Broadcast live Fri. 3/30, 8 to 10 pm Eastern on Revolution.Radio then archived HERE.
Today is Good Friday, a major Christian holiday. Many people in the Christian world take the day off. But why not make every Friday a holiday, just like Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath) and Sunday (the Christian “Lord’s Day”)? After all, Muslims have congregational prayers on Friday, and in many Muslim countries people take the day off, or at least the afternoon off, to make it easier for people to go to mosque.
This proposal would give Muslims equal treatment—and benefit non-Muslims too. Did you know that the work week slowly shrank from more than 70 hours in the 19th century to 40 hours in 1930? Since then, enormous increases in productivity should have shortened it to under 20 hours…or even under 10 hours. We should be spending most of our time doing creative things, things that make the world better, things we enjoy. But instead, the bosses have brainwashed us into shoving our noses even harder against the grindstone and handing almost all of the wealth generated by increased productivity to them and their corporate shareholders—the proverbial 1%. Let’s start the revolution by instituting a three-day Judeo-Christian-Islamic weekend!
First hour: Brother Malik joins Truth Jihad Radio to discuss Islam and economics. Brother Malik “has been an Islamic political activist for over 15 years. He is a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group that works to establish Khilafah in the Muslim lands based on the intellectual and political method of RasulAllah (saw). Professionally, he is a Chartered Professional Accountant specializing in audit, tech and innovation. In Hamilton, he is involved with outreach efforts to answer questions that people have about Islam. Malik has also given numerous talks on Islam and Economics, including ‘The Legal Status of Stocks in Islam’, ‘Islam and World Poverty’, and he actively promotes the Islamic Alternative to Capitalism to both Muslims and non-Muslims. You can find his writings on the Islamic economic system at Freshonomics.org.”
Second hour: Ron Rattner of SillySutras.com returns to break the news that the Washington Post has dared to publish a decent article on the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. We discuss the mystical significance of Passover and Easter—which are happening this Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Ron offers a radically different interpretation of these holidays than the one I outlined in my recent article Do Judeo-Christian springtime holidays celebrate HUMAN SACRIFICE?
Ron Rattner writes:
Today is what “Christians” call : “Good Friday”. They celebrate/commemorate the alleged crucification and suffering of Jesus on the cross.
On one hand, they claim that “they love Jesus”, on the other hand, they hypocritically and selfishly rejoice at the idea that he was supposedly made to pay for THEIR sins. It is as if according to their beliefs, “God’s thirst for blood and suffering” has now been appeased, when “He sacrificed His son” on the cross.
They write songs about how “the BLOOD of Jesus washed away THEIR SINS”, about how “Jesus, the SACRIFICIAL lamb, shed HIS BLOOD and suffered for THEIR SINS”…etc. Really ?. The god they believe in, is that thirsty for blood and suffering ?.
Most of them are too busy reveling in the alleged suffering of Jesus to even notice that those beliefs evoke vampirism, the celebration of human sacrifice and utter selfishness to say the least.
It reminds me of the many hypocrites who claim to be looking for “love” while in fact they are just looking for someone to stroke their ugly hungry ego, someone to make them forget their painful loneliness.
“Good” Friday ?.. Since they claim to love Jesus, shouldn’t it be BAD Friday ?.
But then again, should we really be surprised at those kind of beliefs, when the book “the Christians” follow and that they call “the holly bible”, is describing God as a dragon-like monster :
Bible [2 Samuel 23:7-9] : “In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. 8. The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry. 9. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it”. (NIV translation)
Should most sincere Christians divorce themselves from the herd mentality and make a little effort to snap out of their trance state, they will realize that God is wayyyyyyyy above needing or demanding anybody’s suffering to forgive sins, as the Quran beautifully and powerfully states :
Quran [039:53] : “SAY: “[Thus speaks God:] ‘O you servants of Mine who have transgressed against your own selves! Despair not of God’s mercy: behold, God forgives all sins – for, verily, He alone is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace!’””. (as translated by ‘Muhammad Asad’)
Should those sincere christians – genuinely seeking God’s Mercy and Guidance – let the beauty and the power of the Quran sip into their heart, they will recognize themselves in the following verses :
Quran [005:82-84] : “…and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say : “We are Christians.” That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and they are not proud. And when they (who call themselves Christians) listen to what has been sent down to the Messenger (Muhammad), you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of the truth they have recognised. They say : “Our Lord! We believe; so write us down among the witnesses. And why should we not believe in Allah and in that which has come to us of the truth (Islamic Monotheism) ?. And we wish that our Lord will admit us (in Paradise on the Day of Resurrection) along with the righteous people.”” (as translated by Mohsin Khan (more or less))
Those who insist on harboring a hostile attitude toward The Quran – in most cases without even having bothered to read it – and insist on clinging to the set of beliefs concocted, arranged and re-arranged by the first seven ecumenical councils (between the years 325 and 787 AD), they have been warned in the Quran :
Quran [018:1…4] : “All the praises and thanks be to Allah, Who has sent down to His servant (Muhammad), the Book (the Quran), and has not placed therein any crookedness….And to warn those who say, “Allah has begotten a son.”
Quran [19:88-92] : “And they say, “The Most Merciful has taken [for Himself] a son”. You have done an atrocious thing. The heavens almost rupture therefrom and the earth splits open and the mountains collapse in devastation that they attribute to the Most Merciful a son. And it is not appropriate for the Most Merciful that He should take a son.” (as translated in ‘Sahih International’)
Quran [004:171] : “O Followers of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God’s Apostle – [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary – and a soul created by Him. Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, “[God is] a trinity”. Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son : unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God.” (as translated by ‘Muhammad Asad’)
Quran [004:157-158] : “That they said (in boast) “We killed the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”; – but *they killed him not, nor crucified him*, but so it was made to appear to them and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for, of a surety they killed him not. No, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.”
In contrast to those muslims mad-thirsty for love and friendliness of other humans – ie : who go out of their way to make christians feel comfortable in their wrong beliefs about God and His messengers – that above might seem written in a blunt, tactless and brutal style. But then again, are we thirsty for The Truth and Divine Guidance, or are we seeking to feed our ego and seeking to feel comfortable in our established ways no matter how wrong they might be ?.