Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Short Quiz

1. Was Nelson Mandela the “heart and soul” of South Africa’s throwing off the yoke of White MINORITY Rule?

2. Was Nelson Mandela incredulous at the American Civil Rights Movement’s success in the 1960’s in achieving the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965?

3. Was Nelson Mandela’s incredulity based on disbelief that a racial MINORITY could achieve such results?

4. Who called religion “the opiate of the masses”?

5. Did Karl Marx call religion “the opiate of the masses” out of frustration over trying to get the proletariat to overthrow the bourgeoisie on this earth -- when they were focused, instead, on “laying up for themselves treasure in heaven”?

6. Was Karl Marx’s real quarrel with Christians who are not only enjoined to “lay up for themselves treasure in heaven” but also to “turn the other cheek”?

7. Who famously said that “Islam has bloody borders”?

8. Was that statement made by Samuel Huntington, Harvard’s Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor and Director of Harvard’s Center for International Affairs, in his famous (some would say infamous) 1993 Foreign Affairs article entitled “The Clash of Civilizations?” which he expanded into a book entitled “The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of World Order” (Simon & Shuster - 1996)?

9. Have “wise acres” attempted to disprove Prof. Huntington’s thesis by examining COUNTRY borders, most of which are nothing more than “figments of the imaginations” of long-departed colonial masters?

10. Is it true that many, if not most, wars (by number, if not necessarily by importance such as so-called “World Wars”) over whatever historical period one cares to examine since the advent of Islam in the Seventh Century – have been between Muslims and adherents of other religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) regardless of whether there were any colonial “borders” separating the warring parties?

11. Was the most recent of the many occasions on which we studied Islam our 12/31/2017 meeting for which our focus book was “Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

BTW, were Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s formative years spent as a Black-African Muslim in Mogadishu Somalia? Did she have to flee The Netherlands where she had become a prominent politician due to Fatwās to kill her for allegedly becoming an Islamic apostate because she had campaigned against "honor killings" ON DUTCH SOIL of Muslim women (Islamic Law requires all Muslims to kill apostates)? Did she enter the equivalent of the witness-protection program in the U.S. until surfacing as a Fellow at the Belfer Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government? AND PERHAPS MOST INTERESTINGLY, has Ayaan Hirsi Ali been married since 2011 to Niall Ferguson who was Harvard’s Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History 2004-2016, who was a Scot educated at Oxford though he taught at both Cambridge and Oxford before coming across the pond AND WHO, MOST IMPORTANTLY, is the author of one of our Proposed Focus Books “The Square and The Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook” (Penguin Press 2018)?

13. Did Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Heretic” explain that the heart of Islam is “World Conquest as the result of VIOLENT Holy War”? That the Quranic “peace verses” always cited by Islamic apologists come from the Prophet Muhammad’s Mecca period during which he and Islam were floundering, while the “Sword Verses” come from Muhammad’s later Medina period when Muhammad and Islam were flourishing as a result of military conquests, many of which Muhammad led personally?

14. And did Hirsi Ali explain in “Heretic” that all 4 main schools of Islamic Jurisprudence and all 25 approved Islamic interpretations of the Quran agree in general that any statements in the Quran that are inconsistent with later Quranic statements ARE ABROGATED and, in particular, the “peace verses” cited by the Islam apologists ARE ABROGATED by the “Sword Verses”?

15. Is all of this (Questions 1-14) helpful, if not essential, to understanding the difference between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.?

16. After all, didn’t Martin Luther King Jr. begin his career in 1954 as the Pastor of the Dexter Avenue BAPTIST Church in Montgomery AL?

17. And was it NOT until 1957 that he (with others) founded the “Southern CHRISTIAN Leadership Conference” (SCLC) of which MLK was President from its founding 1/10/1957 until MLK’s assassination 4/4/1968?

18. Was the purpose of the SCLC to use the moral authority and organizing power of Black Churches to conduct NON-VIOLENT civil rights protests?

19. Meanwhile, had Malcolm Little (aka Malcolm X) joined The Nation of Islam while in prison 1946-1952 (age 21-27) and quickly become one of its most influential leaders?

20. Following his release from prison and for more than a dozen years thereafter, was Malcolm X the public face of The Nation of Islam advocating black supremacy, black empowerment, and the separation of black and white Americans -- publicly criticizing the SCLC-led civil rights movement for its emphasis on non-violence and racial integration?

21. Does our author, Prof. Peniel Joseph, chronicle how Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. influenced each other and came to have surprisingly-similar views?

22. Was Malcolm X assassinated in NYC 2/21/1965? Do rumors still persist regarding who/what was behind the shooting (including the Federal Government whose FBI had surveilled him for many years for supposed links to communism)?

23. Was Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated 4/4/1968 in Memphis TN?

24. Was MLK also surveilled by the U.S. Government (the CIA in his case) for supposed links to communism?

25. Does Prof. Peniel Joseph argue that the promotion of MLK as a hero while ignoring Malcolm X, is nothing more than mainstream-media propaganda aimed at keeping to the present day, the civil rights movement as Christian and non-violent?

26. Would Black America have been much better off abandoning MLK’s Christianity and embracing the Islam of Malcolm X?