#cultural muslims as equivalent to cultural christian
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the things people readily believe about other groups is so unhinged
lots of people in this country actually think cultural muslims aren't a thing
I've met a good number of cultural muslims so I can't fathom thinking that but ig the people who believe they don't exist are people who have never actually spoken to a muslim
#cultural muslims as equivalent to cultural christian#ie people who have said religion as their cultural background and celebrate the big family holiday (ramadan/christmas)#but don't have any strong religious beliefs#not necesssarily atheist just... not a significant part of their life#this is how most danish christians are christian
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Should i just unfollow my ex-mp, because ngl I feel like im just torturing myself at this point
(Im seriously asking and you should tell me yes)
#he just keeps tweeting the most stupid shit.#like you can just not be racist its not that hard#like the only reason im still following him is just to keep tabs of this exact bullshit#but some of the stuff he says/retweets genuinely angers me so much#and the worst thing ia that i cant. do. anything. about. it.#and that is driving me mad#so im struggling between would i rather Know that someone is shitty and be able to see it#or just unfollow and give myself peace of mind because at the end of the day#what is having this info gonna do for me#god i actually hate this motherfucker like he literally was at mosques handing out flyers with the palestine flag on it and look at his#islamophobic ass now. fuck you. not to mention not a WORD om palestine since. not even a word on lebanon now#but he Has mentioned how the 'culture' in Afghanistan and 'other such countries' are not valid#🎤 heres me handing you a mic please further explain what you think these 'cultures' are. do you also mention the us where child marriages#are legal in many states? have you literally EVER mentioned anything about the rise in sexism in our own country.#it just pisses me off because i am so angered and DESPISE whats going on in Afghanistan. but anytime i try to look for info and sources to#post about it. anyone commenting it is fucking racist and or a t*rf. like im not even fucking joking. like why is it so hard to realise tha#MUSLIMS HATE THESE MOTHERFUCKERS TOO. AND I IMAGINE A LOT AFGHANI CITIZENS AS WELL. as per usual shitty fucking men MAKE UP THESE RULES#based on nothing because islam ENCOURAGES education in women. it allows divorce. abortion. THESE THINGS ARE PART OF OUR CULTURE THAT ARE#not part of 'Christian culture' but no one would ever even say that because they know its dumb!! and not every Christian believes that!!#and lets not even get started on how western colonisation leads to all this turmoil in the first place.#anyways to conclude. brown people are not just inherently sexist/homophobic/racist/bigoted etc. claiming they are and that their 'culture'#promotes it is SO BEYOND FUCKING RACIST I NEED YOU TO THINK 2 SECONDS BEFORE YOU JUST RANDOMLY SAY SHIT.#and like. a shitty terrorist group enforcing backwards rules on its population is not 'culture'. i think thats whats bothering me. like why#are you further demonising and ostracising people who are already so isolated as is. you dont even know anything about them and then you#you just make this big washjng statement.#i actually could say so much more btw#and even some of the comparisons i made are not even fully equivalent. and i Want to go into it. but i cba. i just woke up and im probably#gonna delete this.#if yoi have read this far pls just answer my q in the og post and tell me to unfollow this man before i lose all my marbles xD#le text post
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you didn't actually answer my question , Temple Mount is the most ancient and holiest site for Jewish people -- the Dome of the Rock & Al-Aqsa Mosque were built hundreds of years later on behalf of the Umayyad dynasty's conquest. you mentioned in your response a massacre that happened centuries later, which does not relate to the fact that Jews cannot pray at this site (their utmost holiest site before even the existence of Christians or Muslims). how is "temple denial" something that I made up when you can research it right now and see what it is and that it exists? I ask because this seems to be actually a blind spot for many non-Jewish people simply because it doesn't affect them. I'm not intending to be argumentative and I am sorry if my English is bad in getting across
I'm sorry for being argumentative but a lot of the time, whenever Palestinians are asked about temple mount, there's an implication that Palestinians are colonizers and don't deserve to be on the land. Israelis, if they could, would completely ban Muslims from AlAqsa despite it being the third holiest site in Islam.
AlAqsa is probably the most important national symbol of Palestinians, often thought to be the last straw for Palestinian heritage. So much of our culture has been robbed from us, and (primarily muslims) believe that the demolition of AlAqsa, which is, as Mohammed ElKurd puts it, is one of the last places in all of Palestine where being Palestinian is not criminalized would be a fundamental loss we would never recover from, equivalent to losing our Balad.
I bring up the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre because there are no restrictions for extremist settlers legally — they operate as an arm of the state and in some cases are encouraged to committ these acts. The "Apartheid Law" basically enshrined that settlements are a national value for Israel. This means that there is no safe haven for Palestinians legally. They're in constant danger of getting kicked out of their home or getting arrested for existing. I cannot emphasize enough how Palestinian freedom is so restricted with the explicit intent of pushing them out of the land.
Temple denial as a concept (after looking it up) seeks to paint Palestinians in a fundamentally bigoted and violent light. Palestinians are not allowing Jews in AlAqsa not because they hate Jews, but because that opens the way for settlers to become violent around AlAqsa, which a lot of the time is already happening. I suggest reading "Why Do Palestinians Burn Jewish Holy Sites? The Fraught History of Joseph's Tomb" (sorry the link is not linking, but you can look it up on the palestine institute webpage). It discusses the use of history as a colonial tool. Here's an excerpt:
It is one of many shrines across historic Palestine – now split into Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza – that has been re-invented as exclusively Jewish, despite a long history of shared worship among Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Samaritans that goes back centuries. And the reason it has been attacked has almost nothing to do with religion, and much to do with how the Israeli military and settlement movements have used religion as a way to expand their control over Palestinian land and holy places.
