Islam and the Historicity of Muhammad
I was talking to my professor today about the possibility of a schism or breakdown in Islam (similar to the reformation in Christianity). And he told me how he spent the past decade writing a dissertation on the historicity of Muhammad; a dissertation similar to Ernest Renan’s (19th century) “Life of Jesus.” If you’re not familiar with Renan, he argued that Jesus needed to written about like any other historical figure and that the Bible and the history of Christianity needed to be subject to the same scrutiny and criticism as other historical events. His book was the first book to present Jesus as a regular man. Needless to say Renan was not taken well by Christians and caused quite an outrage because he disputed most commonly accepted “facts” about Jesus’ life.
Anyway, my professor has essentially done the same thing with Muhammad (which has never been done before in a truly academic sense), and just had it signed by a group of other professors. Apparently everyone who has read it finds it absolutely brilliantl, but everyone was extremely cautious to sign it and no one really wants their name on it; including my professor who has contemplated using a pseudonym.
Okay, where I’m going with this. He is nervous of publishing it because of the impact it could have on the Muslim world. His work is around 300-500 pages research and he has contemplated simply throwing it all away. What do you guys think? What do you think an academic account dismissing the divinity of Muhammad would have on the Muslim world?
Lawrence O’Donnell on Socialism
I have been calling myself a socialist ever since I first read the definition of socialism in the first economics class I took in college. […] Not that we choose the socialist option every time but we do consider socialism a reasonable option under certain circumstances; in fact, under many circumstances. As any introductory economics course can tell you, there is no capitalist economy anywhere in the world, and there is no socialist economy anywhere in the world, not even Cuba. We are all mixed economies; that is, mixes of capitalism and socialism, and we all vary that mix in different ways. China has more capitalism, and a lot more capitalism, than has Cuba, but it also has a lot more socialism than we [the United States] do. Our socialist programs include the biggest government spending programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, as well as welfare, and the socialist program I hate the most, agriculture subsidies.
Yes, I’m a socialist, but I hate bad socialism, and there is plenty of bad socialism out there, just like there is plenty of bad capitalism out there, like the capitalism that pollutes our rivers or makes health care too expensive for so many people. I can argue this because every side of this is true: capitalism is good, capitalism is bad; socialism is good, socialism is bad; all of those things are true at the same time. That’s why we have a mixed economy, an economy in which we are trying to use the best, most efficient forms of capitalism, and the best, most efficient forms of socialism, where necessary.
So my full truth is I am as much a capitalist as I am a socialist; but since we live in the only mature country in the world where “socialist” is considered such a dirty word that no one would dare admit to being one, I feel more compelled to stand up for the socialist side of me than the capitalist side of me.
i honestly don’t even want to get into this because horribly misguided leftists and their skewed ideology of anti-imperialist extremism are so thick headed and it makes me want to choke myself
especially when they conveniently ignore Iran’s interference in the affairs of the region they reside in
I agree, and that is a major problem with many leftists I feel. It seems that some people don’t know when to stop.
What has been bothering me lately, is many of them will support “Iran” or “Hizballah” or “Hamas” because it is the opposition of the West. Of course, it is absolutely acceptable to break down the rhetoric against these parties (specifically Iran and Hamas), and realize that the West has certainly distorted their image. And in certain cases I believe there are reasons to support these parties. But when they begin to support these parties or states blindly without criticism (just because they are Western opposition) they are no longer a leftist… they’re becoming a right-wing supporter of the opposition and giving into the same thing they critiqued Western supporters of… whether their intentions are pure or not.
Did I explain that so it makes sense? I’ve been thinking about this so much lately, and I don’t really know how to express it properly.
Source: obliquecity
I’m sorry, but screaming white privilege and declaring that every white person is inherently racist is a really shitty way of engaging people. It is also going to help nothing, and I believe only further embitter those you are failing to reach out to. If you truly want to combat racism and oppression, perceived or real, you need to engage people in dialogue. Do not blame, do not hold people accountable for the actions of their ancestors, do not accuse.
Q:There's this "Jews for Jesus" tent on campus today. They're playing really loud Israeli music and trying to get Jews to convert to Christianity. They're all wearing kippahs and shirts that say Jews for Jesus. I wanna yell at them.
Jesus Christ these people actually exist.
azzooz replied to your post: Does everyone on Tumblr have a victim complex or…
u r so mean, cant u understand that we are SUFFERING u r sooooooo not emphatic!!!
Yeah, I’m an oppressor who doesn’t understand his white privilege. (Even though I’ve gone through plenty of bullshit in my life for being gay and haven’t bitched once about it).
In all seriousness though, if you live in the United States (especially if you are Christian), you* have probably never experienced true emotional, psychological, physical, or political oppression in your life. You have no fucking idea how grateful you should be. YOU (myself included) are the 1% in the world.
*Obviously I’m making exceptions for survivors of rape, religious and ethnic minorities that have actually been physically abused for their beliefs (not those who are strangled by the past in paranoia), those abused for their orientation or physical or mental disabilities, etc.
p.s. I know you were being sarcastic ;)
Does everyone on Tumblr have a victim complex or what?
muslimmafia replied to your post: Okay, why are all my Muslim ladies fighting tonight?
did u hear they got Osama bin Laden tho GOD BLESS THE USA
Okay, why are all my Muslim ladies fighting tonight?
I pretty much follow all of you and there is so much drama going on tonight. STOP IT. Unite with each other over how evil straight men are.
I eat meat, but this disgusted me…
“Rabbits are the easiest animals to slaughter,” says Pasternak. “Mother Nature designed them to die: They are at the bottom of the food chain; you don’t have to pluck feathers; it’s easy to twist their necks; and skinning them is really fast and easy.”
Everyone knows Saudi Arabia supports Israel right? Why is Saudi Arabia never mentioned when discussing the Arab-Israeli conflict and U.S. hegemony? Seriously people, wake up.
