The Mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler, Part 1

  Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu created a lot of controversy and news recently by claiming that Hitler merely wanted to deport Jews from Europe, but that the Mufti of Jerusalem, in Palestine, at the time, was the originator of the “final solution”. The Mufti, seeing the Jews coming to Israel in large numbers, and he didn’t want the Jews in Palestine, so he suggested to Hitler to burn the Jews instead.

 

 

Even German Chancellor of Germany – Merkel challenged this and said the Holocaust was wholly the responsibility of the German Nazi-dictatorship at the time and he have also been vehemently denied by any scholar with knowledge of this horrible period. So after a short time he had to admit that it was Hitler and his entourage of Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann that were the main instigators that caused the Holocaust.

But who were the Mufti and why would Netanyahu bring him up ? Was it a cause of confusion about lack of knowledge about history and the mufti, or maybe a public relations campaign against Palestine, in a time of increasing tension in Israel and fear in the civilian population because of repeated killings and injuries over a long time, by terrorists stabbing random people or driving them over with cars.

The news coverage about this have been low in a time with massacres in Paris and California, and the treat to Europe and USA posed by ISIS, and a massive wave of refugees from Syria. This time however there were at least frantic reactions by news agencies the Israeli Prime-Minister appearing to question the guilt of Hitler in the Holocaust, and instead some obscure Palestinian figure from the past. There were a lot of follow up news about the Mufti, and thus a lot of knowledge about the role of him in the Holocaust.

 

    The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini

Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (1897– 4 July 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist, anti-Zionist and Muslim leader in Mutasarrifate, the former municipality of Jerusalem, that included today’s Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine

. He were a member of the most esteemed families of Jerusalem, who trace their origins to the grandson of Muhammad. He achived later the highly important recognition as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Among other things he made Middle-East Muslim countries collect gold for the roof of the Dome of the Rock.

He studied Turkish and French and Islamic law, among other things in many different schools.

With the outbreak of WWI in 1914, he took part in the Axis power, as an artillery officer, assigned to be stationed in and around the city of Izmir. He was then sick and on leave for 3 months, when the British conquered Jerusalem. He fought on the British side and they completed their conquest of Ottoman-controlled Palestine and Syria by 1918. He assisted the British, and joined the military administration in Jerusalem and Damascus, for the Arab Revolt. The English recruiting officer, Captain C. D. Brunton, found al-Husseini, with whom he cooperated, “very pro-British”.

This were however from the British side an example of psychological warfare to gain support to defeat the Turks both by assistance from Jews and Arabs, for example by dropping pamphlets with propaganda to the Arabs from airplanes, where there were given grand promises of freedom and prosperity by British rule. The same types of promises were given to Jews. Where the goal seemed to be colonial.

After the Ottoman Empire Collapsed, the Turks were limited to Anatolia, their heartland. The Remaining Middle-East, the French and the British sliced up into partitions of the former Empire. Lebanon (a Christian country then) and Syria went to France, and Palestine and Jordan, and Mesopotamia with the almost limited supply of oil, to the UK. Palestine became a mandate of the United Kingdom from 1920–1948, or commonly known as Mandatory Palestine. The rest of the former Ottoman Empire were divided into different nations and kingdoms, that still remain in most of the Middle-East. For example Mesopotamia became Iraq. The Suez Canal were also vital for the British Empire at the time, along with the fuel to make quick voyages, and most of all, to avoid the long trip around Africa to get to their Crown Jewel – India. so also Egypt had not yet become a sovereign kingdom, but were controlled by the British troops.

Mandatory Palestine

Before WW1 things were different, Jerusalem were firmly in the hands of the 4th Caliphate, but still then, the “sick man of Europe” – the Ottoman Empire – that had gradually lost more and more control, with the Western Industrial Revolution, and increasingly superior Weapon-Capability,  and also with Arab Nationalism. Arab Newspapers now appeared uncensored and became gradually more and more an effective tool to nourish deepening a Nationalistic and anti-Zionist feelings in the Arab population.

Jews had been present, along with Christian and Arabs, as Ottoman citizens for centuries, but began to immigrate in large numbers to Palestine, specially in waves during Russian Pogroms, bringing along the Zionist idea of it’s founder Theodor Herzl, that Jews would never be safe as long as they didn’t have their own state, something that both had been proven right in the past and would be proven beyond comprehension in the years ahead.

