Allahu Akbar doesn't mean God is Great anymore.

[leftyladyfrommo]

Last edited Mon Dec 22, 2014, 12:06 PM - Edit history (2)

It means duck and run for cover.

I am reading a book on the Talmud. A lot of the Jews were moved to Babylon after the Temple was destroyed about 500 BCE by Nebekenezer, a Chaldean. Babylon was a Caliphate after the Muslims took it over. It was a thriving city, beautiful and dynamic about 600 CE.

And the Jews and Muslims all co-existed peacefully. Their top philosophers would all meet together to discuss all manner of things. Their religions have a lot in common and Mohammed had been very familiar with the Jewish faith.

Jewish/Muslim affairs were not always like this.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

1. You do realize, don't you ...

... that the Prophet Muhammad was born in the seventh century C.E.?

[leftyladyfrommo]

6. You are Right. It was about 500 CE

But the Jews had been moved to Babylon after the Temple fell. And there was a fairly large group of them living in Babylon.

[Coventina]

2. Your overall point is somewhat true.

But keep in mind that the Jewish exile to Babylon happened about a thousand years before the life of Mohammed.

AND, after Islam was established, Jews and Christians were required to pay a tax in order to practice their religion when they lived in Muslim territories and refused to convert.

It was tolerant to an extent. But, better than now.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

4. Also keep in mind ...

... that the Jews in captivity in Babylon "co-existed peacefully" with the (non-existent) Muslims in Babylon only after said (non-existent) tolerant Muslims had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem to begin with.

[rogerashton]

3. Some confusion here.

Baghdad was not a Caliphate, since Islam did not exist until over a thousand years later. You are confusing the Babylonian captivity with the Abbasid Caliphate, at Baghdad, not Babylon, after about 800 AD. However, what you say about Babylon is true of the Baghdad Caliphate in its great days; and further, as late as the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire sheltered Jews whose ancestors were fugitives from persecution in western Europe.

[longship]

5. There were no Muslims in 500 BCE.

Mohammed died in 624 CE.

Just thought I'd add this minor correction.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. You are right.

I was thinking about when the Temple fell and the Jews were relocated to Babylon.

It was about 600 CE when the Jews and the Muslims co-existed in Babylon. There was a Jewish Population there for several thousand years. I'll bet they aren't there anymore.

I know the Christians who lived in the area for thousands of years are probably all gone now, too. They have all fled to Kurdistan.

What happened to make everything change so drastically?

[lunasun]

8. Huh?

[TexasProgresive]

9. There was a long history of Jews living in what is modern day Iraq/

The Jewish community is pretty much non existent with the ouster of the Baathist. While the Baathist regime was brutal it tended to be secular. The regimes ever since have closed their eyes to the persecution of Christians and Jews in Iraq.

This wiki article is pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Iraq

[MineralMan]

10. That will come as a great surprise to many millions of Muslims.

For them, it still means "God is Great." You're confusing non-Muslim reactions with its misuse by Islamic terrorists. It is the first words in the call to prayer and is still that to almost all Muslims.

You are incorrect in your statement. Most Muslims are merely people who have a different religion than Christians or Jews. It is the beginning of their prayers and means exactly what you say it does not mean.

Let's not start trashing an entire religion, please. That is simply bigotry.

As an atheist, I don't believe that any religions are correct, but I do not hate religions or religious people. If they can believe, then that's fine with me. It's wrong to lump everyone into the same group as extremists. Fundamentalist Christians can be just as extreme as extremist Muslims.

Please do not post bigotry on DU.

[closeupready]

11. Or maybe it does, and you've become paranoid?

? I'd bet you personally know about 2 muslims.

[closeupready]

12. And another falsehood you hold: Muslims consider the Old Testament

to be holy scripture, just as Jews and Christians do.

But don't let facts get in the way of you here.

[NuclearDem]

13. Actually, it literally means "God is the greatest"

"Akbar" is a superlative. "Kabeer" is the adjective.

But I'm just picking nits.