jews and muslims and christians, oh my!

So gmail found this article for me. basically an op-ed piece on the Jews and the Persians and how neither party really has any right to hate the other.

I love when writers smack politics and politicians in the face. seriously, people. Anyone who thinks that Muslims and Jews have absolutely nothing in common really needs to get their head out of their ass and come up for air at some point and look around them. The Hebrews and the Muslims both got their start at the same point: Abraham sacrificing Isaac/Ishmael to El/Allah. Both are political religions: each have a set of law (Mosaic/Shari'a) and a political structure that cannot be separated from the religion itself.

So this article points out the major points of the common history of the Jews and the Persians. It recalls how Judaism would not exist in the first place if it hadn't been for King Cyrus' decree 2500 years ago that the Jews needed to leave their Persian bondage, return to Israel, and rebuild their temple. Israel as a state was all but gone at that point. Cyrus is the only reason it came back. Ahmadinejad's statements that Israel should be blown off the map are ridiculous, when looked at in this light. Furthermore, Olmert's statement that a nuclear-armed Iran is an "existential threat to Israel." i'm sorry, but if someone had a nuclear weapon pointed at me, I think that's when the threat moves from "existential" to "imminent." Not that I honestly think Iran would be dumb enough to actually blow up Israel. Nevertheless, I may have to send Olmert's speechwriter a Hebrew-to-English dictionary.

The article moved foward from King Cyrus, but, as always occurs with me, I started getting bored. Much past the BC/AD (or BCE/CE for all you nuts out there) and I start getting bored.

That's OK, b/c the Muslims reading this entry were going "A.D.? Who's he??"