And a second excerpt describing the political use of religion:
But the claims of biblical archaeologists had a strong role in how the Zionist movement would come to understand and conceive of the landscape.6 As European Jews migrated to Palestine in the first half of the twentieth century, they drew upon biblical archeology's claims. They adopted archeologists' claims that Palestinian holy sites were directly linked to ancient biblical figures. In many cases, they focused on occupying those sites in order to legitimize the colonial endeavor by giving it a sense of deeper history. In many cases, this would mean evicting the Palestinians who actually frequented these holy sites.
And what Palestinians are afraid of:
In 1975, the Israeli military banned Palestinians – that is, the Samaritans, Muslims, and Christians living around the site – from visiting, a ban that has remained in place until this day. [...] Unsurprisingly, the ban has ignited intense anger over the years. This is true particularly given that frequent visits by Jewish settlers to the shrine are accompanied by hundreds of Israeli soldiers, who enter the area and run atop the rooftops of local Palestinians to “secure” the tomb. As a result, Joseph's Tomb has increasingly become associated with the Israeli military and settlement movement in the eyes of Palestinians. Its presence has become an excuse for frequent military incursions that provoke clashes and lead to arrests and many injuries in the neighborhood. Some fear that Israelis will attempt to take over the shrine to build an Israeli settlement around it. This fear is not unfounded, given the fact that Israeli settlers have done exactly that all across the West Bank in places they believe are connected in some way to Jewish biblical history. The notoriously violent Jewish settlements in Hebron, for example, were built there due to the location of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in that southern West Bank town. Following the initial years of settlement, settlers even managed to convince Israeli authorities to physically divide the shrine – which is holy to local Palestinians – and turn the whole area into a heavily-militarized complex. Other shrines have become excuses for the Israeli military to build army bases inside Palestinian towns, like Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem – which is surrounded by twenty-foot high concrete walls on three sides to block Palestinian access. The village of Nabi Samwel near Jerusalem, meanwhile, was demolished in its entirety to provide Jewish settlers access to the tomb at its heart.
I'm not denying the temple mount is there. I'm just saying that history has been manipulated to erase centuries worth of cultural heritage through scholarship and Palestinians are protective of their most important symbol of resistance and life. Even you saying "Islam and Christianity came after Judiasm" is a dogwhistle for me, because a lot of the time extremists say that to completely erase AlAqsa as an important site to Muslims and intending to deny the site as a shared worshipping site that is quite important to Muslims. Just because Islam came after Judiasm, does that mean it's not legitimate as a religion itself? Islamically, Islam is a continuation of Judiasm, so we don't deny judiasm is important to AlQuds. We just are so concerned with losing our national symbol that we're so protective over it.
Now I bring up the massacre at ibrahimi mosque because, like mentioned in the excerpt above, Palestinians are afraid something like that will happen again. There's no protections for Palestinians, and most of the time they're denied from praying in AlAqsa themselves by Israeli authorities. Israeli settlers themselves come in and disrespect AlAqsa, and as I mentioned, extremists plan on demolishing AlAqsa to build a Third Temple. The Massacre at the Mosque paved way to the "Jews Only" streets I mentioned, including the militarization and basically a complete upheaval of normal life for Palestinians. I suggest looking into how terrible the situation in AlKhalil is, and that arised directly from the massacre.
You cannot separate this issue from the colonial implications of the last safe haven in all of Palestine being open to Israelis. Now when Palestine is free, I doubt there would be restrictions. But right now, there are and to pretend Israelis don't pose a threat to Palestinians fundamentally, would be erasure of the colonization of Palestine.
I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but even if AlAqsa was built hundreds of years after, it doesn't change the fact that RIGHT NOW Israelis have privilege that Palestinians do not. As soon as that privilege is no longer there, then we can talk about allowing Jews there. But until then, Palestinians are constantly in danger of settler violence and to take away a space (which, Ibrahimi Mosque was one of those sites before Palestinians were massacred) is frankly, an insult and a denial that Palestinians themselves are colonized.
I suggest looking at the links I provided earlier for more in depth analysis. I'm going to reiterate: the only reason it's illegal is because Palestine is colonized and this is our last safe haven that we even aren't completely allowed from entering ourselves.
Most Palestinians are quite heated about this topic. It genuinely is considered one of our last national symbols (so not just religious but also political and cultural), which means that having that taken away (which extremist settlers plan on demolishing it completely, and if they're allowed in, then there are no restrictions on their behavior) would be tantamount to losing our balad, or nation. I've heard Israelis call AlAqsa terrible names over the years and some fully intend on demolishing the site. Even within Israeli politics, it is a genuine goal for some people, including Ben Gvir, so most believe that opening the door for settlers (who are the ones who want the destruction of AlAqsa) would be equivalent to giving it up. You can't ignore that when talking about AlAqsa and the laws surrounding it. The primary reason for this protectiveness is political and cultural.
#palestine#the second intifada happened because ariel sharon forced his way in for political reasons#palestinians were so angry and took it as an insult (which it was) that the second intifada happened
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How can a world have no major religions but a vast number of small ones. Like no religion accounts for more than 1% of the entire population except maybe atheist for maybe 5% of the population? But what does that say about the distribution of culture/countries?
Tex: Major religions are often major because they are state-backed - i.e., they have lots of money at their disposal, so they become economically and thus culturally relevant. Religion answers, approximately, two major questions: 1) Are we alone in X or Y manner? and 2) I’m scared of X thing that I have difficulty understanding, what is Y solution?
For a place like Earth, the planet that we know the most about, there are no planet-wide confirmations about the physical existence of any deity in particular (as in, shows up in a grocery and says hello to you in an entirely unambiguous manner that all onlookers can agree upon). This means that religions on Earth are predicated on the idea that belief - and, thus, willpower - makes the deity real. Or at least “proves” it. Your mileage may vary.
