Templar Globe

Dripping in gold and with his cool white cottons and trendy headgear, the head of the Catholic church could easily be mistaken for the king of bling.

But it seems the designer look is not a godly one…

The Pope does not wear Prada, his official journal has revealed.

Benedict XVI is not a man who fusses about fashion – despite ­rumours he wears £700 red loafers from the Milan fashion house, the Osservatore Romano said.

Instead, he dresses according to a ‘precise liturgical code’.

‘Naturally, the attribution was false. The banality of our times does not even recognise that the colour red has a clear sacrificial significance,’ said a spokesman.

The pontiff, voted ‘accessoriser of the year’ by Esquire magazine last year, was first spotted wearing the red shoes in 2006.

Pope watchers quickly speculated they were made by Prada – a claim unchallenged by the Vatican until now.

‘These rumours do not tally with the simple and sober man who, on the day of his election to the papacy, addressed the faithful and the whole world with the sleeves of his modest black sweater showing,’ his spokesman said.

He did not reveal the real maker but reports claimed the shoes were the work of Adriano Stefanelli, who has designed two pairs of leather loafers for winter and summer.

But, to ensure the debate does not resurrect itself, the Osservatore Romano concluded: ‘The Pope does not wear Prada – but Christ. His worries are not about accessories – but the essential.’

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I renewed their appeals for

Christian unity on Sunday during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Benedict led the ceremony alongside the leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians and expressed the “common hope of seeing the day of unity draw near.”

While acknowledging key differences, Benedict has made healing the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox a priority of his papacy.

In his speech, Bartholomew said that dialogue between the two branches of Christianity is continuing, despite “numerous difficulties” and that he was praying for these obstacles to be overcome.

After centuries of moving apart, the two churches formally split in 1054 over several issues, including the primacy of the pope, devotional differences, and Latin demands for priestly celibacy as the Greek-influenced tradition permitted married clergy.

Relations remain tense over Orthodox charges of proselytizing and rival property claims in places such as Russia and eastern Europe. However, Benedict and Bartholomew have met several times in an effort to promote or to seek a reconciliation.

Benedict, the leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics, told the crowd that Christian unity is even more important in a world that is increasingly connected by technical means, but is unable to resolve its conflicts.

“In today’s world there are new instruments of unity which, however, also create new conflicts and give new strength to old ones,” he said.

“In the midst of this external unity, based on material goods, we have an even greater need for interior unity, which comes from the peace of God.”

The Mass marking the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul included readings from the Gospels in Latin and Greek by Catholic and Orthodox clerics. Benedict and Bartholomew also prayed together in Greek.

During the ceremony Benedict bestowed the pallium, or a woolen shawl, on 40 archbishops from around the world to symbolize their bond with the Vatican. One by one the archbishops, wearing crimson vestments, knelt before the pope to receive the shawl and the pontiff’s embrace.

After the Mass, Benedict and Bartholomew silently prayed together underneath the basilica at the tomb the faithful believe houses the remains of the apostle Peter.

Bill Dietrich, assistant professor of environmental studies at Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment, shares “The Rosetta Key,” the sequel to “Napoleon’s Pyramids,” continuing the adventures of Ethan Gage, who’s now in the Holy Land in dogged pursuit of the magical “Book of Thoth” during Napoleon’s 1799 invasion of Israel that will climax at the epic siege of Acre.

Question: For those who may not have read “Napoleon’s Pyramids,” what should readers know about Ethan Gage, the hero of these two novels, in particular his (seeming) attitude that life is a gamble, one “plays the cards” and “takes the risks.” (I am also curious whether this is your attitude toward life?)

Answer: Ethan is my alter ego, not autobiographical! I don’t gamble, I’m a family man instead of a womanizer, a writer instead of a warrior, and judicious instead of impulsive. Ethan and I are alike, however, in a belief in destiny and opportunity; that while we’re responsible for our choices, our fate is not entirely in our own hands. Napoleon felt the same way.

Q: In this novel, there is much philosophizing and religious commentary/intrigue on “the philosopher’s stone,” the Rosetta Stone, the philosophy of truth, the nature of love, sacrifice and personal integrity. How do you blend the various voices and themes into a historical novel and still have Ethan relevant to today?

A: Ethan is deliberately modern in his outlook, so that readers can relate, and I’ve called Napoleon “the first modern man” because he was self-made, opportunistic, idealistic, optimistic, and yet also cynical, ruthless and narcissistic. These are characters I think today’s readers can relate to: they reflect our jumble of traits. “The Rosetta Key” weaves together the story of Napoleon’s 1799 invasion of the Holy Land, intriguing speculation about ancient mysteries and the Knights Templar that are not original with me, and fictional characters swept up in war and adventure.

Just as we feel somewhat helpless in the face of events like recession or 9/11, my heroes and heroines are ordinary mortals doing their best to prevail in a hostile, unpredictable world. This was the period of the Enlightenment and revolution, fledgling industry and science, and yet a mystical counter-reaction because people longed for religious mystery. It’s a rich period in which to speculate about life.

Q: What are some of the comparisons of the holy war in Napoleon’s time to today’s political situation?

A: Napoleon wanted to reform the Middle East. (Sound familiar?) The French Revolution had thrown out Christianity and yet he tried to portray himself friendly to the Koran. Muslims would have none of it, and resisted fiercely. Meanwhile, like today, you had cults, sects and philosophies that dabbled in philosophy and mysticism, like the (then-somewhat-secret) Freemasons, Jewish mystics, and others convinced there were ancient secrets to be rediscovered. Their golden age was the past, not the future. The Knights Templar, a Crusader sect, was rumored to have discovered fantastic treasures beneath Jerusalem.

Q: How did Napoleon change the way the world viewed Egypt, and if Ethan really existed, what impact would he have had?

A: The scientists who accompanied Napoleon started the science of Egyptology; up to that time almost nothing was known about the ancient world. French soldiers unearthed the Rosetta Stone, which was key to deciphering hieroglyphics. The conceit of my novel is that wayward Ethan plays a role in such events. A real American, jumping between armies, would probably have been executed many times over.

Q: What were some of your experiences as you traveled the Middle East doing research for this novel?

A: It’s unfortunate conflict dissuades tourism there, because the ruins are the most moving that I’ve seen. The depth of time is palpable. I was with an archeologist tour in Egypt that allowed us to squirm into some unusual places — at one we were literally crawling on our bellies into an old tomb — and the ruins of Petra in Jordan that play a role in “The Rosetta Key” are almost unbelievable: huge temple facades carved into towering rose sandstone cliffs.

I sweated a lot, but the closest I came to peril were the indefatigable souvenir sellers and the driving habits in Egypt! In Israel, a lone American mumbling about doing “research” did draw attention: security personnel examined every digital photo I had taken.

Q: Your female characters are really intriguing. How do they keep moving your plot forward? How do you “get to know” them?