The Russian Jew were often Communists and Socialists and also founded militia to protect the land – and their model of communes with people working together for the welfare of everyone actually worked, with their kibbutzim. Jews became aware of the deepening anti-Zionist and Nationalist Arab hostility to the steady growth of immigration, on the other hand Jewish Politicians negotiated with the Ottoman Rulers, for example by referring to the European expertise and economic benefits this would bring. They were seeking to develop a proto-state with Jews began buying up large areas of land from absentee land-owner that were happy to sell at prices high above market-value,  with villages and kibbutzim seeking to connect and concentrate their position on the map, something that later became influential in the map for the partition plan for Palestine, with the N on the top, with Jewish settlements, that was planned to become such an connected state.

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However, before this became reality however, and after the War, al-Husseini, became heavily involved in in the anti-Zionist, Arab Nationalism against the Jewish Immigrants.

There had been skirmishes for a long time, but during the annual Nabi Musa procession in Jerusalem in April 1920, violent rioting broke out in protest at the implementation of the Balfour Declaration which supported the establishment in Palestine of a homeland for the Jewish people, that did great damage both on Jewish lives and property.

al-Husseini  was sentenced in absentia to 10-years imprisonment by a military court, since he had fled to Syria. There he advocated the ideology of the Greater Syria until late 1920.  Greater Syria were to bet he entire Levant, with Palestine understood as a southern province of an Arab state, whose capital was to be established in Damascus. Greater Syria was to include territory of the then occupied Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestinian Authority and Israel. And specially Pan-Arabism, with the focus on Jerusalem and Palestine, a specifically Palestinian ideology, centered on Jerusalem, which sought to block Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.

When there were declared a general Amnesty for those who had taken part in the riot in Jerusalem in 1920, he took part in politics in Palestine, where he lost an election for becoming mufti. However in 1922 he was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council and demanded to become Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

The Supreme Muslim Council  and its head al-Husseini, who regarded himself as guardian of one of the three holy sites of Islam, launched an campaign in Muslim countries to gather funds to restore and improve the Haram ash-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) or Temple Mount, and particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the shrine Dome of the Rock (which houses the holiest site in Judaism). He accused the Jews that wanted access to the Western Wall of planning to take possession of the Western Wall and build a Temple over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Something Jews are still considered to be conspiring to want to do. It’s difficult to know when the mufti became an ardent anti-Semite, but this period of his life seem a fair guess.

He was ceaselessly involved in political activities and many Pan-Arabic riots until WW2 broke out.

As to Palestine, so too in Germany many Jews fled from Russian Pogroms, these rootless people with their strange customs thought Cultural Germany must had been a safe place.

After loosing WW1, veterans made the “backstab” be hated, that is the resistance from the homefront against the continuation of that horrible war, with terrible shortages in all goods by the British naval blockade. An Austrian of the German Side at the front  began crying with the loss, and temporarily lost his eye sight in a shocks from gas and trauma from the defeat, would – like the mufti – gradually become far more and more anti-Semitic, being groomed by such groups as “the Thule Society” using Nordic National Romanticism as to a lost, greater time, when the Aryan were super-men, but now, with social-Darwinism, evolution made clear that we held life in potential bad humans, not attributing to society and would gradually become less pure Aryan, by thoughts like this from social-Darwinism arrived also Eugenics in many countries, and practiced it widely with, make those that seemed not fit enough, sterile.

This “backstab” were a deep one, and the organizers behind it were often socialists (and defeated by a group of veterans coming back from the war, organizing against them) and the Bolsheviks in Russia had many Jewish leaders, so there were being created an extreme hatred of Jews and Bolsheviks in much of the population, but the opposite were also true in a influx of both a fervor to Revolution, and Jews fleeing from massacres into Cultured Germany.  Also a forgery from Russia, translated, called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion about how Jews gradually planned to take over the world, had a catastrophic effect in creating antisemitism. There were a fear of Communism that created extremism on both sides, left and right, but most of all gradually the right-wing would win and to the horror of the world it was this Austrian front-soldier having seen industrial mass-death and dealt with it bravery that gave him the Iron Cross, as a fanatic supporter of the carnage, just as long it gave German victory, and as long as the Untermensch where rooted away from Germany . Enough is said about ww2 and Nazi-Germany, that most should know enough.

This will be the end of part 1, number 2 will be shorter and with more media, and go less into the backstory of the Mufti, but right into his Nazi-activities and it’s spread into the Middle-East.

