The presentation of this book: ‘49:49′; The Emperor’s old Rags.
Erasing history and repairing the past
A bitter anecdote from the beginning of my long speech 1).
Yes, misogyny is very old and was and is very widespread. A week after this book presentation, ISIS-like groups rose to seize power in Syria again. In an absurd way it reminded me of the time I wrote this e-Book: IS, the Kurds and the Caliphate; Turkey: from sick occupant to paranoid neighbor in 2014.
Now in 2024 the jihadists are bragging again about taking young Kurdish girls as sex slaves, and Israel is being blamed for it because of being too harsh on Hezbollah…
And speaking of sex slaves: the excellent software I use to clean and subtitle videos on this site is of high quality. However, it has built-in censorship: it simply refuses to translate “sex slaves”. I have encountered this absurd wish to ‘repair history’ before.
Ignorance or much worse
This horrific anecdote about Mecca in the late 19th century combined with today’s insane forms of censorship shines a spotlight on the biggest problems decent people face in the woke era.
Studying the not so very distant past also reminds of the lack of information at that time for absolutely everyone.
Nowadays the information provision about what is happening elsewhere in the world is very poor but back then it definitely was even worse.
My special illustration of that is also ‘Caliphate related‘ so to speak. It is about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2).
World War I ended very differently for the Ottoman Empire compared to the European countries.
Turkish nationalists, led by Ataturk (‘Father of the Turks’), seized power in Asia Minor and put an end to both the sultanate and the caliphate.
Mr. Gandhi heard something about this and assumed that it was not the Turks themselves who had done it, but the British. And he became one of the driving forces behind the so-called Khilafat movement!
He went on to collaborate with the Mohammedans in India to advocate for the restoration of the Caliphate!
The man was educated in Great Britain and politically influenced there by left-wing idealists, had lived in South Africa for many years and in his autobiography he is particularly complimentary about many British people. Was he extremely ill-informed about Turkish nationalism?
Or was he well-informed but did he see this as an incentive to fight together with Islamic fundamentalists for the independence of the Indian continent?
Taking over the torch
The book is dedicated to the phenomenal Dorothy Milne Murdock 3).
Hatred meted out to her mainly came and still comes from fundamentalist Christians. Christians who stomp on her grave.
Conversely, the criticism of Dorothy and other female fighters against religiously inspired misogyny, was also relatively much against Christianity and relatively little against those other two so called ‘Abrahamic Religions: the Mohammedan and the Jewish one.
With the book 49:49 I take over the torch for that part, so to speak. It is more detailed in criticising the teachings of Mohammed.
Abraham’s sons and Jephthah’s daughter
The slideshow above, musically accompanied by Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Story of Isaac‘ 4), is about the question which of his eldest two sons Abraham was about to sacrifice to his god: Isaac or Ishmael?
In her book ‘Man Made God‘ – Dorothy Milne Murdock wrote the preface of that book – Barbara Walker writes simply that Yahweh got Abraham twice this way: Isaac and Ishmael were both nearly sacrificed, and on both occasions Abraham did not stop because he came to his senses, but because Yahweh appreciated his submission so much that he came up with a lamb at the last minute.
Brilliant. Utterly brilliant.
Walker places her own myth next to the various myths of the three Abrahamic religions. Try to come up with arguments against that!
In the same book Walker also produced another new myth titled ‘Lilith’s Rant“.
To avoid any misunderstanding of the mythic nature of the text, having previously become the mother of Yahweh, Lilith subsequently had thousands of other children. And yes, whether you consider an accompanying owl crucial to your image of Lilith is entirely up to you. 5).
Much can be said and deliberated about which of Abrahams (eight!) sons was almost killed and until this day is being said and deliberated especially among christian fundamentalists.
However, sputtering about which son was almost slaughtered in honour of Abraham’s god becomes really painful when opposite the fate of the boys Isaac and Ishmael is placed that of the girl Iphigenia.
