In the same way that the Universe came into being with a Big
Bang, philosophical constructs start with a single idea from which branch out
clusters of other ideas, constellations of thoughts and classes of concepts. If
now, we reject the notion that religion is handed to us by a divine power we
cannot question, accepting instead the notion that religion is an ideological
construct we formulate in our mind – we must as a consequence, view religion as
starting with a single idea from which eventually will flow an entire construct
that resembles the Universe.
And so we ask: What was the starting point for each of the
three Middle Eastern religions which shaped the history of the world so
profoundly? In response, we can argue that Islam – being the most recent –
makes no effort to hide the reality that it came to build upon the work done by
the two which preceded it. Its founder, Mohammad, who was illiterate to begin
with, suddenly found himself able to read and write when he embraced the notion
that religion was the source of all knowledge. Ever since that time, when
religion is not corrupted, Islam and the quest for new knowledge have remained
tied together as a single movement.
As to Christianity, the notion of peaceful coexistence has
been its foremost preoccupation. Its founder, Jesus, spent his time working to
establish a sense of calm and serenity in the relationships that were forged by
then between the Roman rulers and the Jewish masses. But when it comes to
Judaism – which is the first of the three Middle Eastern religions – we
discover that the entire Jewish universe had come out the single notion of
hate.
In fact, the folklore relating to the birth of the Jewish
religion and Jewish nation makes it clear that the prerequisite to being a Jew
is to hate Egypt .
The history which the Jews have been celebrating for nearly four thousand years
on the day of Passover is that a nation was born to them the moment that they
started to hate the land which nurtured them for something like four hundred
years. Thus, for the Jew to be, he must first hate Egypt most profoundly, and he must
do so at the visceral level … otherwise he cannot be a Jew and cannot claim to
be one.
On that day, and in response to an urging of mysterious
origin, the Jews got into the business of slaughtering the first born in every
Egyptian household. They looted the treasures in the homes and the temples of
the land, and they fled Egypt
to embark on a long journey toward the Promised Land of Milk and Honey, as they
called it. But in reality, that was Palestine –
now known to be a member of the Fertile Crescent .
By contrast, to fulfill their mandate, the Muslims gave to
the world (1) the university where interdisciplinary knowledge was taught; (2)
the hospital where people went to get well as opposed to where they used to go
while waiting to die; and (3) they gave to the world the principles of personal
hygiene so as to remain healthy because the Muslims reckoned that a healthy
mind can only exist in a healthy body.
The Christians, on their part, gave to the world the idea of
love, togetherness and peace. Art of every kind sprung up around these notions
– including literature and philosophy – thus making it impossible to put
together a cannon law or a system of governance that does not encompass
tolerance for the other … however different from the norm that other may be.
Thus began the system of Liberal Democracy which served the Christian nations
so very well for several decades.
When it comes to the Jews, however, we see that in contrast
to all of the above, these people gave to the world trickery, wars, hate, fake
racial supremacy, and what have you. The Jews see in these traits not a deficit
of character but a source for their supremacy over the other races. Thus – in
the eyes of the Jews – while any of those traits would be considered a reason
to impeach an ordinary mortal, they become a virtue when seen to animate a Jew.