“In the name of God”

I’ve very often heard people mention the many tragic incidents done by people in Christian history, even with the blessings of priests and popes, and then God seem to be the one to blame. Both the inquisition, witch burning, crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, happened with people believed to be doing Gods will, therefore “in the name of God”. In my own country, Christened around 1000-1200 AD, is still said to have been spread by blood. Those with knowledge of history however, know that the Christening of Norway happened as a result of a politics between two men who both wanted to rule. Also there’s none that realize the irony they’re missing when blaming Christianity for violence, after what was done by our forefather in the Viking Age.

Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, sentenced to death by being burned alive stake in 1314, after accusations , extracted under torture, of things from devil worship, sodomy, spitting at the cross etc.

And there’s none that think about the simple words of Jesus of Nazareth, about loving, praying for and forgiving your enemy, turning the other cheek etc. and ask themselves if these really were the basic principles of what has been done by people, by purpose or ignorance, things that are against the teachings of Jesus. Although I can’t remember anyone using the words “It was done in the name of Jesus”.

Most of the time in the West though, it seem clearly to be about the God in Christianity people talk about when using the phrase. Wrongs that have been done in the name of God or in the name of Christianity, not as in having been done some horrible blasphemy, but as if it something related to Christianity.

Example of an American Christian hate group, that behave disgusting in public, with most elders being lawyers, using their right for freedom of speech for offensive public to the uttermost of the law, and believe that what they are doing are in “The Name of God”.

But did Jesus talk about war, swords and conflict as part of his teachings? Yes, he did.

It seem to be an agreement among Christian that spreading peace, not war is a good thing. But Jesus said that he didn’t come to spread peace, but the sword. (as has happened) This is however elaborated, and explained that because of this teaching would split families and friends would turn against each other. (also true, by experience)

In another example he talks to a soldier, not to condemn war, but rather to explain what to do best if you happen to be a soldier. As anyone knew, also Jesus understood that people had always be at war. A centurion was also told to have ha more faith then anyone in Judea.

And he said that there would come times where people thought they did God a service by killing Christians. As has happened.

So did an Apostle later in the bible. He explained that “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. (As happened)

Jesus warned about other people that would come, pretending to be Jesus and false prophets, as has happened. Thousands have died because of this.

Much of the problem arrived with the Catholic Church and reading of the Old Testament. In the old testament there’s a lot of different forms of punishments for people breaking the law. However the bible teaches that all sins are forgivable, that faith in Christ, not ” The Law of Moses, as Jesus said”, is the basic of Christian salvation.

Also by reading it in Latin at church to the illiterate flock, didn’t help much either.

Execution of Mariana de Carabajal (converted Jew), Mexico City, 1601.

The Spanish Inquisition itself caused the death of around 150.000 people. The last pope, Benedict XVI, were the director of the “Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office”, the renaming of the inquisition in 1908. Punishment such as burning and drowning were thought of as “not shedding blood”, and not done by the priests that carried out the sentence, certainly convinced that they were doing God’s will by some perverted logic.

Then, and for sure not as the first with similar opinions, that the pope was in fact the Antichrist (the bible says he will sit on the throne of God and call Himself God). Martin Luther came along and told what was really written in the bible, helped by the movable type invented by Gutenberg that spread his texts faster then the Church could burn them. By the help of a Saxon prince that didn’t take part in the required unanimous vote and helped him escape after the trial, to a remote castle where he venomously continued his sarcastic and condemning remarks against the Catholic Church, such as “the pope should stand up like the stinking sinner he is” or “The pope should restrain himself and take his fingers out of the pie”, a unstoppable, earthly, witty and intelligent provocateur.

Here’s an Luther insulter, if you want a taste of his attacks.

But with forces history society beyond his control, and probably seeds of freedom that only needed water to sprout this would really “bring the sword” in the 100-years war, and by the “victory” of the reform in Western Europe in the end. Here too I’m sure both sides were praying to the same God to save them from their fellow Christians that wanted to kill instead of dying.

The notion that Jesus had atoned for all sins on the cross and that only by his grace could we gain salvation by faith in Him, is basic Christianity, clearly written, but at odds with the Catholic Church. Luther also wrote the bible in German, so people could understand the simple facts, and now nothing the church did was needed to save the souls of people. They could find the faith they needed by reading what the clergy said

This shaped the western civilization in a radical way, different from the older civilization of Orthodox Christianity in East-Europe and Russia, that would soon lag behind the new, progressive individualism and critical thinking of Protestant West-Europe and USA.
So I strongly disagree in both the wars and crimes of the last two millennia, as being “in the name of God”, and that Christianity have instead the laws and values our civilization is based on, that we cherish and protect, fought over by the blood of martyrs and young men forced to leave their home and go to war.

