photo: Martin Dixon
Here’s a grim laugh for your Friday morning. A Muslim propaganda video which preposterously seeks to explain the death and burial of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 1st century, as the result of the wrath of Allah against the decadent Roman empire. The video marvels at how people were struck down with little warning by the eruption of Vesuvius, and cites the Quran as evidence of divine retribution. Particularly offensive is the implication that slavery was a uniquely Roman institution. Something that no doubt would come as a great surprise to slaves who suffer to this day, under cruel ownership by devout Muslim masters in Africa and Saudi Arabia.
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Meta
I dont think it is funny. If you believed that Quran is a holy book, you wouldn’t laugh at this video. One should take lessons from Pompeii.
I agree. The lesson is: don’t live under an active volcano. In such cases suffering “divine retribution” is merely a matter of waiting long enough. And yes, the video is completely laughable.
Heh.
The idea that God deals retribution is hardly unique to Islam or the Quran.
At 9-11 when various sorts were proclaiming that the attacks that day were retribution from God for sins of accepting homosexuality (among other things… there were enough on every side saying we’d brought it on ourselves,) I thought that most probably the truth was the opposite and the Wrath of God was about to descend.
I could ask, el… what do you think Islam did to offend God so much?
If we should use Pompeii as a metaphor, what is the mindless, nearly senseless, “volcano” that looms over most of the world?
If… that’s where we want to go. It doesn’t say a thing about who is “good” and who isn’t of course… the Old Testament shows clearly that God uses evil nations to discipline his chosen.
Though, really, I can’t see a down-side to Muslim propaganda condemning slavery. Seems like a good thing, doesn’t it?
Pompeii was an extremely sexually permissive society, much more than most cultures are today. The Quran specifically talks about how God dealt out his punishments on societies that chose to disobey him. It’s not surprising for Muslims to say that the eruption was a form of the wrath of God.
I don’t think it’s fair to laugh the video off as “propaganda.” People believe what they believe, man; if you’re a Muslim, it could make perfect sense to you. If you’re not, oh well.
And may I say, Islam is not the only reason that believes in divine retribution.