Islamic Tolerance for a Nation's Heritage

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/12/19/183434.html

Above is a link for an article on the destruction of numerous archived letters, maps, books, and other documents in Egypt. The cause was a fire that is believed to be a case or arson and appeared to be deliberately set in order to destroy the materials.

I am reminded of the destruction of the Bamiyan Statues shortly before the US invaded Afghanistan. These statues had been built under the sponsorship of the Kushans, an Iranian (not Persian) Buddhist Dynasty that ruled much of modern-day India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Islamic societies are inherently fearful of anything that reminds one of a country’s pre-Islamic past and often take actions to remove the "idols".

I often note the similarities between the Islamic and Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christian mindset. One of the manifestations of this way of thought is the treatment of symbols or practices of a people's pre-Moslem or Christian past; often they are either destroyed or ignored. I would also note that early (Long before Evangelicals and Fundamentalist existed) Christians destroyed pagan temples or sacred groves. The difference is that after a few generations Christians tend to lose their concerns about these symbols or practices, with traditional Christian bodies giving some of them a Christian purpose, (As with Christmas being dated near the Solstice) and Evangelicals ignoring them outright. Christianity, though, cannot posses the complete control of a society that is part of Islamic culture so inevitable many will ultimately decide to be nominal Christians or not be a believer at all. In a Christian country the past is never truly forgotten and can be appreciated. The Norse saga Beowulf is another example of this; although those who wrote down the work added in some Christian elements, the concepts of honor, bravery, and service held in esteem by pre-Christian Europe are recorded for posterity. The same goes for the events recorded by Greek, Roman, Celtic writers and bards and other European peoples.

Neither of these can compare to the fury that we see with Muslims. Little is known about the attempt made by Saladin's son to destroy Egyptian pyramids. This was unsuccessful due to the sheer bulk of these monuments and the Ayubbid Dynasty, thankfully, did not posses high explosives.

The world joined together in trying to persuade the Taliban to refrain from destroying the Statues to no avail.
These works, which sat along the Silk Road for hundreds of years, were treated like garbage. While Europeans can still be reminded of who their pre-Christians ancestors were and what inspired them, the various peoples of Muslim countries do not have this luxury. I cannot imagine an Afghan tribesman being able to speak of any attributes of his Iranian ancestors or of that society, but you can bet your bottom dollar that an old Irishman on the barren Western Coast of Ireland can recite a few lines about the hero Cuchulainn or from the Cattle Raid of Cooley.*

On the Egyptian arson, true to form, Israel received its share of the blame. They were accused by at least one person of desiring to remove any records of the Egyptian border with Israel.
See below for a quote from the article – this from an Archaeology Professor who would hardly be considered an Islamist and no doubt did not relish this destruction. Even he needed a non-Muslim to blame.
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A professor of archeology, Mamdouh al-Masry, held the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) accountable for failing to contain the fire and arrest the culprits.
“Was setting the complex on fire intentional in order to eliminate evidence of the borders between Egypt and Israel? Is Israel up to something especially after the Islamist victory in parliamentary election?” he said.

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The Arab Spring has unleashed the mob. More of this will follow.

* Unfortunately the vast majority of today's youth and middle-age adults will have no knowledge of these or similar subjects. The loss of this part of the heritage of Europeans and their cultural descendants is also a sad chapter. Here, though, the villains of the piece are not religious fanatics but Leftists bent on removing any and all traces the Western world's culture. They exert a tremendous effort to suppress and/or ignore the personalities, events, stories/literature, and more of what made the culture of the West. The Left cannot allow a culture that promotes individuality, heroism, sacrifice, and God forbid masculinity The only instance where they may would be in  its degraded form from a Muslim (Or a 18-24 year-old male who acts completely unfettered and thus proves to feminists that men are immature pigs).
This subject will have to be treated more thoroughly in a later post.

7th Day Adventists having another go at it? The Great Controversy is back!

An interesting thing occurred today that gave cause for my first post.

I had for some time been noting that, since the late 90s, I have heard or seen very little from anti-Catholic groups compared to the days before the Internet became accessible to most people. Now, I am not referring to anti-clerical people or those who are all over the Church for their pathetic failure to address the issue of pedophile priests until now. What I am talking about is the good old-fashioned anti-Catholic propaganda that we remember from Jack Chick tracts and others, those that paint as lurid pictures of the Church and her doctrines as possible. These were infamous for their taking the twisting and outright falsification of history to new levels. The Grandaddy of all of these was The Great Controversy. Ellen G. White, an extremely influential member of the early Adventist movement in the United States, authored the work in the late 19th century. In its 370 pages, in her effort to prove that Christians should be following Mosaic Law and thus worship on Saturday, Ms. White goes after the church almost page-by-page, rarely missing the chance to completely misrepresent the events to which she refers. Her utter lack of knowledge of the structure, practices, and beliefs of the early Christian church would not hold Ellen back. The spectacular claims of Christians worshiping on Saturday until Constantine (who of course created the Catholic Church according to her) is rivaled only by her empathy towards the German Emperor Henry IV as she recounts his treatment at the hands of Pope Gregory VII. From what we gather, to Ms. White it must have been perfectly fine for a lay ruler to keep for himself the right to appoint Bishops of his choice. Time and space forbid going into detail about the Investiture Controversy, but let's say that Ms. White would probably not have liked if the President or the Governor decided that he had the authority to appoint those who would be in charge of the 7th Day Adventists of her time.

A prologue to today's little spark: Shortly after returning home following the end of my enlistment with the Marine Corps in 1989, I began to note that what I then would have called "born again Christians" were not only highly aggressive in their proselytizing, it also that their work was so widespread. The efforts seemed to be almost entirely aimed at the Catholics in the workplace, among friends, at the mall (if that could be ascertained), etc. I would watch as Methodists, Presbyterians and others were left alone. (These groups have far more in common with Catholics than with Fundamentalists ie. belief in Baptismal Regeneration) Perhaps they were next on the list after the Catholics were beaten. Baptists and others who never the less worship on Sunday were also taking part in the free-for all against the poor, deluded Catholics. The 7th day Adventists seemed to be the most aggressive, even conducting repeated door-to-door campaigns that made the Jehovah's Witnesses look lazy. Their arguments were well-prepared and they sometimes really seemed to know what they were talking about. I myself felt that I was responsible to see if they were right and began reading and reading and reading. Ignatius Press and Apologetics organization such as Catholic Answers provided an in inexhaustible source of information.The more that I read, the more their positions subsequently weakened. This did not have the effect that I expected - those who were so full of enthusiasm to tell me how wrong my church was, once I began to explain that their arguments did not even start with firm foundations, now began to give answers that I would not have been allowed to give a few shorts months earlier. I would hear things like "Well I guess what matters in that you have faith". The proselytizing stopped almost immediately with most. The few who continued on like the poor WWII Japanese soldier found in the 50s on Guam too eventually to a one withdrew when faced with a whole new source of information - the Internet. All of a sudden, whole works of the early Christian Fathers and Catholic websites were available to anyone who could get their mitts on a computer with Internet access. The proselytizers seemed to have disappeared along with the advent of the new tool.  Even the facts about the founders of these organizations (including Ms. White) were within the reach of literally anyone. Aside from a few flare-ups, it appeared that the efforts of these people would from that point on  be confined to their own websites and blogs.

And today: In my mailbox was a copy of the Great Controversy. So here I sit and wonder. Are we in the West, while we keep an eye on those who would hope to bring Socialism and radical Islam among us, to go back to making sure that Christianity does not get subverted by others who themselves profess to be Christains but seek to completely redefine it?