a prophet armed: don’t mess with the man

Not one to mice words. Mohammed the prophet became Mohammed the general: Islam is the only one of the world’s great religions to have been founded on the Sword as well as the Word…

“Why do you not adore the idols, as the rest of us do?” I cannot adore any object made by man,” Mohammed said, “when I know that god created me and gave me sustenance.” Mohammed convinced abu-Bakr that his revelations were genuine. Soon there were thirty-nine converts, who prayed at home keeping the secret faith….

Word got around, however, that Mohammed had founded a new religion, that he claimed to be god’s prophet, and even more surprisingly, that some fellow Meccans had joined him. At first, most Meccans seem to have regarded him with amused tolerance,but this turned to hostility when Mohammed went to the Kaaba and told the worshipers to abandon their idols and adore the one god or suffer extermination.

—Islamist parties, like the Muslim Brotherhood, are parties for the middle classes, regardless of all reputation to the contrary in the Western media. Muhammad was mocked by his pagan enemies in Mecca about the poverty of his supporters and he is reputed to have answered: fakhri faqri (my poverty is my pride). There is no such championing of the poor among present-day Islamists of the various kinds. Hezbollah sat and watched as Rafik Hariri pushed through a most aggressive and cruel neo-liberal agenda in Lebanon. The party remains silent on the socio-economic injustices in Lebanon and its former Minister of Electric Power, Mohammad Fneish, supported the privatization of electric power, which won him praise from the Hariri family.—Read More:http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/arab-poor-always-forgotten

Before long, the Meccans realized that Mohammed was not a harmless crank but a dangerous revolutionary. He was calling their cult of idol worship, their religion, a fraud, their priests charlatans, their gods false, and their time honored traditions worse than worthless. They also feared that if his religion took hold, he would want political power.

The Quarish tribe was the most outspoken in its opposition. A Quraishite saw one of Mohammed’s followers kneeling in prayer and struck him with a stone. The man kept praying and the Quraishite threw a second stone. The follower of Mohammed picked up a camel bone and split the Quraishite’s head open. The first blood had flowed. Meccans began to fear a tribal war. The Quraishites attacked the weakest of Mohammed’s followers and tried to force them to renounce their faith. Things got so bad that in 615, two years after the start of his public preaching, some of Mohammed’s followers left for Abyssinia.

—Ramadan is supposed to be a month of charity. Instead, it has become a month of gluttony and ostentation. The rich compete to show off their fancy buffets and restaurants attract customers with their extravagant menus. Politicians host lavish iftars only to impress potential voters and supporters. The poor, however, are never prominent on the agendas of governments or opposition movements alike.
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In the Arab world, the Left is in a state of decline and leftist parties have often been either hostile to the poor or totally oblivious about their presence. —Read More:http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/arab-poor-always-forgotten

Mohammed stayed behind because he knew he was safe as long as abu-Talib protected him. But in 619 he suffered a double blow. Abu-Talib died, and so did his loyal wife Khadija. Resistance to the Prophet became more overt. Once, as he was praying, someone threw a ewe’s uteris at him. Stones and sand were flung in his path. Yet he stayed on in Mecca for two more years, having found another protector in a powerful member of his tribe named Moutim and having opened secret negotiations to move elsewhere.

Even then, Mecca’s great shrine, the Kaaba, with its idols and its famous Black Stone, probably a large chunk from a meteorite, was visited by religious pilgrims. Some of these pilgrims were from Medina, a small center for farmers and artisans about 270 miles northeast of Mecca, with a mixed Arab and Jewish population. When a group of Medina Arab pilgrims hear Mohammed preach, they are reputed to have said: “This Mohammed is the Prophet whose name is constantly on the lips of the Jews, the one they are waiting for and believe in. If they hear about him, they will appropriate him, let us bring him among us.” … ( to be continued)…

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…CAIRO — When Egyptian actor Ayman Kandeel believes he has been tricked into appearing on an Israeli television network, he smacks the show’s producer and charges to slap the female host, throwing her into a corner.

He curses, tosses chairs, and single-handedly demolishes the set. Just before the famous actor reaches for his gun holster, the crew finally tells him he is a guest on a prank show and that everyone in the studio is actually Egyptian. A crew member admonishes Kandeel: “Shame on you for hitting a woman.”

Kandeel, who admittedly carries a gun in these uncertain times of political unrest, hugs the young host and apologizes: “You brought it upon yourself,” he said.

Presented by relatively unknown Egyptian actress Iman Mubarak, “Alhokm Baad Al mozawla,” or “Judgment After a Prank” aired daily during the month of Ramadan as millions of viewers tuned in after breaking their evening fasts. The shows were taped in advance to guarantee no one was tipped off and the hoax was successful. Apparently, none of the guests leaked word of the spoof.

Arab celebrities and public figures have been invited under the pretense that they would appear on an Arabic-speaking German network. When the deception begins, the guests are unnerved after they’re tricked into believing that the show airs on an Israeli channel. Mubarak fools guests into believing she is of Jewish origin. Some of the guests, protecting their pride and turning theatrical, respond with anti-Israeli slurs and violence.

In one of the most volatile episodes, Mubarak started to provoke actor Mahmoud Abdelghafar by asking him why there can’t be peace and cooperation between Egypt and Israel on all levels, including television, art and politics. He rejects the idea nervously and suggests they should discuss another topic.

Abdelghafar, who claimed he was told he would appear on a program to boost Egypt’s tourism, said if he knew what he was getting himself into, he “wouldn’t have taken part in a show with Jews.” As the cast members continue to provoke him during the prank, Abdelghafar punches the producer — an obscure actor — and grabs him by the hair and yells: “I suspected you were a Jew.” Read More:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/08/egyptian-prank-tv-israel.html