USA, Idealism and Colonialism

John Quincy Adams, the 4th president of the United States of America, famously said Independence Day 1821 that “American goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy“.

The target of this words were against those in the US that favored armed intervention in support for “independence movements” in many South American countries.

This old colonial tradition from the British Empire about bringing “civilization“to those needing British superiority, Christendom and good manners etc. while really occupying countries, and draining it’s wealth.

British colonialist being carried by natives.

Today this also continues in the form of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, both institutions is of the United Nations. I recommend reading “Confessions of an economic Hitman” by John Perkins. ( Amazon.com link ) and follow-ups like “The Secret History of the American Empire”

Here he admits after decades as a worker for the IMF found out that the real goal of the IMF were not to “help developing countries to build their economy“. The loans with interest rate instead cripples them with unpayable debt. Then to pay debt natural resources etc. are sold to cover some debt, and it’s the same old exploitation, just with new words and more refined techniques.

John Pilger noted in a documentary that during the 1985 “Live Aid” concert where a lot of famous bands played for free in a public campaign to provide aid to hunger victims in Africa at the time – then Africa payed more to the West just in one day, then this highly publicized event managed to collect entirely.

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During The Independence Day speech Adams advocated moral support instead of military intervention. His speech that the US “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy lest she involve herself beyond power of extrication, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.” The United States, Adams warned, might “become the dictatress of the world [but] she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”

Furthermore he authored what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, which was introduced on December 2, 1823. It said that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas, would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring US intervention.

By this the British Empire didn’t take any of the former Spanish colonies.

In Europe the other hand this was seen just as much as the USA declaring ownership over the whole of the Americas as her own colony. And historically this haven’t been far from the truth, too many examples can be mentioned to cover in just one blog-post. So the Speech of Adams turned out just not to be forgotten, but the truths in it reversed.

Satire of Uncle Sam placing legs astride the Americas, in a very similar way as in caricatures of Cecil Rhodes, the ultimate British colonialist, that named a country after himself and.

Spread of The World Religions

  An animated video from Business Insider about the spread of the 5 world religions, from 5,000 years ago to today.

I want to go through the film with further description, to understand religion, from ancient times, until today and especially the 3 monotheistic religions, with the main points in their development.

Before Hinduism Shamanism and Animism were dominant in the world, and idea that the world around was inherently spiritual in the nature and people an integral part of it, as well as Ancestor Reverence. For example in Canaan, in one of the first agricultural areas, where wheat was cultivated and grounded to flour to bake a type of bread, communities had a custom of burying the heads of the elders under the middle of the floor in the huts.

Romanian religion philosopher Mircea Eliade believed that in all parts of the world shamanism had developed similar rituals and concepts independently, where the sea and and other geological formations separated them from each other for thousands of years. A shaman was usually an important member of the tribe who through trance had contact with the spirit world, to use medicine, lead rituals ad perform soul journeys to find lost pets. The trance was induced by psychotropic drugs or steadily beating of a drum. This form of early religion believed in different gods and even monotheism, was prevalent in shamanism forward to Europe – mainly Portugal, Spain, England and France – colonized America and changed the religion to Christianity – mostly Catholic in South-America and various denominations of Protestantism, many of witch view on Christianity made them persecuted in the old world – like the Amish – and found a place for themselves in the New World. Also after Christians and most other religions have tried to supress the native religions, often forcibly “convertes” natives, Shamanism lasted as a religion until today, especially in various indigenous communities.

Mircea Eliade also did not use the term homo sapiens = wise man, but Homo Religiosus=religious man, something that might make sense if we look at the world.

Depiction of Siberian Shaman in traditional outfit.

Archaeological finds have revealed graves with grave goods 100,000 years back in time, which seem to refer to a belief of a world after this, where the deceased could bring the grave goods to this new spirit world. Neanderthal Graves going back as far as 120.000 years, bear witness of the same. So religion outside the “5 official world religions” have not only been around to 5000BC, but at least 20 times as long.

Even in a recent discovery, in the Cradle of Humanity, South-Africa, in the Rising Star Cave, there’s been found massive numbers of fossilized hominid remains, with the only logical explanation that they were carried in there by other hominids and not by animals, since no predator has been known to hunt only for hominids and in all other such caves there’s been bones of mostly other animals, and a few cases of hominids. In addition there’s no signs that such a number could reach such a spot by some natural accident. So it could be an example unheard of earlier, with “abstract thoughts” such as religion have gone 2 million years back into prehistory.