A: I try to make my characters distinctive and fun, and sometimes humorous. My women tend to be smart and they keep Ethan grounded, a male-female partnership I’ve observed in real life. I try to make the women courageous partners, not witless ninnies screaming in a corner. Because my stories are thrillers dependent on plot, I have to keep tight rein on their actions, but their personalities emerge as the writing goes on. I end up liking them, even the villains.

Q: Any movie offers?

A: Interest, but no offers yet: these are expensive stories to film. My fiction has frequently been described as cinematic, but apparently the right people in Hollywood haven’t read those reviews.

Q: What’s the deal between Bill Dietrich the journalist, Bill Dietrich the professor, Bill Dietrich the novelist, and Bill Dietrich the family man?

A: It may seem an odd combination, but they’re all aspects of what is basically a curious, somewhat earnest personality. I’ve liked history and adventure since I was a child, I feel I can do the most for the environment through writing and teaching, and the stability I’ve gotten from wife and children has allowed me to do and try a lot of things. I get winded sometimes … but life is short!

in Trading Markets

The Vatican has banned the makers of a prequel to The Da Vinci Code from filming in its grounds or any church in Rome, describing the work as “an offence against God”.

Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be turned into a film, includes key episodes that take place in the Vatican and Rome’s churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”.

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business,” he said, adding that Brown’s work “wounds common religious feelings”.

Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”

The Vatican fiercely condemned The Da Vinci Code novel and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Hanks is also starring in Angels and Demons, which like The Da Vinci Code, is directed by Ron Howard.

Published before The Da Vinci Code, which suggested that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children, Angels and Demons revolves around a plot by a sinister elite known as the Illuminati to install their candidate as Pope and blow up the Vatican. Crucial scenes are set in the Vatican and two Rome churches — Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. In both churches, cardinals are murdered and mutilated with mysterious marks and symbols. Father Antonio Truda, parish priest at Santa Maria del Popolo, said that there was no question of allowing scenes to be shot there. “It’s bad enough having to put up with tour guides explaining the scene to tourists,” he said.

The production team is set to recreate on a set in Hollywood the interiors of the Rome churches from which they are banned.

Vatican officials said they had been unable to prevent the film-makers from shooting exterior shots of St Peter’s and the surrounding medieval streets of the Borgo, with the permission of the borough council.

However, the film-makers are having to use the marble halls and staircases of the former royal palace at Caserta, near Naples, to double for Vatican interiors.

“When a film is about the saints or about stories regarding the Church’s artistic values, then we give permission without any doubts,” Father Fibbi told the TV listings magazine Sorrisi e Canzoni (Smiles and Songs). “But when it is a question of content which does not relate to traditional religious criteria, then our doors are closed.”

The Vatican asked the faithful to boycott the film of The Da Vinci Code.

Karla Mauerova, a member of the Grail Movement Cult in the Czech Republic, admitted in court this week that she partially skinned her sons and fed the raw flesh to relatives. The Grail Movement Cult is a religious sect that has been around since the 1940s, inspired by the book In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message, a work by Oskar Ernst Bernhardt, and published under the pseudonym, Abd-ru-shin. The Grail Movement Cult has approximately 20,000 members worldwide, but operates predominantly in Western Europe. The Grail Movement Cult’s members believe In the Light of Truth to be more important than the bible, but the book still extols the teachings of Jesus Christ. Her affiliation with the Grail Movement Cult may have nothing to do with the horrific child abuse and cannibalism that took place, but as with many cults, abhorrent group behavior often goes hand in hand with Cult living, and oftentimes sub-groups become a perversion of the original cult.

The relatives who consumed the flesh of the young boys, Ondrej and Jakub, were also members of this Grail Movement Cult. The boys were caged, and made to stand for days in their own urine. Karla Mauerova installed monitors so she could watch the confinement and the torture of her sons. Besides the skinning, allegations of sexual abuse surfaced in court as well.

The torture and abuse were discovered when a neighbor installed a monitor in his own home to monitor his newborn child. Rather than seeing the face of his infant however, the man was horrified to receive a feed featuring the imprisonment, torture and humiliation of Ondrej and Jakub. Authorities were contacted and Mauerova and the other members of the Grail Movement Cult were exposed.

Not only did the members of the Grail Movement Cult inflict torture upon the boys, but it is alleged they forced Ondrej and Jakub to mutilate themselves, giving the boys knives with which to cut themselves.

Mauerova claims that Barbora Skrlova, another member of the Grail Movement Cult, brainwashed her into confining and torturing her sons. Skrlova, 34 was found at the scene, in with the boys, and was at first assumed to be another victim, described as looking like a 13 year old girl. The mastermind behind the whole thing is believed to be a man known only as “Doctor”, the mysterious leader of the Grail Movement Cult. Nothing more is known about the man called Doctor at this time. Mauerova’s trial is still underway with no verdict yet delivered in the horrific case.

AC Press

We are given the story of the ministry of John the Baptist, called the Precursor or Forerunner of the Lord, with some variation of detail, in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in the Book of John. Luke tells us of the birth of John the Baptist in a town of Judaea, about six months before the birth of the Saviour. The attendant circumstances, which we have already recounted under the headings of and , his parents, suggest the miraculous and wonderful. The New Testament tells us nothing of John’s early years, but we know that his pious, virtuous parents must have reared the boy with care, conscious always of the important work to which he was appointed, and imbuing him with a sense of his destiny.
When John began final preparations for his mission, he was probably in his thirty-second year. He withdrew into the harsh, rocky desert beyond the Jordan to fast and pray, as was the ancient custom of holy men. We are told that he kept himself alive by eating locusts and wild honey and wore a rough garment of camel’s hair, tied with a leathern girdle. When he came back to start preaching in the villages of Judaea, he was haggard and uncouth, but his eyes burned with zeal and his voice carried deep conviction. The Jews were accustomed to preachers and prophets who gave no thought to outward appearances, and they accepted John at once; the times were troubled, and the people yearned for reassurance and comfort. So transcendant was the power emanating from the holy man that after hearing him many believed he was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. John quickly put them right, saying he had come only to prepare the way, and that he was not worthy to unloose the Master’s sandals. Although his preaching and baptizing continued for some months during the Saviour’s own ministry, John always made plain that he was merely the Forerunner. His humility remained incorruptible even when his fame spread to Jerusalem and members of the higher priesthood came to make inquiries and to hear him. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,”-this was John’s oft-repeated theme. For the evils of the times his remedy was individual purification. “Every tree,” he said, “that is not bringing forth good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire.” The reformation of each person’s life must be complete—the wheat must be separated from the chaff and the chaff burned “with unquenchable fire.”

