A Whirling Dervish Tour of Islam

By Dave Shafer
CHJ
 I hope not to offend anyone with
this presentation. Every since my big
role, as a little kid, in my family’s
business I have tried not to get
people upset with me.
Me, at age of 3
I approached this topic with an open mind
Some very important people in America
are Moslems , so I wanted to get this right
• The Islam of the Koran and of Mohammed is very
different from what the Islamic religion and
culture has become.

• This is also true of the history of the Catholic

Church, Buddhism and most religions.

• The Koran was very far ahead of its time with

respect to women’s rights and valuation. Allah
was really the first women’s libber. Really very
unusual for its time. Much has changed since
then, obviously for the worse.
 Mae West – “I used to be
Snow White, then I drifted”

Some Muslims complain that Jews have replaced the Torah (word of
God) with the Talmud (word of Man) as key to their religion, and also
feel that many fellow Moslems have replaced the Koran (word of God)
with the Hadith and later writings (word of Man). Radical Islam draws
mostly from these later, radical interpretations of the Koran and is not
much based directly on the Koran itself. The same type of criticism is
certainly true of the history of the Catholic Church, which has drifted
very far from a biblical basis.
 On the internet
Moslems, Jews, and
Christians are all
plumbing the depths to
see who can sink down
the lowest and say the
worst things about each
other’s religion. Moslems
are very defensive these
days so they often go on
the attack. Let us look at
some of this material.
 Typical false or misleading anti-Islam material from the internet. In fact
Mohammed told this to just a few people, who had a particular illness.
Today the drug Primarin is an ingredient in many treatments for
symptoms of menopause. It is made from hormones in the urine of
pregnant mares. Camels would work too. Research today is also looking
at cancer treatments. So Mohammed may have been on to something.
 Turnabout is fair play – a
• Terrorism in Islam?! (click here)
Let's look at the real terrorism in the Bible:

Pedophilia with 3-year old slave girls in the Bible!

Moslem Internet page
Forcing 3-year old slave girls into sex during the Mosaic Law in the Bible! (click here)

Terror in the Bible by a number of Prophets! (click here)

Pregnant women will be ripped open! (click here)

The NT punishes children with death! (click here)

Terrorism: "kill all the boys and non-virgin women"!

Also under the Mosaic Law! (click here)

Another killing all men, women, children and animals by Moses! (click here)

Another taking all women and children as spoils of war by Moses! (click here)

Moses was a murderer before he became a Prophet! (click here)

Killing all of the "suckling infants" by the thousands by Saul! (click here)

Dashing little children against rocks in the book of Psalm!

Praising the dashing of little children against rocks as a form of revenge! (click here)

42 innocent children were killed using Wild Bears by Prophet Elisha!

Prophet Muhammad on the other hand loved children even those who threw stones at him in the city of Al-Ta'if. ( click here)

Both equal: "Kill Righteous and the wicked"! (click here)

Maiming of the enemies' bodies under Moses' and David's Laws:

Cutting the hands and feet of the enemies in the Bible, and hanging their alive bodies on trees until they DIE. (click here)

David's Selective Murders!

David so carelessly killed an innocent man for only telling him news. (click here)

X-Rated Pornography in the Bible, by King Solomon!

Literally, women's vaginas and breasts taste like "wine", and brothers can "suck" their sisters' and lovers' privates! (click here)

Fathers' fingers into their daughters' vaginas!

Under the Mosaic Law, fathers were allowed to do "Digital Defloration" to their daughters. (click here)