The story about her comes from the book of Judges. Her father was one of those. He is said to have lived some four centuries after Abraham. The book of Judges is about a whole series of ‘judges’ who led the Jews. The best known of these is Samson. Some time before this long-haired powerhouse, one Jephthah filled that role of ‘judge’. The chance that you know who that was, is much smaller.
Like other judges, this Jephthah finds himself at the head of a great
military campaign. To increase his chances on the battlefield, he promises
a human sacrifice to Yahweh —a surprise sacrifice, so to speak: he will slaughter the first person he sees upon returning from his campaign –if it was successful.
But what bad luck: let that be his only child, his young daughter Iphigenia. Jephthah informs the girl of his promise to his god and the child does not hesitate for a moment: ‘You must keep every promise to your god, Daddy‘. Jewish tradition has it that it is extra sad that the girl was still a virgin…
The ‘holy books’ do not provide any details about THIS slaughter feast,
centuries after the near slaughter of those little boys.
Was the mother of the girl invited? Were other people watching? Or angels? Was there a curtain spontaneously torn?
Yes, I am cynical here.
Take note: judge Samson was also betrayed by a woman according to Bible and Torah…
Moses
Moses is the most mentioned person in the holy books of all three Abrahamic religions. The rather famous Maimonides 6) states unequivocally that Moses was the greatest of the prophets.
Several books in the Old Testament are devoted to his absurdly detailed regulations regarding sacrificing (animals) to his god and the way in which his people carry that god around.
But that is not all. He also demands astonishing cruelty from his people in their wars against descendants of sons of Abraham other than Isaac.
After his troops have slaughtered all the men of such a people, Moses becomes angry: they should have killed the women and children too. Except for the young girls: they can be made into sex slaves. He explicitly states that the men of his tribe – the Levites – should also get their share of this spoils of war…
Moses is also the ultimate embodiment of tribalism: the descent that is only important through the male line.
The Jews are the chosen people of their god. Among them, the tribe of the Levites is chosen. Within that tribe, Moses’ family is the chosen one and within that family he is chosen above his (older) brother and sister.
When Yahweh hears that the brother and sister are not happy with Moses’ behaviour, the god gives (only) the sister a skin disease. When Moses then begs his god to make her well again, he does so.
Under Moses’ leadership his people travel through a desert. It does not take a couple of days or weeks but 40 years. That is a punishment for complaining about thirst in that desert…
When the thirst becomes unbearable Jahweh helps Moses to activate a water source but continues to lead them astray again and again.
Negotiating with your god
Negotiating with the god features in several bible books. It starts in the very first book, Genesis, following the first murder. After Cain has killed his brother Abel his god imposes a heavy punishment on him. The murderer protests and the god promises that people he will meet elsewhere in the world who are mean to him will be punished even more severely…
In the book Numeri (Numbers in English) Moses is on his way to a promised land and he comes with a plan how to distribute that yet to conquer land among the tribes and families he leads. It will be distributed in accordance with the number of men of fighting age per tribe.
After a first counting, five women who had no brothers complain. They also want the right to a piece of the Promised Land. Moses consults his Lord and the women get their way.
Some time later, a number of men come to Moses who see unfairness in the promise to those women: When those women marry a man from another tribe, that tribe will receive a disproportionately large share of the land. Moses consults his Lord again and now Moses and his god are convinced: neither of them had apparently thought of that ‘complication’. Yahweh then comes up with a compromise of sorts.
Sodom and Gomorra
But that is not yet the pinnacle of equality between the two: the man and his god. His Lordship has heard a rumour that a few miles away the people are behaving sinfully and he is going to check whether those rumours are true….
If they are true, he will destroy all of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham protests: ‘They aren’t all sinful there, are they? You’re not that kind of god, are you, Yahweh? What if there are fifty non-sinful people?’ Okay, says this creator of worlds and galaxies, then I won’t do it. But Abraham continues: ‘What if five of those 50 have just left town?’ Yahweh gives in again. Apparently he hadn’t thought of that possibility. The handshake continues for a while until they close the deal at ten… (p 195 in ‘49:49‘)
Genesis 16, by the way, is a reminder of the truly horrible treatment of the slaves and the terrible relationships between men and women at that time. The idea to impregnate a slave girl ‘as a last resort’ is said to have come from Abraham’s legal wife!
