Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Anti-Muslim Hate Film Incites Violence
political hate
Anti-Muslim Hate Film Incites Violence
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, Washington declared war on Islam. Islamophobia facilitates war on terror policy. Muslims became public enemy number one. Imperial wars followed. Endless direct and proxy ones continue. Others are planned.
Dehumanizing Islam violates core US beliefs about religious freedom and respecting all faiths equally. America only respects money power and imperial dominance.
It targets anyone challenging its quest for global hegemony. Millions of corpses attest to its resolve. They're strewn across North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and other parts of the world without end. Their numbers increase daily.
The business of America is war, imperial dominance, and corporate empowerment. Ravaging one country after another follows. Fear is created and manipulated to facilitate what should be condemned. Where it ends who knows. Perhaps a mushroom-shaped cloud future awaits.
Muslims know America's dark side best. It victimizes them daily. Millions died since Gulf War mass killings ignited nearly 22 years of genocidal slaughter.
They've been mercilessly targeted for praying to the wrong God. They're used for political advantage. They're pretexts for permanent wars. They're ongoing with no end in sight.
Media scoundrels misreport or ignore them. Attacks on US Cairo and Benghazi diplomatic missions made headlines and ignited rage. Capitol Hill flags were ordered lowered to half mast. US Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens and three members of his staff were killed. Millions of dead Muslims go unnoticed.
Stevens previously was Obama's representative to America's puppet Libyan National Transition Council. It helped Washington and NATO partners ravage the country mercilessly.
They're responsible for killing tens of thousands of civilians, causing widespread destruction, leaving countless numbers homeless, displaced, and impoverished, as well as ending cherished social programs Gaddafi instituted.
According to a New York Times editorial headlined "Murder in Benghazi," Libya's "pro-democracy revolution had no better friend than" Stevens.
The Times not only spurned truth, it blasphemed it. Stevens like all US ambassadors and officials serve imperial Washington's interests. They're contemptuous of democracy and rule of law principles.
"The worst thing now would be for the United States to turn away from its commitments to work with Libya (and help it) build (a) stable new societ(y)."
America's interest is plunder, exploitation and dominance. It won't tolerate democracy or anything resembling it. It doesn't at home or anywhere abroad.
A blasphemous anti-Muslim film incited violence. It killed Stevens and others. An Israeli/American filmmaker made it. He calls himself Sam Bacile. According to the Los Angeles Times, public record searches, "including court, voting, telephone or property databases - show no one" by that name in California.
AP said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula uses the alias Nicola Bacily. He acknowledged managing the company that produced the film. He claims Bacile is real and directed it. Federal court papers revealed Nakoula aliases include Bacily, Erwin Salameh, and others.
"Bacile," or whatever his name is, stands by his filth. Over 100 Jewish donors funded him.
Perhaps Romney supporter/billionaire Sheldon Adelson was one. Perhaps Netanyahu, other Israeli hardliners, and Mossad either supported it or were involved. It bears classic Israeli fingerprints.
"Bacile" claims he wrote, directed and produced it. He calls Islam "a cancer." Weeks earlier, the film was shown in Los Angeles. It runs two hours. It attracted little attention.
On 9/11 eve, he released an Arabic 13 minute trailer. It's titled "Innocence of Muslims." Facebook was used to promote it. It circulated via You Tube. Violence followed.
He calls Mohammad a baffoon, a donkey, a philanderer, an opportunist, a pedophile, homosexual, and religious fraud. One scene depicts him having sex. Muslims and responsible critics denounced him.
In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published blasphemous caricatures. They depicted the Prophet Mohammad irreverently. One showed him wearing a turban throwing a bomb. Riots followed in many Muslim countries. Deaths occurred in Afghanistan, India, Libya, and perhaps elsewhere.
In 2011, the Center for American Progress produced a report titled "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America." It revealed that seven US-based pro-Israeli organizations spent over $40 million from 2001 - 2009 spreading anti-Islamic hate.
Racist Pastor Terry Jones heads the Gainesville, FL-based Dove World Outreach Center. In 2010, he cancelled plans to burn the Koran after then Afghan commander David Petraeus said doing so would endanger US forces.
In 2011, he incited rage over threats to "put the Koran on trial" and burn it. Pleas by religious leaders and US officials failed to dissuade him. His assistant, Wayne Sapp, committed the sacrilege and broadcast it online. He also burned an image of the Prophet Mohammad.
