The truth is there are numbers of Burmese working in Israel as workers. Most of them are
family members of Burmese Army Soldiers.
Israel has been helping in changing Avionics of Burmese Air Force Jet fighters bought from China with more advanced one manufactured by them.
Israel has been long time ally of Burmese Military Government,preaching about a small country surrounded by populous Muslim Countries like Bangladesh, and part of India.
Another point Israel used to preach the Southeast Asian country is theory of Pan Islamic South East Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei are Muslim countries. If Thailand’s Muslim minority become powerful and asking for autonomy from its government, there may be domino effect, in which in Burma also Muslims may ask for own Autonomous state may be in Yakhine state for Rohingya’s.
That sounds scary for Junta. Junta rather wants Burmese to be diluted by Chinese who are willing to follow any faith as they do not have any principle faith, and their ideology, Communism facing Dilemma as Chinese Communist Government is openly supporting the oppressors.
In my opinion Chinese and Israel has similar attributes towards Burma.
1. Helping the Evil regime of Burma
2.Teaching how to effectively suppress the minority groups
Israel has vast experience of effectively controlling and intimidating Palastines for several decades. From travel restrictions of Burmese Muslims, to other discriminating policy such as not issuing birth certificate to Muslim newborn, denying full citizenship of the Burmese Muslims those are Burmese who’s faith is Islam are all due to Israel advice.
In South East Asia, Israel’s has two strategic allies. One is Burma and another country is among the world riches countries, even though it is very small in size.
As I mentioned in previous post, we can not blame for others for what we are today. However, all of us should have bigger brain, bigger eyes and bigger ears, so that we can understand what is really unfolding behind the scene.
( Israel has already denied any supports towards Military Junta of Burma, however these facts I have mentioned above are the truth, and Allah knows the best)
Origanated by San Oo Aung
Friday, December 14, 2007
The truth of Israel behind Burmese Junta,directing anti Muslim policy
Past History of Military Junta’s violent discrimination against Burmese Muslims
This news has posted in Islam Online in the year 2002 , however it still serve as a summary of the Plight of Burmese Muslims in Junta ruled Myanmar.
(IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar to take up the plight of the Southeast Asian country’s embattled Muslim community when he visits next month.
In a 12-page report released prior to the visit, the New York-based rights watchdog listed a spate of attacks on Myanmar’s Muslims and the steady erosion of their religious freedoms, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“The government must protect the rights of Muslims. Instead, it has imposed restrictions on Muslim religious activities and taken no action to punish those responsible for destroying Muslim homes and mosques,” AFP quoted HRW director Mike Jendrzejczyk as saying.
Violence against Myanmar’s Muslim minority was triggered by anger among the overwhelmingly Buddhist population at the destruction in March 2001 of ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by the hardline Islamic Taliban regime then in power.
In some cities outside the capital, Yangon, there were credible reports of military intelligence officers “stirring up anti-Muslim violence,” the human rights group said, AFP reported.
The worst violence occurred in May and September last year when Myanmar’s economic crisis was at its most severe.
In Taungoo north of Yangon, more than 1,000 people led by “robed Buddhist monks” attacked Muslim shops, homes and mosques.
There were beatings and at least nine deaths, according to witnesses cited in the report.
Since then, Muslims nationwide have complained of restricted freedom to travel and to worship.
The U.N. special envoy, former Malaysian ambassador Razali Ismail, is due to make his eighth trip to Myanmar August 2.
He is expected to meet with ethnic leaders as well as members of the ruling military junta and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
A recent human rights report has accused Myanmar’s military junta of using systematic rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women in eastern Shan state.
The report, prepared by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women’s Action Network documents the rapes of 625 girls and women in Shan state by Myanmar troops, mostly between 1996 and 2001.
But the government on July 10, 2002, accused the two rights groups which reported on the rape claims of allegedly conspiring with the Shan United Revolutionary Army to scupper its rapprochement drive with Washington.
The U.S. State Department said it had raised its concerns with the regime over the report.
