If Obama Could Be Any Kinda Muslim...

[Ban my account ffs!]

What kind would he be?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

[All Along The Watchtower]

Obama is almost the same word as Osama.

CHECKMATE, LIE-BERALS!

[ingemann]

What kind would he be?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

I'm not sure Druze's really count as Muslims, they seem more like a pre-Islamic remnant with Islamic, Judaic and Christian elements like Yedizi and Alawites.

[Ban my account ffs!]

What kind would he be?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

I'm not sure Druze's really count as Muslims, they seem more like a pre-Islamic remnant with Islamic, Judaic and Christian elements like Yedizi and Alawites.

Well, they are a lesser child of Semitic monotheism.  So an Abrahamic faith that borrows elements from all three and pushes enlightenment over observance of rituals or rules.

I think in any case deism might fit best.

[angus]

What kind would he be?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

Druze?!  I always thought of Druze as a separate religion from Islam.

To the original question, I'd say he's the sort that is comfortable cutting off the hands of thieves in public, or veiling women from head to toe, but in private bashes all religion and everything it stands for.

[Ban my account ffs!]

What kind would he be?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze

Druze?!  I always thought of Druze as a separate religion from Islam.

To the original question, I'd say he's the sort that is comfortable cutting off the hands of thieves in public, or veiling women from head to toe, but in private bashes all religion and everything it stands for.

In other words, give the sheeple what they want and mock them behind their back?

I'd like to think higher of him.  That he has a great knowledge and wisdom and by giving us what we want he does it in a way that shows what we need isn't what we want.

But maybe I fell for it.  I just think Obama will either be redeemed or fully condemned.  I don't see him fading away like some say.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I am reminded of the story of Balak (like barack) and Balaam and the talking donkey in the Bible.  Balak saw the Israelites pouring forward into the Levant and tried to bribe Balaam into attacking the Israelites.  He refused, as he was Godly.  On the third attempt, God told Balaam to go and tell Balak what would happen to his kingdom.

The donkey that carried Balaam, a servant of God, turned out of the way when it saw an angel with a sword standing in its way.  Balaam didn't see the angel and so he beat the donkey for disobeying and not continuing on the path...three separate times.but then God allowed the donkey to speak and showed the angel to Balaam.  The donkey explained 'have I not always been faithful to you?'  And the angel repudiated Balaam for if the donkey had not moved out of the way...the angel would have killed him.

I see the Democrats as the donkey and the rider is American capitalism.  We see where the path leads and we try to turn out of the way.  And Balaam (the believers in American capitalism) punish us for turning away from the path.  Three times.  Then they'll see what we see.

The sad culmination is that once Balaam was set right he went to Balak, the leader of the land under threat by the Israelites pouring out of Egypt...told Balak his kingdom would be conquered and split up because too bad so sad my people are coming.  In doom and gloom crazy jao town, we are Moab, where Balak is king.  (We could lament this except what we did to the Natives cuz we were God's chosen ones and we were coming).  I firmly believe if that were the case, then most Natives were saved even as they suffered smallpox by their own faiths...with two exceptions.  The Aztecs and the Incans.  They followed the beast and were utterly destroyed.  Incan society was remarkably similar to modern day North Korea.  I know we like to romanticize it but Incan society had no respect for the family or individuals and everything was distributed according to the Inca, who served as god.  A kleptogiftocracy. The Aztecs sacrificed humans for power.  They got what they deserved.  Makes you wonder what the evil leftists (Inca) and the evil rightists (Aztecs) have in common.  Nothing but evil.  And authoritarianism.



I think what was left out was that Balaam intended to use his news of destruction to profit off the soon-to-be-conquered.  The angel told him 'um, not nom nom...just no.  Do and say nothing except precisely what you are told to, oh greedy prosperity gospelite'

[angus]

Interesting comments, all. 

I've always thought of the Tihuantinsuyu as the perfect example of an imperialist socialist society.  Maybe the only example.  North Korea is not truly socialist and hardly imperialist.  Also, the Inca was really good at moving grain from regions of plenty to drought- and famine-affected areas.  Even without the wheel and without horses!  North Koreans can barely move a pencil across a piece of paper.  Sure, they're both collectivist societies, but I think that's where the similarity ends.

The Aztecs, or the Triple Alliance, were sort of like the US Congress.  They are Ted Kennedy and Ted Cruz all rolled into one.  They were good at turning other folks against each other and exploiting natural divisions.  Fearmongers of the first class, cultivating natural bigotries and paranoia in a rather successful effort to secure their own hegemony.

