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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth V. McNutt who wrote (611447)	8/26/2004 4:09:32 PM
From: TideGlider	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

Ah! Arab civilization. Where did it go, if it ever existed. Funny you should ask that, because their never was an "Arab" advanced civilization, they didn't steal. ninevehsoft.com What Arab Civilization? This letter was sent to Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett Packard Corporation, in response to a speech given by her on September 26, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 7, 2001 Carly Fiorina Hewlett-Packard 3000 Hanover Street Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185 Dear Madame Fiorina: It is with great interest that I read your speech delivered on September 26, 2001, titled "Technology, Business and Our way of Life: What's Next" [sic]. I was particularly interested in the story you told at the end of your speech, about the Arab/Muslim civilization. As an Assyrian, a non-Arab, Christian native of the Middle East, whose ancestors reach back to 5000 B.C., I wish to clarify some points you made in this little story, and to alert you to the dangers of unwittingly being drawn into the Arabist/Islamist ideology, which seeks to assimilate all cultures and religions into the Arab/Islamic fold. I know you are a very busy woman, but please find ten minutes to read what follows, as it is a perspective that you will not likely get from anywhere else. I will answer some of the specific points you made in your speech, then conclude with a brief perspective on this Arabist/Islamist ideology. Arabs and Muslims appeared on the world scene in 630 A.D., when the armies of Muhammad began their conquest of the Middle East. We should be very clear that this was a military conquest, not a missionary enterprise, and through the use of force, authorized by a declaration of a Jihad against infidels, Arabs/Muslims were able to forcibly convert and assimilate non-Arabs and non-Mulsims into their fold. Very few indigenous communities of the Middle East survived this -- primarily Assyrians, Jews, Armenians and Coptics (of Egypt). Having conquered the Middle East, Arabs placed these communities under a Dhimmi (see the book Dhimmi, by Bat Ye'Or) system of governance, where the communities were allowed to rule themselves as religious minorities (Christians, Jews and Zoroastrian). These communities had to pay a tax (called a Jizzya in Arabic) that was, in effect, a penalty for being non-Muslim, and that was typically 80% in times of tolerance and up to 150% in times of oppression. This tax forced many of these communities to convert to Islam, as it was designed to do. You state, "its architects designed buildings that defied gravity." I am not sure what you are referring to, but if you are referring to domes and arches, the fundamental architectural breakthrough of using a parabolic shape instead of a spherical shape for these structures was made by the Assyrians more than 1300 years earlier, as evidenced by their archaeological record. You state, "its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption." The fundamental basis of modern mathematics had been laid down not hundreds but thousands of years before by Assyrians and Babylonians, who already knew of the concept of zero, of the Pythagorean Theorem, and of many, many other developments expropriated by Arabs/Muslims (see History of Babylonian Mathematics, Neugebauer). You state, "its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease." The overwhelming majority of these doctors (99%) were Assyrians. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries Assyrians began a systematic translation of the Greek body of knowledge into Assyrian. At first they concentrated on the religious works but then quickly moved to science, philosophy and medicine. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and many others were translated into Assyrian, and from Assyrian into Arabic. It is these Arabic translations which the Moors brought with them into Spain, and which the Spaniards translated into Latin and spread throughout Europe, thus igniting the European Renaissance. By the sixth century A.D., Assyrians had begun exporting back to Byzantia their own works on science, philosophy and medicine. In the field of medicine, the Bakhteesho Assyrian family produced nine generations of physicians, and founded the great medical school at Gundeshapur (Iran). Also in the area of medicine, (the Assyrian) Hunayn ibn-Ishaq's textbook on ophthalmology, written in 950 A.D., remained the authoritative source on the subject until 1800 A.D. In the area of philosophy, the Assyrian philosopher Job of Edessa developed a physical theory of the universe, in the Assyrian language, that rivaled Aristotle's theory, and that sought to replace matter with forces (a theory that anticipated some ideas in quantum mechanics, such as the spontaneous creation and destruction of matter that occurs in the quantum vacuum). One of the greatest Assyrian achievements of the fourth century was the founding of the first university in the world, the School of Nisibis, which had three departments, theology, philosophy and medicine, and which became a magnet and center of intellectual development in the Middle East. The statutes of the School of Nisibis, which have been preserved, later became the model upon which the first Italian university was based (see The Statutes of the School of Nisibis, by Arthur Voobus). When Arabs and Islam swept through the Middle East in 630 A.D., they encountered 600 years of Assyrian Christian civilization, with a rich heritage, a highly developed culture, and advanced learning institutions. It is this civilization that became the foundation of the Arab civilization. You state, "Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration." This is a bit melodramatic. In fact, the astronomers you refer to were not Arabs but Chaldeans and Babylonians (of present day south-Iraq), who for millennia were known as astronomers and astrologers, and who were forcibly Arabized and Islamized -- so rapidly that by 750 A.D. they had disappeared completely. You state, "its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things." There is very little literature in the Arabic language that comes from this period you are referring to (the Koran is the only significant piece of literature), whereas the literary output of the Assyrians and Jews was vast. The third largest corpus of Christian writing, after Latin and Greek, is by the Assyrians in the Assyrian language (also called Syriac; see here.) You state, "when other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others." This is a very important issue you raise, and it goes to the heart of the matter of what Arab/Islamic civilization represents. I reviewed a book titled How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs, in which the author lists the significant translators and interpreters of Greek science. Of the 22 scholars listed, 20 were Assyrians, 1 was Persian and 1 an Arab. I state at the end of my review: "The salient conclusion which can be drawn from O'Leary's book is that Assyrians played a significant role in the shaping of the Islamic world via the Greek corpus of knowledge. If this is so, one must then ask the question, what happened to the Christian communities which made them lose this great intellectual enterprise which they had established. One can ask this same question of the Arabs. Sadly, O'Leary's book does not answer this question, and we must look elsewhere for the answer." I did not answer this question I posed in the review because it was not the place to answer it, but the answer is very clear, the Christian Assyrian community was drained of its population through forced conversion to Islam (by the Jizzya), and once the community had dwindled below a critical threshold, it ceased producing the scholars that were the intellectual driving force of the Islamic civilization, and that is when the so called "Golden Age of Islam" came to an end (about 850 A.D.). Islam the religion itself was significantly molded by Assyrians and Jews (see Nestorian Influence on Islam and Hagarism: the Making of the Islamic World). Arab/Islamic civilization is not a progressive force, it is a regressive force; it does not give impetus, it retards. The great civilization you describe was not an Arab/Muslim accomplishment, it was an Assyrian accomplishment that Arabs expropriated and subsequently lost when they drained, through the forced conversion of Assyrians to Islam, the source of the intellectual vitality that propelled it. What other Arab/Muslim civilization has risen since? What other Arab/Muslim successes can we cite? You state, "and perhaps we can learn a lesson from his [Suleiman] example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse population that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions." In fact, the Ottomans were extremely oppressive to non-Muslims. For example, young Christian