Wednesday 28 December 2011

What Is The Exact Date Of Prophet Muhammad's Birth?

It is not possible to ascertain the exact date of the Prophet’s birth. He is said to have been born about fifty-five days after Abraha’s attack on Makkah and in the fortieth year of reign of Chosroes Anusharwan of Persia. The birth is also said to have taken place in the year of third breaking of the Marib dam, situated some sixty miles east of Sana in Yemen and a centre of large irrigation system at the time. From these and other information, the year of the Prophet’s birth is taken as 570 or 571. Generally, the Western scholars quote the year 570 and the Eastern scholars 571.
Traditionally, the Prophet’s date of birth is celebrated on 12 Rabi I, the third month in the Muslim calendar. [A Chronology of Islamic History 570-1000 CE, Fourth Edition, TaHa Publications, 2003, p.27]

Israel: Jewish Extremists Unreported by the Christian Right? (Story of Naama Margolese)

Can you imagine th field day the Christian fundamentalist fraternity would have over a story such as this IF it involved Muslims? The story, as sad as it is, does serve to highlight the double standard the Christian right operate and it also serves to give an impetus to American tax payers to ask questions about all the funding Israel gets from the US treasury.

A frightened eight-year-old Jewish girl has been called a 'whore' and spat on as she walked to school through an ultra-orthodox settlement in Israel. Naama Margolese has become a symbol in Israel for the growing abuse of women and young girls by Jewish extremists.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078771/Israel-braced-protests-treatment-women-girl-8-spat-Jewish-extremists.html#ixzz1hVq67T9b

Monday 26 December 2011

How old was Mary when Betrothed/Married to Joseph? At what age was Mary pregnant with Jesus?

Prof. Geza Vermes
Earnest inquiry as to the age of Mary at the time of her betrothal (and marriage) to Joseph as well as the virginal conception (and birth) of Jesus (p) is clouded by the revisionist claims of Christian evangelists who are intent on representing a 21st century understanding of such customs. This is another reason why consulting scholarship in any enquiry is of paramount importance. Here we have the Jesus scholar, Professor Geza Vermes, breaking the barriers of evangelical revisionism with proper contextualisation of suchlike.

Christians and Jews: Arranged Marriages

Arranged marriages were the norm within Jewish societies prior to and contemporaneous to Jesus’ time. Thus, scholars like Geza Vermes are led to believe Mary’s betrothal to Joseph would have been arranged by a male relative at a young age.

To begin with betrothal, in Matthew (as in Luke) Joseph and Mary are said to be engaged. To appreciate properly the meaning of betrothal, it is to be remembered that in the Jewish society of the age of Jesus, arranged marriage was the established custom. The betrothal of a young girl was the prerogative of her father. If the father was no longer alive, his place was taken by the girl’s brother or some other male relative. The head of the family negotiated the financial settlement with the groom and his parents. The girl had no say whatever in the matter.

Betrothal of minors was a Jewish norm

Contrary to some of the apologetic material emanating from various Christian ministries, standard Jewish practice at the time was the betrothal of minors – females attained maturity at the age of twelve.
Quite apart from the subordinate status of women in Jewish Law, in the rabbinic era and no doubt earlier too, the bride-to-be was by definition a minor, a person not yet of age. It should be noted that in the Mishnaic-Talmudic legislation girls attained majority when they started to menstruate, or on the day after their twelfth birthday, whichever came first. In the rabbinic perspective, majority and attainment of puberty were coterminous. By the age of twelve years and six months a young woman became, in the terminology of the rabbis ‘mature’ (bogeret), and was expected already to be married. In any case, by then her father no longer had the right unilaterally to betroth her.

Vermes: Mary was no more than twelve (12) or a little younger

Again, cutting through some of the evangelical revisionism, according to Geza Vermes, Mary would have been twelve years of age (or a little less) at the time of her betrothal/marriage to Joseph and at the time of her giving birth to Jesus (p)

Once the preliminary requirements laid down in the agreement of betrothal were satisfied, nuptials followed: they were presumed to take place within twelve months from the date of agreement. Then the bridegroom led his bride to his own home amid solemn festivities attended by family, friends and neighbours. The Gospels contain various parables about Jewish weddings (see for example Mt 25:1-13). It would follow from these rules, which appear standard and long standing, and not some kind of innovation by the redactors of the Mishnah, that at the time of the incidents described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mary was no more than twelve years old or conceivably a little less, and by the standards of her society and age, mature enough for marriage

Jesus’ views + Christian fundamentalist hypocrisy and folly

Christian evangelists should note there is no recorded condemnation of such practices from Jesus thus suggesting Jesus gave (at the very least) tacit approval of such marital customs.

Some of the riff-raff amongst Christian evangelists readily de-contextualise the marriages of Muhammad (p) to Aisha (ra) in order to direct an intellectually dishonest character-assassination attempt of Prophet Muhammad (p) yet fail to recognise this marriage was in similar vein to the Jewish customs at the time of Jesus. These evangelists fail to attack the Jews for such practices whilst attacking Muslims and Mormons (Joseph Smith) for the same custom.

