Only Elsa can send an email exposing the detriments of Islam
combined with the formidability of denying Left Wing Climate Change as in the
effects of CO2 emissions.
JRH 1/31/17
*******************
More Myths Debunked - Like About Islam in Spain
Sent 1/29/17 5:20 am
I'm writing to you because more myths have been debunked.
Myth One. Islam in Spain was a multicultural paradise, with Muslims, Christians and Jews living in harmony under benign Islamic rule. I always knew that was a myth. Now: proof.
Myth Two. The Crusaders murdered millions of Islamics.
Myth Three. CO2 is bad for the planet. I had to learn that CO2 isn't causing global warming (which is hardly happening). Now I've come across another bit of very interesting information.
Finally, for those of you who want more tools to reach people about Islam, a course on Islam from Bill Warner, to debunk myths and install a solid foundation of facts.
"You have to read this book," I heard from a couple of people in the last few days. The book: The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise by Dario Fernandez-Morera, Northwestern University professor and Harvard PhD. I read the outline and breathed a sigh of relief. As I said, it's never made sense to me that Islamic rule in Spain could have been benign for Christians and Jews.
But I had nothing more to say than that, while those making the claim were sure it was an irrefutable fact: Islam in Spain was practically heaven on earth.
My answer was lame. I said I would have to look into their claim, and that my concern was Islam now - where it was anything but benign.
Dario Fernandez-Morera has come to my rescue. The evidence is grim: the total decimation of Christianity and Judaism in all areas held by Islam; slavery, including sex slavery, in areas held by Islam; the destruction of all Christian churches in these areas.
Three things.
One. Fernandez-Morera's
credentials are impeccable. Not only does he have a PhD from Harvard, he's been
on the US Council for the Humanities and has written several other impeccably
researched books.
Two. He draws on massive
research, the sources (in 8 languages) impeccably documented.
Three. The book is a
page-turner. In other words, it's exactly what those against truth, against
seeing Islam as it is, don't want: for the truth to be a pleasure to learn,
fascinating, enthralling - and out go the lies!!
Does that mean you have to read the book? No. It's like a gun. You don't have to use it, just because you have it. This book is a weapon against the myth that Islam in Spain was a multicultural paradise. Just wave it at anyone uttering the myth.
It's so good to have a suitable tool - like a can opener to open a can. Inside this can: Islam in Spain, as it was.
About Islamic slavery. Maybe you knew, but I didn't, that Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, was long a slave of Islamics. He was sold to several Islamic masters of varying degrees of cruelty. He recorded the torture he witnessed - casual, brutal, deadly. Don Quixote not surprisingly includes a negative depiction of Islam, including Islamic slavery. (There's a link online to much more information on him.)
Of course none of the references to Islam made it into The Man of La Mancha, the musical based on Cervantes' book. Instead, the musical is just about a sweet old man tilting at windmills and singing To Dream the Impossible Dream.
Moral of the story: any allegation that Islam has been benign deserves serious exploration. The allegation is unlikely to survive.
Here's The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/
And here are lots more links, to interviews with the author (from 10 minutes to 3 hours) and to reviews:
http://elsasblog.com/170129-myth-debunked-islam-in-spain.html
Here's another myth possibly biting the dust - the myth that Crusaders murdered millions of Islamics in their wars of conquest.
You almost certainly already know that the Crusades, far from being about a group of insane Christians out to butcher as many Islamics as possible, were the SLOW response to the Islamic invasion of Christian territories, and to cries for help from fellow Christians. That's one myth debunked.
However, when the Crusades finally got going, did the Crusaders kill millions of Islamics (of course, those would be still be self-initiated deaths)? Nick T. van Riel did some math:
Crusaders simply didn't have the time. All these "millions of Muslims" had to be killed by hand because Crusaders simply didn't have weapons of mass destruction. For example, killing of "only" 1,000,000 Muslims during the 25 yrs of active war would mean an average of 110 Muslims a day, based on a 24/7 "workweek."
(Link online, and also more detail: http://elsasblog.com/170129)
Van Riel contrasts the allegations that millions of Muslims were killed with the record of "death by Islam":
1,400 yrs of killing with 270,000,000 innocent people dead, means an average of 528 murders a day till today. Note that Islam is still waging war 24 hours a day.