The rite of baptism, a symbolic act signifying sincere repentance as well as a desire to be spiritually cleansed in order to receive the Christ, was so strongly emphasized by John that people began to call him “the baptizer.” The Scriptures tell us of the day when Jesus joined the group of those who wished to receive baptism at John’s hands. John knew Jesus for the Messiah they had so long expected, and at first excused himself as unworthy. Then, in obedience to Jesus, he acquiesced and baptized Him. Although sinless, Jesus chose to be baptized in order to identify Himself with the human lot. And when He arose from the waters of the Jordan, where the rite was performed, “the heavens opened and the Spirit as a dove descended. And there came a voice from the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased” (Mark i, 11).

John’s life now rushes on towards its tragic end. In the fifteenth year of the reign of the Roman emperor, Tiberias Caesar, Herod Antipas was the provincial governor or tetrarch of a subdivision of Palestine which included Galilee and Peraea, a district lying east of the Jordan. In the course of John’s preaching, he had denounced in unmeasured terms the immorality of Herod’s petty court, and had even boldly upbraided Herod to his face for his defiance of old Jewish law, especially in having taken to himself the wife of his half-brother, Philip. This woman, the dissolute Herodias, was also Herod’s niece. Herod feared and reverenced John, knowing him to be a holy man, and he followed his advice in many matters; but he could not endure having his private life castigated. Herodias stimulated his anger by lies and artifices. His resentment at length got the better of his judgment and he had John cast into the fortress of Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. When Jesus heard of this, and knew that some of His disciples had gone to see John, He spoke thus of him: “What went you to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say to you, amongst those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Matthew xi, 10-12).

Herodias never ceased plotting against the life of John, who was not silenced even by prison walls. His followers now became even more turbulent. To Herodias soon came the opportunity she had long sought to put an end to the trouble-maker. On Herod’s birthday he gave a feast for the chief men of that region. In Matthew xiv, Mark vi, and Luke ix, we are given parallel accounts of this infamous occasion which was to culminate in John’s death. At the feast, Salome, fourteen-year-old daughter of Herodias by her lawful husband, pleased Herod and his guests so much by her dancing that Herod promised on oath to give her anything that it was in his power to give, even though it should amount to half his kingdom. Salome, acting under the direction and influence of her wicked mother, answered that she wished to have the head of John the Baptist, presented to her on a platter. Such a horrible request shocked and unnerved Herod. Still, he had given his word and was afraid to break it. So, with no legal formalities whatever, he dispatched a soldier to the prison with orders to behead the prisoner and return with it immediately. This was quickly done, and the cruel girl did not hesitate to accept the dish with its dreadful offering and give it to her mother. John’s brief ministry was thus terminated by a monstrous crime. There was great sadness among the people who had hearkened to him, and when the disciples of Jesus heard the news of John’s death, they came and took the body and laid it reverently in a tomb. Jesus, with some of his disciples, retired “to a desert place apart,” to mourn.

The Jewish historian Josephus, giving further testimony of John’s holiness, writes: “He was indeed a man endued with all virtue, who exhorted the Jews to the practice of justice towards men and piety towards God; and also to baptism, preaching that they would become acceptable to God if they renounced their sins, and to the cleanness of their bodies added purity of soul.” Thus Jews and Christians unite in reverence and love for this prophet-saint whose life is an incomparable example of both humility and courage.

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Saint John the Baptist, The Precursor. Scriptural Saint. Celebration of Feast Day is June 24. Taken from “Lives of Saints”, Published by John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.

Mira Sorvino plays the lead role in The Last Templar, a four-hour mini-series filmed in Montreal.

A rather mean-looking fellow comes striding out of the Lucky Luc Stables in St. Henri just north of the Lachine Canal, bumps into Mira Sorvino and roughly throws the Oscar-winning actress to the ground. The tough guy is Montreal actor Danny Blanco Hall and it’s all part of the action on the final day of filming in town on the $20 million mini-series The Last Templar.

Luckily for Sorvino, there’s a mat on the ground in the stable to help cushion her fall, but on one of the many takes, it looks like she was actually shaken up and director Paolo Barzman runs over to make sure his star is doing OK.

“It rattled my cage a little but I was fine,” Sorvino said in a chat a few minutes later. “I’ve done a lot of my stunts in this movie and it’s been fun. I’m kind of a daredevil. Throw me on a horse or have me do a fight scene and I want to do all of it myself. They have to pull me back because insurance doesn’t let you do the horseback riding. I can only get on the horse and ride in and out of shots very slowly, even though I used to have a horse when I was a kid. I said, ‘Wait, I can do all of this. I can gallop.’ But you can’t do it.”

In the scene, Tess Chaykin, the Manhattan archeologist played by Sorvino, arrives at a New York-area stable to meet one of four masked horsemen who had earlier stormed into the Metropolitan Museum and stolen one of the items at an exhibit of Vatican treasures. But the horseman is killed just before Chaykin arrives and the murderer, Plunkett, portrayed by Blanco, is the guy who man-handles her at the entrance to the stables.

The four-hour mini-series from local producer Muse Entertainment will air on Global and NBC sometime in early 2009. The local leg of shooting wrapped this past Tuesday with the scenes at Lucky Luc stables, but the cast and crew will be shooting in Morocco later this month.

Wednesday was a day-off for the Last Templar team, a brief pit-stop before scouting locations in Morocco, and a tired Barzman took a half-hour out of his down-day to talk about the production. He admitted he was a little worried for Sorvino during that scene at the stables Tuesday.

“Strangely enough, it’s sometimes these simple little things where you get hurt,” said the Cannes-born, Paris-raised, now-Montreal-based filmmaker. “It’s the simple things where you’re maybe not that cautious. But Mira is very physical. She goes for it.”

He talked of one of the bigger set pieces in the film, in which the masked horsemen, who are dressed as Templar Knights, flee the museum and gallop down the stairs outside the Met - a scene filmed on the steps of Mary Queen of the World on René Lévesque Blvd. Sorvino’s character steals a police horse and chases down the steps after the thieves, but the insurance company forbade Sorvino from getting on the horse for that sequence.

“That was a major choreography,” said Barzman, whose previous film, the Holocaust-themed, Quebec-set drama Emotional Arithmetic, recently played local cinemas.

The Last Templar is set in present-day Manhattan, Turkey and the Greek islands, but it also flashes back to 13th-century Europe to follow a young Templar Knight who disappears with a chest carrying a secret that - in a Da Vinci Code-like twist - is still wreaking havoc several centuries later.

The other lead actor in the mini-series is Scott Foley, best-known for the TV series Felicity and The Unit. He plays FBI agent Sean Reilly, who, like Sorvino’s Chaykin, is in hot pursuit of these horsemen.

Foley cautions against taking The Last Templar too seriously.

“Growing up, I really enjoyed Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, and that’s what resonates here, with the chemistry between the two of us,” said Foley. “This has its heavy moments with regards to religion and the belief in God, but for the most part it’s kind of a light romp. It’s fun - we’re going to solve a mystery, to find the hidden treasure.”