“We are appalled by reports that the Burmese military is using rape as a weapon of war against civilian populations in Shan State,” AFP quoted a U.S. spokeswoman as saying, using the country’s former name.
“We have raised our concerns with the Burmese regime and urged them to fully investigate any and all allegations of the systematic rape of ethnic minority girls and women in Burma and appropriately punish those guilty of such heinous crimes,” she added.
“The report in question presents all sorts of details including dates, and places and battalion numbers and names of individual perpetrators involved,” she concluded, casting doubt on Myanmar’s government’s version of events.
originated by San Oo Aung
Friday, December 7, 2007
Where is the Muslim Outrage?
As a Muslim I am outraged at this nonsense. When Prophet Muhammad 's cartoons were published, the few Muslims around the world were outraged to the point of becoming destruct ive. They burned the embassy in Syria. Their contention was that the Prophet cannot be contained in an image, they were right but they were dead wrong on destroying any property, it went against the very principle s taught by the Prophet "to forgive the wrong doers" . Not enough of us were outraged against those criminals to make a differenc e.
Ms. Gibbons affection ately calls the Teddy bear "Muhammad" and the fanatics cry foul. The good for nothing silent majority needs to step and condemn the cleric and the government of Sudan for treating a lady for her benevolence in such an ugly manner. She probably would not have, had she known about it. Prophet Muhammad would have been saddened with these guys' behavior. When the Buddha Statue, a world heritage monument was destroyed in Pakistan last month, where was the Muslim outrage? When the Buddhist Monks were locked up in Burma, where was the Muslim outrage? What is good for the goose has got to be good for the gander. The third Caliph Omar punished his own son against a complain t from a Jewish businessman: such was the sense of Justice. Where is that sense of justice and fairness now? Mirza A. Beg writes, "...a woman in Saudi Arabia was gang-raped. She was seen in a car with a person not of her family. She was also found guilty along with the rapists and recommended punishment under the Saudi Law." That was not bad enough, when she appealed to the Media her punishment was doubled because she made it public. Where is the Muslim outrage? Why aren't the Muslims jamming the phone lines of Saudi Embassies around the world? Why aren't the Muslims decrying the Saudis for calling it an Islamic Law? It ain' t, it is the bizarre law of shameless men who do not follow thier own religion of peace. "In Sudan, a British teacher was arrested for the sin of helping her class of seven year olds to name a cuddly teddy bear, Muhammad. Yesterday, after a court trial, she was sentenced to 15 days in jail, and it is reported that a crowd was clamoring for a death sentence. In a closed dictatorial country a crowd does not gather, it is allowed or urged to gather." Writes Mirza Beg. Where is the Muslim outrage? The ones who forgive are the dearest to the lord. Where is this verse buried? There were members of the state legislature in India who publicly called to kill a heretic, and there was a cleric who offered a bounty for killing the same heretic. Where is the Muslim outrage against these criminals? God says "Killing one human is like killing the whole humanity ". Why isn' t this verse evoked? Darfur is bleeding, where is the Muslim outrage? The time has come for the Muslims to speak up; the good for nothing majority needs to speak up, and let their outrage be known. No doubt, the one' s who express their outrage are not given the outlet. The media does not see sensationa lism in this. At the World Muslim Congress and a few other organizations we will continue to compile the outrage expressed by Muslims around the world. I urge the media to give voice to the Muslims who speak up. It gives hopes to the mankind, whether we are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists or Zoroastrians, we face the common enemy - ignorance. Ignorance displayed by super literate people as well as illiterate.
References: HERE HERE and HERE Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the www. FoundationforPlu ralism.com and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussin g pluralism, terrorism, interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of the www. WorldMuslimCongr ess.com with a simple theme: "Good for Muslims and good for the world. " His personal Website is www.MikeGhouse. net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail. com
Monday, November 12, 2007
bloodless heart of muslims
Oh, people of Burma , pls let Ur blood to run in ur hearts, we have been being selfish for long time.