Shutting the loud mouths of those who unjustly attack Islam, with Truth
• 
Scene from the bible, of
Judith beheading Holofernes,
as painted by Caravaggio and
others. Moslems point out
this kind of biblical content,
as a way of defending the
Koran.
• Pop quiz on religion – what religious text
approves of genocide, stoning of adulterers,
and of homosexuals, blasphemers, etc.,
slaughter of innocent women, children, and
animals in warfare, etc., etc., with a very angry
God at its center
• This is a trick question
• Answer = both the Torah and the Koran
• But Allah is much angrier than Yahweh – really
out of sorts most of the time.
Start of Fair and Balanced section
 Mohammed (570-632 AD) had epilepsy and his description of his
religious visions are those of epileptic episodes. Dostoevsky, below,
was also epileptic and had similar ecstatic visions, which he wrote
about. Some other religious figures may have been epileptic, a source
of their religious visions.
Medieval Koran, illuminated
The Koran was
revealed to
Mohammed over a
23 year span, in
many visions and
conversations with
Allah. His 10 years
in Medina give a
different flavor to
those passages
than his earlier 10
years in Mecca
 The Koran has 114 chapters, or Suras, and is organized
according to chapter length, not chronological order. It starts
out with the longest chapter (286 verses) and ends with the
shortest (6 verses), all out of sequence. Go figure!
The Opening The Roman Empire The Banishment The Daybreak
The Heifer The Wise The Examined One The City
Al-'Imran Adoration The Ranks The Sun
The Women The Confederates The Congregation The Night
The Table Spread The City of Saba The Hypocrites The Brightness
The Cattle The Originator of Creation The Mutual Deceit The Expansion
The Heights Yasin The Divorce The Fig
The Spoils of War The Rangers The Prohibition The Clot
Repentance Suad The Kingdom The Grandeur
Yunus The Companions The Pen The Clear Evidence
Hud The Believer The Inevitable The Quaking
Yusuf Ha Mim The Ways of Ascent The Chargers
The Thunder The Counsel Noah The Calamity
Ibrahim Ornaments of Gold The Jinn Vying in Abundance
The Rocky Tract The Smoke The Wrapped Up The Age
The Bee The Kneeling The Covered One The Slanderer
The Israelites The Sandhills The Resurrection Time The Elephant
The Cave Muhammad The Sent Forth The Qureaish
Maryam The Victory The Great Event Alms
Ta Ha The Chambers The Draggers The Abundance of G
The Prophets Qaf He Frowned The Disbelievers
The Pilgrimage The Scatterers The Folded Up The Help
The Believers The Mountain The Cleaving The Flame
The Light The Star The Deceivers in Measuring The Unity
The Criterion The Moon The Rending Asunder The Dawn
The Poets The Beneficent The Celestial Stations The People
The Ants The Event The Nightly Visitant
The Narration The Iron The Most High
The Spider She Who Pleaded The Overwhelming Calamity
 Comparison of style of some religious texts

•The Torah - Very sober, very spare, condensed style

•The Christian New testament - “Modern” seeming, bland

conversational style

•The Koran - very lively and vigorous style,

conversational, filled with many dire threats
towards unbelievers

•The Book of Mormon - “Chloroform in print” said

Mark Twain
•(God) Allah in the Koran speaks directly to the listener, with Mohammed only
occasionally speaking himself or reporting what Allah said to him.

•Stories in the Torah and Christian bible are assumed to be already known by
Mohammed’s listeners- there are shorthand refrences to Moses, Noah, Adam,
Abraham, Jonah, Jesus, Mary, etc. Also new stories about Moses and Pharaoh.
Nothing about Mohammed himself. He is just a vessel for Allah’s word

•These stories are referred to as examples of a lesson – God sends messengers

(prophets) to warn people to come to the true faith and to drop evil ways. God
then punishes those who don’t, as the stories show. Also stories show how God
helps those who want to believe and to do good works and resist evil (Joseph)
 
•Men and women are addressed equally and treated equally, with respect to
religion and many civil matters. Very severe penalty for falsely accusing a
women of adultery, for example.
 
 The Koran story is much more vivid

The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is told in both the

Torah and the Koran. Many Western artists have painted
this. The Koran version is much more vivid and juicier.
The Torah story has few God references and is just a human
drama. The Koran emphasizes how Allah helped Joseph to
resist her advances. It is more a teaching moment.
Moslems believe that the Jewish and Christian bibles have some textual mistakes, errors in
transmission, or of understanding the word of God - that the Koran fixes for all time. But
much of Jewish and Christian scriptures are accepted as valid. Notable exception – the divinity
of Jesus . Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed were prophets but were only human.
 Mohammed saw Islam as the culmination of religious
revelations over time . The end of the line.