For Sorvino, this is her fourth project shot in Montreal, following the 1998 Marlon Brando oddity Free Money, the 2000 TV version of The Great Gatsby, and the harrowing 2005 mini-series Human Trafficking (another Muse production).

“I like shooting in Montreal,” said Sorvino. “I prefer Montreal to Toronto. Maybe it’s because of the French element.”

Sorvino is fluent in the language of Molière, having studied it throughout high school and also spent some time in France when she was dating French actor Olivier Martinez several years back.

Turns out she also prefers Montreal to Paris because she finds the francos here “nicer and more courteous than the French.”

It looks like the only local not making nice with Sorvino is the thug who keeps pushing her to the ground at the stables.

bkelly@thegazette.canwest.com

The editor of the Templar Globe just found this interesting article that brings us the view of a Pakistan islamic journalist. To form a better view of the issued that are part ou our history we have to read both sides of the accounts.

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The Book and the Prophet they hold in such contempt are the only religious head and the book that glorify Jesus and Gospel. If Jesus commands the respect he has today it is owing to the declaration by Muahammad and the Quran that Jesus was a Miracle of God and his mother was pious and virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. If this was not the stand of Islam, Pope can very well understand what the majority of the world could have called Jesus as. But Islam gave Jesus his true place in the history of the world by describing him as Messenger and Word of God.

o The Bible advocates much greater violence against the detractors than the Quran The following verses are from the Bible, New International Version (NIV), 1984:

* Do not allow a sorceress to live. Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death. Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed. (Exodus 22:18-20)
* This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbour.’ The Levites did as Moses commanded and that day about three thousand of the people died. (Exodus 32:27-28 )
* The LORD said to Moses, ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites…. The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps…. (Moses ordered) “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31: 1-18 )
* (Jesus said) “But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them - bring them here and kill them in front of me. (Luke 19:27)
* He (Jesus) said to them, ‘But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. (Luke 22:36 )

Christians who are always blaming Quran for asking Muslims to “kill the unbelievers” must stop this tirade, as Jesus asked for the “enemies” to be killed “in front of me.” The Old Testament is replete with the accounts of bloody battles that killed thousands of persons. In this context, following remarks from an article are important:

“Is Christianity only a religion of Peace and Love? I do not think that anyone can honestly and objectively examine American or European history and answer “yes” to that question. Christianity can encourage Peace and Love - but it certainly need not, and it quite often has done just the opposite. Although the people responsible for violence might have found a way to express their hatred without Christianity, it cannot be ignored that Christianity offers a convenient divine mandate for hatred and violent acts against a wide range of people………Violent inclinations in Christianity are apparent right from the beginning……The course of modernity has been one strewn with blood, bones, and bodies - much of which can be attributed to Christianity.” (Atheist.com)

In another article, “The Real History of the Crusades”, Thomas F. Madden, despite his huge defence of the crusades against Islam, admits:

“…I was frequently asked to comment on the fact that the Islamic world has a just grievance against the West. Doesn’t the present violence, they persisted, have its roots in the Crusades’ brutal and unprovoked attacks against a sophisticated and tolerant Muslim world? In other words, aren’t the Crusades really to blame?….. Ex-president Bill Clinton has also fingered the Crusades as the root cause of the present conflict. In a speech at Georgetown University, he recounted (and embellished) a massacre of Jews after the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 and informed his audience that the episode was still bitterly remembered in the Middle East. (Why Islamist terrorists should be upset about the killing of Jews was not explained.) Clinton took a beating on the nation’s editorial pages for wanting so much to blame the United States that he was willing to reach back to the Middle Ages. Yet no one disputed the ex-president’s fundamental premise…… The Crusades are generally portrayed as a series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics. They are supposed to have been the epitome of self-righteousness and intolerance, a black stain on the history of the Catholic Church in particular and Western civilisation in general. A breed of proto-imperialists, the Crusaders introduced Western aggression to the peaceful Middle East and then deformed the enlightened Muslim culture, leaving it in ruins. For variations on this theme, one need not look far. See, for example, Steven Runciman’s famous three-volume epic, History of the Crusades, or the BBC/A&E documentary, The Crusades, hosted by Terry Jones. Both are terrible history yet wonderfully entertaining.….The Crusades were wars, so it would be a mistake to characterise them as nothing but piety and good intentions. Like all warfare, the violence was brutal (although not as brutal as modern wars). There were mishaps, blunders, and crimes. These are usually well-remembered today. During the early days of the First Crusade in 1095, a ragtag band of Crusaders led by Count Emicho of Leiningen made its way down the Rhine, robbing and murdering all the Jews they could find. Without success, the local bishops attempted to stop the carnage. In the eyes of these warriors, the Jews, like the Muslims, were the enemies of Christ. Plundering and killing them, then, was no vice. Indeed, they believed it was a righteous deed, since the Jews’ money could be used to fund the Crusade to Jerusalem….. Jews perished during the Crusades, but the purpose of the Crusades was not to kill Jews”. He takes lot of pains in proving the better side of crusades, which of course is opposite to the analysis of most of the neutral historians. This is why he calls his analysis “the real history”. But the negative side of crusades is extremely ugly. Not only Muslims but Jews were also brutally massacred in the process. In the first Crusade, the Christian fighters, in order to avenge the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, massacred tens of thousands of innocent Jews, Muslims, and even Orthodox Christians who had the misfortune to dress or look like Muslims. On July 15, 1099, they reached Jerusalem where streets were drenched with the blood of Muslims and Jews. Those who survived were sold into slavery. In 1144, in the Second Crusade, the Jewish communities of Germany faced another slaughter in Jesus’ name. During the Third Crusade in 1170. Jews in York, Lynn, Norwich, Stamford, and other towns of England were massacred. In 1198, Pope Innocent III began the Fourth Crusade. He ordered Jews to wear badges to identify themselves, and then ordered them to be killed to atone for Jesus’ death. After the formal ending of Crusades, thousands of young Crusaders burned their way across Europe exterminating more than 150 Jewish communities. The worst victims were of course Muslims. In the First Crusade, nearly all of the Muslims inside Antioch. were killed by the merciless crusaders. . Then the crusaders attacked Marrat an-Nu’man where the crusaders (The Templars, known for their religiousness) slaughtered a hundred thousand people. The attack on Jerusalem witnessed the worst kind of brutalities that ever occurred before in the history. No Muslim was given mercy. Old, young, men, women and children were brutally massacred. The blooded flooded the streets, reaching as high as knees. Muslims were thrown from the tops and burnt. The crusaders mounted the Mount of Solomon and killed hundreds of thousands. In contrast when Salaadin recaptured Jerusalem, no Christian was harmed. Those who wanted to leave the city were allowed to do so; those who wanted to live were allowed to live by paying tribute. Those who could not pay tribute were condoned. The irony is that Crusaders themselves lost millions of lives in the fights; often Christens killed fellow Christians with the same brutality with which they massacred Muslims and Jews.”