Now, from history to the present day, and from Islam to the claims about CO2. You almost certainly have heard the charge that global warming is caused by CO2. You also almost certainly know that this claim has been debunked. In case, you want sources: http://elsasblog.com/climate-change-theories.html
But a new piece of information (new to me, anyway) recently came my way: the increase in CO2 is very likely extremely beneficial - more plants, more crops, more food. The sources for this claim are first rate, including Patrick Moore, a scientist and co-founder of Greenpeace who now labels himself the sensible environmentalist:
http://elsasblog.com/170128-more-co2-is-good.html
Behind this debunking of myths and celebration of facts is the question: who benefits from these myths screening reality?
Who benefits from people in the West holding onto the delusion about Islamic Spain as, basically, an earthly paradise? The West absolutely does not benefit. Islam benefits. Does any other force also benefit? If so, it's also clearly inimical to the West.
And who benefits from the delusion that we must cut CO2 emissions? Again, the West absolutely does not benefit - so whoever is involved is likewise inimical to the West.
Behind the question, who benefits, is an assumption: what is going on is not something that is just happening. The evidence is so clear, for instance, in The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: we have been, and are being, fed lies. That doesn't just happen. ]Bold text by Blog Editor]
The people regurgitating the myth aren't lying; they're repeating. But the myth makes no sense, except as something deliberately created to mislead. For instance, one doesn't need to look further than to Cervantes, for accounts of Islam, including Islamic enslavement, torture and casual murder of Christians, that shatter the myth.
And with that, all the best to all of us who care and dare,
Elsa
PS. Insanity of the week. An Anglican priest has been forced from his job as Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth because he objected to a verse from the Quran being read during an Anglican church service. The verse denies Jesus as the Son of God.
http://the rebel.media/priest-out
PPS. Sanity of the week. Trump has made good on his campaign promise to temporarily halt (120 days) most refugee intake so "extreme vetting" can be put in place.
PPPS. Finally, if you'd like to learn more about Islam, Bill Warner has just launched an online study program:
https://learn.politicalislam.com/#/
"This program teaches
Islamic doctrine by a story telling method. You listen and/or read Islamic
doctrine, review current events through a doctrinal lens and join a learning community
to discuss the material."
By the way, in terms of Bill Warner's ability to make "dry stuff" interesting, his Why We Are Afraid: A 1400 Year Secret has had over 3,400,000 views:
https://youtu.be/t_Qpy0mXg8Y
[Blog Editor: Elsa’s link is to a 44:49 minute lecture by
Bill Warner. Since I agree with Elsa, below is the embed of the Youtube link
posted by Elsa:
VIDEO: Why We Are Afraid, A 1400
Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner
Published on Aug 31, 2012
http://www.politicalislam.com More videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Uu4XnRS1hiz3JCpNFIuUg/videos
For a version with English
Subtitles: http://www.mrctv.org/videos/bill-warner-islam-1400-years-fear-english-titles
The history of Islam in Europe and
how it effects us to this day. This is a history based on numbers and facts
that you may not see anywhere else and explains why we may be afraid to see
Islam for what it is based on its own doctrine and practice.]
PPPPS. You're welcome to post any of this on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Please include the link to the webpage or the site.
ISLAM IN SPAIN:
http://elsasblog.com/170129-myths-debunked-islam-in-spain.html
MORE CO2 IS GOOD:
http://elsasblog.com/170128-more-co2-is-good.html
THE SITE:
http://elsasblog.com
ELSA, TRUTH SLEUTH: MY
JOURNEY INTO ISLAM
It could be about, how I came
to find the wonder of Islam.
The words that come into my
mind: The Heart of Darkness, the title of a novel by Joseph Conrad.
What I mean is that I found
so many things I did not expect, so many things I could not admire. I would
have loved to find a religion of peace. I did not. I feel as if I slowly
stepped into a cave, slowly found lights, and had to recoil from what I found.
In one corner, the corpses of
600-900 dead Jews, murdered by Mohammed. The story isn't one I found in early
versions of his story that I came across. But it's right there, hinted at in
the Qu'ran, and spelled out in detail in the Sira and Hadiths (very revered
Islamic religious texts). The story is right there.
But I didn't find the story
until late in my exploration, when I already had a good idea of what kinds of
things I'd be coming across.
The early explorations were
much more tentative.
After all, I was told Islam
was a religion of peace. But something did not make sense.
