Sorry, I went off topic. Not that the thread is on topic to OP all that much. Heh.
Before we get on the case of Muslims, we need to look at Christians.
Did you know one of the reasons the Koran takes a dim view of Christians is because Islam accepts the 10 Commandments and has them in the Koran? So what, you say? Well, they think the part about "make no graven images" applies to crucifixes, Madonna statues, and all manner of sacred objects maintained by the Catholic Church, as one prime example.
The Koran is not alone in this position.
One of the things I learned when I prepared to go to Lutheran Seminary (Gettysburg) was that one of Martin Luther's first objections was that Christianity and specifically the Catholic Church had adopted graven images including Jesus Christ. The Old Testament says clearly to put no one or no thing between man and God. Not even a Prophet, not even a Messiah.
Luther gave up that objection after it almost got him killed, and because even his own supporters were adopting graven images (Christ on the Cross).
In the original aramaic text of the New Testament, amplified by the Dead Sea Scrolls, and revealed books dating to the first century AD that were not included in the Bible (a completely different subject, but the Christian Bible is the result of massive mistranslation and editing in a - successful - effort to minimize the role of females in the Church and consolidate power in the MALE Pope) it is clear Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God, much less the level Christianity has elevated him to.
The bishops on the Council ordered all manuscripts not chosen to be burned. Wonder why?
The problem arose when the First Council of Nicaea (composed of MALE Christian bishops) convened by Emperor Constantine adopted as Truth who Christ is: that Christ is the one true God in deity with the Father. This was 325 AD, and Constantine had two major objectives. First, to consolidate power over the Christian world in Constantinople, and second, to affirm Constantine as the first of a long line of strictly MALE Popes who would tell the people what to believe.
Much of the Council's translations and collations were done incorrectly, as evidenced by even the then relatively recent Greek language version of the Old Testament refering to God with a word which clearly means, in context, "He/She/It/Unknowable". In order to insure a MALE dominated Order, and to make it easier to establish Jesus as a stand-in for God, they made God MALE SINGLULAR. Hence, HE could be the Father of Jesus, and therefore Jesus could be of virgin-birth, and thus Jesus was deified by the crooked, evil pens of MEN bent on creating chains with which to shackle believers.
And so they have, and exceedingly well.
And we wonder why Islam calls us barbarians? Is it not obvious? Have we not proven we are over and over, and do we not still pray to graven images and call them God?
* Last updated by: privateer on 4/15/2012 @ 7:59 AM *
Living the Gypsy Life