Because of this, the real-world religions that you can observe and study will have many, many commonalities to the two general questions I stated above. The first question usually contains subjects such as sentience, and the emotional frills of that. The second question usually contains subjects such as death and the process of dying.
In order to have many distinct religions, you would need a lot of unanswered questions for various societies to answer, a severe lack of contact and communication between groups of societies, and most importantly a lack of (or lack of need of) money. The more travel there is, the more people of different backgrounds will talk to each other, and the more ideas will be confronted, shared, and discussed. Trade would correspondingly be low, because of the lack of travel.
Utuabzu: There’s a couple things to consider here. Firstly, how are we defining religion? This isn’t a trick question, it’s a genuine issue. The Abrahamic concept of religion doesn’t really carry over well to other spiritual traditions. Most other belief systems are more local and action-focused (orthoprax, concerned with what one does, rather than what one believes), and often lack any mandatory set of beliefs, or standardised mythology. Religions like Chinese Folk Religion, Shintō, Hinduism*, etc. can have wildly varying pantheons and myths depending on where you are and who you ask. So depending on your definition every tiny village could have its own religion, because it has its own version of the cultural mythos and its own pantheon including some distinctive local gods and dropping some more common cultural ones.
Universal (applicable to everyone regardless of origin or location), proselytising (actively attempting to convert people) religions are rare. There’s only actually a few of them. Most notably, Christianity and Islam. They are both also orthodox religions (concerned with believing the correct things), which means they have a standard mythology and theology (or several competing standards that have historically attempted to resolve their differences via murder). A third, very notable difference they have with most belief systems is that they are exclusive, you can’t (or at least you’re not supposed to) combine them with other belief systems. Most non-Abrahamic belief systems are more or less fine with syncretism (combining belief systems), most clearly seen with the way Buddhism** is practiced concurrently with folk religions across Asia.
So, in answer to the actual question, your best bet here is to just not have an equivalent to Christianity or Islam. I suggest reading up on non-Abrahamic and pre-Christian/Muslim religions and religious practices, as that should give you an idea of what such a world might look like. I’d expect it to be colourful and diverse, with cities filled with temples and shrines to an ever-expanding array of deities and hosting various festivals much of the year. Many people would likely layer a philosophy like Daoism or Stoicism over their day-to-day religious practice, and it would be common and expected for people to show respect to or make offerings to local deities when traveling. Religion would be a thing you do, not what you believe.
*Hinduism is less a religion and more a family of closely related religions and spiritual traditions that all originate on the Indian subcontinent. Which is why the Indian government considers Jains and Buddhists to be Hindu.
**Buddhism can be described as a religion or as a philosophy, depending on who you ask, what the context is, and whether Mercury is in Gatorade. Western definitions don’t really apply cleanly to non-Western contexts.
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im asking this out of pure ignorance but I've always wondered how does hinduism handle people who are not hindu? i know Christianity is essentially 'be the right kind of christian or go to hell' (so much as to beleive that Jewish people are literally devils, for example) but i was wondering how hinduism deals w people who are in proximity but not of the same religion. also if a dalit or lower caste person converts from hinduism to another religion, how does that affect thier life and how they're treated? appreciate your answer if u feel like explaining ^__^
it depends, in some parts of the country the non hindu has the same status as the lower caste dalit by default – so exclusion but in most places its a detente where religious and caste endogamy is strictly maintained. housing and employment discrimination is v common. its actually much harder to marry under the special mariage act and violence against interfaith and intercaste couples by their own families is common. in 2023, the muslim is the designated enemy of the state. the christian was fooled by the british and/or money to give up their culture or is literally a foreign agent. if you're looking for a textual answer, the equivalent of the "infidel," there isn’t really one because the streamlining of the canonical religious texts and construction of the hindu is recent. hinduism has aimed to appropriate instead of convert.
in modern india, legally anyone who is not a christian or a muslim is treated as a hindu. you are hindu by default in india to the state, governed by hindu codes for marriage and inheritance. for indigenous tribals it is a matter of coercing their children to feel shame at the (state sponsored but outsourced to private religious groups, love privatisation!!!) residential schools about their animist practices and making them worship the proper gods. for sikhs, jains and buddhists their is marginally more toleration. but they are basically seen as wayward hindu sects. this does change when they're in conflict with the majority in a way that resists "national cohesion" – see sikh pogroms in 1984 and the recent moves against sikhism due to the invocation of khalistan in the farmers protests. when dalits convert to buddhism many right wingers will invoke the spectre of predatory conversions.
since you are supposed to be hindu by default, christians and muslims are then seen as invasive outsiders and conversions are regulated very strictly by many states. it is historically true that christian missionaries brought christianity as part of a broader civilising mission, but imo it says something really depressing about hinduism that its epithets for christians is 'ricebag converts' bc people apparently converted for a bag of rice. islam's foothold in the continent is older, accompanying immigration from the west as well as the sultanate and the mughals. returning these christians and muslims to the fold, or "ghar wapsi" is a major project of the hindutva right. note that india is home to one of the world's largest populations of muslims (~200mil).
lower caste dalits have long converted to christianity and islam but caste violence follows them there anyway. caste may have textual origins in religion and focus on ritual purity but it is a socioeconomic form of subjugation. this means that while still subject to caste violence, dalit christians and muslims will be denied redressal through state protections like legislations against anti caste violence or reservations because those are restricted to hindu dalits.
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What's life in Egypt like?
This is a very vague question so I’m not sure how to answer, really. It’s kind of tense these days, anyway.