Let me give one example to compare our society with one company or business organization. We are like staffs in company, to succeed our company goals we have to take our role to play together and take the chance to win. Among ourselves having problems, don't shake or mix with our own organization. For instance, unless we like one of us, we will be thinking how to take down him not only in a period but the rest of his life like doing wrong things instead of right one to overcome ur satisfaction on his suffering. Finally ur conduct will affect the company or organization and then ur profit as well as ur success will getting down and also ur family and the rest . pls think a second before what ever u do, don't forget that everything will be reflected.
Now look at our community (Organization) , what our people (staff) are doing, Oh big shame, we r learning higher education consisting so many theory to adapt in ur lives.
How people are talk about others, in front of them and behind of them is equal is it? And accepting discrimination is totally not good and we have been suffering for years in Burma . What’s difference between us and dictatorship?
" Allah says " Oh man kinds we created you a single pare a male and a female and made you nations and tribes and you may come to know each others"
Referring about Ayat, we come to know that we must satisfy with our status such as tribes and languages etc. I see some people are being not satisfied with our own and being look down other tribes as well. Have u ever thought that u r against above Ayat. Pls remember the way u think will be ur behaviour not depend on ur tribes.
Leaders of tomorrow in Burmese Muslim society, how u will be leaders, now if u don't like to be negotiated each others. We r sent here to be tested by Allah, so r u living for whom?
Pls remember, unless u give, u won't get anything. I mean if we examine ourselves, we can know that we like to blame leaders and country. How u have sacrificed for others. Think and think.
Whatever I have said above will be liked by those who want to be united and finding that is falling. The rest will hate this.
Oh by the way, pls test ur heart ur blood cross through it or not after read this, bcos there is no feeling without blood. (One Burmese saying: ‘u have blood to do’ means r u dare to do that r u feel it is right to do).
For Muslim, we r in Islam.
This msg is for only those who want to examine himself. Not related with all.
A Short History of the Bible
The stories of the Bible evolved slowly over centuries before the existence of orthodox religions. Many belief cults spread stories and myths probably handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation before people wrote them down. Many of the stories originally came from Egyptian and Sumerian cults. All of these early religions practiced polytheism, including the early Hebrews. Some of the oldest records of the stories that later entered the Old Testament came from thousands of small cylinder seals depicting creation stories, excavated from the Mesopotamia period. These early artifacts and artworks (dated as early as 2500 B.C.E.) established the basis for the Garden of Eden stories a least a thousand years before it impacted Hebrew mythology.
Mesopotamian Eden predates Genesis
An example of a cylinder seal depicting a Garden of Eden story. A man and woman sitting under the seven branched Tree of Life. Note the snake on the right. Akkadian Cylinder Seal, 2330-2150 B.C.E.
Virtually every human civilization in the Middle East, before and through Biblical times, practiced some form of female goddess worship. Archeologists have confirmed that the earliest law, government, medicine, agriculture, architecture, metallurgy, wheeled vehicles, ceramics, textiles and written language had initially developed in societies that worshiped the Goddess. Later the goddesses became more war-like with the influence of the northern invaders who slowly replaced the goddesses with their mountain male war gods. So why doesn't the Bible mention anything about the Goddess? In fact it does, but in disguise from converting the name of the goddesses to masculine terms. Many times "Gods" in the Bible refers to goddesses. Ashtoreth, or Asherah, named of masculine gender, for example, actually refers to Astarte- the Great Goddess. The Old Testament doesn't even have a word for Goddess. The goddesses, sometimes, refers to the Hebrew word "Elohim" (masculine plural form) which later religionists mistranslated into the singular "God." The Bible authors converted the ancient goddess symbols into icons of evil. As such, the snake, serpents, tree of knowledge, horns (of the bull), became associated with Satan. The end result gave women the status of inferiority, a result which we still see to this day.