Paganism Judaism Christianity Islam

The Koran sees a progression of prophets,
from Abraham to Jesus to Mohammed

Two hairs of the Prophet

(who can’t ever be shown)
Muslim boys doven when they read the Koran
 Boys (no girls) memorizing the Koran in Pakistan. Imagine us trying
to memorize the Torah. The Torah has 79,847 words and the Koran
about 77,000. But the Koran is very conversational in style and
repetitive, which makes it easier. There are also very few distinct
words, maybe only 2000. It is a Dr. Seuss type of religious text.
 Translation of the
Koran into Chinese.
Recent translations
into English have tried
to soften the message
– replacing “slaughter”
with “resist”, for
example. An old
translation is probably
the best if you want to
read the real Koran.
 Hadith
• Hadith = collected sayings of
Mohammed plus later
commentaries. Separate from
the Koran
• Sunnis and Shiites differ on
which parts are legitimate and
which are bogus fabrications
• No divine words in Hadith,
only in Koran
• Sort of like the Talmud and
Mishnah – a huge amount of
material
Mohammed just assumed that Jews and Christians would flock to Islam
and convert. He was rather bitter when that did not happen
 Mohammed became quite angry at unbelievers, who
perversely did not accept Islam. The Koran is filled with
many dire threats against these obstinate people.
 Like Judaism, Islam developed several branches – ranging
from mystical, ecstatic Sufis to ultra-conservative Wahabis
Country having the most total Moslems is Indonesia and
they tend to be pretty laid back compared to the Arabs
Judaism and Islam are close cousins

Combined Jewish/Moslem cemetery in Russia

 Tomb of Abraham,
sacred to both
Jews and Moslems.
Both trace their
lineage back to
Abraham
Rabbis and Imams both draw upon the Torah

(as recast in the Koran) for guidance

But like many close relatives, there can be tensions
as well as cooperation

Family spat Rabbi and Imam

It is a long term relationship with ups and downs
Jewish/Moslem relations often have a
communication gap to be overcome
 Abraham

Jews Moslems
Torah, Moses Koran, Mohammed
Talmud Hadith
Kosher/Treyf Halal/ Haraam
Rabbi Imam
Bris Khitan (any age before
puberty, is not required to be

a Muslim)

Yarmulke Topi
 Forbidden to eat (Haraam)
Pork
Blood
Carrion
Alcohol, stimulants
Animals sacrificed to anyone but Allah
Animals strangled, beaten to death, killed by a
fall, gored, or killed by a predator
Less restrictive, in general, than Kosher and no
problem with meat and dairy mixtures
Chinese
Moslem
Halal
butcher.
China has a
large
Moslem
population
Moslem foods are not
nearly as prominent here
in the U.S. as Jewish ones,
but that is changing.
 Eid al Adha, one of the
two most important Moslem
holidays, celebrates Abraham’s
complete submission (“Islam”,
in Arabic) to God’s will. They
believe it was Ishmael he was
supposed to sacrifice and not
Isaac. The Torah, of course,
says it was Isaac. Who knew,
that this very important
Moslem holiday is about a
Jewish story in the Torah? The
holiday has very many animal
sacrifices.
Animal sacrifices, just as Abraham sacrificed the ram instead of
Isaac. Very many animals are publicly killed, often beheaded.
 5 Pillars of Islam
• Faith – “Islam” is Arabic for “submission”.
Total acceptance of the word and will of Allah
(No trying to bargain with God, as Abraham does in the Torah)
• Charity
• Fasting during Ramadan
• Prayer – 5 times a day
• Hajj = Pilgrimage to Mecca – once in your life,
if able
 Moslems have Fate as a key part of their world outlook. Human
initiative is much less important than in Judaism. “Allah has willed
it”
Zakat (charity) is very important.
You are supposed to give 2.5% of
your net worth (not income)
every year to charity.
 Ramadan is a month
starting with the new
moon and ending with
the old moon and
celebrates Mohammed
receiving from Allah the
first verses of the Koran.
Moslems fast from
sunrise to sundown
during this month and
also forgo drinking,
smoking, frivolous
activities, and sex.
 Ramadan is a time of reflection. The whole Koran is
recited or read. It is similar to an extended Yom Kippur
Praying towards Mecca, 5 times a day
Jews and Muslims both prayed towards the Dome of the Rock until
623 CE, when Allah told Mohammed to pray towards Mecca