Ig the day to day is pretty typical. I’m not exactly the average citizen, most of my time is taken up with med school so I don’t explore or go out as much as I should. I live in Alexandria, and I love it here. Coastal, the old section of the city is beautiful, lots of greenery. It’s pouring down rain all through winter, driving is near impossible because everyone is fucking insane (which is typical for Egyptian cities lol), it’s pretty densely populated, the food is phenomenal. We have a ton of museums and historical sites, and the library of Alexandria is pretty rad. The economy is shit and getting shittier, we’re under a military dictatorship (again but worse than last time), inflation is insane and the country is in a ton of debt to the point that the central bank of Egypt has stopped all foreign currency transactions on debit cards, and credit cards have a foreign currency limit of the equivalent of $250/month.
From a feminist perspective, it’s not the best place to be. Alexandria is better than most of the country, but I still get harassed regularly. Egyptian men are paternalistic and have a weirdly entitled attitude towards all women, we have in-jokes in feminist circles about the fruit vendor from down the street being mad at you for coming home late. Tbf I’m fairly open about my feminist opinions and that hasn’t caused me any trouble, and basically all my friends and acquaintances know that I wear a hijab in front of my family and take it off at school/when I’m out with friends, and 4 of my cousins know about the hijab thing as well. Dating culture is fairly normalised in Alexandria, so everyone in my circles including two of my cousins know about my love life (but not my sexuality). In some places of Egypt, I’d be honour killed for any one of these things, so I’m grateful to be where I am. There’s still a line of chauvinism running in the country, though that’s the least of our worries as feminists. I have a post about marriage and divorce in Egypt under my Egyptian feminism tag if you’re interested in learning more about that aspect.
From an LGB perspective, unfortunately the little progress we’d made in the late 00’s and early 10’s has been receding quickly. We’d gotten to a point of live and let live in some areas, but the introduction of trans ideology in the west caused a massive recoil in perception of LGB people here, and there’s been a crackdown on LGB-sympathetic ideas. Every time it’s brought up, you get a look of disgust and ‘they’re teaching kids to change their sex’. It’s going to take massive amounts of time and effort to repair this damage.
And finally, from a religious perspective, well. Not much has improved re acceptance of atheism or non-abrahamic religious beliefs. Egyptian law technically protects your right to freedom of belief, but, crucially, not your right to freedom of expression of religious belief. National ID cards must have your religion listed on them, and the only options are Muslim/Christian/Jew. Contempt of religion and ‘violating Egyptian family values’ laws are pretty strict and are used to prosecute everything from girls dancing on TikTok to blasphemy. I don’t see this improving any time soon, though foreigners (non-Arabs) are given some leeway.
I hope I’ve covered the most important points, but please feel free to reach out if you have more specific questions!
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"which is is worse"
I really wanna ask OP what Christian or Muslim country is currently getting "passes" in bombing and mass deporting hundreds of thousands people in the span of few years🤔Do I need to remind them that a MILLION people killed in Irak based on suspicions of mass destruction weapons that turned out to not even exist? do they call that a "pass" too?
The atrocities committed by Israel have been documented for MONTHS and hardly any country asked them any accountability. And those who did been criminally demonized (South Africa) and called ally of islamists. Still a "pass"?
I also wanna ask OP what Christian or Muslim equivalent there's to a Jewish state that gives prerogatives based on RACE (FYI unlike Judaism, Islam and Christianity are both multi ethnic religion that transcended race)?
I want OP to tell me what they define as a "Christian religious state" because last time I checked, it didn't really exist. Only the Vatican checks out. I think the USA is seen as a country with the strongest Christian influence, but the majority of western countries have a Christian culture - they are not Christian theocracies.
Unlike Israel, most European countries didn't build themselves over a religious book. I'm french, our first Christian king (Clovis) was baptized in the 5th century. But before that, he was already battling with other pagans leaders to build the territory that became France. Even after WWI & WWII countries came & went and frontiers changed regardless of religion. It was only my motivated by politics, money and a lil bit of tribalism (Balkans).
If anything, such messages betray the embarrassment of pro Israel shills to address any criticism without pointing fingers towards other countries or religion. As if Christianism and Islam weren't the ones that already had the bigger share of anti religious sentiment....
Let's get real, it's nearly impossible to criticize Judaism without being accused of antisemitism. Religious Jews would get a nervous breakdown if they had to bear an ounce of the criticism Christians or Muslims get over their religion everyday. If anything, Israel has got MANY passes so far. People like OP are just getting shook bc this special treatment is now getting dimmer by the day and act like victims. They are not - they're just being removed from their intouchable status. And it hurts.
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How do u feel about shipping in Greek mythology or how can one do it right or without disregarding the original sources ?
That is a very good question and thanks for stating it. I am a bit divided on that part. The second part of the question you make is the easiest to answer; if you do not wish to disregard the original sources the safest way is just to adress the couples that appear in the original sources and leave the rest for the realm of imagination hahaha
I mean logically speaking if we look only for source material then we just do source material and we do not "ship" others from other parts that are not mentioned in the sources (and ironically the sources are already wild enough with a variety). So if the objective is "not to derrange from the source" then the short answer is; just follow the source or interpret the source.
Now for the first part of your question (sorry if it is long!);
Like I said I am a bit divided. On one hand it is a great way to express creativity to imagine the protagonists of greek mythos in situations not mentioned in their myths and create scenarios in one's head. On one hand one uses the excuse of "the ancients did it too" kind of thing and up to one point it is a right hypothesis given how many ancient writers, each for their own reasons, created stories that do not necessarily correspond to mythical counterparts (and if they do, we have lost them so we cannot confirm) but on the other hand one must be very much aware that in antiquity they meant something different than what it means today.
