Arab Revolutions   2011-12

Posting  Sept. 29 2012

Behind the Religions

The film “The Innocence of Muslims” was produced for the purposes of defaming the prophet  Muhammad. It is hate speech and has to be classified that way because there was, is, no other motive or objective, except to hurt Muslims.  The film shows no art or technique in its making. 

Nonetheless the Arab street erupted in protests. US embassies were targeted in the mistaken belief that the American government was somehow implicated in the making of that atrocious film. The American ambassador to Libya was murdered. Some twenty Arabs were shot by their own police and army, and the scene has not quieted down, even after a week of protests.

Those protests are likely organized by salafis and other Islamists.  Maybe even an Al Qaida affiliate was involved, i.e. Libya’s Ansar ash Shari’a. There were daily protests on the film issue, from Morocco to Pakistan.  US embassies in Sana’a, Khartoum and Cairo were all attacked and damaged. Even a week later, some embassies are still under siege.

The United States is able to enforce instances of hate speech. The maker of the film was arrested Sept. 27, for violating parole and hiding assets.  He is a criminal whose name need not be mentioned. Nor should we mention the writer of the film score.  In each case, their ethnicities would prompt further racial and sectarian violence.

Since I am an American I should speak more about why the US government is failing to win widespread support in Muslim countries.  Ignorance of Islam has been willful. Early, in middle school, American students do learn about Islam, the religion.  Muslims are said to be children of Abraham, strict monotheists.  Little is said about it, and little said about Judaism and Christianity, in America’s public schools, as the US government has no religious affiliation. It is secular, making it possible for temples of all kinds to flourish.

Just about all Americans want only peace and prosperity for the peoples of the Middle East. The exceptions are militant Christian and Jews, itching to link up in a final ‘cleansing’ of the Holy Land.

The unfortunate betrayal of America’s secular values acts like a self-fulfilling prophecy, drawing many millions of ‘modern’ militant worshippers into the weird dream-like identification with the Middle East, stemming  from books written 2,500 years ago, and from the colored illustrations of the Bible Land which they viewed  repeatedly while very young.  In the minds of many, the ancient religion is backed up with pictures of camels and wise men wearing robes, the wars of the Middle Ages are not over.

This is a pathogenic vision, shared by minorities of mock-christians, mock-muslims and mock-jews. Briefly, we used hypnosis to return to the ‘Sunday school’ levels of the American psyche, and found a set of ‘holy land’ images, floating rather freely in the psyche of the typical subject. Only because of this mass delusion can the genocidal minority, led by clerics, manipulate and sway and involve, the majority.

 The really weird thing is that these militant fanatics do not even know their own scriptures. Here is a verse they might study. “If you use my name to commit evil, I will tear you limb from limb.” (Ex.:20:7).

Originally, the prophets sought to teach self-transformation. Each was a personal search, an individual search for God or for Higher Mind.  That means doubting everything that goes through one’s mind: one’s thoughts, one negative feelings,  and the discomforts of the body (sensation).  It’s the same for religion as it is for science – don’t trust any thought or image in the head, and see through an imagined persona.

So any reinforcing of egos using group religion has gone off the tracks. Groups often reinforce egos. The outer, later religion, becomes just rituals done before others.  The prophets say “Try this, apply this insight to your own psyche and soul.”  The religion says: “Do this at the right time. If not, you are not worthy and should be shunned.  A religious group becomes dangerous – and false – when it becomes exclusive.  The cleric’s ego spawns special ideas amongst his flock. “Only we are the righteous believers.”

The personality must be seen through, if it is to release its grasp on the essence. Essence cannot talk, and the persona knows ‘everything.’  Someone close top God does not have a self-confident or symbol-spinning ego.

The prophets were all modest men. Religions so inflate them as to ruin their monotheism. People like Moses, Christ, Muhammad did not want people to worship them. They wanted individuals to gain the same holiness that they enjoyed. In pursuit of those powers, the individual is free to use any technique which helps.  “There is no compulsion in Islam” said Muhammad. But that was long ago.

Of course, the tragedy engulfs many. Cascades of misplaced hatred enervate the hard psyches of street toughs. Ever since the Iranian Revolution was usurped (1979) by Ayatollah Beheshti et al., the local clergy sought allegiances with the neighborhood gangs. Each gave what the other needed.  So we have aggressive operable teams of terrorists creating mayhem in their own lands and outside their own lands.

In the USA, the Republican Party has sought to create a new, effective alliance with the state of Israel. Their constituents in the South believe that end of the world is nigh, that it occur in the Middle East, after terrible warfare,  in which they intend to be amongst the chosen.  To be chosen, one has to emotionally believe in the figure of Christ. They believe the historical Jesus was, and is, the only God.

The stupidity of people should never be underestimated. One sees in history avalanches of violence, each the product of hateful speech (or unspoken bigotry). The popes declared 63 Crusades, holy wars, which took, as their harvest, millions of lives. More than Islam, corporate Christianity proved lethal, full of hatred. Latin and Orthodox clergies still hate each other.

On September 27, our offices were subject to a cyber attack. Our defenses caught the malware just before it entered our system. Examining it, we found that it came from Konya, Turkey.  It just so happens that I know Konya, or used to, having written my thesis on  ‘The Psychological Theories of Jalal al Din Rumi.’  I studied with Anne Marie Schimmel at Harvard. Why are Muslim hackers trying to bring us down? We have been explaining all the good in Islam to a world audience.

There are two studies which may have prompted the attacks.  They are found at http://middleeastspeculum.blogspot.com. One is entitled ‘Islam under the Knife.’ It explains how the original teachings of Muhammad in regard to women, to jihad, to democracy, to Jews and Christians, were changed in the generations following the prophet.

“Government must consult with the people at every step” said Muhammad. But those protesters in all those Muslim cities, are deeply antagonistic to their national elite. Since they have been fed and paid for and armed and equipped, by US money, American fortunes fall as well.