The Old Testament consists of a body of literature spread over a period from approximately 1450 B.C.E. to 200 B.C.E. There exists no original writings of the Old Testament. There does exist, however, hundreds of fragments from copies that became the old testament. These fragments consist of Cuneiform tablets, papyrus paper, leather etchings and the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. The scribes of the old testament wrote in classical Hebrew except for some portions written in Aramaic. The traditional Hebrew scribes wrote the texts with consonants but the Rabbis later added vowels for verbal pronouncing. Of course the Rabbis did their best in choosing the vowels that they thought gave the words their proper meaning and pronouncement. In the second century C.E., or even earlier, the Rabbis compiled a text from manuscripts as had survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and on this basis they established the traditional or Masoretic text, so called from the Hebrew word Massorah. This text incorporated the mistakes of generations of copyists, and in spite of the care bestowed on it, many errors of later copyists also found their way into it. The earliest surviving manuscripts of this text date from the ninth to eleventh centuries C.E. It comes mostly from these texts which religionists have used for the present Old Testament translations.
The New Testament has even fewer surviving texts. Scholars think that not until years after Jesus' alleged death that its authors wrote the Gospels. There exists no evidence that the New Testament came from the purported original apostles or anyone else that had seen the alleged Jesus. Although the oldest surviving Christian texts came from Paul, he had never seen the earthly Jesus. There occurs nothing in Paul's letters that either hints at the existence of the Gospels or even of a need for such memoirs of Jesus Christ. The oldest copy of the New Testament yet found consists of a tiny fragment from the Gospel of John. Scholars dated the little flake of papyrus from the period style of its handwriting to around the first half of the 2nd century C.E. The language of most of the new testament consists of old Greek.
Oldest known snippet from the New Testament
This photo shows a papyrus fragment from the Gospel of John, discovered in Egypt, the oldest known fragment from any part of the New Testament, dated from the first half of the 2nd century C.E.
Script appears on both sides, the front contains verses 31-33 and the back, verses 37-38.
The fragment resides in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.
Interestingly, there existed many competing Christian cults in the early years after Jesus' alleged death. Some sects saw the universe in dualisms of goodness and sin, of light and darkness, God and the Devil. Other Christian sects performed odd rituals, some of which involved the swallowing of semen, thought of as a sacred substance. Many other Christians also wrote mystical stories and by the second century there existed more than a dozen Gospels, along with a whole library of other texts. These include letters of Jesus to foreign kings, letters of Paul to Aristotle, and histories of the disciples. In one of these secret Gospels, it describes Jesus taking naked young men off to secret initiation rites in the Garden of Gethsemene. There lived Christian Gnostics (knowers) who believed that the church itself derived from the Devil to keep man from God and from realizing his true nature. In those first centuries of Christianity orthodoxy did not exist and when an organized orthodox church finally came, it got defined, almost inadvertently, in argument against many of the Gnostic sects.
So the idea of the Bible as a single, sacred unalterable corpus of texts began in heresy and later extended and used by churchmen in their efforts to define orthodoxy. One of the Bible's most influential editors, Irenaeus of Lyon, decided that there should only exist four Gospels like the four zones of the world, the four winds, the four divisions of man's estate, and the four forms of the first living creatures - the lion of Mark, the calf of Luke, the man of Matthew, and the eagle of John. In a single stroke, Irenaeus had delineated the sacred book of the Christian church and left out the other Gospels. Irenaeus also wrote what Christianity did not include, and in this way Christianity became an orthodox faith. A work of Irenaeus, Against the Heresies, became the starting point for later inquisitions.
There has existed over a hundred different versions of the Bible, written in most of the languages of the time including Greek, Hebrew and Latin. Some versions left out certain biblical stories and others contained added stories. The completed versions of the old and new testament probably got finished at around 200-300 C.E. although many disputed the authenticity of some books which later ended up as Apocrypha (uncanonical or of questionable authorship). For example, the book of Ecclesiasticus appears in the Catholic Bible but not in Protestant versions.
At around 405 C.E. Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymous) finished translating all the Old and New testament books into Latin (Vulgate Bible) which provided the Roman Catholic church added power. The Vulgate Bible went through several revisions up until the early 1900s!
Codex Palatinus
This shows a small segment of a leaf from the Codex Palatinus (British Library, add. ms. 40107, f.1), an Old Latin version of the gospels from the 4th or 5th century.