After she becomes pregnant, that slave girl, Hagar, then misbehaves in the eyes of who then whines about that to Abraham. The pregnant slave girl, Hagar, is then chased into the desert!
And the Bible blames the woman Sarah for this too, not the man Abraham.
A little later an angel sends Hagar back from the desert to her owners, emphasising that she must be obedient and promising her that the son she is pregnant with will have arguments with everyone. And he will also have many descendants… (Note 142)
Second class people, third class people and females
One of the most important and most absurd concepts in the Quran is that of the “People of the book“. Humanity is divided into two main categories: Mohammedans and non-Mohammedans. The category of non-Mohammedans called “people of scripture” is the second best according to Quran and ulema. Numerous verses in the Quran suggest that Jews and Christians belong to this group. People who believe in more than one god(dess) or in none at all are in the third class. Hindus, Yazidis etc.
But the difference between men and women is even more pronounced. When it comes to misogyny the Bible and Torah are surpassed by the Quran.
Mohammed self evidently and exclusively addresses his male followers.
Less well known is that the most misogynist commands and permissions in that book – such as having sex with prepubescent girls – are reserved for Muhammad himself, not his followers.
Perhaps the most explicitly misogynist verses in the Quran are 36:56 [41] and 37:22 [56]. The first of the two says that good followers of Mohammed go to Mohammedan heaven and their wives automatically end up there too. 37:22 is the sickening reversal of this: when men are condemned to hell, their
wives are also condemned to eternal flames.
Both verses stem from the so-called Meccan period, often described as the ‘more moderate’ than the later Medinic one.
The Christian New Testament is obviously less misogynist. However, the teachings of that ‘outlier apostle’ Paul – that form a significant part of it – is really outspoken about the inferiority of women: when christian men speak christian women should listen.
Why verse 49:49?
Or: Pens down. Now!
The motto of this book is displayed on the front page:
If a religion with political ambitions and growing influence has one founder and one founding book, it is very unwise not to study that founder, that book and the relationship between them.
Around halfway in ‘49:49‘, its title is explained. It is not a simple story.
An illiterate who challenges others to come up with a written text to contradict him? Every intelligent person in his environment must have recognized the utter absurdity of this challenge.
Only the fear of the power and posessedness of this warlord kept them from saying this. Just as today ‘cultural Muslims’, – ex-Muslims even – rarely dare to speak out clearly about it.
The reason why it is not simple to explain why the book is titled ‘49:49‘ has to do with the intionally absurd ordering of the Quran. Almost every copy of that holy book is sorted into an illogical order: it is not chronological.
In the Quran itself we read in two places that there are contradictions between different parts of the text. First Allah reveals something to Mohammed and later Allah deems it expedient to reveal something even better to him.
So it is crucial to realise that what was ‘last revealed’ is the message that ‘counts’.
In other words: the chronological ordering is extremely important to interprete the message of the Quran. Inescapably ordering the Quran not chronologically is intentionally.
And that intention is to ensure that the so-called Islamic scholars, the ulema, are indispensable for explaining what Muhammad’s views were.
P.S.:
A particularly successful aspect of the book presentation was that very different people came into contact with each other during the meeting and the ‘after-party’. Special because this was rarely or never my role in the past decades.
(I thank the people who helped me with this aspect of the presentation, in person)
Notes:
- More about Mahatma Gandhi
- More about Dorothy Milne Murdock
- The song and music are composed by Leonard Cohen. Performed by my brother. He is a singer / songwriter More music by him (in Dutch).
- It can be read elsewhere on this website.
- One of the sections in ‘49:49′ about him is titled ‘From refugee to princely status‘…