In April 2012, he did it again. According to the Gainesville Sun, his church was issued a citation for violating city fire ordinances.
Analyst Gordon Duff calls Jones a CIA asset "run by rogue handlers, and heavily promoted by Mossad elements throughout the Middle East." His blasphemy draws attention. He's used to incite Islamophobia.
He's linked to the anti-Islamic video. He promoted and helped circulate it. He bears responsibility with others for the violence it incited.
US soldiers involved in Koran burnings and other forms of desecration provoked outrage when they happened.
Muslims believe the holy Koran is an exact record of words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad. He taught them to others. Scribes passed them on. Throughout centuries of Islamic history, its 114 chapters remained unchanged.
The Koran's the primary source of Muslim faith and practice. It covers all human concerns, including wisdom, beliefs, worship and law. It also focuses on God's relationship with humanity, and provides guidelines for a just society, proper relationships, and just divisions of power.
It teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism. Its five pillars include profession of faith, prayer five times daily, fasting during Ramadan, charity, and performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime for those able to afford it.
In February, clashes followed US Bagram Air Base soldiers dumping Koran copies and other Islamic holy materials in debris piles for burning.
Military officials lied. They claimed they contained "extremist inscriptions" and were used to "facilitate extremist communications." This incident followed earlier ones and release of a January video showing Marines urinating on Afghan corpses.
Protests erupted each time. Hollow apologies heightened anger, especially after 11 years of brutal war, occupation, daily killings, and extreme deprivation in ravaged Afghanistan.
Western media reports claimed rockets fired at Washington's Benghazi consulate killed Stevens and three members of his staff. According to The New York Times, "Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed" the mission late Tuesday.
His body wasn't "located until Wednesday morning at dawn, when he was found dead at a Benghazi hospital, American and Libyan officials said." Libyan sources said he died of asphyxiation caused by smoke from ignited fires.
On September 12, the American Iranian Friendship Committee published a different version of events. Images reveal a rocket attack wasn't responsible. Apparently, Stevens "was dragged through the streets and tortured. They don't mind when it's Gaddafi or one of your brown people, but not one of us."
The Mossad-connected DebkaFile said gunmen attacking America's mission split in two groups. One fired rockets at the consulate "on the assumption that (Stevens') bodyguards would" whisk him out of harm's way under secret service protection.
The second group spotted his "getaway vehicle and the ambassador's armed escort and lay in wait to ambush them." They killed him and his bodyguards "at point blank range."
Washington responded its usual way. Obama promised revenge. He ordered stepped up diplomatic mission security. He sent in the marines. He dispatched two guided missile destroyers. Pentagon spokesman called these steps precautionary measures.
Washington spent more than two decades ravaging North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Tuesday's attack suggests blowback. The suspiciously timed anti-Islamic hate film suggests Israeli involvement. Expect no official confirmation.
According to Haaretz, "Netanyahu has gone to war. Not against Iran. Not yet, at least. But his bellicose road to Tehran runs through Washington."
He picked "a very public fight with" Obama….(I)t's no great secret. (He) wants him defeated" in November. He wants Romney elected. He thinks he'll be quicker to attack Iran.
Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Rhetoric and policy bear little relationship to each other, especially during electoral campaigns.
If Netanyahu's involved in or responsible for the blasphemous film, violence it incited, and four American deaths, perhaps rock solid US/Israeli relations will suffer along with his own political future. What follows bears watching.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, Washington declared war on Islam. Islamophobia facilitates war on terror policy. Muslims became public enemy number one. Imperial wars followed. Endless direct and proxy ones continue. Others are planned.
Dehumanizing Islam violates core US beliefs about religious freedom and respecting all faiths equally. America only respects money power and imperial dominance.
It targets anyone challenging its quest for global hegemony. Millions of corpses attest to its resolve. They're strewn across North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and other parts of the world without end. Their numbers increase daily.
The business of America is war, imperial dominance, and corporate empowerment. Ravaging one country after another follows. Fear is created and manipulated to facilitate what should be condemned. Where it ends who knows. Perhaps a mushroom-shaped cloud future awaits.
Muslims know America's dark side best. It victimizes them daily. Millions died since Gulf War mass killings ignited nearly 22 years of genocidal slaughter.
They've been mercilessly targeted for praying to the wrong God. They're used for political advantage. They're pretexts for permanent wars. They're ongoing with no end in sight.