boys were forcefully taken from their families, usually at the age of 8-10, and inducted into the Janissaries, (yeniceri in Turkish) where they were Islamized and made to fight for the Ottoman state. What literary, artistic or scientific achievements of the Ottomans can we point to? We can, on the other hand, point to the genocide of 750,000 Assyrians, 1.5 million Armenians and 400,000 Greeks in World War One by the Kemalist "Young Turk" government. This is the true face of Islam. Arabs/Muslims are engaged in an explicit campaign of destruction and expropriation of cultures and communities, identities and ideas. Wherever Arab/Muslim civilization encounters a non-Arab/Muslim one, it attempts to destroy it (as the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan were destroyed, as Persepolis was destroyed by the Ayotollah Khomeini). This is a pattern that has been recurring since the advent of Islam, 1400 years ago, and is amply substantiated by the historical record. If the "foreign" culture cannot be destroyed, then it is expropriated, and revisionist historians claim that it is and was Arab, as is the case of most of the Arab "accomplishments" you cited in your speech. For example, Arab history texts in the Middle East teach that Assyrians were Arabs, a fact that no reputable scholar would assert, and that no living Assyrian would accept. Assyrians first settled Nineveh, one of the major Assyrian cities, in 5000 B.C., which is 5630 years before Arabs came into that area. Even the word 'Arab' is an Assyrian word, meaning "Westerner" (the first written reference to Arabs was by the Assyrian King Sennacherib, 800 B.C., in which he tells of conquering the "ma'rabayeh" -- Westerners. See The Might That Was Assyria, by H. W. F. Saggs). Even in America this Arabization policy continues. On October 27th a coalition of seven Assyrian and Maronite organizations sent an official letter to the Arab American Institute asking it to stop identifying Assyrians and Maronites as Arabs, which it had been deliberately doing. There are minorities and nations struggling for survival in the Arab/Muslim ocean of the Middle East and Africa (Assyrians, Armenians, Coptics, Jews, southern Sudanese, Ethiopians, Nigerians...), and we must be very sensitive not to unwittingly and inadvertently support Islamic fascism and Arab Imperialism, with their attempts to wipe out all other cultures, religions and civilizations. It is incumbent upon each one of us to do our homework and research when making statements and speeches about these sensitive matters. I hope you found this information enlightening. For more information, refer to the web links below. You may contact me at keepa@ninevehsoft.com for further questions. Thank you for your consideration. Peter BetBasoo Web resources: Brief History of Assyrians Assyrian International News Agency Assyrian American National Federation Assyrian Academic Society Zinda Magazine Beth Suryoyo Nineveh Online World Maronite Union Maronite Research Council World Lebanese Organization Coptic Web

To: Kenneth V. McNutt who wrote (611447)	8/26/2004 4:11:20 PM
From: TideGlider	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Hashish and the decline of Arab civilization dpna.org There are several reasons for the decay of Arab civilization. Probably the main one was the genetically shattering impact of the Mongol invasions on the high civilization lands of Asian Islam. These conquests were accompanied, not by spontaneous cruelty, but by the systematic extermination of the civilian population in a series of towns, and the laying waste of whole regions. It was a planned destruction of mass killing. The scholars, the scribes and the clergy, the upper class, the merchants and the skilled artisans and masters of specialized trades were located mainly in the cities, and hence when these peoples were. All destroyed, there was imposed an immense genetic handicap on the subjugated populations. The Moslem creative minority was exterminated in Asia, as it was in other regions exposed to the Mongol scourge. These killings were followed by centuries of despotic rule, and then towards the close of the fourteenth century, Timurlenk ravaged India, Iran and Turkestan with hideous exterminations. Nathaniel Weyl has suggested that the Mongols probably completed the destruction of Islamic civilization and inflicted irrevocable genetic havoc on Arab mental ability by spreading hashish addiction throughout Islam. (65) Hashish was probably introduced from India into Persia by the founder of Sufism, a sect of mystics. By 1155 A-D. cannabis addiction is known to have been prevalent among the Sufis of Nisabur. Hashish use increased suddenly and dramatically at the time of the Mongol invasions, and was most common among the sufistic intellectuals, scholars and poets.