Ancient writers created stories based on their personal beliefs and religion or tradition (kinda similar to how many christian traditions have been created by christians or dunno shinto traditions by shinto believers etc.) so to equate someone's pleasure with antiquity and its meaning seems too outstretched. Also it seems like treating the ancient religion like a "fandom" and that is an interestingly complicated matter. On one hand it is a creative way for people to come in contact with the past. On the other hand though it would be equivalent let's say in a post-christian era, people start...shipping biblical people or people mentioned in muslim tradition etc. that do not have fully documented historical credibility and claim it is "shipping". For the ancient greeks their mythical characters were their religion, their ancestry and their legendary past. It was their reasoning of moving around the Mediterannean and their expansion of culture; it was their own reasoning for their very existence up to one point.
Therefore although I do like to see people explore the possibilities (sometimes their ideas are very well based or well-supported with arguments as well almost entering the sphere of interpretation rather than just "fan shipping") but I cannot say I am being ecstatic with this obsession over them. Especially nowadays that for some reason we started shipping literally every character that happens to be in the same frame and narrative as someone else (let's say people involved in the Trojan War or the Odyssey). It is as if two characters are not allowed to exist in the same frame anymore for people unless they are somehow romantically involved
It is as if two characters no longer can have chemistry without someone casually thinking they must be making out in a dark corner. True some scholiasts of ancient times (particularly late roman and early medieval times ones) kinda opened the path for this by speaking on some "pairings" that do not always correspond to ancient sources to our knowledge but I thnk nowadays is being blasted out of proportion and again it feels as if just because these stories are now to the sphere of "fairy tale" for nowadays people with different set of beliefs, that means it is automatically free game to do whatever with them, ignoring or reducing the importance they had to the people in the past
So as far as I am concerned I am happy to explore the pairs of greek mythology (or any mythology in general) even through the lenses of "modern dialog" or funny situations or stuff like that but I usually stick to the pairs of the actual ancient sources or things that scholiasts mention that have some sort of correspondance to ancient sources. Which is why you will see me writing my own fanfictions and retellings even adding random dialogs or stuff like that but by n large I will not "ship" characters that do not exist one way or another in the ancient sources as a couple together.
Sorry for my endless blabbering! I hope this answers your question.
#katerinaaqu answers#greek mythology#tagamemnon#greek mythos#shipping poll#ancient lore#ancient greek mythology
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It's sad that you've chosen to bring politics into your blog. Innocent people in Israel and Palestine are both being affected by the actions of terror groups, so why are saying "Free Palestine" and ignoring the suffering of millions of Israeli Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, etc?
I didn't bring it into my blog though. Somebody sent unsolicited fake propaganda to me. I simply responded to that. Your ask once again brings the politics into my space and expressly seeks commentary, under the protective veil of anonymity.
As a half-Palestinian (based overseas) with branches of family on both sides of the border, I don't owe you or anyone else any explanation for not wanting my family to be ethnically cleansed by genocidaires, their culture and history erased, and having what precious little remains of their land stolen from under them to hand over to extremist settlers who literally want them dead (irrespective of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Druze) because of a destructive ideology.
And so you ask me 'why are you saying "Free Palestine" [...]?'
Asking for Palestinian civilians not to be murdered in cold blood or forcibly displaced does not equate advocating violence against other people or ignoring their suffering. Expressing objections to the actions of a government or apartheid ideology does not equate hostility or indifference towards ordinary civilians living under that government or support for terror groups.
So you are extrapolating and drawing a false equivalence because I didn't include an exhaustive list of every group you wanted in a freaking hashtag; classic 'I like pancakes' 'So you hate waffles?' fallacy. Your ask is akin to replying 'All lives matter' to a BLM post.
But it remains an incontrovertible fact that at the present time, Palestinians of all religions are being massacred and having buildings flattened at a wholly disproportionate rate to other civilians in the immediate region, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The military machine is being funded by some of the world's biggest superpowers and civilians have nowhere to flee or access to resources. It's like medieval siege warfare but on a national scale. There is also a massive disparity in the quality of life for civilians in Palestine compared to those in Israel due to long-standing obstructive practices concerning access to basic amenities, border control and import control. For many years it has been for all intents and purposes an open prison. "Free Palestine" encompasses allowing them to have basic living standards and human rights on a par with their neighbours at a very minimum.
I say a very minimum because I am well aware of how many ethnicities and religions are treated as second class citizens in Israel by its apartheid regime, including some of its own Jews (eg. branches of Judaism that don't support or recognise the current State as politically or theologically valid). If you want to see Israel's track record for treating its own Jews of Arab or African ethnicity, look up how naturalised Israeli-Ethiopian Jews regularly suffer racial discrimination and the frankly stomach-churning Yemenite Children Affair.
The apartheid has been going on for generations and needs to stop. And I am so very tired of having to justify asking for my family to be recognised as human beings without having some sort of accusation thrown at me.
This is the last post on this matter.
Anon asks will be closed for the foreseeable.
#anon ask#whataboutism#tone policing#Also where on earth have you been? My Pantalone fics are inherently political#try reading less smut fics and more history books#empty vessels make the loudest sound
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On...This Nonsense
So, I saw this graph in a group I am a part of, and it is so increadibly wrong that I need to rant about it:
K, this is dumb for .... a lot of reasons. I am sure Muslims and Christians can see a load of issues that I can't, but that aint my focus.
I'm just going to talk about the Jewish religions, the flow, and use Christian and Muslim religions as comparisons.
First of all, the term of the parent religion: "Judaism". The term comes from "Judean" or basically members of the tribe of Judah.
The first definite use of it as a general term for Hebrews is in the Scroll of Esther where it calls Mordechai "a member of the tribe of Benyamin, a Jew" (paraphrased for clarity). That takes place around 480-350 BCE (scholars argue about which Emperor is the one mentioned).