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Hinduism and polytheism spread not only from the Indus civilization to become the dominant religion in India until today, with their 330 million gods, but also westward polytheism was spread all through the Fertile Crescent, with Sumeria first in Mesopotamia, up the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, south along the Jordan River in the Levant, to Lower- and Upper Egypt and south along the Nile. In Canaan they venerated such gods as Baal, El and Astarte, with animal sacrifice and other offerings, like grain. There the Phoenicians and Canaanites also started sacrificing children, a well talked about historic even, where by Roman times prominent sources, the Phoenician city of Cartage where said to practice children sacrifice to Moloch. Something that have been confirmed in archaeology.

The Fertile Crescent (also known as the Cradle of Civilization)

Into this world came Abraham, who is known as the forefather of the 3 monotheistic world religions. He was told by God to go to from Ur, one of the first cities in the world, between the Euphrates and Tigris, in the south of today’s Iraq – to Canaan, with his flock and clan. There he was tested by God to see if he would sacrifice his only son, but was given a ram to sacrifice instead when he passed the test. Abraham and the sacrifice and the ram, have resonance in Christianity as a reference to God letting his son be a sacrifice for the world, and in Judaism first, and then in Islam this place of sacrifice are known as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock is called so, because inside, in the middle of it, is the rock said to be the outcrop Abraham and Isac was at, in addition King David placed the tabernacle here, and Solomon built the Temple there and placed the Arch of the Covenant from the tabernacle there – Containing the 10 commandments written by God, the blooming rod of Arron and manna in a jar – all part of the Exodus from Egypt that in turn created the land of Israel. The Temple was then destroyed and rebuilt one more time, then utterly destroyed by Titus the general of Roman emperor Caligula 70AD, only decades after Jesus was crucified.

 

The Siege of Jerusalem 70AD by Francesco Hayez

Christendom were based on Judaism, but shorty dropped many laws not considered relevant anymore, such as those according to temple-laws and sacrifice, even food-prohibitions left, and included thus everyone instead of just Jews, with a message that anyone could be saved by believing in the teachings of Jesus of a free entry into heaven, even to the slaves that half of Rome consisted of, and thus manage to spread quickly within the Roman Empire and beyond, until the faith became the state-religion in Rome by Emperor Constantine, in this new Rome called Constantinople, a strategic location that would make it stay Rome for another 1000 years, in the form of the Christian Byzantine Empire, after the western, original Rome got sacked by barbarians.

The Jews themselves spread through the whole of the world, without roots for almost 2000 years.

The Spread of Christianity, before Islam.

After this centuries passed, the Byzantine Empire, with the reach of Christianity, spread further then the original empire had been at the height of it’s power.

Then Islam spread like a fire from the Arabian Peninsula, in the cities Mecca and Medina, where the revelations of the prophet Muhammad were the main force behind this new movement in world history.

When the Muslims came to Jerusalem, they found a Byzantine, Christian city, with the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they eventually built the Al-Aqusa mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the rubbish dump that the old temple had been reduced to, and connected this with the night-journey Muhammad took when he was flying from Mecca to Jerusalem and taken up into heaven.

This is really the time where the clash of civilizations started. The today’s “War of Terror” should really be called, just like the last 1400-years, a war between Christianity and Islam, that is still going on today.

The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the 4 caliphates following the death of the prophet Muhammad, that took the whole southern part of the Byzantine Empire and Ostrogoth Spain.

The Reach of the Umayyad Caliphate at its greatest extent, between the 6th and 7th Century AD

The Islamic caliphate from Al-Andalus (Today’s Spain) were pushed back from invading further into Europe, in The Battle of Tours (Also called the Battle of Pointers) in France by Charles Martel 10 October 732.

 

The Battle of Tours 10 October 732

After the Battle of Tours started the Reconqnista, a war about Spain that lasted centuries but for the first time, in a rare time of reconciliation between Christians, Jews and Muslims living in this period , there developed a combined wisdom and science that started the Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe, by the rediscovery of the original Greek classics, Arabic Maths, Astrology and Medicine.

