Canaanite (or Hebrew?) Idol.

will the feminists ever shut the hell up?

When the Israelite women baked cakes for the Queen of Heaven (mother of the gods) the image was easier to produce in bread dough:

The original bread of life. Hebrew and Canaanite women molded loaves of this figure which were blessed and ritually eaten, the precursor of the communion wafer (sun god image). Her idols were found under every green tree, were carved from living trees, or erected as poles or pillars beside roadside altars. Crude clay images of her as tree of life later evolved into the more refined Syrian Artemis. Ancient sexual rites (dismissed to this day by male scholars as cult prostitution) associated with worship of Asherah insured that matrilineal descent patterns, with their partnership rather than dominant values, would continue. Hebrew priestly iconoclasts finally uprooted Asherah, supplanting matrifocal culture with patriarchy. via piney.com

Reported:

Some scholars say early versions of the Bible featured Asherah, a powerful fertility goddess who may have been God's wife. Research by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, unearthed clues to her identity, but good luck finding mention of her in the Bible. If Stavrakopoulou is right, heavy-handed male editors of the text all but removed her from the sacred book.
What remains of God's purported other half are clues in ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in an ancient Canaanite coastal city, now in modern-day Syria. Inscriptions on pottery found in the Sinai desert also show Yahweh and Asherah were worshipped as a pair, and a passage in the Book of Kings mentions the goddess as being housed in the temple of Yahweh.
J. Edward Wright, president of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, backs Stavrakopoulou's findings, saying several Hebrew inscriptions mention “Yahweh and his Asherah." He adds Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors.
"Traces of her remain, and based on those traces... we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant," he told Discovery News.
...Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, says the ancient Israelites were polytheists, with only a “small majority” worshipping God alone. He says it was the exiling of an elite community within Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C that lead to a more "universal vision of strict monotheism."

Well, as for Biblical references, we do have these
וַיָּקֶם מִזְבְּחֹת לַבַּעַל, וַיַּעַשׂ אֲשֵׁרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אַחְאָב מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ לְכָל-צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַיַּעֲבֹד אֹתָם.
and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel,
2 King 21:3
וְהִנֵּה נֻתַּץ מִזְבַּח הַבַּעַל, וְהָאֲשֵׁרָה אֲשֶׁר-עָלָיו כֹּרָתָה
the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it
Judge 6:28
But the Torah has this:
לֹא-תִטַּע לְךָ אֲשֵׁרָה, כָּל-עֵץ:  אֵצֶל, מִזְבַּח יְ וָה אֱלֹהֶ-יךָ
Thou shalt not plant thee an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee
Deuteronomy 16:21
(A Hebrew-language Wikipedia summary.  A larger one in English.)
Seems to me Asherah is very prominent and well-known in  the Bible.  So what's the big deal?  Does one have to possess weird theories to be famous?

via myrightword.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Violent Ancient Feminism Confronting the Hebrew

I was reading some interesting things about Ba'al. the Assyrian god was El... who is the creator god that some people believe Judaism turned into Elohim. El's wife was Asherah. This character called Ba'al kept the god El in check by castrating him. These religions were deeply lunar, matriarchal and violent. Kind of a mother goddess Gloria Steinem religion before contemporary feminism. El is apparently some kind of Bull who is castrated. Ba'al acts within the control of Asherah who is a woman. Kind of like Hilary Clinton but worse.

Asherah: The Goddess of the Sea and wife of El. An important council to El with a minor association to fertility.

Ba'al was apparently a war god. the bible does not clarify this. he is not the big cheese. kind of funny that the Hebrew word for "Master" comes from Ba'al. like Ba'al Shem Tov.... meaning "Master of the Good Word"

but it is interesting to me that the creator god gets castrated by the "Master". it would seem that women had a lot of power in this theology.