Islam, Peace and Jihad

Peace” in Islam does not merely refer to the absence of war. It is a much more comprehensive term that includes peace at physical, mental, family and social (national and international) levels. This implies absence of all forms of diseases and weaknesses at individual level, and absence of all forms of mischief in society. The verses of the Holy Quran are full of messages that speak of tolerance, endurance and peace. Equally strong are messages against chaos, mischief, suppression and oppression. In fact when one goes through the Holy Book, one can easily feel the intensity with which Islam wants to achieve its aim of grand peace. True, in exceptional circumstances, it allows armed struggle, but it prefers to avoid violence. And whenever it allows violence, it is only aimed at preventing greater violence or widespread chaos. Let us examine the following verses:

· “..but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression.” (2:193)

· “Therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (Guarantees of) peace, then Allah hath opened no way for you (to war against them).” (4:90)

· “But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah.” (8:61)

· “……………with those Pagans with whom ye have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided any one against you. So fulfil your engagements with them to the end of their term: for Allah loveth the righteous.” (9:4)

· “If one amongst the Pagans ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of Allah and then escort him to where he can be secure. That is because they are men without knowledge.” (9:6)

· “Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just. Allah only forbids you, with regard to those who fight you for (your) Faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support (others) in driving you out, from turning to them (for friendship and protection). It is such as turn to them (in these circumstances), that do wrong.” (60:8-9)

· “Whenever two factions of believers fall out with one another, try to reconcile them. If one of them should oppress the other, then fight the one, which acts oppressively until they comply with God’s command. If they should comply, then patch things up again between them in all justice, and act fairly. God loves those who act fairly.” (49:9)

· “…and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety”(5:8 )

· “If they do come to thee, either judge between them, or decline to interfere. If thou decline, they cannot hurt thee in the least. If thou judge, judge in equity between them.” (5:42)

· “Verily, this brotherhood of yours is a single brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher.”(21:92)

· “Do no mischief on the earth, after it hath been set in order…”(7:56)

· “The blame is only against those who oppress men and wrong-doing and insolently transgress beyond bounds through the land…”(42:42)

· “And fear tumult or oppression, which affecteth not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong…”(8:25)

· “…………..if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”(5:32)

The above verses clearly spell out the principles of Islam. Quran is categorical in its condemnation of those who directly or indirectly contribute to mischief, oppression and anarchy. These terms surely include terrorism. But at the same time they also include glorification and commercialisation of human weaknesses (commercialisation of sex, gambling, smoking and drinking) that lead to rise in the incidence of several diseases, disintegration of families, crimes and social tensions. Terrorism is to be defined in a way in which it includes all its ramifications. The world today tends to define it in a way that suits its interests. Terrorism must include anything that can lead to diseases, instability and chaos at individual, family and social level. The states that directly or indirectly support such activities are also to be confronted with. The punishment of such activities is in fact extremely severe in Islam:

“The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter..” (5:33)

The term “Jihad” in Islam does not mean an armed fight, which at best is only a part of it. Jihad, in fact is an incessant struggle to spread what is good and uproot what is evil. The best Jihad, according to Islam is against one’s self. And when this definition is extended to a social level, it again means struggle against forces that exploit human weaknesses or oppress the weak and poor.

Islam is for peace. God clearly abhors mischief, and loves peace:

· Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief. (5:64)

· And We shall try you until We test those among you who strive their utmost and persevere in patience; and We shall try your reported (mettle). (47:31)

· …verily Allah loves those who act aright. (3:76)

· ..but do thou good, as Allah has been good to thee, and seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land: for Allah loves not those who do mischief. (28:77)

· Those who believe, and suffer exile and strive with might and main, in Allah’s cause, with their goods and their persons, have the highest rank in the sight of Allah. they are the people who will achieve (salvation). Their Lord doth give them glad tidings of a Mercy from Himself, of His good pleasure, and of gardens for them, wherein are delights that endure.. (

Thus Islam has a perfect, yet pragmatic approach towards establishing a lasting peace in society. In an effort to prove that Islam is for peace, some scholars tend to totally disregard any form of armed struggle. Islam does not merely ask its followers to engage themselves in a few rituals; it prepares them to establish a system and protect it. Every ideology and system takes all the necessary measures to protect it from external and internal mischief and to consolidate it. Islam is no exception and it has greater right to work in that direction because it aims to establish the rule of God, not an oligarchy. All ongoing struggles in the world cannot be equated with terrorism. To fight against the occupation by external forces, usurpers of land, tyrannical rulers, exploiters, forces of evils and oppressors cannot be regarded terrorism. To sacrifice one’s life in a bid to harm the enemies for a justified cause cannot be condemned as “suicide attacks”; any bombing that is for a justified cause and is aimed at justified targets must be termed sacrificial bombing. There are some Islamic scholars who argue that Jihad can be undertaken only by an Islamic state. They are awfully mistaken, playing in the hands of those who want to reserve all military options open for them including pre-emptive strikes and at the same time want Muslims to forego their right to fight altogether. If Muslims can fight only under the command of a state, it means they cannot fight against an occupying force and against a tyrannical ruler. If the government of a state is corrupt, anti-Islamic or oppressive, nobody can deny the people the right to organise into groups and campaign against it. However, deliberate killing of innocents cannot be regarded desirable even if it is in response to killing of innocents by a country or a group. Though Quran allows Muslims to transgress against the enemy if it transgresses against them, this is surely the last and not the first option. Furthermore, state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism are much more dangerous than the terrorism of splinter groups. The so-called Islamic terrorism has caused much less damage and has taken much fewer lives than the state terrorism of the US and Israel and state sponsored terrorism of some other countries. What is the US action in Iraq if not the worst form of terrorism? What are Israel’s actions against Palestinians if not terrorism of the most abominable kind?

Another allegation that is labelled against Islam is that Quran calls for killing all the unbelievers. The protagonists of this thesis base their arguments on the verses that call for killing the Unbelievers, forgetting that these verses are war-time-injunctions. “Unbelievers” in these verses means only the unbelievers engaged in the combat. Refer to the verses quoted above that speak against compulsion in the religion, Thus the Holy Book states:

· “..but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practise oppression.” (2:193

· “Therefore if they withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (Guarantees of) peace, then Allah hath opened no way for you (to war against them).” (4:90)

· “But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah.” (8:6 1)

It is clear also that the injunctions of Quran are almost similar in the case of fights between factions of Muslims. It asks its true followers to also fight those Muslims who are unjust.

