Just in case I may not have explained myself well enough as to what I meant, I meant to compare the culture of love so prevalent in African American communities to the culture of hate that has developed in middle eastern fringe groups, both due to religion. Also, I firmly believe that just because of the way they act, terrorists are insane people allowed access to guns or ammunition of some kind. Isis are, to me a group of whacked, insane people, with access to a large number of guns and ammo, who have grouped together to give them selves some sort of insane legitimacy. Crazy people from all over the world, including the West are flocking to them. This is not a religious philosophy, this is madness.
My mind is reeling as I read this article: “Family Describes Chattanooga Shooter as Being on a Downward Spiral” links below . The combination of mental illness, inadequate medical treatment, recreational drugs, and in this case the philosophy of the “Hashisheen”, let me not call it philosophy, it is not the love of knowledge, let me call it “philonecry” or the love of death, all these put together, to again be the cause of horrendous actions and results!
First of all, let me explain who the Hashisheen were (http://disinfo.com/2012/07/hasan-bin-sabbah-and-the-secret-order-of-hashishins/). The word Assassin comes from them. And yes, it is hashish they are talking about, which was used to drug the recruits to have them perform their murderous tasks. They were a Persian sect headed by Hasan bin Sabah, born in 1034. The students in this sect were taught to question everything, including Islamic dogma. They were intellectuals. Ultimately they were turned into the Hashisheen, or assassins through the use of drugs, a paradisal garden (Hasan’s palace) and promises, no, not just promises, but the absolute surety of going to heaven by committing murder and sacrificing themselves. So here’s what they did, they recruited young men, gave them hashish, took them to Hasan bin Sabah’s paradisal garden, while they were in their hashish high state, they were told that this garden is paradise, and this is where they will go when they murder others and kill themselves in the process. I’m sure 40 virgins were also in the garden to spur the new recruits on to do their murderous/suicidal duty!
These are the predecessors of the modern day terrorists. If Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez had been a young recruit of the Hashisheen, his actions could not have been more in accord with their tenets. As I live and breathe, I believe that mental illness was and is involved in terrorist activities. Who in their right mind would set another human being on fire while they are still alive, I ask you? Well the terrorists do it, but so did the Spanish inquisition, the English inquisition, the Nazis, so much murder, torture, and mayhem caused by religion or crazy philosophies and people. By humans. The latest of which is this news story of a mentally ill young man, who didn’t get treated adequately, using recreational drugs, to self medicate, no doubt, in combination with an insane “philosophy” of the Hashisheen as carried out by present day terrorists, all this, a powder keg of death and delusions, leading to the death of innocent people.
Is it insanity that is to blame? Is it the inadequate treatment? Is it the hashisheen/terrorists crap to blame? As I write this, as I try to make sense of of all of this, my head is swimming, I ask myself: Why? Why the death? Why the murders? Why the insanity?
In direct contrast to this hashisheen/terrorist bs is the way African Americans live life. They have been though unspeakable atrocities, and they too look for a better life, if not here, then after death. But their way is love, not hate. They forgive those who transgress against them. They truly do behave according to the philosophy of Jesus. I am in awe of these people. If someone killed my relative, I would not be able to go on TV the same day and say “I forgive you”!
The Play/musical called BUSTER! that I am in is about the same principles of love and forgiveness and “We shall overcome!” And even “We shall not, we shall not be moved! Just like a tree that’s planted by the water, we shall not be moved!” But never is it about we will blow up people and die in the process so we can go to heaven!
As a very good friend of mine pointed some of these things out to me when there was violence at cartoon drawing competitions of Mohammed in Texas, these are two extremes. Both are looking for something better, both saying if life is hard on this earth, things will get better in the next world, that alone is a very dangerous and destructive idea. But African Americans choose love and non violence, while some Middle Eastern people choose murder and suicide. Why?
Martin Luther King left his legacy of love and a dream, of Christian values. One man! How?
Hasan bin Sabah created a sect which is violent and murderous, and is still having an affect today. Why?
Just one more thing, Arabs and Middle Easterners and Pakistanis, in general, are the most hospitable people in the world. I go to Pakistan and I am amazed at their hospitality and innocence. These are not bad, murderous people! They are being used to further an evil, murderous, violent agenda. But who benefits from this? Why is it happening? I don’t know and I am tired of it all.
