Isis, and ISIS

 

Sweet, loving Isis was a goddess in the Ancient Egyptian religion.  She was also worshipped in the Greco-Roman world.  Isis was the ideal mother and wife, and a friend of the downtrodden.  Even the wealthy aristocrats prayed to Isis, and she always listened.

 

The name Isis means "Throne."  Her headdress is a throne.  The pharaoh was her "child" and she provided the throne on which he sat.  Isis married her brother, Osiris (not gonna happen today, is it!!)  They had a baby, Horus.  Osiris was murdered by Set, his own brother, and Isis used her magic to resurrect him from the dead long enough to conceive Horus, even though she had to collect all his body parts first.

 

Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded because of the tears of sorrow Isis wept for her beloved Osiris. This belief continued until paganism was suppressed in the Christian era.  The popular paintings of Horus nursing became a Christian theme, with Mary nursing the infant Jesus.

 

The kind and gentle Isis helped anyone she could, and still managed to keep the house clean and provide hardy meals for her family.  It would never enter her mind to kill or harm anyone!!

 

It is now 2014, and another ISIS appears on the scene.  Unfortunately this is not the good and kind ISIS, but a terrorist group with the same name.  The ISIS you have been hearing about in the news is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  It is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (the eastern Mediterranean), or ISIL. It is an active jihadist militant group in Iraq and Syria, and it is trying to be the "religious" authority of all Muslims.  To be fair, there are also other world-wide religious groups who feel that their way is the only way, and that anyone who does not follow their teachings is doomed.

 





          So I'm not showing them!!

 

 

 

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who died in 1792 was the first modern Islamic fundamentalist and extremist, and ISIS is known for its "Wahhabist" interpretation of Islam.  Osama bin Laden came from Saudi Arabia, and was known to be a Wahhabi ( Please don't confuse the word with "Wasabi," which is a wonderful spicy condiment from Japan!  Hahahaha!!).  Mulammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab claimed that many Muslims were not true Muslims because they did not follow the strict teachings.  This is significant, because it is forbidden for one Muslim to kill another, but in the Wahhabist's skewed and sick interpretation of the Koran, if someone is not a "true" Muslim, then killing them is just fine and dandy! Many uneducated people believe that the Koran instructs the followers to kill the "infidels."  I kind of equate this with those who bomb abortion clinics, and kill innocent people simply because they think differently about abortion.  Do you get my drift?

 

ISIS does not regard its religion as just one school of thought--it believes it is the only way, and nothing else counts.  Does this sound familiar??

 

That's my "I" post for AlphabeThursday.  More re-posts next week.