Further still, the riff-raff amongst Western Christian evangelists fail to attack their fellow ‘Bible-believing’ forefathers as they were following similar marital customs:

Age is an additional requirement. Every jurisdiction mandates that a man and a woman must be old enough to wed. In the 1800s, the legal age was as low as 12 years old for females. Modern statutes ordinarily provide that females may marry at age 16 and males at age 18. Sometimes a lower age is permitted with the written consent of the parents. A number of states allow for marriage below the minimum age if the female is pregnant and a judge grants permission [Marriage: Legal Dictionary - http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/marriage]

Quotes taken from Jesus, Geza Vermes, Penguin Books, 2010, p. 64-65

May Allah send more Blessings upong Mary, Jesus and Muhammad. Ameen.

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Sunday 25 December 2011

James White’s Sister Patty Bonds is a Victim of CBN and Fox News

CBN's Pat Robertson
What other than constant right-winged fear-mongering can get mature Catholic Christian folk in America sabre-rattling against Muslims?

Have a read of these two excerpts from Patty Bonds (the Catholic sister of AOMIN’s Calvinist apologist, James White):

Every day, on my way to work, I drive by a mosque. Every time I see that crescent raised above the neighborhood I pray for protection against the invasion of Islam in our country and around the world. It demonstrated how blind our society is that after being a force for human rights world wide, we turn around and start "sucking up" to a religion that completely destroys the rights of all Muslim women and children, and any other person who is not Muslim.


Islam is not a religion. It is a political ideology that has undermined the whole world. We need to wake up and call an invasion and invasion and take up arms against it.

Patty Bonds: Jaw-Dropping Venom

Aside from her unscholarly drivel of Islam not being a religion, destroying the rights of women and children and her paranoia of an upcoming Muslim invasion, her calls for war against Muslims are jaw-dropping. You’d have thought the Christian right would have had their fill of Muslim blood with Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess not. Perhaps, like vampires they are in constant need of the red stuff….Muslim red stuff.

PS Could somebody tell her to send one of her soldiers to England to pick up my jaw from the floor before he goes off to join the rest of the Christian army in invading Muslim land…

CBN’s Christian soldier Walid Shoebat: A Fraud

CBN’s Christian soldier Kamal Saleem: A Fraud

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Saturday 17 December 2011

Christian Voice ‘Mosque Watch’

Christian Voice is clearly demonstrating Christian fundamentalism is live and kicking in the UK. Christian Voice is encouraging Christians throughout the UK to monitor council websites for mosque planning permissions so their lawyer can use a ‘winning formula’ to defeat these planning permissions.

TFAI would like to recommend that Stephen Green and his Christian Voice recommend their Islamophobic brigade of Christians actually ‘keep a weather-eye’ for Bible manuscripts, perhaps those dull enough to devote hours on council websites in the hope of thwarting mosque planning permissions would have enough gumption to trek off to the rubbish heaps at Oxyrhynchus (Egypt) and re-search them for Bible fragments. Oh wait, Christian Voice would rather have them wasting their lives staring at council websites than hunting for more Bible forgeries. I wonder why…

Christian Voice: Moqsue Watch

Here are the Islamophobic designs of Christian Voice laid bare in their November issue (page 2):

One immediate task which any local group – or indeed any individual – can start on is to keep abreast of planning applications for mosques and Islamic study centres, community centres and suchlike. We are in touch with a planning lawyer who has a winning formula for defeating Islamic planning applications, such as those in Dudley and Maidenhead. But he needs to know early in the planning stage and that is where we come in.


If any of our members feel called to keep a weather-eye open for such applications by devoting an hour or two a week to various council websites, please let us know.


Looks like these Christian fundamentalists are strongly bent (no pun related to Christian Voice’s obsession in attacking gays) on preventing people from worshipping the God of Prophet Jesus. May Allah guide us all. Ameen.

Learn about the Old Testament

Sexual relations in Christian Marriages

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Sunday 4 December 2011

Robert Tressell's Description of 'Christians' Lives On...

They believed that the Bible was the word of God, but they didn't know where it came from, how long it had been in existence, who wrote it, who translated it or how many different versions there were. Most of them were totally unacquainted with the contents of the book itself. But all the same, they believed it - after a fashion. [Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell, Penguin Books, 2004, p170-171]

The remarkable thing is, Robert Noonan's (aka Robert Tressell 1870-1911) description characterizes so many Christians still to this day despite the proliferation of scholarly material on the Bible, textual criticism and the like.

Who benefits from having lay Christians devoid of any meaningful knowledge of the Bible?

Recently, I had the displeasure of encountering two 'Bible-believing' Christians who were carbon copies of the unlearned, obnoxious, right-winged American Christian fundamentalists we so often pour scorn upon, the twist being, these two 'Bible-believers' were British. Looks like the infection of American fundamentalism is affecting Christians worldwide along with the persistent problem of ignorance of the Bible and Christianity.

Somebody somewhere is laughing all the way to the bank...

Christians, please look into matters before the tide of American fundamentalist ignorance comes for you. Let's pray it's not too late...

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Chris Hedges: Islamophobia is Racism Against Muslims

Chris Hedges points out that the fear of Islam and Muslims in the USA is a form of racism, and that fear helps keep the population compliant and submissive.



If only American Fundamentalist Christians Knew?

Could somebody tell the fundamentalist Christians who fund the lazy lifestyles of 'Christian' missionaries who demonize Muslims and Islam?