(the term is used elsewhere/earlier, but usually a refrence to a member of the tribe of Judah, or else in a way that could go either way).
Now the reason I mention that, is because:
"Northern Tribal" would never have used the term, as they are from the ten lost tribes, and had a separate kingdom (Israel) VS Binyamin and Judah who had the southern kingdom (Judea).
Samaritans consider themselves to be descendants of the tribe of Manasheh and Ephraim, so wouldn't use the term either.
So the top religion should really be Bnei Ysrael, or Hebrew, or Isrealite.
Next: what the fuck is "Northern Tribal"? The split b/w the ten tribes and the 2 was political, not religious. They remained the same religion until they stopped existing/were lost/ the Samaritan split happened.
I even googled "Northern Tribal Judaism" (and variations) and couldn't find jack shit. It really shouldn't be on there.
Now, when/how Samaritanism and Judaism split is both a theological and historical debate. (to the point that talmudically there were issues with drawing lines between the 2). Hell, I have hear people use the term "Samaritan Jew" before. But tbh, it is innacurate, and insulting to both religions imo.
But either way the first split should be: Judaism-Samaritanism
On the same level in the chart it has Saducee, Pharisee, Eseen, and Christianity.
Which is bonkers. There were difference between the three groups, but they were not on the level of being schisms or seperate religions like christianity.
If you wanted to argue that they are, then Christianity would be descended from one of them (or all three). Because there wasn't a monolith religion for all 4 of them to come from. The split was there when Jesus was born.
So After Judaism you either have "Christianity" Or you have "Pharisee" "Saducee" "Essene" and then a line below you get christianity.
Next Line: "Karaite" "Orthodox" "Sephardic"
That is the most bat shit thing I have seen in my life.
First of all: "Sephardic" isn't a religious movement or theology. It is a culture and set of traditions. Putting it in a flowchart as its own heading, the same way Christianity and Islam do is insane.
Secondly, even if you do so, the others in the split should be: "Ashkenazi" "Temani" "Mizrachi" and a couple of others. not "Karraite" and "Orthdox" Next, while Karraite does deserve it's own spot (I can do a dive into the theology of it later) It Should be as a descendent of Pharisee with the other branch being Rabbinic.
Next: "Orthodox" with descendents of "reform" "conservative" etc.?
No! The term "Orthodox" exists as a counter to those! And only (until very recently) in Ashkenazi Judaism!
Now maybe the reason that they divided Sphardic it's own heading was to indicate that they don't have sects like the Ashkenazi do, but still, wtf?
And Splitting Hasidic that way? like it is equivalant to any of the splits in Christianity or Islam is batshit.
So really after "Rabbinic Judaism" you should get: "Ashkenazi Sectarianism" and "Not that"
And put all that shit under Ashkenazi Sectarianism.
Anyway, this graph sucks, Maybe I'll improve it later.
#judaism#jewish#jumblr#Christianity#religion#Samaritanism#karaite#reform#orthodox#rabbinic judaism#Maybe one day I'll do write up on the issue with orthodox and reform#or karaite#but that'll be a lot of effort
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I follow some blogs that since Oct. 7th have come out in support of the Israeli genocide. However that is always implicit.
Specifically with @frustratedasatruar I have noticed that they regularly reblog posts that take actions from pro palestinian groups, which at times are not strategically well thought out, and instead of ever actually engaging with the political demands, focus on how these actions do not strategically hit the target they want to hit.
I would like to point out, to both parties involved, that a group participating in the protests against the genocide of the palestinian people blocking a performance of Fidler on the Roof is in line with Israeli state propaganda. If Israel represents and speaks for all jews world wide, if Israel is equivalent to the jewish people it makes sense to attack jewish culture and jewish performances. It is not in line with an internationalist analysis but anti-jewish hate.
I will also point out that taking issue with that action, only ever focussing on the problematic parts of a very broad movement and at the same time taking no issue with thousands of dead civilians only because they are not the right race is racism. Deeply rooted in white supremacy. And this is not hyperbolic, the tumblr user in question has literally equated calling for a humanitarian ceacefire with advocacy for killing jews for political purposes. That was ~today~, August 10th 2024.
As a Polytheist I believe that everyone should have the right to worship whatever god(s) and in whatever way they like as long as it does not inhibit the freedom of others. As a society we should encourage and help people to find community in that. I also believe that people have the right to live in peace and dignity. The palestinian christians, muslims, atheists or, yes, polytheists in Gaza are mostly refugees from the rest of palestine. Homes forcefully taken from them, many with dead families. When you are targeted as a group, when your rights are stripped away for who you are you must act as a group and you must do so with all it takes. Be it for example as a queer person, a woman, a religious minority or as a palestinian.
That is why I repost pro palestinian content on this blog.
@frustratedasatruar What do you think the palestinian people deserve? What does your utopia look like? How do you believe we should get there? I genuinely hope I get an answer from you. Because otherwise I really liked your blog. Since october it is almost exclusively pro-Israeli propaganda.
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Some history
I had a feeling someone would mention this, so I had something prepared.
First off, that's an inflated figure.