Media scoundrels misreport or ignore them. Attacks on US Cairo and Benghazi diplomatic missions made headlines and ignited rage. Capitol Hill flags were ordered lowered to half mast. US Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens and three members of his staff were killed. Millions of dead Muslims go unnoticed.
Stevens previously was Obama's representative to America's puppet Libyan National Transition Council. It helped Washington and NATO partners ravage the country mercilessly.
They're responsible for killing tens of thousands of civilians, causing widespread destruction, leaving countless numbers homeless, displaced, and impoverished, as well as ending cherished social programs Gaddafi instituted.
According to a New York Times editorial headlined "Murder in Benghazi," Libya's "pro-democracy revolution had no better friend than" Stevens.
The Times not only spurned truth, it blasphemed it. Stevens like all US ambassadors and officials serve imperial Washington's interests. They're contemptuous of democracy and rule of law principles.
"The worst thing now would be for the United States to turn away from its commitments to work with Libya (and help it) build (a) stable new societ(y)."
America's interest is plunder, exploitation and dominance. It won't tolerate democracy or anything resembling it. It doesn't at home or anywhere abroad.
A blasphemous anti-Muslim film incited violence. It killed Stevens and others. An Israeli/American filmmaker made it. He calls himself Sam Bacile. According to the Los Angeles Times, public record searches, "including court, voting, telephone or property databases - show no one" by that name in California.
AP said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula uses the alias Nicola Bacily. He acknowledged managing the company that produced the film. He claims Bacile is real and directed it. Federal court papers revealed Nakoula aliases include Bacily, Erwin Salameh, and others.
"Bacile," or whatever his name is, stands by his filth. Over 100 Jewish donors funded him.
Perhaps Romney supporter/billionaire Sheldon Adelson was one. Perhaps Netanyahu, other Israeli hardliners, and Mossad either supported it or were involved. It bears classic Israeli fingerprints.
"Bacile" claims he wrote, directed and produced it. He calls Islam "a cancer." Weeks earlier, the film was shown in Los Angeles. It runs two hours. It attracted little attention.
On 9/11 eve, he released an Arabic 13 minute trailer. It's titled "Innocence of Muslims." Facebook was used to promote it. It circulated via You Tube. Violence followed.
He calls Mohammad a baffoon, a donkey, a philanderer, an opportunist, a pedophile, homosexual, and religious fraud. One scene depicts him having sex. Muslims and responsible critics denounced him.
In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published blasphemous caricatures. They depicted the Prophet Mohammad irreverently. One showed him wearing a turban throwing a bomb. Riots followed in many Muslim countries. Deaths occurred in Afghanistan, India, Libya, and perhaps elsewhere.
In 2011, the Center for American Progress produced a report titled "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America." It revealed that seven US-based pro-Israeli organizations spent over $40 million from 2001 - 2009 spreading anti-Islamic hate.
Racist Pastor Terry Jones heads the Gainesville, FL-based Dove World Outreach Center. In 2010, he cancelled plans to burn the Koran after then Afghan commander David Petraeus said doing so would endanger US forces.
In 2011, he incited rage over threats to "put the Koran on trial" and burn it. Pleas by religious leaders and US officials failed to dissuade him. His assistant, Wayne Sapp, committed the sacrilege and broadcast it online. He also burned an image of the Prophet Mohammad.
In April 2012, he did it again. According to the Gainesville Sun, his church was issued a citation for violating city fire ordinances.
Analyst Gordon Duff calls Jones a CIA asset "run by rogue handlers, and heavily promoted by Mossad elements throughout the Middle East." His blasphemy draws attention. He's used to incite Islamophobia.
He's linked to the anti-Islamic video. He promoted and helped circulate it. He bears responsibility with others for the violence it incited.
US soldiers involved in Koran burnings and other forms of desecration provoked outrage when they happened.
Muslims believe the holy Koran is an exact record of words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad. He taught them to others. Scribes passed them on. Throughout centuries of Islamic history, its 114 chapters remained unchanged.
The Koran's the primary source of Muslim faith and practice. It covers all human concerns, including wisdom, beliefs, worship and law. It also focuses on God's relationship with humanity, and provides guidelines for a just society, proper relationships, and just divisions of power.
It teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism. Its five pillars include profession of faith, prayer five times daily, fasting during Ramadan, charity, and performing the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime for those able to afford it.
In February, clashes followed US Bagram Air Base soldiers dumping Koran copies and other Islamic holy materials in debris piles for burning.