Jihad in Islam is obligatory. It is an important constituent of the Islamic mission of universal peace and justice. It is in fact incumbent on all the human beings to engage in this mission. But for Muslims it is a divine duty. Jihad is meant for protecting the weak against the mighty; for alerting the forces of evil that their sordid adventures will not go unchallenged; for giving the oppressed sections a voice and wrecking the nerve-centres of the tyrants; and for giving the exploiters sleepless nights. Jihad prepares a person to sacrifice his possessions including his life if required for the cause of God. But Mujahids must clearly know that the objective of Jihad is not to bring certain persons to power, nor to bring theocracies to the whole world through sheer use of force. “Deen”, the system of God does not necessarily mean the establishment of a theocratic government through violent means; it means the rule of justice. Fighting is only the last but an open option in Jihad. If conditions are justifiable for fighting, it becomes obligatory; if conditions do not demand fighting, it becomes aggression. If its objectives are for the welfare of the masses it is desirable; if it is an excuse for selfish ends, it is an unparalleled sin. Jihad through peaceful means must always continue without halt; Jihad through arms must be an aberration. But once the conditions are justifiable, fighting must see no sympathy for the enemy; it must be given a crushing below. Fighting against the wicked is no violence; it is an exercise aimed at minimising violence. Killing bacteria and viruses through antibiotics and antiviral drugs is essential to maintain a healthy life. If microbes are not killed, they will kill the very person who provides them the food for their sustenance.

Islam however does not accept that “all is fair in love and war”. Even in war, all Islamic conditions must be followed in letter and spirit. As soon as the conditions are bright for an honourable settlement, fighting must be stopped without delay; for the ultimate objective is not the subjugation of the enemy but an end to mischief, anarchy, chaos and oppression. The powers that dominate do always try to take the right to fight away from others, so that they can continue to hold reins. They amass massive stocks of deadly weapons, but deny others the right to possess them. They do not hesitate a second to attack or invade the positions of their challengers, but make too much fuss of even the smallest acts of armed resistance. They kill innocents in big numbers and label it as ‘collateral damage’; and lambaste their opponents, through the weapons of words and war, if their actions cause the deaths of even a handful of innocents.

Several thinkers have tried to prove that the expansion of Islamic State after its establishment at Medina was achieved through the use of force. The hawks within the Islamic community present this as a ground for their aggressive intents; the hawks outside Islam use this as an evidence of the religion’s expansionist designs and support for violence. The countries were given the option, they argue, to either accept the supremacy of Islamic State or face war. This is true that several Muslim rulers used such tactics. But there was nothing extraordinary about this strategy, for it had been an inveterate practice throughout the world at that time, before and even for centuries after that. There were no clear injunctions in Quran directing Muslims to expand the borders of their empire. What the Caliphs did was only in keeping with the established norm. At that time there was no UN charter in force, and no international treaty bound the states to certain international obligations. All the powerful rulers in that era used to demand allegiance from the smaller states, and this had been happening throughout the ages in Europe, Asia and Africa. Britain, Russia, France and China—all had been using force to expand their influences, till very recently. Islamic rulers must however be credited for their humanistic approach to their political consolidation. They did not usuallyin general followed. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave clear guidelines regarding conduct during combat. He prohibited Muslim soldiers from killing women, children and the elderly, or cut a palm tree. He advised them, “… do not betray, do not be excessive, do not kill a new-born child.” Another tradition of the Prophet states, “Whoever has killed a person having a treaty with Muslims shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance is found for a span of forty years.” Yet another tradition states, “The first cases to be adjudicated between people on the Day of Judgement will be those of bloodshed.” Quran equated the killing of an innocent as the killing of the whole mankind. The Prophet also said, “Truly your blood, your property, and your honour are inviolable.” And “There is a reward for kindness shown to every living animal or human.” indulge in massacres. Moreover, they took practical steps to earn the favour of the masses. They gave them the right to practise their own religion, the right to refuse services in the military in return of a tax, the right to live as honourable citizens, the right to earn, the right to own properties and the right to follow their own family laws and laws of inheritance. Their life and honour were guaranteed full protection. Even in fighting, strict observance of certain principles was prescribed by Islam, which most of the rulers

The truth is that in most of the places conquered by Muslims the people took a sigh of relief at their arrival; they more often than not brought them out of the yoke of injustice and tyranny. This is why the masses thronged to accept Islam in most of the places, and even after the departure of their conquerors they mostly remained loyal to their new religion. In the conquered countries, Muslim caliphs often preferred to have local men in charge of the affairs. The rule of Muslims, with a few exceptions, proved to be far superior to that experienced by the masses before. It was this confidence in the new system that the Islamic caliphate, despite the fact that many of the caliphs were not as pious and upright as Islam would want them to be, was able to sustain itself for about a millennium. Even after the dismemberment of the caliphate, almost all the people of most of the Muslim countries have continued to be within the fold of Islam; some of them have emerged as its citadels. It is significant that an outstanding number of Islamic scholars in the current world hail from non-Arab countries like India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran and Turkey.

It should be made clear here however that the nations are now bound by the treaties of the UN that do not permit any country to conquer any other country for the expansion of ideology. Muslim as well as non-Muslim nations are parties to this agreement. So no Muslim or Non-Muslim nation can now be allowed to invade or threaten other nations for the export of its own ideology or for any other reason unless there are compelling reasons to do so and the majority of the members of the UN agree to it. However, people are free to propagate their beliefs, ideas and customs through peaceful means. But the world must be ready to ban all such substances and practices that lead to death and social problems at a big scale. In the name of freedom, the business of death cannot be allowed to prosper.

It can be seen that not only the constitutions of all countries as well as that of the UN permit the use of force for certain purposes, scriptures of almost all religions also prescribe the use of force in several situations. Compare them with Quran, and it will be clear that Quranic guidelines are much better example of a perfect and pragmatic approach in the current world.

in Editorial on Religion in the Pakistan Daily

AN EARLY Victorian cobbled street more than 150 years old has been unearthed by archaeologists investigating the site of a 12th Century Knights Templar mill at the 2012 London Olympics park.

The cobbled thoroughfare is to be ‘lifted up’ and preserved, then used in the huge park now being laid out as a legacy for East London.

Archaeologists believe the street unearthed 20ft below ground may be part of the original Temple Mills lane that was demolished in 1854 before being covered by thousands of tonnes of rubble over the last century-and-a-half.

The archaeologist Kieron Tyler said: “Looking below the amazingly preserved Victorian remains reveals an older mill structure and the exact form of the crucial industries in the Lea Valley down the centuries.”

His team of archaeologists from the Museum of London are carefully digging up the cobblestones and stockpiling them to be laid down in the new Olympics park.

Then they begin digging deeper to search for evidence of the original Knights Templar mill, known as Temple Mills, which started the industrialisation of the Lea Valley.

Olympics authority chief David Higgins said: “Clearing the massive site has given us the unique opportunity to look back into East London’s past before the area is transformed.

“Bringing back to life this cobbled street will be an important way of telling the fascinating story of the development of East London.”