Malik Zulu Shabazz (Chairman New Black Panther Party) says Zionists Control Media

concerning the philosophy of MLK and non violent resistance. the FBI will release the documents concerning the movement in 2024. Most of us will live to see the release of this information. It will prove without a doubt that MLK was not committed to the philosophy of non violence and was in fact using it as a public relations stunt for a movement that was committed to violent revolution. many of my generation have been indoctrinated into the philosophy of MLK, but in a little over a decade we will see that in fact the FBI and CIA were interested in furthering the flawed propaganda of MLK because they used it as a means to control populations to this day. MLK was a lot more dynamic then most historians have given him credit for and it is a great irony that a charade that he used to further a very worthy cause was eventually used to subdue that same cause for half a century. justice, freedom and the right to live in dignity are not accomplished with non violence. it is only through revolutionary struggle that the rights articulated in our constitution are upheld. It is very sad to see how much abuse is done in the name of non violence. it would of been impossible for MLK to of known that his own revolutionary charade would of been used against him after his death.

On March 8th, 2011, Malik Zulu Shabazz, the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party, spoke at an event at Depaul University, entitled The Legacy of Malcolm X. I have obtained the audio from the event. The event was organized by Depaul's United Muslims Moving Ahead, (UMMA, how cute!) a student group.

Due note that the audio is nearly two hours, I have listened to all of it and much of it is quite boring, except for one 40 second outburst by Malik Zulu Shabazz, which occurs roughly 1 hour 41 minutes in:

It was not too long after 9/11 that I was just listening and I would hear everybody give a different view, a different opinion, and a different standpoint on all the exact same information that they got from CNN. So it gets you to thinking, what about the people who control CNN and all the other major media institutions.  The same people that control all the major media institutions are the same people that control Hollywood. They are the same people that own all the major distribution companies for music. I won’t say Jew, but Zionist. Right. And with this power, they are able to manipulate and mold the popular opinion of the masses on such an extreme scale, to which your opinions aren’t really your own. 

Audio of the quote:

What is so troubling about this event is that this is the message that young Muslims on US campuses are being indoctrinated into, and there are no dissenting voices offered. This was a university sanctioned exercise in hate speech, and what is so pernicious is that there is a well known double-standard in place at DePaul that if a Jewish or Israeli speaker were to make similar comments about, say, a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to destroy the West's wicked house from within, they would certainly have been challenged, and probably have been cancelled. 

So this is the message that United Muslims Moving Ahead wants to promote, that the Jews/Zionists are in control of the government, news, banking and entertainment industries. I think they should change their name from United Muslims Moving Ahead to United Muslims Unending Antisemitism, because if we're learned anything from the turmoil in the Middle East, the one uniting factor for every group is good old fashioned Jew-hatred.

Summary of rest of Shabazz's talk

In the rest of his speech Shabazz talks about non-violent protests led by Malcolm X and MLK Jr. He then spoke a bit about the growth of the Nation of Islam @ 60:00. He talked about his childhood and how it was being part of a family that was well known. He then spoke a bit about his time in prison. He then mentioned his travels through the Middle East and that few people in the Middle East knew about Malcolm X, unless they were in the upper echelon of society. He then began to speak about his grandfather and his rise to prominence and what he learned from him. @ 88:20 He says that he does not like to speak , but when he does he stresses education and unity. He then said @ 97:15 that he went to Libya recently as part of a delegation, which included Cynthia McKinney and met with Moammar Gadaffi. He says he went as part of delegation for diplomatic relations and that what is going on now is different than what was happening when he was there. He also said that what was happening was different than what the media was saying. Shabazz's speech more or less came to a close after the quote I mentioned above.

via challahhuakbar.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Obama Uses UN to Push Homosexual Agenda

The UN is, as always, eager to oblige:
The US Constitution protects our freedom by affirming natural rights. This is why our liberal rulers reject its authority in favor of the United Nations, which attacks our freedom by inventing unnatural rights that are not rights at all but arbitrary dictates and special privileges handed down from on high. One example is the use of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to attack the Second Amendment. Here’s another example:

Obama Uses UN to Push Homosexual Agenda (Moonbattery)

Gay friendly, to put it mildly.