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

 Great circle routes
from Mecca are on
special maps and
globes for figuring
out direction to
Mecca. From Mecca’s
antipode on the
other side of the
earth, any
Normal globe
direction is fine.
Women pray the same as men, just not
together
Those Moslems are so sexist!
and yet…………

Eldridge Street synagogue,

with separate seating for
women in upper gallery. An
area of the main sanctuary,
set apart by a curtain
(mechitza), would have
been available for older
women who had difficulty
climbing the stairs.
Wudu = ritual cleaning before every 5 times a
day prayer – spelled out in the Koran. If no
water is available, dirt is used in this ritual.

Hands, arms,
face, nose, and
feet are all
washed in a
very particular
order
 Wudu must be performed after sex, after touching your privates,
or your partner’s, after passing gas, after urinating or defecating,
etc. And after becoming angry! This is a full-time job!
Periodic cartoon series with Jesus and Mohammed
 This ritual purity is easily lost and must be
constantly renewed. With that plus all the
praying it is a wonder anything else ever
gets done.

Karaite Jews, a tiny group, try

to literally observe all the ritual
purity in the Torah, mostly in
Leviticus. But Islamic wudu is
much more of a constant
presence in one’s daily life.
The Kaaba at Mecca – center of the Moslem universe.
The Hajj is the pilgrimage taken to Mecca once before dying
Pilgrims circle the sacred site 7 times
(like Joshua at Jericho)

Inside is a small black

meteorite, believed to
be sent by Allah to
Abraham. Stone
worship far predates
Islam in that region of
the world.
It is hard is imagine huge Jewish crowds, like this
Mecca ceremonial gathering of millions
Indonesian women at a religious ceremony. Jews tend not
to go for large groupings like this. We are too individualistic
 Jihad is simply Arabic for
“struggle”. Struggle against
evil, oppression of Moslems,
struggle to be a better
person, etc. - a variety of
meanings. It is not one of
the 5 pillars of Islam.
On the internet these days
Jihad means just one thing –
terrorism. This is the
message of radical Islam but
is not the normal meaning of
the word.
Still with me?
It gets better.
Women’s dress is a highly visible aspect of
Islam. What makes news is the extreme.
• The Veil is not required by the
Koran. It is part of tradition
and culture, just as the
yarmulke is not mentioned in
the Torah.
• The Koran requires modesty
for women, but nothing like
the extremes we see today.
• The bosom is to be covered
but the head and face do not
need to be.
“burquini” swimsuit
 There is much deliberate misinformation about Islam on the internet.

Many hoaxes too, some quite funny

Arabs do not like dogs

so this joke falls flat
 Swimwear Doll

Probably true A hoax

 A small group does not represent all of
Islam. There is a big range.

Worn solely for vanity Afghan Women

Paris street scene Turkish woman

But Rarely seen

 “Moslem” version of Marilyn Monroe over an air grate

Funny, but The internet is

disrespectful full of this
kind of thing
Modest dress for women is not confined to
Islam
Western culture has its own oddities
At least Jews do not have any strange
looking people
Jews move with the times
Jewish men are up on the latest fashions
A man can hide in a burqa, creating security problems

UK: Man in burqa with gun and axe

steals $243,000 in designer watches
Family photo session
Moslem men also cover up a lot – it is not just the women
Bedouins

Equally covered sexes

Berber Bedouin Men, all covered up
• Dress code is complex – not as
simple as you might think, for
men and women.

• Almost all is based on customs

and has essentially no support
in the Koran or from the
sayings of Mohammed

• Ditto topics like dating

between the sexes.

