A commenter named "Kilian Klaiber" in a comments thread on Jihad Watch back in July had an interesting hypothesis about a "peculiarity in Islam" -- which he describes with a couple of questions:
"Why is a stone venerated
in the Kaaba and why is it placed into the corner of the building?"
And his hypothetical answer?
"Well,
the corner stone originally stands for Jesus. Ephesians 2:20 -- And are
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone; Also see Psalm 118:22 -- The stone the builders refused has become the head [stone] of the corner. The Kaaba," so he goes on, unfolding his conclusion, "was originally constructed as a church. It had an apsis and the direction of prayer in the Kaaba was Jerusalem."
6 comments:
Good to know. :)
Egghead
Only problem here - the kaaba is full of pre-Islamic idols - something that the church didn't endorse, even though it was nowhere near Islam as far as fanaticism went.
Essentially, the kaaba was the pilgrim site of the pre-Islamic Arab pagans. If only they had been as intolerant as Mohammed, there would never have been a religion such as islam.
P.S. I got to post here from another computer using IE9
Nobody,
Christianity has often been far more tolerant of pagan symbolisms -- e.g., the Catholic assimilation of African pagan rituals, South American, Asian, etc. It's not necessarily out of the question that a Christian church would permit such.
Plus, isn't most of our knowledge of the Kaaba from Islamic sources? They are not the most reliable as to how "pagan" it actually was.
Very true
Having said that, the pagan religions that islamic sources talk about don't look bad even by Islamic accounts of them, even granting that they aren't necessarily authentic. So it's safe to say that Arab pagans were better people than what Muslims allege, which even by their own accounts ain't bad.
As for Christians, their tolerance would vary - it was high among Eastern Orthodox & later Protestants, but low among Catholics. Which explains why before the post Christian era, most of Europe, and all of Latin America were Catholic.
In pre-colonial India, for instance, the Portugese were pretty intolerant, while the English & the Dutch were pretty tolerant. The French were a curious bunch - they were tolerant of non-Catholics outside France (just like they supported the Protestant side in the Thirty Year war) but within France, they were pretty intolerant of Hugenots.
Of course, Christianity in pre-Islamic Arabia was more likely the Eastern Orthodox variety, rather than Catholicism (which had barely begun to exist) or Protestant (which definitely didn't until way later)
Nobody,
Actually, from what I studied long ago, Catholics were quite tolerant of syncretism with pagan cultures and symbolisms, in Africa and Latin America, and under Cardinal Matteo Ricci, in China. You may be confusing military men and politicians with Catholic theology.
Yes, the British Isles had their own religions before Roman Catholicism forcibly absorbed the best elements of those religions including their holidays and saints.
Egghead
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