Also, present day terrorism, as far as I can see, is in response to the occupation of Palestine, the land where the Arab’s were made homeless so that the dispossessed Jews could have a home. I am not excusing it, not saying terrorism is the answer, but what do you do when your home has been taken away from you, all your possessions, your country, your nationality has been taken away from you, and you have absolutely nothing but yourself. Do you go quietly and live as a homeless, nationless, nobody or nothing, or maybe do you think I will use what I have and use it for protest, my body… yes, huge issues, political, religious, moral issues and questions. Do I have the answers, no. But I am asking the questions.
I try to end on a positive note in my blog posts. For this one, I have nothing. Or maybe I do… one person can make a world of difference… we should make sure we are having the “right” affect, leaving the world a better place because of our existence.
Bipolar1Blog 
Mmmm….two things…No, three things. One: I feel that it is very dangerous to speak of evil and mental illness on the same breath. That puts us all in the category of suspects in the public eye–stigma. We are trying to educate the public that evil and mental illness are not the same thing, and that one does not have to be mental ill in order to commit atrocities.
Two. Unfortunately, African Americans are being increasingly Islamized, and not just in prisons. Remember Cassius Clay, the world heavyweight boxing champion who later became known as Muhammad Ali? Yussef Latif the jazz musician? And so on.
Third. Have you read Mark Twain’s book, “The Innocents Abroad”? He describes what the Holy Land was like after the Muslims left it. Yes, the Muslims left it, because it is a howling desert with no water, no natural resources, and other than being Holy, nothing else. Jews returned in large numbers in the 15th and 16th century C.E., and later there were many waves of Jewish immigrants who were thrown out of surrounding Islamized nations where they had settled after being ejected from Spain and Portugal in 1492. Thus, by the time the various political mandates were hammered out in the early 20th Century, Palestine was the official name of the land now known as Israel. The people who now call themselves “Palestinians” are largely people whose grandparents came to then-Palestine because the Jews provided them jobs (and still do, unless there is a building moratorium). This was the case in Gaza, where when Israel controlled it, Gaza was the world’s #1 exporter of flowers, even more than Holland. When, at the behest of Ariel Sharon, Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, we left the Gazans the greenhouses so that they could be self sufficient. The first thing Hamas did was to smash the greenhouses so the world could look and see what a pitiable state the Gazans are in. Well, they are, but not because of Israel. Now on to the West Bank. In the 1967 war the West Bank, which was part of Jordan at the time-Jordan being one of the five armies who attacked us and got stomped-could have been annexed, but instead the powers that were decided to give the Jordanians the choice of either keeping Jordanian citizenship or becoming Israelis. Most still hold Jordanian passports, which is why they have to go through passport check just like you and me when they come into Israel proper. In the ’60’s Yasser Arafat formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and BOOM! The term “Palestinian” was born, or rather, coopted for his own agenda. The PLO then became Fatah, which governs its own with bloody hands. Did you know that the penalty for selling land to a Jew is death? Did you know that Jews are not permitted, under penalty of imprisonment, to pray on the Temple Mount, our holiest site, while the Muslims pray there freely, facing Mecca? Did you know that when I am permitted by the Jordanians who control the Temple Mount, who graciously allow us to go up at their whim, when I go up my passport is taken and I am searched for holy objects like a book of Psalms or a prayer book, and if I am carrying such contraband I am banned forever and possibly jailed? Even if I stop to gaze at a remnant of the Temple that has escaped the bulldozers of the Arabs, I am hurried along by their soldiers because I just **might** be praying! Our prayers must be that powerful, that they are so afraid of them.
Sorry, I have gone on and on here…guess you got me all excited…:)
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Thank you Laura for your comment. I appreciate it. Don’t know what the answers are. I am just asking questions. I agree that evil is absolutely not synonymous with mental illness. But a lot of evil has been committed by people who have been mentally ill. I have a mental illness and I am categorically not evil, nor will I ever be. The Middle East is the biggest mess as far as any land mass on earth is concerned! Is it just people who are evil then? People who live in fear and not out of love? I don’t know. There are no easy answers. I just wish all these tragedies did not happen. Life is difficult enough even when everyone is getting along.
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I reread your comment, I am so sorry you have been through all that you have. It is an awful situation, where Israel has all the force, and there are no winners at this point in time. I hope things change for the better, for the sake of the Palestinian and Israeli children! Also dear Laura, you said something about African Americans becoming Muslims, yes they do convert to Islam because they feel that was their religion before they were enslaved. Being Muslim is NOT synonymous with being a terrorist, and hopefully they bring their light of love to this religion, to this world at a time when it is sorely needed.
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