The authority invited the archaeologists to look for evidence of prehistoric remains, from pre-Roman right through to Viking, Medieval and relatively recent industrial and military activities on the site.

Previous archaeological finds include a prehistoric settlement and the skeletons of four of its inhabitants, Roman artefacts and a complete 19 century boat used for hunting wild fowl on the River Lea. Second World War gun emplacements have also been unearthed.

The archaeological investigations are part of the work to clean up nearly two square miles of land to make way for the 2012 Games, much of it contaminated by its industrial past.

HISTORY TO TEMPLE MILLS

THE Knights Templar built a water mill at Temple Mills between 1185 and 1278. A second mill was built on the opposite side of the mill stream in 1308.

The mills passed to the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell after the suppression of the Templars, then eventually back to the Crown after the Dissolution of the Catholic Church and leased to Clement Goldsmith in 1593.

A gunpowder mill and a leather mill were added in the 16th century, with another added in 1627 to grind corn. Other mills followed in the 1630s for working leather and gunpowder.

mike.brooke@archant.co.uk

JOUSTING is making a welcome return to Berkeley Castle this summer.

In July the castle will play host to the Berkeley Skirmish, a new two-day event, which it is hoped will go someway to replace the popular Joust.

Last summer the two-weekend Joust event, which was in its seventh year, had to be cancelled because of the heavy flooding that affected the region.

advertisementThe Joust used to attract more than 10,000 people to the area and its cancellation was devastating for Berkeley and the company Grail Presents that organised it, which faced financial ruin as a consequence.

However, Chris Bruce and his wife Karen Hill from Cheshire-based company Plantagenet Events Ltd, are hoping the new Berkeley Skirmish will help boost tourism.

Mr Bruce said: “We used to get involved with the Joust and we know how good it was. This is going to be smaller than the Joust because we are only just starting out, but we hope it will grow.

“Last year was devastating for everyone, not just the show, but for Berkeley and the entire region.

“What we want to do is support each other and hopefully re-establish an event that was so popular and such a boost for the area and it will give Gloucestershire something positive to advertise.

“We are only a small company, we do not have the financial resources the Joust had, but the response we are already getting from people within the medieval re-enactment world is incredible, everyone wants to come back to Berkeley.”

The Berkeley Skirmish will include living history, 70 traders, battle re-enactments, archery and some jousting.

Tim Davies, marketing director for the Berkeley Estate, said: “The advantage of this company is that they have been involved with Berkeley before so they know how it was done and what is available.

“Losing the Joust was a big blow, not just to us at the castle but to the local area. The fact that we can establish a similar event is very, very pleasing and we are looking forward to it.”

The Berkeley Skirmish will be held at Berkeley Castle on Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27.

Plantagenet Events Ltd is in no way connected to Grail Presents, the company that ran the Joust.

By Liza-Jane Gillespie

For a certain kind of listener (i.e., me), the arrival of a new Indiana Jones movie is a chance to hear another retro score that evokes not only the traditions of Hollywood writing but also the work of full-color late Romantic composers such as Gustav Holst and Ottorino Respighi.

John Williams is one of the most successful Hollywood composers in cinematic history if his work is judged simply by sheer memorability. The huge marches that dominate the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies do exactly what good marches are supposed to do: Set up a triumphant (even when evil) tone, get a strong marching rhythm going, and most of all, implant a powerful tune in listeners’ heads.

This is not that easy to do. John Philip Sousa wrote more than 100 concert marches, but only about a couple dozen have the kind of great melodies that enable them to be heard frequently. In his work for the Lucas-Spielberg team, Williams has written at least two that many millions of people recognize instantly, and at the same time remember what they’re designed to evoke.

The same goes for Hedwig’s Theme, the central music of the Harry Potter films. Although two other composers have picked up scoring duties for the movies in the meantime, they still use Williams’ theme to remind viewers that they’re watching a Harry Potter adventure.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull has a modest score that is reminiscent of past work more than it is one that breaks new ground, which isn’t really a criticism — the film composer doesn’t have a lot of control over how much of the music he or she writes gets used in the final product. I liked a couple of Williams’ fresh inventions in Crystal Skull: a vigorous Russian dance that would make effective concert music, and — spoiler alert! — a blizzard of Janacek-style brasses that accompany the flying saucer as it ascends out of the Amazon basin.

But what I missed here was what I missed in the movie, though I enjoyed it a good deal and had a hard time resisting its manic energy. What was absent in the film was about 10 minutes of exposition and character development that would give the plot a hint of additional plausibility, even though it was totally implausible.

For instance, I wanted to enter just a bit more into the history of the conquistador-native conflict and the search for El Dorado, learn a little more about the Mayan world view, perhaps get some flashbacks from Professor Oxley and the Ray Winstone character, to make the picture rounder and richer. That way my suspended disbelief can coexist along the actual pages of history, and viewing the movie becomes more of an exercise of the imagination than a workout for my car-chase gland.

A case in point involves my favorite of the four Indiana Jones movies, The Last Crusade. This movie is able to draw on centuries of Christian tradition bred in the bone of Western civilization, but we learn a lot about Indiana and his father through the suggestions of the opening scene: the young Indiana has to speak ancient Greek to tell his father about his escape from the grave robbers.

And in another scene, Williams helps us all get into the figurative if not the literal depth of the events when Indiana is looking at the drawing of the knight suspended in air and he says something about the powerful pull of the quest for the Holy Grail. At this moment, we hear a distant low-brass chorale of semi-modal music — this is the Grail theme, and while it’s more 19th than 11th century, it’s beautiful and supremely effective.

That music returns when we encounter the 700-year-old knight guarding the Grail in the anterooms of the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, and for me it makes a most effective link, and adds a subtle richness to the film that makes its absurdities believable.

I would have liked to hear something like this in Crystal Skull: Ancient Mayan music, maybe; perhaps the music of 16th century Spain — something else to take us into the sonic world its deceased characters inhabited, something that would make the movie more of a journey into the legendary part of history that was there in The Last Crusade.

Music often acts as another character in a drama, and when it can draw on the traditions of the past to fill in the gaps of the script, it adds another layer of meaning and reference for the viewer. The music is more of an afterthought in Crystal Skull, but in Last Crusade, it’s essential. And that’s one of the crucial things that makes it a much better film, too.

by Greg Stepanich

Out-there researchers discuss the impending … something

The broadcast-quality lilt of Coast to Coast AM radio host George Noory wafted over a packed conference room at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn last Saturday night as he a moderated a panel of out-there researchers engaged in a radical examination of Hollywood’s covert use of occult symbolism and alien agendas — the same week that the Vatican’s chief astronomer told an interviewer that belief in alien life does not contradict belief in God. As Noory told the audience, “There’s definitely a sense of an impending … something.”