Forces of Muhammed IX, Nasrid Sultan of Granada, at the Battle of La Higueruela, 1431

The Reconquista seems to be officially over the marriage between Isabella I of Castille and Prince Ferdinand, the younger son of John II of Navarre. Castille and Navarre joined together and at the same time as both the Moors and the Jews got the choice of conversion or exile, the unique culture between the 3 monotheistic religions ended. Under Isabella I the Spanish Inquisition began, that went much further then the Inquisition by the Church, was state-sponsored and were specially cruel towards Jews that often made a quick conversion by baptism, but in reality continued their own faith – these were doomed to torture and horrible deaths. On the other hand Age of Exploration began and European preeminence in ship-building, specially from Portugal, brought eventually all the main naval powers to America, where Christianity would become the main religion, with Catholicism in South-America and Protestantism of all variants in North-America

The Crusades, as mentioned, is considered an especially savage war. Endorsed by Pope Urban II, as a Holy War. In the 1st Crusade, The Siege of Jerusalem, 1096-1099, were in a desperate situation, with possible reinforcements on the way to defend Jerusalem from the Muslim side, had the choice to die in the siege from want of thirst and food, or to conquer the city. A fleet with reinforcements from Genova that supplied timber for siege weapons, saved the crusaders. When finally inside the attackers committed such heinous acts of violence, both against Muslims and Jews, that it’s been said that they rode with blood up to their bridles. It’s also said that the corpses were so many that nobody buried them, so the stench of death hung over Jerusalem for a long time after, in this “Holy War”.

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon – or more commonly known as The Knights Templar used the Dome of the Rock (believing it was the temple of Solomon) as a base, hence their name as “Templar’s”, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque were believed to be the stables where Solomon once had his war-chariots and thus used as stables.

Needless to say, when Saladin first reconquered Jerusalem, he ordered massive amounts of rosewater used to cleanse these two among the most holy places in Islam.

The Siege of Jerusalem during the 1st Crusade 1096-1099

However the clash between these two religions went both ways, just like the atrocities did, such as the Ottoman Empire’s conquest of both the landmass of the Byzantine Empire – and in the end the Byzantine capital of Constantinople itself (Today’s Turkish Istanbul) with the worlds largest church. The Ottomans continued to grow in size and power, took Greece and continued north into Europe.

The Ottoman Empire at it’s height.

In the end they got defeated by the heavily strained Holy Roman Empire that in the end they got reinforcements from the King of Poland, at the gates of Vienna 11. September 1683 , then the gradual fragmentation of the Ottoman Empire continued for centuries and became known as the “sick man of Europe”, until Turks were pressured into Anatolia by the loss in WW1 and the rest were partitioned up into French and British slices. By then, there were no more Caliphate to threaten Europe, until now, in these days, where the extremist Islamic group IS have declared a new Caliphate, and terrorist-activities have had an deep impact on the 15 first years of the Millennium.

 

The Battle of Vienna 11.September 1683

Jews had been inspired by Theodor Herzl’s Zionism from the start of the 20th century – the idea that the Jews needed a homeland from where they could live and defend themselves and although there were suggestions of a state in such places as Uganda, for the Jews there could really be no other place then the nation they once had to leave. After almost two thousand years Jews had been a foreign group on other peoples soil, with their own, strange religion and customs. They had been put in Ghettos and through the Spanish Inquisition. With the spread of the idea of Zionism came waves of immigrants fleeing from Russian Pogroms, into the Palestinian part of The Ottoman Empire. There were systematic work on how to buy areas from absentee landlords that gladly sold above price and to shape settlements into clusters (the famous N-shape) that later could form the basic of a nation. This beginning infrastructure of a state was what Jewish survivors from the Holocaust (that had proved Herzl’s idea beyond any comprehension), fled into, tragically often to have ships filled with survivors from Nazi-Germany’s Holocaust turned back, because of British troops trying to manage the bureaucracy from London with limits on 50,000 immigrants each year. Something that met hard resistance from Jewish underground organizations, causing for example the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where the British had their Headquarters. With the UN majority vote for the partition of Palestine, and the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion and recognition of the declaration both from USA and USSR became a nation in one day.

However neither the Arabs already living in Palestine for countless generations under the Ottoman Empire and earlier, nor the Arab countries surrounding the new Israel, wanted any Jewish state. So when the Israelis for the first time in two millennia were dancing in the streets to celebrate the almost miraculous birth of the rebirth of the lost nation, attacks against the fledgling state began almost instantly with an invasion from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Irregulars and foreign volunteers such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli were at first virtually without weapons, but a last minute deal with Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia secured them another almost miraculous ability to not only defeat the enemy forces, but also to expand the territory enormously and again they had the Temple Mount in their possession. But what to do with the Arab refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and by then ancient Temple Mount is a question that is huge importance to the world as a whole today.

