Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Monotheistic religions of the Middle East and the pursuit of power by any means
Danilo Anton

These thoughts only seek to show some aspects of organized monotheistic religions that virtually  since their inception were used as tools to obtain and retain power and to gain control of territories, resources, societies and minds.
From the point of view of the number of believers and their influence on the political and social geography of these nations the three main religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the most important in the world history. All three of them originated in the Middle East.

Judaism emerged as a set of traditions, originally transmitted orally, that narrate the legendary history of a people influenced by the intervention of one God, Jehovah (in Hebrew יהוה transliterated YHWH). This story is contained in the Torah, a sacred book that contains the foundational narrative of the Jewish people: their trials and tribulations, and its covenant with God. It describes a way of life to follow embodied in a set of moral and religious obligations and civil laws. While the first prophet (Abraham) has lived in the twentieth century BCE and the second prophet, Moses, who received the divine commandments in the twelfth century BC, Most biblical scholars believe that the Torah was actually written between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE, although some components may have been recorded in earlier times.
The second monotheistic religion that acquired historic importance was Christianity, which was derived from Judaism. It is based on the teachings of a prophet, Jesus, whose life is chronicled in a holy book usually called New Testament, which consists of four officially approved (or canonical) Gospels (Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Christianity also includes the ancient sacred books of Judaism, generically called Old Testament. The actual existence of Jesus was only confirmed by the gospels, not only official ones, but also several others that have been preserved or its fragments are known, but were not recognized by the ecclesiastical authorities. According to the biblic historians, at the beginning, the gospels were transmitted orally and only were written between 65 and 100 DEC or more than 30 years after the date on which Jesus was (probably) crucified.
Like Judaism, Christianity bases its religious system in the existence of one God and on the confirmation of the arrival of the Messiah announced by the prophets of the Old Testament, and whose death would redeem mankind from their sins. The books include also the  moral teachings transmitted by Jesus during his life.

Islam, who is also a monotheistic religion, developed in Arabia where a prophet (Muhammad), considered by his followers as sent by God (Allah), preached a faith based on the ancient jewish and christian sacred books. Muhammad added a new final divine message, the Koran, which contains the fundamental premises of the new religion.

A basic belief of the religion was that "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet". The Quran also defines the obligations of Muslims (followers of Islam) including Islam five pillars, profession of faith, daily prayers, zakat (alms), fasting in the month of Ramadan and pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in life, and various moral teachings, many of which were included in the other holy books (Old and New Testament). They included also the life stories of the previous prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Like the Torah and the Christian Bible, the Quran was memorized by Muhammad's followers and was only written or compiled several years later. Ultimately the three monotheistic religions began as oral traditions and only some years, decades or centuries later were recorded in writing.

The faithful of these three religions are numerous. There are about 2,000 million christians, 1,500 million muslims and 15 million jews. For that reason, largely, thoughts and actions of many societies that embrace these faiths are directly or indirectly influenced by the moral, social or political mandates (fulfilled or not) of these religions.

We must consider that ALL these religions originated in the Middle East (Palestine, Israel, Arabia) and since its inception the have disputed for the control of the territories and peoples of that region. The history of the Middle East is largely the confrontation of organized groups on behalf of these religions who fought successive wars for the control of lands, resources and societies.

These religions were the reason or the excuse for wars, bloody clashes, killings, rapes, looting, torture, racial or religious intolerance, enslavement or ethnic cleansing that began more than twenty centuries ago and still continue today. Not only they have these religions have violently confronted among them but their different organized divisions or sets also have bloodily fought to obtain or preserve power. These concepts apply to these organized religions, their churches, and mainly to those leaders who base their power in religion.
In that sense we can consider that monotheistic organized religions organized, almost from the beginning were used as unscrupulous tools to obtain and retain power, and to better manage resources, territories, societies and minds.
And still they are.

