Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA20086 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 20 May 2002 23:12:01 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.132] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Boom! and you go to Heaven Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 18:05:50 -0400 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F98Af40C7JSF90kGHC300002257@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 20 May 2002 22:05:50.0492 (UTC) FILETIME=[809985C0:01C2004A] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: Boom! and you go to Heaven
>Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 18:51:55 -0400
>
>
>On Sunday, May 19, 2002, at 06:17 , Lawrence DeBivort wrote:
>
>>The matter of 'going to heaven and finding virgins, of whatever gender, is
>>a
>>western oerception and preoccupation--not a Muslim one. IIRC, the Bible
>>suggests that someone martyred for Christendom is rewarded with heaven,
>>but
>>I doubt many western soldiers leap to arms with that hope in mind.... Is
>>there a Christian or Christian scholar on the list who can fill in this
>>idea?
>
>It's not 'not even' a Muslim one- the mention of houri's in the paradise of
>the afterlife is apocryphal in the q'uran according to many islamic
>scholars.
>
>But, serving one's god and country, and the giving up of one's life for
>those authorities, is an old and perhaps ageless, and perhaps culturally
>non-isolated property of society. It is certainly not just a xian or an
>islamic hero that offers his life in battle.
>
It's been a while since I've been to church but that hymn "Onward Christian
soldiers marching as to war" comes to mind. Whatever the intent behind this
hymn was there are some crusading connotations at least at first sight. It
could be a metaphorical "war" like jihad is supposedly a metaphorical
internal struggle and not the externalized one we've seen waged against
US-ian and Israeli targets.
Since Dr. George Habash of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and the earlier Arab Nationalist Movement was a Greek Orthodox Christian, a
factoid I picked up from reading Said Aburish's _Arafat: from Defender to
Dictator_ (1998. Bloomsbury. New York), I'm led to wonder to what degree
Christian Arabs have contributed to the Palestinian side of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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