I certainly fell for Obama's rap once as well.  I totally bought into the "change the tone in Washington" gimmick.  Post-partisan, post-identity America.  I voted for him enthusiastically in 2008.  You can bet I didn't vote for him in 2012.  I don't know whether he'll fade away, and I don't really care.  He's not quite as offensive as some of his predecessors, to be sure, but President Obama and Candidate Obama are Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde.  I don't think Obama is a terrible, horrible individual, but I do think he is like all politicians and I'm a little ashamed to have fallen for his outside-the-system, or better-than-the-system, schtick he was pushing in the summer of '08.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Angus...the distribution of the Inca empire was done by taking individual and family autonomy away or minimizing it.  They managed the empire vertically rather than horizontally.  They had crops adapted to the vertical microclimates of the Andes and instituted a grand distribution system to feed everyone by forcibly moving everyone around.  And the Inca was glorified for this.

After WWII Kimmy Sung did a decent job doing the same.  But after they lost their potatoes (the USSR) everything flew off the handle.  Juche, when exposed to itself, was a farce and millions of North Koreans died.  The socialist ideal turns into kleptogiftocracy where the central black widow holds its loyal subjects close and buys them trinkets in exchange for controlling everyone else.  If you don't see that the US has done the same regardless of party...

The Incan society was interrupted in the equivalent of 1970 North Korea and the people were horrified by the Spaniards who killed their god.  Had they come to 1997 North Korea things would've been different.

But both Peru and Mexico are subject to occasional weather catastrophes called El Niño that were probably the main culprit in bringing down the Mayans and keeping the Incans in check.  In Peru during normal times they can grow crops higher up where there is moisture and also along the creeks that run to the sea.  And the cold ocean water supports vast fish populations.

During El Niño it rains in torrents washing their crops away while the warm ocean drives the fish out to sea and under the surface.  All along the coast of South America dead starved seals and birds line the shore.  Ironically it is called 'the boy' referring to Jesus as it peaks around Christmas.  When El Niño came to the Incans in the form of Spaniards instead of the ocean...Incaville folded like a lawnchair.  And Spain suffered for the riches they stole.  The first colonial Balaam as it were.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If we're going to try to find Balaam in the modern era, we first need an accurate assessment of Balaam in the Bible.  Balaam's sin, the one that would have led to his death were it not for his kind donkey, was trying to profit by putting into the mouth of God the words people want God to say rather than the words that God wants said in his name.  Balaam is thus represented today by people such as Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton who are nominally prophets of God but in reality are prophets who try to say what is in the interests of those who give them money rather than the interests of God.  Balak is representative of people like Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton who care more about staying in power than what they should do with the power once they have it.

[Ban my account ffs!]

If we're going to try to find Balaam in the modern era, we first need an accurate assessment of Balaam in the Bible.  Balaam's sin, the one that would have led to his death were it not for his kind donkey, was trying to profit by putting into the mouth of God the words people want God to say rather than the words that God wants said in his name.  Balaam is thus represented today by people such as Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton who are nominally prophets of God but in reality are prophets who try to say what is in the interests of those who give them money rather than the interests of God.  Balak is representative of people like Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton who care more about staying in power than what they should do with the power once they have it.

Well hello there Mr. Metaphor.  My name is Mr. Analogy.  I'll tell you what it's like and you can tell me what it means!

[angus]

And the Inca was glorified for this.

Well of course they were!

Anyway, I'm quite familiar with the "microclimates."  I've hiked the Inca Trail, 45 km from Sacsayhuaman to Machu Picchu.  Four days of elevation changes from 200 m above mean sea level to 4500 m.  Dress in layers.  Get ready to eat sh**t.  Fish heads, chicha, or whatever you can scrounge up along the way.  70-pound Jansport backpack with tent and sleeping bag and lots of cocaine (which rather helps with the hike.)  I've also spent several weeks in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador visiting the local museums and, although I'm no expert on pre-columbian American history, I have read Hiram Bingham and some more modern texts on the subject.  I reckon myself fairly well versed on the Inca legal system.  Adultery?  execution.  Insubordination?  execution.  And the preferred method was rather interesting too.  

Still, I hardly think it reminiscent of the North Koreans.  Maybe just because I'm fairly ignorant of Korea and its recent history.  Outside of the terms I've learned from my son's Tae Kwon Do class--from that I can count from one to ten and say several phrases, but otherwise--I know no Korean.  Nevertheless, I can read.  The Koreans are insular and paranoid.  They are not imperialist expansionist, like the Inca, and they are not very good at socialism, like the Inca.  They only have two things in common:  collectivism and the rule of a despotic leader.  But you could probably say that about a whole bunch of societies.

And what does any of this have to do with Obama and Islam?  

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The evul kind.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Based on what's most prevalent in East Africa, he would be Shafi'i Sunni Muslim.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

The Sufi who realizes after 20 years he's been going to a Salafist mosque.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The Sufi who realizes after 20 years he's been going to a Salafist mosque.

That would be very embarrassing.  No wonder he says nary a word.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The jao is strong in this thread.