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<DIV>Dear Howard,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Thank you for bringing this to our attention! This and other matters
pertaining to the history of Islam needs to become a matter of public gossip!
Sincerely, Val Geist</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=HowlBloom@aol.com
href="mailto:HowlBloom@aol.com">HowlBloom@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=paleopsych@paleopsych.org
href="mailto:paleopsych@paleopsych.org">paleopsych@paleopsych.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, July 30, 2005 7:38
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Paleopsych] Re: on
islam</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Christian--You have a point. Islam was conceived as a global,
boundariless religion. That conception was first born in 624 AD
when Allah granted Mohammed the right to Jihad. It expanded in 629, when
Mohammed sent letters to the six rulers of the empires of the world
that he knew inviting these emperors to Islam and implying that if
they didn't accept the invitation, Allah and his forces on earth, the Moslems,
would be forced to destroy them. Its message was emphasized in 632 AD
when Mohammed, on his deathbed, ordered an attack on the Byzantine
Empire.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This attack, by the way, was just one of many. In ten years
Mohammed commanded 65 military campaigns, campaigns of conquest that brought
the entire Arab Peninsula to Islam. Mohammed fought in 27 of those
campaigns himself, slicing and killing other humans. Which is why he is
called a prophet of the sword. And why it is said in the Koran that
paradise can only be achieved "in the shadow of swords".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But the fact remains that this is a rapidly globalizing world, a world
that cries out both for and against a central order. Mohammed invented
the creed for such an order, and the world of Islam has refined it during
1,290 years of operation under a central caliphate. Now men like Osama
want to revive that "new world order", that global caliphate. As many of
Osama's supporters and predecessors have said, the time is ripe for such a
thing. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I hope that we Westerners offer a more appealing alternative.
Howard</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 7/30/2005 2:20:49 PM Eastern Standard Time,
christian.rauh@uconn.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Some
argue that the great achievements of the Arab world were really
<BR>pre-islamic and that islam put a break on innovation which was center to
<BR>middle eastern culture before it. Things still were good for a while but
<BR>that was only some inertia from the old times as it took centuries to
<BR>change things in those days. Islamic religion changed the
<BR>characteristics of that culture (or culture groups) from decentralized
<BR>and autonomous to centralized and controlled. The first seemed to be a
<BR>better option for progress. What is striking to me is that the US seems
<BR>to be going the same way - in a counter-"terrorist" movement with
<BR>islamic roots, this country is absorbing the worst features of its
"enemy".<BR><BR>As a disclaimer, I know little about Islam, the above is
from what I've <BR>heard. Anyone with better knowledge should point erros
and elucidate.<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 PTSIZE="10"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">----------<BR>Howard Bloom<BR>Author of The Lucifer
Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History and Global
Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 21st
Century<BR>Recent Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York
University; Core Faculty Member, The Graduate
Institute<BR>www.howardbloom.net<BR>www.bigbangtango.net<BR>Founder:
International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic of
Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The Big
Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society,
Academy of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society,
International Society for Human Ethology; advisory board member: Institute for
Accelerating Change ; executive editor -- New Paradigm book series.<BR>For
information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see:
www.paleopsych.org<BR>for two chapters from <BR>The Lucifer Principle: A
Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, see
www.howardbloom.net/lucifer<BR>For information on Global Brain: The Evolution
of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, see
www.howardbloom.net<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT>
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