Secondly, Canaanite really just means people descendent from the Levant area, and more people from Lebanon have ancestral heritage with Canaanites, who intermixed with various cultures. Back when they were still a civilisation, the Canaanite people were predominantly Jewish, it was the main faith in the area, seconded by Christianity. The wave of Islam started sometime around the 8th century under the first few invasions of the various Muslim nations around, predominantly Egypt. The thing is, the more Jewish Canaanites intermixed more with Europeans, Greeks who had settled Anatolia, generally people across the Northern Mediterranean and had European ancestry, but these people often moved to Europe due to the generally higher acceptance of Jews (for a while in some places) and the higher living standards and opportunities, and they mainly favoured Orthodox countries, with Catholic Poland being a key exception. The Palestinian Canaanites intermixed with the other Levantine based cultures or descendants, like Iranians, Lebanese people, Egyptians and Mesopotamians. Since it was the Egyptians and Arabs who conquered the land and it was ruled under Islam for over a thousand years, it was more favourable for the Palestinians to stay there. They continued to intermix with Egyptians, Syrians, and Bedouin people, who shared even more in common with the Canaanites than the Palestinians. The simple thing is, while many more Jews share heritage with Europe, they can pretty much all be traced back to Canaan, as can the Palestinians. The Muslims invaded, the Jews migrated, people intermixed. However, the culture of modern Palestinians was altered to be much more intertwined with the Muslim faith, which was spread via missionaries, similar to how Christian missionaries operated in European colonies.
In the end it's a whole cultural mess of heritage, but each of them lay claim to the land, since their ancestors on both sides originated from these Levantine lands, but the Jews got more European and the Palestinians got more Muslim, meaning while Palestinians share a lot in common with Canaanites still, the Canaanites who had been living in the regions both sides inhabit now, have practically no modern equivalent, since the Palestinians mixed with other Levantine cultures, Egyptians, Iranians, etc, which makes defining ancestral homeland tricky, since if you say it's all Canaanite descendants, then the Lebanese have a better claim than anyone, but The Canaanites who'd been local to places like Jerusalem have no modern comparison, which leaves you with the two main modern variations of the Canaanites who had lived in these lands; the Palestinians and Israelis. Even though a fair amount of the Jewish population in Israel had emigrated from Europe, it was still Canaanite Jews who'd mixed with those Europeans, and legal immigration to a country offering a home to those of your faith is still a very fair way to enter a country where your people historically have lived and even in modern and recent history have lived. Me as a Brit who's 25% Irish could apply for an Irish passport and live in areas once held by English settlers hundreds of years ago, but are rightfully Irish now, so it's fair if Jewish people legally immigrate to historically Jewish lands where many of the Israeli people have lived their entire lives and who's families have lived there far longer. Tel Aviv was built by Jews, Gaza was built by Palestinians. Barely any Israelis want to own Gaza, a scary amount of Palestine supporters want to either burn down or occupy Tel Aviv for Palestine. Let the two exist, they've both been there, just get Hamas out the picture and they can go about their lives.
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Feel free to answer whenever you feel like, but i just saw an ask you've answered where you said " FCG's attitude towards the Changebringer is Jewish, Imogen's attitude towards the gods is Goyish. "
As Goy myself i really would love to hear you expand on this because i never thought about it like that until now but i can kinda see it (??)
Ok now this is something i realized mid-writting this ask and, if this is something Sam thought of doing on purpose, maybe the lose cables or "hair" on FCG is a convenient way to introduce a more obvious bit of Jewish analogy by introducing an Exandrian Kippah equivalent (??)
So...this requires a lot of context that to be fair I think a lot of people might not have.
The *Lenny Bruce voice* is a reference to a comedy routine by Lenny Bruce, a Jewish comedian from the 1950s and 60s, in which he would just go through like...random things or people and assign them "Jewish" or "Goyish" based on vibes. Like...he sorts different cigarette brands as Jewish and Goyish. He calls Ray Charles (not Jewish irl) "Jewish" and Al Jolson (Jewish irl) "Goyish". It's like when people on Tumblr say "oat milk is a girl to me and almond milk is a boy" or whatever. It's cultural rather than religious, and worth noting that Goyish in this context is often equated more with WASP attitudes than with Christianity on the whole. (For more, see some brief commentary here).
This is actually based on broad philosophy and not specifics, and actually the kippah example you give is kind of specifically the sort of representation I tend to oppose, because it's frequently the representation given. A lot of Jewish representation in fiction takes surface-level elements and is like "cool! Jewish character created! Done," because they threw a kippah on someone or had them leave a small rock on a gravestone. In the Christmas episode, they'll have one character who has never engaged with Jewish culture in any other context be like "don't you mean...Happy Hanukkah?" and then that's the last you've heard of it. You can make a character who smashes a glass at their wedding until you're blue in the face but, as I've said many times, one of my favorite forms of "representation" in media remains the comic version of G. Willow Wilson's run of Ms. Marvel, a Muslim character. Because that actually understood my high school experience! That had the complexities of being in a public high school but needing to miss events due to religious obligations the Christian majority did not have, or not being able to eat the pepperoni pizza my friends ordered! That actually captured my day-to-day lived experience, rather than being like, a weird archaeological dig into "Jewish Ritual Objects And Practices" that are then pinned onto a character like they're Jewish Barbie. A Kippah placed on a character who has an otherwise extremely Christian mentality is just a hat on a guy.
So anyway the reason FCG's coin strikes me as a very Jewish practice is not because it's literally indicative of any specific Jewish rituals. It's because it's very much a dialogue with a higher power that provides a lot of room for interpretation and even disagreement. And it's very focused on the here and now - FCG comes to the conclusion that the details of the Changebringer are not going to be answered and are not technically relevant; what matters is their actions in this time. Like, the decision FCG makes in episode 53, to go into the Grand Disc to see if they can help, is explicitly "if we cannot get a direct answer from a deity, we need to focus on living out their values and helping people." Meanwhile, Imogen's initial attitude towards the gods doesn't really grapple with the idea that people have free will and actions ultimately speak far louder than words, which is antithetical to the Jewish philosophy. Like, Judaism doesn't really have a solid idea of the afterlife (there are multiple vague concepts with no real consensus other than 'really not the most important thing to focus on') and while it does have a concept of souls it's sort of like...the divine within us all. The Ruby Vanguard ideology is remarkably consistent with (for example) Calvinist predestination and presumes a monolithic attitude with little room for questioning or free will that is entirely foreign to my upbringing, and even considering it for a second feels bizarre to me. Which isn't to say it's bizarre for Imogen to do so because, well, she's not Jewish, but it is philosophically incompatible with pretty much any Jewish worldview.