(66) The ulemas or interpreters of Koranic law, were unanimous in their disapproval of hashish use, but in spite of this, the drug continued to be popular. In the nineteenth century, hashish use appears to have been widespread and used even by theologians. (67) In 1959, Dr. M.I. Soueif, Chairman of the Department of Psychology and Philosophy at Cairo University, was requested to study cannabis addiction in Egypt by President Nasser. He found that hashish usage was prevalent enough to constitute a 'big sort of catastrophe' and to be a main cause of Egyptian 'lethargy' and low levels of drive and ambition. Over 78% of users were unable to drop the habit, and Soueif added, 'Those with a higher level of education and/or intelligence - show the largest amount of deterioration, illiterates almost no deterioration, and semi-literates in between.'(68) In addition to being consumed in a considerably more potent form, the hashish of the Middle East has been used for some seven centuries against some 60 years of widespread use in the West. This is of cardinal importance if, as appears possible, cannabis has a cumulative destructive effect on the genetic structure from generation to generation. This, says Weyl, would do much to explain the irrational modes of thought of the political leadership and intelligentsia of the Arab World and the extreme volatility and paroxysmal emotionality of the Arab masses. Gabrile G. Nahas believed that hashish addiction has played a major role in reducing the Arab lands to the barran stagnation and oppressive mass poverty that has only been partially alleviated by the oil bonanza. He writes: (69) Six hundred years before Columbus landed in the Caribbean, at a time when North America was covered by forests and plains populated by wild animals and a few thousand Indians the Arab world was one of the centers of civilization. In fabulous cities, such as Persepolis, Baghdad and Damascus, an industrious population of traders and craftsmen were thriving. They built elegant mosques and palaces, and financed famous universities where the best scientists and scholars of the time could be found. Their shrewd and effective leaders swept through North Africa into the South of Europe, to be stopped finally in Poitiers by the French. The decline of this brilliant Moslem civilization cannot be attributed to a single cause but to many of the interacting factors which tend to erode man's creative energy and blunt the full exercise of his power. Among these, abuse of Cannabis, the deceptive weed, with its promise of instant heaven on earth, cannot be excluded. This possibility might be one of the reasons why concerned physicians and responsible leaders from Arab countries have fought, during the past 50 years, to eradicate the use of hashish from a land once known as "the fertile crescent," which is now stagnant and destitute. It has been until now the ever-losing battle of a few courageous men attempting to turn an overwhelming tide. The Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau of the Egyptian Government has tried to combat the use of hashish. and in its Annual Report 1944 (70) said:'...the prepared product of the cannabis saliva plant, while having very limited medicinal use, is capable of profoundly disturbing the brain cells and of inducing acts of violence, even murder- it is in fact a thoroughly vicious and dangerous thing of no value whatever to humanity and deserving of nothing but the odium and contempt of civilised people.' Furthermore, in the late 1960s, India, the United Arab Republic, Mexico and Ghana appealed to the Western World to help them stamp out the use of cannabis. This fact has rarely been publicised. These countries know its long-term social effects, and it would be the height of irresponsibility for Western governments to adopt short-sighted measures and relax the laws against cannabis. Our governments need to support these other countries in combating this social menace. CONCLUSION One particularly disturbing aspect of cannabis use is that the adverse effects do not seem to be recognised by the majority of users. Some of these are viewed simply as inevitable hazards, and even when such symptoms as mental confusion, severe anxiety or other unpleasant effects occur, contact with