A Reconstruction of the Temple on Temple Mount, During King Herod 0BC

 

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When Buddha was born in India, Buddhism spread gradually not mostly into India although it contained elements of Hinduism, such as an ascetic life, meditation, enlightenment and reincarnation – but throughout East and South Asia in general it had an enormous growth, possibly because of China already had a belief built up by sages like Confucius and Laozǐ, and that the transition thus was easier. Because Buddha taught that the gods were not essential to attain nirvana, and thoughts of, or believing in gods was also not needed for enlightenment. Yet there is religious elements in it, for example with the demon named Mara keeping people in locked in ignorance of the enlightenment, in a wheel of life, that repeats itself for each reincarnation, forever. There’s also veneration of large statues of Buddha in South-Asia and with Shamanistic elements in for example Tibet, but Buddha said in his teaching that he was no god, but merely a human, and his enlightenment was gained by the following of the noble truths by understanding the suffering. That we humans have our own inherent salvation. As he said: “Look, you are Buddha”, and we just have to wake up to this, by teaching and meditation. So many consider Buddhism to not really be a religion, since it is Atheistic the same time. At the same time, it’s not always easy to define religion, since it inhabits so many conceptions of life and death.

Mara, and the wheel of life, and the illusions of human life through it.

Operation Ajax

Mohammad Mosaddegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister
for the National Front in Iran.

In 1953 American CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (Today’s MI6) launched “Operation Ajax”, determined to cause a coup d’état to topple the reign of Mohammad Mosaddegh – which in the West was officially accusing of wishing to impose a dictatorship, because of new laws limiting the power of the Shah. The reality however, were his program to nationalize oil-export. So after the coup, they put the Shah of Iran (“The King of Kings”) back on the throne in a country, after a time in hiding in Rome during a time of unrest in Persia – something recommended by the CIA and SIS, to protect him – he would soon return, to eventually transform Iran into a police state, ruled by the feared and hated intelligence service SAVAK. The Shah was praised as a highly valuable Western ally. President Carter himself called the Shah one of (or) his best friends, and Persia “an island of stability” in the Middle-East.

Jimmy Carter and The Shah of Iran toasting their friendship.

 

There were strong reactions, not against dictatorship, but from the oil industry when it was stated by Iran’s parliament in 1951 that the oil industry would be nationalized, and there would be changes in Great Britain’s Anglo-Persian Oil Company (BP – British Petroleum today) access to Iran’s oil reserves, that had been flowing undisturbed, and as with with most foreign companies BP demanded a far larger percent of the revenue for themselves, then from the states that actually owned the oil.

All of these oil-rich Gulf states would eventually, because of the growing Arab nationalism,  meet a more and more fervent demand of at least an equal 50-50% share of the money generated from  exporting their globally vital natural resources.

Mohammad Mosaddegh was a widely popular politician. He won the vote for prime minister for the National front, and later became a national hero for his role in standing up to the colonial powers. It was exactly who the regular Iranian wanted, in a rising Nationalism and anti-imperialism. He even put out a vote to shut down the Iranian parliament, to consolidate his power, something that was supported by 99.9% of the population.

The British grip on Iran was thus threatened, after receiving oil from Iran since Winston Churchill first decided to switch from coal to oil, to improve the in the British Navy, prior to WW1.

This navy now moved into the Persian Gulf to boycott any export of Iran’s oil, something that put a stranglehold on the economy of Iran.

On pretexts of this “dictator” Mosaddegh, American CIA and the British SIS covert agents, led by Kermit Roosevelt Jr. and set in motion Operation Ajax, an operation that 4th of April 1953 the CIA-director Allen W. Dulles payed Roosevelt $1 million to be used in “any way to cause the fall of Mosaddegh”.

Central Intelligence Agency’s Allen Dulles, portrayed on the cover of TIME magazine with the writing “In an ancient game, new techniques and a new team” with the figure of a spy with a dagger in the background.

 

Operation Ajax, used the money to bribe politicians and government officials, aristocracy and criminals, with propaganda that Mosaddegh was a godless Communist and created rebellions in the streets with mobs, for and against the monarchy, that left 300 dead. It ended with Mossaddeq in jail for 3 years, then a house-arrest for life, in which he eventually died. The Shah, after returning from his safe-house in Rome, returned to the Throne, and oil again flowed freely to the market.