The text got written in two columns in uncial script which runs continuously without word breaks. Enlarged capital letters provide the only clue to place marking.
The salvation doctrines of Christianity survived and flourished because they afforded the priesthood considerable power. The priests alone held the keys to salvation and could threaten the unbelievers with eternal punishment. Hence, in the evolution of Christianity in the last two thousand years with priests preying on human fears, the religion has demonstrated extraordinary powers of survival. Even without the priests, the various versions of the Bible have had more influence on the history of the world, in the minds of men than any other literature.
Unfortunately, the beliefs in Scripture produced the most violent actions against man in the history of humanity up to that time. The burning of competing Christian cults (called heretics) by early Christian churches acted as the seeds of violent atrocities against man. There later followed the destruction of Rome by the Christian Goths, and the secret pagan sacrifices consented by the Pope, the Vandals that had the Bible with them as they destroyed imperial North Africa, the crusades in the eleventh century fighting in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean, Palestine and Syria, capturing Jerusalem and setting kingdoms from Anatolia to the Egyptian border. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade plundered Constantinople the most holy city at that time, with Christians fighting Christians. And the slaughters continued (and continues to this day). According to Romer, "More heretics and scholars were burned in the Middle Ages than were ever killed in Carolingian times. For at this time the Inquisition came into its own, and torture, largely unused as an instrument of government since Roman days, was reintroduced."
In the 1380s, John Wycliffe translated the first English Bible which inspired an English religious revolution which caused persecutions against him by the Catholic Church.
In the early 1500's the German heretic, Martin Luther, almost single handedly caused the final split from the Roman Catholic church and created the beginnings of the Protestant revolution. This split still influences violence to this day. He translated the Bible into German which further spread Protestantism. Luther also helped spread anti-Semitism with his preaching and books such as his "The Jews and their lies," all supported through his interpretation of the Bible. One should not forget that Hitler (a Christian and great admirer of Luther) and his holocaust could not have occurred without his influence and the support of Bible believing German Christians.
In the 1530s William Tyndale completed his version of the English Protestant Bible (probably with the aid of Luther) and the first to print the English Bible. He too felt the persecution of the Church and he spent his last days in imprisonment and exile. His enemies finally caught him and burned him at the stake, but because of his celebrity, they strangled him first (what nice guys!).
After Luther's German Bible, others followed suit by translating the Bible into their native languages including Dutch and French. Not until 1611 C.E. did a committee of translators and interpreters complete the most popular Bible of all time, the King James Version.
Today we still have dozens of Bible translation versions, with Bible scholars still arguing over the meaning and proper translations of words and phrases. The following shows just a few of the most popular versions:
King James Version (KJV)
The New King James Version (NKJV)
Modern King James Version [Green's Translation] (MKJV)
Literal Translation Version [Green] (LITV)
International Standard Version (ISV)
The New International Version (NIV)
English Standard Version (ESV)
New English Bible (NEB)
American Standard Version (ASV)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Revised Standard Version (RSV)
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Contemporary English Version (CEV)
Today's English Version (TEV)
The Living Bible (LB)
New Century Version (NC)New Life Version (NLV)
New Living Translation (NLT)
Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
Revised Young's Literal Translation (RYLT)
John Darby's New Translation
Weymouth New Testament Translation
Rotherham's
(One might wonder what will happen to the "new" revisions a few hundred years from now. Nevertheless, the King James Version still remains the most used Bible in the world today and it will probably continue its popularity long into the future.)