medical authorities is seldom made. A Canadian study showed that only 3.6% of regular daily users reported unpleasant problems, and only 1.2% of occasional users sought medical treatment for cannabis problems. (7 1) There is also quite often a failure of the health authorities to establish a connection between the use of cannabis and the presenting problems. In 1973 Consultant Psychiatrist Elizabeth Tylden wrote that the clinical disadvantages of cannabis, although extremely well documented, were not generally known because there had been a large promotional campaign (backed by some members of the medical profession) which minimised the adverse effects. (72) Psychiatrist J. Carranza of the University of Texas School of Medicine who has had much experience with cannabis problems, has written of the serious denial that exists among mental health professionals and physicians that cannabis is harmful. (73) It is popularly thought among nearly all sections of the population that cannabis is harmless. He writes, 'psychologists and psychiatrists are evading the issue and they deny any psychopathology "when cannabis is smoked socially". Many Mental Health Professionals just believe that cannabis can be smoked "recreationally" and so why should one attribute psychopathology to cannabis? Let me tell you my personal opinion since I am both a psychiatrist and a clinical pharmacologist; we cannot accept any recreational " use in our society of a combination of drugs inhaled and producing aberrant thinking and behaviours that are highly dangerous to self, family and learning.'(74) Evidence has been presented in this booklet which demonstrates that cannabis causes mental impairment. Sections 1 to 3 have described how cognitive processes may deteriorate, and the higher functions and qualities of the brain may be lost. The effects of cannabis reported by Solowij, Lundqvist and Ericsson are similar to some which maybe caused by damage to the frontal lobes of the brain. Some responses of cannabis are 'acute' ones such as psychosis and panic attacks, and these may be short lived. These need to be distinguished from long-term effects which may persist long after consumption. These are partly due to the accumulation of cannabinoids in body fat for long periods, and to the dysfunction of parts of the brain (although acute psychosis may be a symptom of long-term accumulation of cannabinoids). Here lies one of the main reasons why cannabis should not be legalized, it takes such a long time for the drug to clear from the body (as compared for instance with a drug like alcohol). Cannabinoids are fat soluble, and when the drug is in the fat ', it takes a long time to come out again. If the concentration in the fat is high, it maintains a high concentration in the blood by the process of equilibrium, and so maintains the level of the drug in the brain, although fat itself has a poor blood supply. Cannabis also dissolves in cell membranes. This causes physical properties in the membranes to change which consequently alter its functional state. This means that affected membranes in the brain will alter the functional properties of nerve cells, and this explains the indirect effect of cannabis on the brain. It is not only cannabinoid receptors that are affected, but the receptors of other neurotransmitters as well. If this happens then the drug is able to affect all functions of the brain. This booklet has been produced with a concern that the adverse effects of cannabis should be more widely known, both among the general public and professional people. Cannabis use has become a major epidemic. It is a massive human experiment, possibly, says Carranza, one of the largest observed at any time in Western Society. Much more education is needed to demonstrate to people that cannabis with its 400 chemicals is not harmless. I am particularly concerned that many thousands of students are using cannabis regularly, even at the best universities, seemingly unaware or unconcerned at the serious impairment of their mental abilities that the drug causes. In the USA a 'Marijuana Campaign' is about to be launched by NIDA and other groups such as 'The Partnership for a Drug Free America'. This is aimed at providing accurate information on marijuana effects to deal with the current upswing of teenage usage. In Australia, the government has recently published a book dealing with the psychological consequences of cannabis use. A similar educational effort is needed now in Britain, sponsored by the government and other interested bodies, which presents clear factual evidence of the harmful and dangerous effects of cannabis. REFERENCES 1 TURNER, C.E., Marijuana and cannabis: research Why the conflict? In'Marijuana'84', D.J.Harvey, ed., IRL Press, Oxford, 1985, p.32. 