Thus the operation was deemed highly successful and became a model for numerous other Coups in countries daring to use the word “nationalize”, in order to control their own resources, such as several South-American nations, that would be terrorized by death-squads and dictators.

 

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However, the term “Blowback” in the CIA is a description of unforeseen consequences by covert operations, and after this covert operation, and the blowback in Persia would create become the future Islamic Republic of Iran and the Arch-Enemy of the USA, “The Big Satan”, together with Israel, the latter whom the US gave a significant, yearly amount of aid to, both monetary and military.

Iran became an Islamic Republic ruled by supreme commander Ayatollah Khomeini, after he returned from his exile in Paris to a jubilant crowd, that nearly, literally, strangled him with enthusiasm, and he had to get in a car to get some distance from the love from the people.

Addressing the west, the Ayatollah said famously, almost prophetic: ”

Yes, we are reactionaries and you enlightened intellectuals. You who want freedom for everything. The freedom to corrupt our country, corrupt our youth and freedom that will pave the wave for the oppressor. Freedom that will drag out country to the bottom” Words that would resonate with several other countries that would come under US domination.

Among the turbulence during the revolution a young engineer named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took part in the revolution against the hated SAVAK and the corrupted regime of the Shah.

A young Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

He would become another example of blowback, where there’s been a deep worry about Iran obtaining a nuclear capability, at the same time as he publicly, at the UN, have threatened to erase Israel from the map, something one member of the UN have ever said to another member of the UN.

When it comes to the Shah, the King of Kings, had to flee the country, but this time in perpetual exile and with cancer, trying to find a country – somewhere he could get treatment, but no country was eager to welcome him in the situation he now found himself in, but in the end was granted access to the United States hospital and died, something that enraged the Iranian people even further.

This move were something that caused protesters take hostages from the American Embassy. After a failed, militarily rescue operation with helicopters and special forces (called Operation Eagle Claw) crashed in the Iranian desert on their way to Tehran, were a public relation triumph and a national humiliation for the US that cost eight lives instead of rescuing a single one, and probably cost the American President Carter to lose his second term election, and all his work to get a solution to the hostage-crisis, using all this power to the last days in office, were in vain.

The failed Operation Eagle Claw, in the desert of Iran.

Exactly at the day Reagan became the new President of the United States, all the hostages came home. This is later thought to not be a coincidence, because of payments to the hostage takers, made them wait until Reagan became President, to release the hostages and send them to the airport. Something not at all unlikely with the later Iran-Contra Scandal, selling weapons to Iran.

In the Iran-Iraq war, the forces of Saddam Hussein – together with his later WMD –  were sold weapons for billions of dollars. USSR supported Iran.

And again today, since the 90’s, USA is talking about dictatorship, the Iranian nuclear program as a treat to world-peace, and, like “Operation Iraqi Freedom” invaded Iraq and only guarded oil-facilities and was leading the let the country that left the region, might just do the same with because of the Iranian nuclear program, something that naturally is eagerly encouraged by Israel, since Iran remain the only member of the UN that have officially threatened another member (Israel) with total annihilation, so Iranian rocket-program, that’s been able to send satellites into space, something that have made worries similar to the USSR launch of the first satellite Sputnik, and the following Space Race that can be said to really being able to launch ICBM missiles with nuclear warheads, so nuclear facilities, like in Natanz are under careful watch. Israel itself are armed with nuclear weapons, but it’s unknown if deterrence to strike back will be enough, so Israeli airstrikes have been trained in detail and actually have been ordered once, but then cancelled.

President Barrack Hussein Obama (awarded with one of the most controversial Nobel Peace Prizes) of the USA have tried diplomatic options, called “historic” and together with the move to relax diplomatic relations with Cuba, certainly have made him earn the Peace Price to some degree, just as he also delivered on his promise to pull out the troops of Iraq.

The harsh truth though is that Iran is completely encircled by the US, both west in Iraq (where they have the worlds largest embassy – larger then Vatican City), east in Afghanistan. South with the US-allied countries like Qatar, Kuwait among other Gulf-States, with airbases. In the North, there’s airbases in the former Soviet Provinces like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. And with the obscene  military budget that make all other nations on earth pale in comparison.

Kermit Roosevelt Jr. The grandson of the famous president Teddy Roosevelt. The mastermind that caused the fall of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.