The Children of Abraham Share a Unique Heritage

ras: why stop at Abraham? why not go all the way upto Adam?

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One inheritance that the children of Abraham all share is INTOLERANCE towards other systems of thought. Violence towards others, especially polytheists and animists, is justified by the Abraham myth and his destruction of ``idols``.

Fortunately, judaism and christianity have (mostly) moved beyond this type of issue. However, mediaeval christianity and early judaism (pre-500 BC) are full of rules that justify violence, murder and genocide of the ``other``. Islam, which is a more recent descendant of this family, fully participates in this type of thinking and regrettably many ``mainstream`` muslims even today feel that such bigotry and violence towards ``others`` is natural.

Do you plan to address this issue? Or is this a feel good society of people who plan only to compliment each other on being ``cousins``? The millions who were murdered in the name of jesus and allah would like to know: they include the animists of South America, the tribals of Africa and the Buddhists of Afghanistan and so many other cultures that are now extinguished by these exclusivist doctrines.

Sorry, I don`t buy this children of abraham love fest. It`s no better to say that we three are an exclusivist club than saying we and our own kind are an exclusivist club. Instead of playing these games, we need to change our thinking.

With all due respect to the author, I beg to differ with phrases like ``On September 11th a day which we now solemnly commemorate due to the thousands of American lives lost to terrorism.`` Yes lives were lost on Sep 11 but what about the lives that have been lost since Sep 11 in an effort to declare war on terrorism. The Jews have used Holocaust to gain sympathy and then injustly use it to justify their own atrocities in Palestine, and I feel as if America is also following in the footsteps by using Sep 11 to continue its unjustified, oil/global domination, war against ``terrorism.`` There is no point to these interfaith fest unless the attendees take a more active role in politics by writing to their state representatives/senators to end the relgious/racial profiling that has targeted muslims ever since sep 11. These interfaith fest should not only focus on the lives lost in America on dooms day but also on the civilian casualties imposed on citizens of foreign nations.

God ordered Abraham to abandon his son, Ishmael, and Ishmael`s mother, Hagar, in a desolate desert. God also ordered Abraham to ``sacrifice`` his other son, Isaac, by cutting his throat with a knife.

Well, we have all heard that Abraham went ahead and complied with both the orders. And, fortunately, it was an era of miracles. Bizarre as they were, both incidents mercifully had happy endings.

But this is the 21st century - a century in which God is helping those that help themselves instead of trusting in miracles. In fact, a modern day Abraham would most certainly face prosecution for heeding illegal orders, even if they are from God.

We need to revel in the brotherhood/sisterhood of all of mankind. To that end, we need to abandon our contempt for the ``Golden Calf`` of other cultures. The need of the century is to abandon the ``My Prophet/God is bigger than your Prophet/God`` approach to our quest for spiritual fulfillment.

More than Abraham, we need to celebrate the Eve of Africa whose fossilized remains point to a common ancestor for all of mankind. Harmony will rein not when all admirers of Abraham can get together under a tent, but when no ``infidel`` is excluded from such exercises in harmonious coexistence.

# 1, #4, #6

All very good points.

I have a suspicion. My suspicion is that these efforts are not meant to expand the circle of tolerance by learning from the tolerant. These are the efforts by the intolerant to earn `respect` and acceptance of others for their intolerance. The argument the intolerant make is -

yeah, we are intolerant, but since you and I belong to the same family, please accept our intolerance so we can continue our intolerant ways. May be you will see the light as well and become as intolerant as us.

That`s all there is to it.

The Children of Abraham are the problem, not the solution. Unless they are dealt with the human race isn`t going to see the next century - though that probably isn`t SUCH a bad thing.

