414

You can hardly blame Islam for trying to conquer as much of the world as possible when Christians had been doing the very same thing for a few centuries before. This was normal procedure back then, as it is now...hardly exclusive to Islam or Arabs. Although the early Muslims took Muhammad´s teaching to leave the Christians alone, in matters of religion, to heart, the Arabs soon enough learned that in the service of their Jesus Christians would break laws and engage in insurrections as well as slanders against the Prophet...again, if Muslim attitudes towards Christians changed it was the fault of the Christians and not the Muslims, who started out obeying their Prophet´s command that they leave Christians in peace where their religion is concerned...for the most part that has remained true except for isolated cases where mobs or individuals had had enough of Christian treachery and betrayals and retaliated, but again, not for their Christian religion but for what Christians did, and continue to do, in the name of their religion.

Current Muslim anger over the burning of their own holy book has nothing to do with WHO is doing the burning...they would be as pissed against Jews or Hottentots who did the same thing..it is not anti-Christianity that brings forth Muslim anger but the crimes ANYONE commits against them and their religion...when they have always shown respect towards Christians and Jews.

"The Arabs, although they conquered a great part of the world in the name of a new religion, were not a very religious race; the motive of their conquests was plunder and wealth rather than religion. It was only in virtue of their lack of fanaticism that a handful of warriors were able to govern, without much difficulty, vast populations of higher civilization and alien religion." p. 414

"Both in Persia and in the Byzantine Empire the civil government had been highly organized. The Arab tribesmen at first understood nothing of its complications, and perforce accepted the services of the trained men whom they found in charge. These men, for the most part, showed no reluctance to serve under their new masters. Indeed the change made their work easier, since taxation was lightened very considerably. The populations, moreover, in order to escape the tribute, very largely abandoned Christianity for Islam." p. 414

...naturally Christians are loathe to admit that it was the paying of taxes, and lighter ones at that, which "forced" them to leave Christianity...an understandbly shameful thing to admit, when it was also taxes that eventually foced Christians to abandon their own Christian churches in favor of new Christian churches that wouldn´t tax them. I guess Christians just hate paying taxes and will switch to whatever religion gives them a tax break, or invent a new version of their own religion, if it will go easy on taxes. What happened to all those martyrs who welcomed death, for their children as well, rather than leave Jesus? Lies...all of it. Church lies and missionary lies and Seyfo lies.

This issue of the supposed heavy burden of the jizya is another interesting case of Christian lying...as well as slandering others with their own crimes.

One of the main factors that led to the Reformation was taxes....specifically the high taxes going to Rome from every Christian corner of Europe. It wasn´t bad enough that kings taxed their subjects, but on top of civil taxes there was Peter´s Pence, the equally ruinous tax Christians had to pay to the popes and the church.

There was no such separate tax in Islam because there was no elaborate church corporation to fund...no Cardinals, Bishops and stately churches and palaces for the religious personnel.....Islam did not have to tax as much as Christianity did for the simple reason that Islam is a far more simple and pure religion with each individual already blessed with a personal relationship to Allah...the Imams being merely teachers or at the most, leading the prayers...but that´s it.

"The Nestorians, through whom, at first, Greek influences came into the Muslim world, were by no means purely Greek in their outlook. Their school at Edessa had been closed by the Emperor Zeno in 481; its learned men thereupon migrated to Persia, where they continued their work, but not without suffering Persian influences." p. 417

...we see a Christian emperor chasing out the Nestorian scholars and shutting down their schools. It would seem that it is not due to Christianity at all that Greek literature and philosophy survived to grace our world, but rather to the tolerant Persians who welcomed and protected the Nestorians.



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