No doubt that future versions of Bibles will surface in the future: revisions of previously revised Bibles and newer revisions of new versions. The history of the many versions of the Bible stories, from the ancient Mesopotamian myths to the varied interpretations, interpolations, and versions of the Bible speaks volumes about the reliability of their interpretations and the alleged "truth" they claim the Bible holds, because it shows that the Bible comes not from supernatural agents but rather from human imagination. We have not one shred of evidence for the supernatural influence on human written works (and mostly from unknown authors), but we do have an abundance of evidence for human recorded beliefs and myths. This shows a marked difference between those of scientific works and those deriving from religious minds. For example, Euclid's Elements written around 300 B.C.E. has changed little since its inception. Scientists don't argue and debate about its meaning because they know it doesn't represent an absolute or fixed work. It only provides a step in the understanding of geometry. Most Christian apologists, on the other hand, view the Bible as fixed and absolute, if only they could only just get the interpretation correct. But regardless of how much the want the Bible to reflect their particular beliefs, they can never dislodge the violence and atrocities described and condoned by their God in the stories in the Old Testament. Nor can they dismiss the even more horrific result of the horrors of Hell as amplified by the words of the alleged Jesus in the New Testament where almost everyone on earth ends in eternal fire. In short, Bible belief influences horror, not by the majority but by the few that actually believe in its macabre prophecy and have the power to force their beliefs onto the majority.
We have little reason to think that violence inspired by Bibles and other religious texts will ever cease. One only has to look at the religious wars around the world to see belief's everlasting destructive potential. One only has to look at the Protestant-Catholic uprising in Ireland, the conflicts in the middle east with Jews fighting Moslems & Christians, the Gulf war, Sudan's civil war between Christians and Islamics, the Bosnia conflicts, and the war in Iraq. The desperate acts of fanatical individuals who have killed for their beliefs of Jesus, Mohammed, God or Satan would create a death list unmatched by any other method in history. The "Holy" Bible supports the notion of war and destruction, not only as a prophesy but as a moral necessity. If we wish to become a peaceful species, it may well serve us to understand the forces of belief that keep us in continual conflict and why the Bible has such a stronghold on the minds of people around the world.
The Dark Bible
Despite the fact that the Bible represents the best selling book of all time and serves as the sacred script for the Judeo-Christian faiths, it also stands as a book, by the majority, believed from ignorance. Strangely, in the Middle Ages the Catholic Church forbade the reading of the Bible by its congregation for fear that the people would misinterpret the texts. Many priests knew of the problematic and dark verses in the Bible. Too much questioning could result in a loss of faith, or so they thought. As a result, only the Church fathers had the right to make interpretations for its people. This gave the early Church power over its people and, at the same time, prevented its populace from ever becoming educated.
One would think that with today's practice of freedom of religion, education, free press and the availability of the Bible to anyone, that the Bible and its history would result in common knowledge. Nothing could stand further from the truth. Most Church fathers today concentrate only on the "good" phrases of the Bible. This of course represents an admirable approach as it serves to teach, stabilize and give meaning and morals to people in a society. However, Christians and Jews rarely hear about the dark side of the Scriptures from their religious leaders. Although most Christians own a Bible, few of them spend the time to actually read and understand what it actually represents. Many Christians find it shocking, even blasphemous for someone to point out that the Bible contains, not only errors, but atrocities that no Christian in good conscious would ever think of acting out. For example, how many Christians and Jews today would feel happy to bash a child's head against the rocks? Any secular question of this nature, of course, would result in revulsion, yet just such phrases occur in the Bible as well obscenities, filth and many horrendous phrases.
It will, perhaps, come from "good" Christians who will object most strongly to what I have put in and left out from the Dark Bible. However you may judge it, I have edited the Dark Bible in this way for several reasons:
Firstly, I wanted to share with people that the Bible does not represent only "high morality" or a means to better one's life; that most of the Bible, in fact, concerns itself with conquest, war, killings, and curses, many times coming from directly from Yahweh (God). By today's standards, many of these Biblical stories describe despicable atrocities.
Secondly, there exists a minority of faithful fundamentalists who take the Bible literally and act out or condone the atrocities in the Bible. People, groups and governments, for centuries, have instigated wars, pogroms, racism, hatred, anti-Semitism, terrorism, and the inferiority of women based on their religious beliefs. I wanted to point out some of the Biblical verses that people of faith have used as justification for their atrocities and also to help people become aware, and beware of the dangers that can result from belief in the Bible.