Ras,

Through many interacts, I`ve tried to explain this ``patent`` on God that Abraham created (in other threads). It has created a myth, that Abraham alone has the rights to God and the chosen ones. All three faiths in middle east have striven to become more abrahamic.
It used to be that 19th century conservative western historians tried to eyewash the world in believing that Abraham was the first monthiest. Actually I like Karen Armstrong`s definition better... ``Abraham was the world`s first jealous monotheist``. If you don`t like my defn., you going to hell buddy...
The same definiton seems to have had huge impact upon judaism, islam and christianity. So how do you expect these three faiths to be tolerant then. If Abraham,Moses,Jesus,Mohammed could not live in peace with other faiths/cultures around, what do you expect from a common follower of any of these religions?

Adios

One could of course go back to Adam and Eve in the Bible as the singular most important common denominator of mankind. That way the Hindus, Sikhs, and Papua New Guinea animists could gather together with the Jews, Christians and Moselms. Just imagine what the breaking of the bread would look like under these circumstances.

ActuallyI find these ``Interdenominational`` events little more than Theological masterbation, if even that. All this hand-holding does nothing to furher World Peace, which is something that never will be achieved.

I must say though that I am a bit weary of the claim that wars are over religion. Wars to my sense of History are always over land , wealth and property, not religion although the plunderers invoke religion. It should also be noted the worst wars are between brothers or those in close proximity or kinship. India-Pakistan; Biafra-Nigeria, Japan-China Jew-Palestinian and so on....I hesitate somewhat to mention Jew-Palestinian although it clearly falls into my defintion. Surely this land grab is by secular athetistic Zionists ( from around the world) claiming a phony bibilcal Judaic deed as they plunder and brutally subjugate and treat worse than dogs the Palestinians who are BOTH Moslem AND Christian.

Rather than a cause of the world`s wars, Religion in fact helps check the brutality mankind is all too capable of doing on it`s own with little provocation save desire for wealth, land and property. Religion is the cultural medium that shows mankind at it`s best. In fact it will only be by faithfully adhering to one`s religion that will make the world a better place if only by a little.

Ras:

Thanks for sharing.

There was a good article on Abraham in National Geographic last year. Problem is that all such articles, meets and seminars will only make sense to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Practitioners of other religions may not be able to make any thing out of it. On the contrary, most of them may find Abraham a loathsome character, as indeed many of the posts on board reflect.

Adnan at # 1:

Good point. My submission: Only those will trace their ancestory to Adam who will trace their ancestory (at least spiritually) to Abraham. There will be no increase of people in the net. For example, by going all the way up to Adam, Hindus, Buddhists and others will not include themselves amongst Jews, Christians and Muslims. Also, more information is available on Abraham than on Adam to make research papers and docu-dramas interesting for readers/audience.

:-)

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Can any sane man (or group of men) willingly destroy that which feeds them, makes them rich and puts enormous power into their hands?

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Here is my guess Kaka is Shankar aka headshrinker. Shankar bhai yeh kaka kab say ban gaye?

I think such interdenominational meetings are certainly a step forward.

As for Abraham that kaka discusses - wait till you read about Noah and how (per the Bible in Genesis), after the flood was over and he came out, he was found lying drunk and naked by his two sons who put a blanket on him. When he came to, he blamed it on his grandson (Canaan, son of Ham). The Canaanites (considered descendants of Canaan, the bad guy who got his grandad Noah drunk - or so granddad claimed) then had the stuffing knocked out of them by Joshua. And (who else!) Africans got labelled as the descendants of Canaan, thus making it easier to enslave them by Europeans. Arabs needed no such excuses, of course, and went ahead and enslaved Africans for over a thousand years (until the early 19th century by which time the Europeans had figured out that maybe the Africans were not the children of Canaan and so need not be punished for getting poor grandad drunk).

All due respect to all three religions. Just thought I would toss this in to make the following point: so what, kaka sahib? We all know religions have all sorts of childish stuff, unexplained stuff built into them - and whatever the shortcomings, humans have stretched them further for their own benefit. Still, if muslims and jews and christians (and of course, why not also hindus and sikhs and buddhists and any other religions around) can get together to focus on their commonalities - that is a hell of a lot better than them not getting together. The hindu extremists in india who are bent on replacing mosques with temples would be well advised to learn something from the christian and jews who came together as Ras describes.