The Koranic Jesus

Kamal Salibi

This Koranic information concerning the 'Jesus' who was Issa can be distilled into a coherent narrative. Originally, this narrative relates, the people of Israel were organized into a religious community by Moses, who gave them the Torah.  Later, two other apostles were sent to them, first Ezra, then Issa. The followers of the first became the Jews; the followers of the second the Nazarene Christians; and each of these two communities came to revere its special apostle as a son of God.  Among some 'Nazarenes' (here the Christians in general) Jesus even came to be worshipped as God himself. Born of a virgin, Issa was a miraculous being whose human person was a living manifestation of the Holy Spirit and the divine kalimah, or prophetic 'word'. He performed miracles, and was able to raise the dead back to life. As a man, he was a consecrated or ordained person, which implies an association with priesthood. While he accepted the essence of the Mosaic law, he made a point of alleviating some of its rigour in his own preaching, which was the Gospel. In life, he was surrounded by a select group of followers called al-Hawariyyun, apparently because they wore special white robes.  The Jews, however, opposed his mission and scoffed at his miracles, and there was a claim among them that they actually succeeded in putting him to death, either by crucifixion or in some other manner. There were even Christians who accepted this claim. The person who was really crucified, however, was not Issa himself but someone else with whom his identity was confused. The real Issa was assumed to heaven, regardless of whether or not he died a natural human death. Before leaving the earth, he prophesied the coming of another apostle called Ahmad. Ultimately, Issa was to return to life, to pass the final judgement on mankind on the day of the Resurrection. There are two points in this reconstructed Koranic story which are particularly remarkable. First, it makes the correct distinction between the Mosaic monotheism of the early Israelites, and the Jewish faith which began to evolve from it in post-exilic times – with the career of Ezra, by general reckoning. Second, the story clearly depicts Judaism and the original Christianity of the Nazarenes as different departures from the original religion of Israel, and thus suggests a new vision of the origins of Christianity as a sister religion to Judaism, rather than as a runaway Jewish sect, as has long been the common view

While the Koran does not fix a place or date for the mission of Issa, it does give the general impression that, as a latter-day prophet to Israel, he was active in the same environment where Islam was born, i.e. in Western Arabia; also, that Nazarene Christianity emerged at a time when the Israelites, as a people, as distinct from the Jews as a latter-day religious community, still existed – which implies a date for the mission of the Koranic 'Jesus' which is perhaps closer to the fifth century BC than to the first century AD. While there is nothing in Islamic literature to endorse such an early date for the career of Issa, there is at least one indication in this literature that Christianity (certainly, the religion of the Nasara) originated in Arabia rather than Palestine. Writing his geographical dictionary alRawd al-mi'tar fi khabar al-aqtar in the fourteenth century AD, Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Mun'im al-Himyari, a North African Arab originally from the Yemen, expanded on the history of pre-Islamic Christianity in the region of Najran, on the north-eastern peripheries of the Yemen, remarking unequivocally that 'the origin of this religion was in Najran' (wa-kan asl dhalik al-din bi-Najran).* That Christianity should have originated in Arabia before making a fresh start and assuming a new form in Palestine is not implausible. As indicated in the introduction, I remain personally convinced that the history of the Biblical Israelites ran its full course in Western Arabia, and that the original monotheism of Moses as well as the Judaism that evolved from it have their roots there, and not in Palestine. In terms of historical geography, Palestine can be viewed as a northward extension of Western Arabia, and some Arabian Israelites apparently did arrive to settle in that country in Biblical times. Later, during the Hellenistic period, Judaism under the Hasmonean dynasty came to have one of its main political centres in Palestine, where the principal Jewish city was called Jerusalem after the older, Israelite (and hence Biblical) Jerusalem of Arabia - probably the present village of Al Sharim in the Asir highlands, once referred to in ancient Arabi literature as Uri Shalim.

* See al-Rawd al-Mi'tar fi khabar al-aqtar, ed. Ihsan Abbas (Beirut, 1984), p. 573.)

From; "Who was Jesus?". Kamal Salibi