Thirdly, to make this knowledge easily available, I edited out the admirable phrases of the Bible in order to get to the point. Most people know about these "good" verses, and I should not have to point them out (there exists a plethora of books about the admirable works). I also left out most of the dark phrases of the Bible for if I had included them all, it would literally involve more information, along with the comments, than the Bible itself. I tried to keep this relatively compact. As a result, the Dark Bible represents a small sampling. I encourage the reader to investigate the history of the Bible and why it contains the stories that it does.
From the sampling of the dark passages of the Bible presented in this Dark version, it should become self evident that if one wishes to defend the concept of a "good" and "loving" God, the Bible should serve as the last source to use for supporting evidence.
Moreover, if we wish to know ourselves, it may well serve us to learn the limitations of our language system. The written form has existed for only six thousand years; only a brief instant of time relative to our millions of years of evolution. The Bible represents the Bronze Age beliefs of men at the birth of writing. As in most evolutionary trends, mistakes get made, sometimes fatally. Indeed, our species has become even more violent in relation to strengths of faith in written Scripture. Unfortunately faith relies on hope and ignorance. Only education and critical thinking can allow us the means to correct our mistakes.
With technology advancing every year, our weapons have the capability to destroy whole cities, countries, if not every person on the earth. If people continue to base their actions on ancient Biblical reasoning, any small minority who gains access to the destructive technology may very well carry out holocaust-like proportions on innocent men, women and children. It has happened before and it can easily happen again. Today we still see the destructive acts carried out around the world which originate from deep cultural roots based on religious Scripture. Although belief structures have given rise to ethnic culture, it can also produce life threatening situations to our existence on earth. Understanding our belief-systems and to de-emphasize the sacredness of the Bible may well help to prevent our own destruction.
The Dark Bible uses the King James Version (1611) Bible as its main source because more Christians use this version than any other (although various alternate verses come from other Bible versions with a caption as to its source.). It will help to use this text along with the reading of each verse with the complete chapter from the Bible so as to gain a better understanding of its context, or, simply click on a verse and it will take you to an online Bible where you can peruse the entire context. Many of the comments come paraphrased from established scholarly published work.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Muslims of Burma and Democratic Movement
Burma is a country that has people of many races, ethnicities and religions. Because of lack of reliable census data the exact number of these various communities is not known. There is no question though that the Buddhist population makes up the vast majority in the country, followed by Muslims, Christians, Hindus and animists. According to non-official estimates by various agencies (including those in the US State Department), the Muslim population in Burma is somewhere between 10 to 20%, including the much-discriminated and suffering Rohingya population of Arakan (Rakhaing), whose nearly half the population is now living in Diaspora as refugees in many parts of our world as a result of Burma's inhuman, discriminatory Citizenship Law of 1982. In spite of many hurdles that they faced, the Muslim population, while second to Buddhist population in Burma, has played positive roles in the critical junctures of the history of Burma -- from independence movement to nation-building. They have compromised many a times their local aspirations to make Burma more inclusive, federal and united under one flag. Unfortunately, a very alarming proportion of these minority Muslims of Burma, with their distinct religious ethos, has been the worst victims of dispossession, identity-loss, discrimination and inhuman treatment. That is simply unacceptable. It is inhuman, barbarous and criminal. In my last three decades of human rights activism, I have never seen a people so much discriminated as the Rohingyas of Burma -- solely because of their religion. The treatment of other Muslims of Burma is not anything to celebrate either. And the sad thing is all such abuses against Muslims are taking place in this age when the rest of humanity is trying to find common grounds to reach out and make a better future for all. A feudal state could be excused for its barbarous acts of the past against other peoples, because those practices were often the norms for the state mechanism -- creating an aura of fear. There was no Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) back then. It was a pre-modern era. But why do we see the worst forms of abuse today in the 21st century against Muslims in Burma, especially when the country ratified the UDHR? What pains me most is to see the utter repulsive hypocrisy that emanates from many Burmese so-called democracy leaders when it comes to an important matter like the citizenship rights of all Muslims of Burma - from one end to another. In