This was a very long way of saying "Jewish representation for me needs to be about ongoing day-to-day lived experience and philosophical outlook and as such most representation fails because it's single moments in time - a specific holiday or custom used as a lazy shorthand for an entire diverse religion and subculture. Within a world that is always going to be incompatible with the basic tenets of Judaism re: ethical monotheism and six thousand years of highly specific historical events, what I find most relatable is attitudes towards the divine that I find compatible. And FCG's attitude towards the divine is compatible, and Imogen's is not."
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i apologize if youve answered this question before, im having trouble finding a definitive answer online. do you know what phrase should be used when honoring a deceased person who was muslim? i know that “rest in peace” is primarily used in christian contexts, and that for judaism the english equivalent is “may their memory be a blessing” but i am curious if there is a similar phrase in islam, or a way to more respectfully honor the deceased and their religion and culture.
you can use any sort of phrase, really. we say "allah yerhamhum" in arabic for anyone who passed, which means "may God grant them Mercy."
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By: Lawrence J. Siskind
Published: May 19, 2021
Much of the American media establishment and commentariat have adopted the familiar crouch position known as “equivalency.” They include both sides’ latest casualty figures, and juxtaposed photos of bombing damage in Gaza with rocket damage in Israel — as if efforts to kill civilians are equivalent to retaliatory efforts to prevent the killing of those civilians.
The problem with equivalency is that it reveals nothing about the actors beside their respective suffering. It says nothing about their values and motives.
Fortunately, that information is readily available — in the parties’ own words.
The Israelis’ desire for peace reflects the May 14, 1948, Declaration of the State of Israel:
WE APPEAL — in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months — to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
The Hamas Covenant of August 18, 1988, asserts a different viewpoint:
The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. … Arab and Islamic Peoples should augment by further steps on their part; Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same, since all of these are the best-equipped for the future role in the fight with the warmongering Jews.
The Hamas commitment to ridding the land of Jews is so fervid, it even supersedes the organization’s unenlightened attitude toward women. According to Sheik Ahmad Bahr, a top Hamas official:
If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female. A woman may set out without her husband’s permission. … Why? In order to annihilate those Jews. Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. Oh Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.
What are the two sides’ positions on respect for other religions? Israel’s founding Declaration states:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL … will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated this position in reference to worship at the Temple Mount:
Those who visit or worship on the Temple Mount must be allowed to do so in peace, free from violence, from threats, from intimidation and from provocations. We will continue to ensure access to the Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers and visitors, while maintaining public order and security. Recognizing the importance of the Temple Mount to peoples of all three monotheistic faiths — Jews, Muslims and Christians — Israel re-affirms its commitment to upholding unchanged the status quo of the Temple Mount, in word and in practice.
The Hamas Covenant takes a different stand:
Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.
What are the two sides’ positions on condemning the current violence between Jews and Arabs in Israel?
Netanyahu recently told a Jewish audience:
I don’t care if your blood is boiling. So it’s boiling. It’s irrelevant. You can’t take the law into your own hands. You can’t come to an Arab civilian and try to lynch him, just as we can’t see Arab citizens do so to Jewish citizens. This will not stand.
Fathi Hamad, the Hamas Interior Minister, begs to differ:
People of Jerusalem. We want you to cut off the heads of the Jews with knives. With your hand, cut their artery from here. A knife costs five shekels. Buy a knife, sharpen it, put it there, and just cut off [their heads]. It costs just five shekels.
This is not a new position. In July 2019, Hamad declared:
Seven million Palestinians outside, enough warming up, you have Jews with you in every place. You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill them.
Perhaps one day the American media and pundits will take a closer look at the character of the combatants. When they do so, they may not be so hasty to find “equivalency” between those who wish to kill and those who wish not to die.
==
They are not the same.
#Lawrence J. Siskind#Hamas#Hamas terrorism#islamic terrorism#islamic violence#exterminate hamas#Fathi Hamad#palestine#israel#gaza#gaza strip#Hamas covenant#jihad#jihadism#religion is a mental illness
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In point of fact:
We know that there are plenty of people who are never allowed to be innocent civilians even when their spokespeople are genocidal Fedayeen gangs that bellow for the annihilation of a people and a religion worldwide, or culturally specific equivalent.
Very few of the people doing this performative cosplay nationalism for a culture they do not understand nor desire to understand bother to care a damn about the Muslims of Yemen, Syria, the two Sudans, the Rohingya, or the Uighurs of Turkestan. They do not care about the Christians of Ukraine, Armenia, or Ethiopia.
What, precisely, makes a child slain in Gaza or Jenin worth more than the children of Aleppo or the Sudans? Why are some civilians the ones that get worldwide protests against their murders while others, like Ukrainians in particular, get rallies calling for the people seeking to exterminate every last one of them to be given the chance?
If Gazan children are the only ones you give a fuck about you don't care about Palestinians, nor the children slain by those bombs. You never did, you never will. What does motivate you is something else. And we have seen with the Bosnia and Kosovo Wars that there are people to whom the greatest crime is not to perpetrate butchery like Milosevic's jackals did but to stop the butchers. For these people there is no Hell sufficient to deliver them what they deserve in human imagination.
#gaza#palestine#israel#ukraine#syria#democratic republic of the congo#ethiopia#bosnia#uighurs#rohingya#armenia#sudan#south sudan#aka 'some genocides are adored by people who think the people slaughtered deserve to die'#but they won't outright say that because they know it makes them look like the sociopathic vermin they are
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