Muhsin Hendricks
Gay Imam Visits Netherlands
To Spread Message:
It’s Okay To Be Muslim And Gay!
via queermeup.com

10 Reasons Gay Americans Should Fear ‘Islamofascism’ (ROP)

An excellent article on Islam’s current state of war against homosexuals. (NewsReal)

(Turkey) Gay Soccer Referee Fights to Keep Job…
Radio Netherlands
He’s a threat to Islam. He must die. But also: Bravo, what courage! Radio Netherlands Worldwide has received many responses to the portrait of Mushin Hendricks, the gay imam from South Africa. Hendricks doesn’t feel under pressure from death threats, and insists “I’ll keep on asking questions.”
Homosexuality in Muslim countries

Arab countries: In many Arab countries there are severe punishments for homosexuals. In some countries the death penalty is imposed: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania and parts of Somalia and Nigeria. In those countries, sharia law applies. Gay men risk lashings, long prison sentences or stoning. Egypt has no death penalty for gay men. But even there the authorities sometimes react harshly. Homosexual acts are seen as displaying ‘contempt for religion’. In the past, gay men were tortured.
Iran: The Islamic Republic of Iran is considered the most gay-unfriendly country in the world. In 2005, two young gay men aged 17 and 18 years were hanged. It caused a storm of international criticism. Lesbians get 100 lashes.
Indonesia: Homosexuality is permitted in principle. Moderate Muslim scholars believe that, under Islam, there is no reason to reject gay men. Some regions of Indonesia – such as Aceh – are less liberal. There, gay men face 100 lashes and eight years in prison.

Mostly from the Arab world, but also from Indonesia, came reactions to the article about Imam Hendricks.
Reinhard Luhulima from Indonesia writes: “Hendricks’ utterances reflect his own beliefs. If each person expresses his own beliefs about the teaching of God, this can lead to chaos in the world. Hendricks should be hung for his beliefs, which are misplaced.”
And this is on our Arabic site: “What I know is that there is no place for homosexuality in Islam. Whoever claims that is a jihadist. Could this be a jihadist imam? ”
Two invitees:
But even in the Netherlands there is still little sympathy for the story of this imam who maintains that there is indeed room in Islam for homosexuality. When Hendricks recently gave a lecture in the Netherlands, only two of the 50 invitees showed up.
“I feel that the Muslim community in the Netherlands is not yet ready to openly discuss sexuality, let alone homosexuality. I don’t think an imam is willing to take a position about it. They avoid the subject.”
The article on the gay imam was used by RNW partner stations and many other websites. 1,200 readers responded on one South African forum and 400 Senegalese gave their opinion on the news site seneweb.com. Everywhere the story led to confrontations between supporters and opponents.
Middle Ages
The proponents: a reader from Indonesia cannot imagine that Allah punishes gay people for something they have not asked for themselves: “They are born with it. It is not fair if God punishes them, when we consider God the Merciful. Another reader praised Hendricks for his battle against fundamentalism in Islam: “Good to finally see Islam  – albeit slowly – trying to move out of the Middle Ages!”
But the vast majority of the reactions are negative. For example, Hendricks is a danger to Islam “because he interprets his faith the wrong way. The Qur’an and the Hadith – the traditions of the Prophet – offer this reader simply no room for homosexuality.”
The right to ask questions
Hendricks sees himself as a practicing Muslim who wants to discuss the subject within the Muslim community. He has spent many years in Pakistan studying Islam. He is no longer afraid of death threats:
“The Qur’an calls on Muslims to ask questions. And I’m making use of that right. I don’t think that Allah, who has given me that right, will punish me at the same time because I’m making use of it. Some Muslims react too emotionally to the subject. Many innocent people are dying because of the misconception that Islam is against homosexuality.”

via sheikyermami.com

Why Amira Hass Is Against the Firing of Qassams

Amira Hass

Amira Hass's Op-Ed yesterday, "The sanctity of the soaring Qassam," provides a fascinating look into the depths of her psyche.