this 21st century, some 60 years after Burma's Independence, they have no moral qualms to deny citizenship rights to a people that identifies itself as Rohingya Muslims of Burma. What hypocrisy? Are Rohingya Muslims not Burmese? If their so-called similarity with people in Bangladesh make them aliens in the land of their ancestors, I am sorry to state that one would be hard pressed to find people of one single race, ethnicity, color and creed located and confined to a single state of our time. We have to redefine our understanding of various nations of today and enact laws that will be barbarous and untenable. We have to force all the Hispanics to leave the USA and move to the south - while vast western territories of the current day USA were once their ancestral homes. We have to send the Afro-Americans back to Africa from where they were stolen and enslaved to work and make America beautiful and prosperous. How about the European white immigrants and their families that lived in the USA for the past 500 years? Where do we stop drawing the line of demarcation? How about the native Americans who were the first settlers to what later came to be known as the USA? Should we force them out to Siberia, where they are presumed to have come from? Do we have any moral right to uproot them today because they are a very tiny minority like the "Kala" or "Kula" race of Burma - the ancestors of today's Rohingya people? The Burmese aspiring democracy leaders have to wake up to the reality of our time and shun feudal, racist, xenophobic and intolerant mindset if they are truly serious about the future of Burma. They cannot just sing: we want democracy and human rights, but in their dictionary there is no place for Burmese Muslims, Rohingya and Karen minorities and other smaller groups. That behavior epitomizes hypocrisy. What Burma needs today is confidence building all the various races, ethinicities, religious communities where everyone is treated equally, equitably, justly and fairly. Big brother attitude of a majority community - dictating terms and conditions of statehood -- will not work. The majority must show their sincerity that once the rule of law and democracy is back, under a federal setup, it will not discriminate the minority, and it will revoke all discriminatory laws of the past and compensate for past mistakes. Only when the minority can trust and see a good future for them can they truly become productive forces of the society. Without them it would be like a body without an arm. Burma cannot afford to be limb-less.My suggestion to Muslims of Burma is to realize that they are living in a very crucial juncture of Burmese history. While they are the worst victims of discrimination under the SPDC regime, they are by nature a peaceful people who like to be recognized as equal citizens in a future Burma. They should reach out to other groups and find common grounds to bring about a positive change in Burma. Being on the receiving end of discrimination and dehumanization, they feel the pains of Burma more than any one else. Their collective suffering should unite them together and enable them to educate and motivate others on the necessity of eradicating such abuses from the Burmese society once and for all time. The Muslims of Burma are for restoration of democracy, human rights, equality and liberty where all the people of Burma can feel inclusive about their Federal state. They should support the movements of the Sangha and any group that is genuinely true to higher human values that foster amity and cooperation and not discrimination and intolerance.
The new wars of religions
In my mind, I think the communism is growing up inside US. I don't know really what is the author but I am sure this is an ideology of communism. The US may lossing the coldwar, so that communist Russia and China are increasinly going to extend their propaganda inside US.
The natual phenomenon is that if there is up, there is aslo down. United State is thinking that she is superior but she left no choice to follow the mensioned ideology of stopping religion for recovering their dignity that they are losing after invade the Iraq and Afgan.
Communism also will be failure and may be up rooted if they try to hit the religionist.
Actually politic is generated on the base of a believe or a trust. Already religionist have a faith to their God and they follow to the instructions after they believe the God. So far, if some one come to hit them against their faith and believe, no soceity will stand against them. Because about eighty percent of the world populations are religionist. How they can able to fight against them and against humanity?
I am sure again the all so-called super power will trun to zero ground soon with their fault ideology. They should respect instead of reject the religions.
Sincerely,
Ko Ko Linn
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Self-portrait Of An Emptiness
Don't wait until tomorrow
who lost her son is a monk.
Somebody had work up in midnight,
who had suffering for humanright.
Somebody had beatten on the road,
who had been holding a signboard.
Somebody is praying in the jail,
(for given water to monk are muslims)
who had arrested and touture all the day.
They have sacrificed for their country,
but their country had not free.
We have to handover their work
if you dare to give your life.
We have to follow their way,
Which they walk with love and pray.
We will fight to reach our goal,
Don’t wait until tomorrow.
Originated by May Min Set