Military officials lied. They claimed they contained "extremist inscriptions" and were used to "facilitate extremist communications." This incident followed earlier ones and release of a January video showing Marines urinating on Afghan corpses.
Protests erupted each time. Hollow apologies heightened anger, especially after 11 years of brutal war, occupation, daily killings, and extreme deprivation in ravaged Afghanistan.
Western media reports claimed rockets fired at Washington's Benghazi consulate killed Stevens and three members of his staff. According to The New York Times, "Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed" the mission late Tuesday.
His body wasn't "located until Wednesday morning at dawn, when he was found dead at a Benghazi hospital, American and Libyan officials said." Libyan sources said he died of asphyxiation caused by smoke from ignited fires.
On September 12, the American Iranian Friendship Committee published a different version of events. Images reveal a rocket attack wasn't responsible. Apparently, Stevens "was dragged through the streets and tortured. They don't mind when it's Gaddafi or one of your brown people, but not one of us."
The Mossad-connected DebkaFile said gunmen attacking America's mission split in two groups. One fired rockets at the consulate "on the assumption that (Stevens') bodyguards would" whisk him out of harm's way under secret service protection.
The second group spotted his "getaway vehicle and the ambassador's armed escort and lay in wait to ambush them." They killed him and his bodyguards "at point blank range."
Washington responded its usual way. Obama promised revenge. He ordered stepped up diplomatic mission security. He sent in the marines. He dispatched two guided missile destroyers. Pentagon spokesman called these steps precautionary measures.
Washington spent more than two decades ravaging North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Tuesday's attack suggests blowback. The suspiciously timed anti-Islamic hate film suggests Israeli involvement. Expect no official confirmation.
According to Haaretz, "Netanyahu has gone to war. Not against Iran. Not yet, at least. But his bellicose road to Tehran runs through Washington."
He picked "a very public fight with" Obama….(I)t's no great secret. (He) wants him defeated" in November. He wants Romney elected. He thinks he'll be quicker to attack Iran.
Perhaps so. Perhaps not. Rhetoric and policy bear little relationship to each other, especially during electoral campaigns.
If Netanyahu's involved in or responsible for the blasphemous film, violence it incited, and four American deaths, perhaps rock solid US/Israeli relations will suffer along with his own political future. What follows bears watching.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
For more information:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
The predictable over reaction to an offensive and stupid movie came in the form of violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya from Islamist extremists. The movie in question by one "Sam Bacile" was also the product of religious extremism.
So one religious extremist (Zionist Sam "Mr. Mossad" Bacile) can film a stupid low budget movie and provoke civil unrest and terrorist attacks on U.S. Embassy officials.
Can anyone burn a Koran or make a stupid movie and then incite riots in the Middle East?
Sounds like a simple plan for never ending warfare.
The religious extremists on both sides of the Middle Eastern conflict (Judeo-Christian Zionists vs. Islam) and the secondary internal conflicts within Islam (Sunni vs. Shia) are responsible for inflaming rhetoric and inciting youth and emotionally unstable individuals to violence.
The most logical step would be to round up ALL religious extremists (Zionists and Islamists) and confine them to a mental institution along with the other people who are a danger to self and/or others.
Instead of assuming positions of leadership in human society ALL religious extremists will be labeled and identified as such by psychological testing and then be placed under psychiatric care.
We the people will NOT enable religious extremists of ANY type to engage the global population in never ending warfare.
"Anxiety May Be at Root of Religious Extremism, Researchers Find"
ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a war in its defence.
Across all studies, anxious conditions caused participants to become more eagerly engaged in their ideals and extreme in their religious convictions. In one study, mulling over a personal dilemma caused a general surge toward more idealistic personal goals. In another, struggling with a confusing mathematical passage caused a spike in radical religious extremes. In yet another, reflecting on relationship uncertainties caused the same religious zeal reaction.
Researchers found that religious zeal reactions were most pronounced among participants with bold personalities (defined as having high self-esteem and being action-oriented, eager and tenacious), who were already vulnerable to anxiety, and felt most hopeless about their daily goals in life.
A basic motivational process called Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) is responsible, according to lead researcher Ian McGregor, Associate Professor in York's Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health. "Approach motivation is a tenacious state in which people become 'locked and loaded' on whatever goal or ideal they are promoting. They feel powerful, and thoughts and feelings related to other issues recede," he says.
"RAM is usually an adaptive goal regulation process that can re-orient people toward alternative avenues for effective goal pursuit when they hit a snag. Our research shows that humans can sometimes co-opt RAM for short term relief from anxiety, however. By simply promoting ideals and convictions in their own minds, people can activate approach motivation, narrow their motivational focus away from anxious problems, and feel serene as a result," says McGregor.
Researchers also measured participants' superstitious beliefs and deference toward a controlling God in order to distinguish religious zeal from meeker forms of devotion. "Anxiety-provoking threats sometimes also cause people to become paranoid and more submissive to externally-controlling forces, so we wanted to rule out that interpretation for our results," he says. Anxious uncertainty had no effect on either superstition or religious submission.
Findings published last year in the journal Psychological Science by the same authors and collaborators at the University of Toronto found that strong religious beliefs are associated with low activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that becomes active in anxious predicaments.
"Taken together, the results of this research program suggest that bold but vulnerable people gravitate to idealistic and religious extremes for relief from anxiety," McGregor says."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706103404.htm
When Karl Marx called religion the "opiate of the people", he didn't yet know about the effects of crack cocaine. It seems that the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) should be called the "crack cocaine of the people" due to their tendency to incite extreme violence.
"1.5. Monotheism and Violent Intolerance
There is a particular inclination towards organized violence in the histories of monotheistic religions (those with just one god). Monotheism is embodied by three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
“The God of the Abrahamic religions, so far as it is concerned in The Koran, and The Bible and in history, hates opposing Gods. The Israelites are described as being commanded by God, time and time again, to wage war against and kill nonbelieving pagans because they dare to worship icons, fake gods, and any number of things that are not-Jehovah. Worshipping wrongly is one of the traditional Ten Commandments, and is consistently one of the most punished crimes in the holy texts of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Such texts heralded a new type of religion, fundamentally hostile to all other religions. Yet Christianity started out tolerant and peaceful: the first Christians, the gnostics and ebionites, accepted respectively that their religion was one interpretation of the truth amongst many, or that it was a devout, personal path and not something that could be enforced on to others. Centuries later, though, the Nicene Christians arose and murdered their more peaceful predecessors, burning their books and preparing Christianity to embrace the Dark Ages like no other religion could have, or would have. Put into the official canon of the Christian Bible were books like the First Epistle of John; 1 John 5:1-5,10 continued to promote the idea that having wrong beliefs made you worthless before God. It all made the new monotheism sectarian, schismatic and aggressive; social and moral laws were deemed inferior to the new emphasis on textual fundamentalism. One historian writes that "when he convened the Great Council of Nicaea, Constantine could not have imagined that the bishops would be meeting almost every year to rule on charges of criminal activity and heresy"11. The emphasis on correctness of individual belief and individual salvation has led monotheism down an intolerance and often violent path in history.”
"Religious Tolerance for Competing Ideas: Why is Monotheism Intolerant?" by Vexen Crabtree (2008)
http://www.humanreligions.info/violence_and_crime.html
Really and truly, am tired of playing referee between the three Abrahamic religions. If the religious extremists want to kill each other off they should do so without involving everyone else who doesn't even believe in their violent sky gods.
For my next event i will burn a Torah, Bible and Koran ALL together in the same fire at the same time! Am not bias, i hate ALL three Abrahamic religions equally!!
Proud pagan for life until death!
So one religious extremist (Zionist Sam "Mr. Mossad" Bacile) can film a stupid low budget movie and provoke civil unrest and terrorist attacks on U.S. Embassy officials.
Can anyone burn a Koran or make a stupid movie and then incite riots in the Middle East?
Sounds like a simple plan for never ending warfare.
The religious extremists on both sides of the Middle Eastern conflict (Judeo-Christian Zionists vs. Islam) and the secondary internal conflicts within Islam (Sunni vs. Shia) are responsible for inflaming rhetoric and inciting youth and emotionally unstable individuals to violence.
The most logical step would be to round up ALL religious extremists (Zionists and Islamists) and confine them to a mental institution along with the other people who are a danger to self and/or others.
Instead of assuming positions of leadership in human society ALL religious extremists will be labeled and identified as such by psychological testing and then be placed under psychiatric care.
We the people will NOT enable religious extremists of ANY type to engage the global population in never ending warfare.
"Anxiety May Be at Root of Religious Extremism, Researchers Find"
ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Anxiety and uncertainty can cause us to become more idealistic and more radical in our religious beliefs, according to new findings by York University researchers, published in this month's issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In a series of studies, more than 600 participants were placed in anxiety-provoking or neutral situations and then asked to describe their personal goals and rate their degree of conviction for their religious ideals. This included asking participants whether they would give their lives for their faith or support a war in its defence.
Across all studies, anxious conditions caused participants to become more eagerly engaged in their ideals and extreme in their religious convictions. In one study, mulling over a personal dilemma caused a general surge toward more idealistic personal goals. In another, struggling with a confusing mathematical passage caused a spike in radical religious extremes. In yet another, reflecting on relationship uncertainties caused the same religious zeal reaction.
Researchers found that religious zeal reactions were most pronounced among participants with bold personalities (defined as having high self-esteem and being action-oriented, eager and tenacious), who were already vulnerable to anxiety, and felt most hopeless about their daily goals in life.
A basic motivational process called Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) is responsible, according to lead researcher Ian McGregor, Associate Professor in York's Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health. "Approach motivation is a tenacious state in which people become 'locked and loaded' on whatever goal or ideal they are promoting. They feel powerful, and thoughts and feelings related to other issues recede," he says.
"RAM is usually an adaptive goal regulation process that can re-orient people toward alternative avenues for effective goal pursuit when they hit a snag. Our research shows that humans can sometimes co-opt RAM for short term relief from anxiety, however. By simply promoting ideals and convictions in their own minds, people can activate approach motivation, narrow their motivational focus away from anxious problems, and feel serene as a result," says McGregor.
Researchers also measured participants' superstitious beliefs and deference toward a controlling God in order to distinguish religious zeal from meeker forms of devotion. "Anxiety-provoking threats sometimes also cause people to become paranoid and more submissive to externally-controlling forces, so we wanted to rule out that interpretation for our results," he says. Anxious uncertainty had no effect on either superstition or religious submission.
Findings published last year in the journal Psychological Science by the same authors and collaborators at the University of Toronto found that strong religious beliefs are associated with low activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that becomes active in anxious predicaments.
"Taken together, the results of this research program suggest that bold but vulnerable people gravitate to idealistic and religious extremes for relief from anxiety," McGregor says."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706103404.htm
When Karl Marx called religion the "opiate of the people", he didn't yet know about the effects of crack cocaine. It seems that the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) should be called the "crack cocaine of the people" due to their tendency to incite extreme violence.
"1.5. Monotheism and Violent Intolerance
There is a particular inclination towards organized violence in the histories of monotheistic religions (those with just one god). Monotheism is embodied by three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
“The God of the Abrahamic religions, so far as it is concerned in The Koran, and The Bible and in history, hates opposing Gods. The Israelites are described as being commanded by God, time and time again, to wage war against and kill nonbelieving pagans because they dare to worship icons, fake gods, and any number of things that are not-Jehovah. Worshipping wrongly is one of the traditional Ten Commandments, and is consistently one of the most punished crimes in the holy texts of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Such texts heralded a new type of religion, fundamentally hostile to all other religions. Yet Christianity started out tolerant and peaceful: the first Christians, the gnostics and ebionites, accepted respectively that their religion was one interpretation of the truth amongst many, or that it was a devout, personal path and not something that could be enforced on to others. Centuries later, though, the Nicene Christians arose and murdered their more peaceful predecessors, burning their books and preparing Christianity to embrace the Dark Ages like no other religion could have, or would have. Put into the official canon of the Christian Bible were books like the First Epistle of John; 1 John 5:1-5,10 continued to promote the idea that having wrong beliefs made you worthless before God. It all made the new monotheism sectarian, schismatic and aggressive; social and moral laws were deemed inferior to the new emphasis on textual fundamentalism. One historian writes that "when he convened the Great Council of Nicaea, Constantine could not have imagined that the bishops would be meeting almost every year to rule on charges of criminal activity and heresy"11. The emphasis on correctness of individual belief and individual salvation has led monotheism down an intolerance and often violent path in history.”
"Religious Tolerance for Competing Ideas: Why is Monotheism Intolerant?" by Vexen Crabtree (2008)
http://www.humanreligions.info/violence_and_crime.html
Really and truly, am tired of playing referee between the three Abrahamic religions. If the religious extremists want to kill each other off they should do so without involving everyone else who doesn't even believe in their violent sky gods.
For my next event i will burn a Torah, Bible and Koran ALL together in the same fire at the same time! Am not bias, i hate ALL three Abrahamic religions equally!!
Proud pagan for life until death!
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$170.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network