2 TURNER, C. E., Dinner remarks at 'Symposium: Marijuana'84, Oxford 1984'. In Marijuana '84', Harvey, 1985, p.750. 3 NENDHIRATTA. SARBJIT S., et al., Cannabis and cognitive functions: a re-evaluation study. British J. of Addiction, 83, 749-753 (1988). 4 SOLOWIJ, N., et aL, Effect of long-term cannabis use on selective attention: an event related potential study. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behaviour, 40, 683-688, (1991). 5 SOLOWIJ, N., et aL, Differential impairment of selective attention due to frequency and duration of cannabis use. Abstracts of International Cannabis Research Society (ICRS) meeting, Toronto 1993. 6 HERKENHAKM., et al., Cannabinoid receptor localization in brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 87, 1932-1936, (March 1990). 7 PERTWEE, R-, et aL, ICRS Abstracts, 1992 conference, Keystone Co., USA- 8 DEVANE, W.A., et al., Science, 258, 1946, (1992). See also, PERTWEE, R., The evidence for the existence of cannabinoid receptors. Gen. Pharmac. Vol.24, No.4, pp, 8 1 1-824, (1993). 9 Brit. J. of Addiction. 83, 749-753, (1988). 10 References in FRISCHKNECHT,H. R-, et al., Hashish extract impairs learning of submissive behaviour in mice. In'Marijuana'84', Harvey, 1985, p.307. 11 FRISCHKNECHT,H.R-,ibid.,pp.303-309. 12 See also, 'Marijuana, Effects on Human Behaviour'. NNLER, L., ed., new York and London, 1974, P. 1 15. 13 GRAHAK J. D. P., 'Cannabis and Health', New York and London. 1976, p. 156. 14 Ann. Intem. Med., 73, 45. Cited in 'Marijuana', MECHOULAK R., ed., Academic Press, New York and London, 1973, p.347. pg20 59 Nlarijuana'84', Harvey, 1985, p. 577. 60 Marijuana'84', Harvey, 1985, p. 538. 61 ENGSON, et al. 62 NAHAS, G.C. In Marijuana; Chemistry, Biochemistry and Cellular Effects', Springer Verlag, New York, 1976. 63 GOLD, p. 72. 64 Actions of hallucinogens on ants. HI Social behaviour under the influence of LSD and tetrahydrocannabinol. Gen. Pharmac. Vol I 1, pp. 97-106, (1980). 65 WEYL, N, Hashish and the decline and fall of Arab civilization. The Mankind Quarterly, Vol.XVI, 2, pp. 83 -92, (1975). (This section is partly based on this article). 66 ROSENTHAL.F., 'The Herb: Hashish versus Medieval Muslim Society', E.J.Brill, Leiden, 1971. 67 LANE,E.W.,TheMannersandCustomsoftheModemEgyptians',1836,Everyman,London, undated, cited by Weyl. 68 TestimonyofM.I.SoueifSenateIntcmalSecuritySubcommittee,Marijuana-HashishEpidemicand its Impact on United States Security', Hearings., Government Printing Office, Washington, 1974, pp. 177- 182. Cited by Weyl. 69 NAHAS, G. C., Marijuana - Deceptive Weed', Raven Press, New York, 1973, p. 20. 70 Quoted by de ROPP, R.S.,'Drugs and the Mind!, London, 1958, p. 100. 71 SMART, R. G., ADLAF, E. M., Adverse reactions and seeking medical treatment among student cannabis users. Drug Alcohol Depend. 9, 201-211, (1982), cited in'Mariliuana'84', Harvey, 1985, p.582. @ 72 Marijuana', ed Mechoulain, p. 810. 73 Marihuanainducedpsychopathology.InMarihuana'84',Harvey,1985,pp.647-650. 74 lbid, p. 649. David Copestake is a trained psychologist and member of the International Cannabis Research Society. In the mid 1960s as a young clergyman he founded and ran the first British church club for drug-abusers, and had daily contact with cannabis users. He was also an active campaigner against drug trafficking. In the 1970s he and his wife Margaret ran the 'Friends of Jesus' home for young people in need. This was a converted public house used to give temporary accommodation and help to drug-abusers and those with personality, fancily, mental and criminal problems. He is the author of With Christ in the World of drug Addiction (1967), Cannabis: is Hash Safe? (1 979), and Is Hashish Safe? (India, 1981). I would like to thank Dr David Harvey of Oxford University and Dr Roger Pertwee of Aberdeen University for providing material, reading the manuscript and making valuable suggestions. Also to Dr Elizabeth Tylden, hon. consultant psychiatrist Bromley Hospital, University College and the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, for helping with earlier research and providing stimulating discussion, and to Prof. Derek Bryce-Smith for writing the foreword. Further copies of this booklet may be obtained from the author. Price L2.00 each (post paid) at: 22 Meadow View, Banbury, Oxon, OX16 9SR.