• Allah/Mohammed was not at

all a prude, unlike some
• The Islamic world is no more monolithic than
the Jewish world is

• What makes the news is the extreme

elements of each

• Both Jews and Moslems vary widely in how

liberal, moderate, conservative, or extreme
they are
End of Fair and Balanced Section
 The internet is absolutely flooded with anti-Moslem cartoons and
blogs. Also bogus Moslem sites, inflammatory “translations” of the
Koran, bogus quotes from prominent Moslem scholars or imams,
etc. If it was anti-Semitic material, instead, there would be outrage
over the nature and amount of bile out there.
 Heaven plays a
rather small role
in Jewish thinking,
but it is absolutely
central to Moslem
thought
 The Koran does not say 72 virgins. No number is
given. They are just described as beautiful, and
willing. Maybe not even virgins. Later traditions This cartoon is unusual in
say their virginity continuously renews itself and the that it quite correctly
men are as if on an eternity dose of Viagra. There distinguishes radical Islam
is no counterpart situation for women who go to from the rest of Islam.
heaven. It’s a man’s world here and hereafter.
There are an endless
number of images like
this on the internet, with
the same one-joke theme
of the virgins in heaven.
This altered image is
interesting because it
shows the homoerotic
way that Moslem
religious figures are often
shown on modern
election posters, etc.,
with an exaggerated
“prettiness” to them.
 Hookah-induced vision of heaven. The Koran gives
a very literal and sensuous view of heaven, all geared
towards men’s fantasies. The modesty required here
on earth
goes out the
window
when you
reach
Paradise
 The Koran says that heaven also provides young virgin boys,
as well as women, for those men who like variety in Paradise
 One scholar recently proposed that “virgins” is a
mistranslation of the word for “raisins”, and that
this is what awaits men in heaven. Few scholars
accept this. The key word does not mean raisins.
It means prunes
 Just kidding!! But delicious
food and drink are a big feature of
Islamic heaven. Lots of lamb and
goat. Wine, forbidden on earth, is
abundant there but has no
inebriating effect.
Abundant water and gardens
are the ultimate luxury here on
earth – to an Arabian desert
culture – so they are both very
key elements in the Islamic
heaven. Reflecting pools are
very popular in Moslem lands.
Fires of Hell

The Koran
describes the
torments of hell,
again in a literal
way. The worst
sin is a lack of
faith.
 The Koran describes Jinn (genies) both good (angel
Gabriel) and bad (Satan).

The angel Gabriel brought

Allah’s message to Mohammed.
Mohammed’s face is never
shown in art. Moslems believe
this same angel told Mary she
would give birth to Jesus
 Forbidden to make images of people or gods, Moslems have a
much more highly developed art than the Jewish people

Pakistani decorative art

Iranian tile art
 This complete absence of body images must have had some effect on
Islamic sexuality. Compare this with a painting of Mary suckling the
baby Jesus, or this Mosque vault with the Sistine Chapel ceiling with all
its human drama. Actual Moslem bodies are just as hidden in life
(covered up) as they are in art.
Sir Richard Burton, British
explorer, linguist, oriental
expert, risked instant
death to sneak into
Mecca in 1853 – the first
Westerner to see the
Kab’ah – the Islamic Holy
of Holies and forbidden to
unbelievers.
Translated the “1001
Arabian Nights”, brought
the “Kama Sutra” back to
Victorian England and
scandalized everyone.
Stories like
that of
Scheherazade
captured the
imagination
of the West
and led to
some
Moslem
stereotypes.
 “The Eunuch’s Dream”

The imagined eroticism and

exoticism of the Orient has
always fascinated the West,
especially French artists and
“The White Slave” composers. The Dahesh Gallery
in NYCity is full of this kind of art
 Holding
hands
and
kissing

3 pillars of
some Islamic
cultures
Homoeroticism
Suppression of
women
and Pedophilia

(Hey -sort of
like today’s
Catholic Church)
• In ancient Greece the average age for brides was
12, for grooms it was 30

• Mohammed, 1000 years later, was 53 when he

married a 6 year old. He had sex with her when
she was 9. This is used as a model by some men
in Afghanistan, for example.

• This is not progress

 Conclusions
• Mohammed seems like a rather simple, mostly well-
meaning visionary – promoting many advances for
women, social justice, charity, etc.
• He did not take well to rejection. Islam was mainly
spread by the sword.
• The Koran mostly gets an undeserved bad rap in the
Western world, while the Torah mostly get a pass on
its bad parts. There are many commonalities.
• Islamic culture and religious beliefs have much
diversity, but less so than Judaism. Secular Moslems
are rare birds.
• Radical Islam, like pedophile priests, is an aberration
and does not represent most Moslems.
The End