In a display of verbal gymnastics, Ha'aretz's Hass attempts to explain to Hamas why the group should not fire Qassams at Israel. Why gymnastics? Because instead of simply saying, "Don't fire Qassams in populated areas because it is a crime against humanity and wrong," she speaks in terms of tactical interests.
Hass explains that Qassam attaks enables the Israeli military "to put on an act of being an army, one that targets civilians, and thus provide Israel with more ammunition for its victim show."
Hass gives additional reasons why Hamas should not fire rockets:

It's wrong to provide [Israel] with pretexts that would enable it to once again put Gaza's children and old people through an ordeal like Cast Lead, or even one half as bad.

And

The Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. The Qassams merely feed Israel's madness. It is not the Qassams that will ensure the Palestinians, both in and out of Gaza, a life of dignity. It is not the Qassams that will topple the Israeli walls around the world's largest prison camp.

Despite several attempts to explain why Hamas should not fire Qassam rockets, she never once mentions the significance of firing on civilians. Hass is simply not capable of just once simply saying: shooting rockets at civilians is a wrong and unjustified act. Period.
Her total lack of feeling for the lives of Israelis is on display when she states:

Who cares that the "appropriate Zionist response" to 50 mortar shells, which sowed fear but did not kill, was the killing of two 16-year-olds?

It is pure luck that the Qassams only "sowed fear but did not kill." Is Hass waiting for someone to (once again) be killed by Qassam fire before she will acknowledge that indiscriminate firing on civilians is wrong?
Beyond the fact that it has been a matter of luck that the mortars did not kill anyone in this round, Hass is completely unconcerned about the emotional trauma suffered by those who lived through 50 mortar attacks (as well as thousands of rockets over the last decade). Will Hass so easily dismiss Israeli strikes in Gaza that result in damage but not death?
-- By Yishai Goldflam. To see the Hebrew version of this blog post, visit Presspectiva, CAMERA's Israeli site.
TS
CAMERA/Snapshots
24 March '11
http://blog.camera.org/archives/2011/03
/why_amira_hass_is_against_the.html

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

image via palestinechronicle.com

Abbas exposed as a liar on video - It doesn't get more blatant than this!

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Note: Words matter, messages matter.
statement via Doc's Talk

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar) via elderofziyon.blogspot.com image via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Terror victim was a British tourist

A woman who was killed when a bomb exploded at a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem on Wednesday was British.  The British Embassy said the woman's family in the UK had been informed. Thirty people were also injured by the bomb, which was left in a bag on a pavement near the central bus station.  Jerusalem suffered a spate of bus bombings by Palestinian militants between 2000 and 2004, but attacks had stopped in recent years. The Palestinian PM condemned the bombing.  via bbc.co.uk

The BBC is spinning here. The bombing never stopped!!!!!! ...and the Palestinian PM had to be forced by Obama to condemn the bombing.

The name of the person who was killed in Wednesday's bus bombing has not yet been named. The reason is that she was a tourist - a woman age approximately 60. They have not found her family (they had trouble identifying her) and therefore the name has not been released.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

so I ask Obama where is the moral equivalent? 

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

This Ongoing War: A Blog: 24-Mar-11: Rockets fired into Israel yet again

Ynet is reporting this morning (9:00am Israel time) that a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area south of Ashkelon. There are no reports of injury or damage, but this outcome is not what the terrorists want. Today's Qassam comes after five mortar shells (possibly more) were fired into southern Israel yesterday from the northern Gaza Strip. Ynet says army sappers who examined the shells said some of them contained phosphorus, prohibited under the Geneva Convention for use as a weapon. Haaretz says yesterday's barrage included a Qassam. Fortunately again, no injuries or damages were reported in Wednesday's attacks - a tactical failure for the hatred-driven jihadists who are entirely focused on civilian targets.

via thisongoingwar.blogspot.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous