Merry Christmas Open Thread

It always happens at this time of year. My blogging plans get mugged by the family’s arrival… But family is such a blessing!
Anyway, warm greetings for Christmas, Hannukkah, Yule, Solstice, etc to all JWN commenters and other readers.
I’ll be back when I can. Meantime, this thread’s for you!

15 thoughts on “Merry Christmas Open Thread”

  1. Christmas is a celebration by Christians of the birth of the Prince of Peace. Hmmm, “peace”, we don’t hear that word too much any more. A few comments on peace, whatever your beliefs:
    *the US is a nation at war, a “generational” war we’re told. The nation is definitely not “at peace,” it’s “at war,” and apparently will be for some time.
    *when I started the Smedley Butler Society, I thought it would be controversial and I needed a corporation to insulate me from it [such grandiosity!] but what to call it? Peace something? No, I thought, the word “peace” is out of favor, so I called it Freedom From War Inc. (playing on Bush’s frequent use of the word freedom). My weakness.
    *I notice that the Quakers’ bumper sticker doesn’t call for peace but says “war is not the answer.” Well, what IS the answer? Peace, of course, but possibly they were afraid to be up-front about it also. Perhaps the use of the word Peace connotes some weakness, some undesirable connection with (ugh) “peaceniks,” some weakness to stand up for The Nation’s Security.
    So my point is that we, including me, don’t talk about peace enough. Nobody has talked about it much, with some notable exceptions. Dennis Kucinich, who made more sense than most presidential candidates, proposed a Department of Peace. Jimmy Carter talks about peace. We all should, because that’s our goal after all, isn’t it.
    John F. Kennedy: “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
    Of course I’m talking about real peace here, not the peace of the grave that imperialism has brought to so many countries.
    So at this time let’s celebrate that peace which does exist and promote peace where it’s absent. Personally I will celebrate peace right here in a grassy park overlooking the Pacific. There are the sounds of the surf and a squirrel gnawing his way into a coconut overhead. A gracious Mexican lady has just stopped by to sell us some warm home-made biscuits she has in her basket and also some delicious tamarind sauce. Life is good. I hope that you and yours are equally contented this holiday season.

  4. Personally, I rely on the Christmas message from the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Reverend Dr. John Neill.
    He said Irish society needed “a wake-up call”.
    The Archbishop said that only a few weeks ago, “we discovered in quick succession the amazing tales first of the scandalous opulence and spending of those entrusted with public responsibilities”.
    “We live on reports of bad news,” he said, while good news stories were seldom told. “We need to discover something more of the goodness that is still out there, the people who are there for others, the people who are working hard not just for themselves, but to keep others at work, the acts of love and kindness that actually tell a real story and a human story.”

  5. In addition to Britons been given season inspiration by Ahmadinejad a quick scan of the news around around the world gives us a feel for the malice and duplicity that abounds in spite of the wishful words of our posters. Find the common thread, starts with letter M.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7799777.stm
    An Egyptian court has sentenced a schoolteacher to six years in jail for beating a pupil to death because he had not done his homework.
    Maths teacher Haitham Nabeel Abdelhamid, 23, took Islam Amr Badr outside the classroom and hit him violently in the stomach.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7799796.stm
    The German navy says it has foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo vessel off Somalia.
    Six Somali pirates were captured by sailors of the frigate Karlsruhe in the Gulf of Aden.
    However, the pirates were immediately released on the orders of the German government, officials told the BBC.
    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Terror_factory_churns_out_piles_of_lies_too/articleshow/3892873.cms
    The terrorists who carried out last month’s deadly attacks in Mumbai tortured their victims at the city’s Chabad House before killing them, India’s Economic Times newspaper has reported.
    The newspaper reported that police have obtained closed-circuit camera footage taken at different locations hit by the terrorists which gives evidence of the abuse.
    The paper reported that the abuse was mainly carried out against foreigners, in particular at the Taj Mahal Hotel, where eight of the 38 killed were not Indian nationals.
    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Suicide_bombers_for_sale_in_Pak_/articleshow/3889809.cms
    SLAMABAD: Suicide bombers are available for a price in Pakistan to settle personal scores, a police investigation into the killing of a
    parliamentarian has revealed.
    On Tuesday, the Lahore police said it had arrested five people involved in the August 6 suicide attack at the residence of Rashid Akbar Niwani, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N ) member of the National Assembly, which resulted in the death of 26 people and injuries to several more.

  6. Well said Don.
    by the way, about that Ahamdinejad speech, the actual text is worth a read.
    BBC radio apparently was blocked from re-broadcasting the channel 4 production.
    Meanwhile, Israel is prepping to invade Gaza again.
    Silen(ced) Night; Media falling into line; it’s all about “fighting terror”

  9. Frank, I am sure it is not news to you or to most people here that Jesus is a very important prophet in Islam who receives considerable space in the Qur’an. Therefore, as you know, it is normal, and entirely appropriate for Muslims to make note of the celebration of his birth.

  10. Shirin
    To tell the truth it was a great surprise to me when I first read the Maryam Sura.
    I went to a boarding school run by Priests where we were not really allowed to read the Old Testament unsupervised never mind the Koran.
    Our Religion classes dealt with all the classical Heresies against which we used to sing the Nicean Creed in Latin at High Mass.
    As a lot of Irish priests were trained in Spain at one time (it was during the Penal Laws times that Salamanca was a great centre) I suspect they brought a bit of the Ferdinand and Isabella World View with them.
    There was so much that I missed in Arab Philosophy and Science that I am reading into and it is astonishing to find so much commonality.
    But you read the Al Kafirun Sura and wonder if it is inapropriate to wish you Merry Christmas.
    Thank you for the clarification. Have a good one.

  11. Thanks Frank for posting the text link. I heard the BBC was blocked from re-broadcasting the Channel 4 program. It seems a lot of folks are screaming at who A/N is — and what he is alleged to stand for. (all manner of contagion it seems) As such, amid all the yelling, what A/N actually said gets lost.
    Sigh.
    On a more “fun” subject, (and speaking to Don’s recollection) payvand carries this mind-stretching essay, suggesting ancient linkages between (gasp) Ireland and Iran….
    http://www.payvand.com/news/08/dec/1268.html
    (fascinating)

  12. Frank, I do not understand your reference to Surat Al Kafirun. There is no explicit reference there to Christians or Jews, nor does it imply that Christian and Jewish believers are kafirun. If anything, the contrary is true. The distinction is between people of faith, and people who reject faith in God, and Christians and Jews belong to the former group, not the latter.
    Perhaps you are also familiar with this series of verses from Surat Al Ma’ida, which speaks to the relationship among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and their respective holy books:
    5:44 It was We who revealed the law (to Moses): therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews, by the prophets who bowed (as in Islam) to Allah’s will, by the rabbis and the doctors of law: for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah’s book, and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men, but fear me, and sell not my signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) Unbelievers.
    5:45 We ordained therein for them: “Life for life, eye for eye, nose or nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal.” But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (No better than) wrong-doers.
    5:46 And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.
    5:47 Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel.
    5:48 To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;

  13. Thanks Scott, you made my day.
    Your link took me back on a wave of nostalgia to kindergarten and primary school where we learned of the original prechristian inhabitants of Ireland.
    These are described in the Book of the Invasions.
    http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/invasions.html#Settlements
    As you can see these involve a steady movement back and forth between Ireland and Greece, and show a branch in Scythia on the borders of the Persian Empire.
    So the Payvand article is not as surprising as you might think.
    If you ever visit Cadiz in Spain and look into the great temple of Heracles you discover that the Phoenicians were trading with the Tartessians and the Spanish tribes along the Rio Tinto and were trasnporting enormous quantities of Gold and Silver back to Tyre a thousand years BCE.
    There are Phoenician cities in Portugal so is is conceivable that anyone who got blown off course might have landed in Ireland.
    Sadly the Phoenician and Carthaginian literature (Dido is Elissa from Tyre) is lost so we will never know if there is another Illiad that describes a journe to the West.

  14. Shirin
    Thanks. It is sometimes difficult to know who is included in what category.
    by some coincidence my old friend Patrick has had this published.
    http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com/2008/12/bible-stories-in-quran.html
    It is a curious coincidence that thirty years after we last saw each other at school we came across each other again following a similar journey.
    I suppose the version of East vs West we were taught is best expressed in GK Chesterton’s Lepanto (be warned it is biassed and some of the terms used may come across as offensive). We learned about Malta, Lepanto and Vienna as turning points.
    Something must have gone wrong with our programming as our spirit of enquiry overcame the boundaries of a rigid ideology.
    This isn’t quite academic. There is a gread deal of discusion as to how to amend the Christian based legal systems in Europe to accomodate our Muslim citizens, and those in the future entrants in former Yugoslavia.

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