Noory is the successor to radio’s legendary Art Bell, who stoked a particular millennial Zeitgeist with his fireside chats on UFOs, the paranormal and all manner of conspiracy theories with his syndicated radio program, before passing the mike to Noory in 2002. Coast to Coast AM remains a cultural touchstone, and Noory — personable and mustachioed — continues to bring so-called fringe ideas front and center.

We’re at “an extraordinary crossroads, with the way life is unfolding,” commented panelist Whitley Strieber, whose most recent novel is based on the doomsday/consciousness-shifting 2012 mythos, and who believes he was “implanted” with a device by his “visitors.” He recalled a bit of the aliens’ verbiage: “We will come from within you.”

According to panelist/abduction therapist Yvonne Smith, 17 functional-growth characteristics in humans born between 1947 and 1987 have been accelerated by 60 to 80 percent. “It’s not environment, it’s not evolution,” she asserted.

A “mutation of society” is under way, and “the skeptic community is getting quieter and quieter,” remarked Dr. Roger Leir, a Valley-based podiatrist, who removes alleged alien implants.

Jordan Maxwell, an expert in occult symbolism and secret societies, likened Americans to Alec Guinness’ blindly megalomaniacal lieutenant colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai once he realizes he’s been working for the enemy: “What have I done? There is no way out.”

“Jordan’s been looking down the barrel of the New World Order for nearly 50 years,” Noory said.

Maxwell, expounding upon the secret fraternal orders to which our government and religious leaders are bound, remarked, “The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure are teasers. The powers behind Hollywood are Knights Templars, showing you what they can do.”

“What does Hollywood know that we don’t?” asked panelist Jay Weidner, producer of the documentary 2012: The Odyssey. Was Eyes Wide Shut a representation of a sex cult for rich perverts, or a portrait of the Illuminati? Subversive director Stanley Kubrick died two hours after bringing a rough cut of the film to Warner Bros. “Like the Zapruder film, you can see what he was trying to say by what’s missing,” said Weidner, who believes Kubrick fled for England in the ’60s after experiencing events depicted in the film. (Scientologists Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, he said, were simply cast as part of “an inside joke.”)

In Rosemary’s Baby, John Cassavetes’ character eagerly permits the devil to impregnate his wife to ensure his Broadway stardom. “He’s the spitting image of Jack Parsons [black magician and co-founder of Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory],” claimed Mike Bara, co-author with Richard C. Hoagland of the recent best-seller Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA. “It’s the magical ritual known as the Babylon Working. Rosemary becomes the mother of the antichrist.”

A question came from the audience: “There’s so much to dissect from entertainment now — Iron Man, Battlestar Galactica, The Mist, Marvel’s Sons of the Serpent. There’s even a conspiracy theorist in Justice League of America.” The bearded young man echoed the sentiments of many assembled: “Why now?”

“They release little bits of truth, so that in the future they can say, ‘We said that years ago,’” Maxwell answered. “You’ve got to read between the lines.” Entertainment is used to indoctrinate or spread disinformation. Case in point: Universal’s recent optioning of the “period” action script The Knights Templar. “Each time you get a bigger sense of how the game is being played, you are less manipulated by it.” Maxwell asked the audience to verify his contentions — Rome is still in control, a powerful occult system has dominated consensus reality for thousands of years — by forcing us to pay attention to “their” symbols: words, flags, coats of arms. “Once you see [it] organized, it’s frightening.”

“The Gnostic belief is that we must have an apocalypse to bring about the golden age,” Weidner commented. “But is that apocalypse the death of all of us, or the death of consciousness as we know it?”

The Mayan calendar, which runs out at midnight on December 12, 2012, is expected to take us out, whether by mass extinction, interplanetary invasion or a total paradigm shift — a metaphysical bang or a cosmic whimper. With four years and counting, Maxwell advised, “always trust those who are looking for the truth.”

But what the bleep is it?

BY SKYLAIRE ALFVEGREN

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Note: the OSMTHU does not endorse said “conspiracy theories”, but our editors tought that the article was interesting and provocative enough to be brought to the attention of our readers.

“Thirteen at a table is unlucky only when the hostess has only twelve chops.”

– Groucho Marx

Today is Friday, June 13th, 2008.

Scared yet?

OK, so you might not be that frightened, but for those Okies who suffer from paraskavedekatriaphobia (yes, it’s a real word and it means fear of Friday the 13th) today is a day to stay in bed with your head under the covers.

And it’s been that way for a long, long time.

According to tradition, Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck in several countries, including England, France, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Sweden and even the Philippines.

The reasons vary. Several Internet-based resources say the day and date became infamous following the arrest of Jaques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar. On Friday, Oct. 13, 1307, de Molay and 60 of his senior knights were arrested, and subsequently tortured by bad guys working for King Philip IV of France.

Following the knights’ “confessions,” Philip the IV had them executed and, again according to legend, from that day on, Friday the 13th was considered by followers of the Templars as an evil and unlucky day — which made sense as long as Philip was the one calling the shots.

Other legends say Friday the 13th got its black mark after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Many Christians believe Christ was crucified on Friday, the 13th, and some theologians even hold that Adam and Eve munched a few forbidden apples years earlier on that same date .

Still others claims the Biblical Great Flood began on Friday the 13th.

Whatever the reason, millions of people fear the date.

In fact, according to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, N.C., more than 67 million Americans are afraid of Friday the 13th.

“Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines,” the institute said. “They stop doing business, taking flights or even getting out of bed.”

The institute estimates that between $800 million and $900 million in revenue is lost each year because of the fear surrounding the date.

But not everyone is scared.

For Cleveland County Fairboard Marketing Director Sharon Harrell, Friday the 13th is her day to hit the casino.

“I love Friday the 13th,” she said. “That’s the day I go to Riverwind or some other casino. Everything good happens to me on Friday the 13th.”

And while Harrell admits to being “a little superstitious,” it’s more about barrel racing than dates.

“I’m a barrel racer,” she said. “And I have to have my watch in my left pocket and my hoofpick in the right pocket or I feel like something’s wrong. But as far as Friday the 13th goes, that’s always been a good luck day for me. Something good always happens.”

For Moore resident Deidre Ebrey, Friday the 13th has more to do with movies and less to do with luck.

Ebrey, Moore’s economic development director, said she associates the day with the movie by the same name. “When you’ve grown up around the date and the movie, you don’t think about superstition,” she said. “It’s more frightening than superstitious.”

Still, bad luck — whether it’s being killed by a maniacal ax-weilding zombie or just losing your credit card — is bad luck and, throughout history, a lot of bad things have happened on Friday the 13th.

For example:

· The 1889 Johnstown Flood.

· The 1929 stock market crash in the United States.

· The Black Friday bush fires in Victoria, Australia occurred on Friday, Jan. 13, 1939.

· The Uruguayan Rugby team crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday, Oct. 13, 1972.

· Hurricane Charley made landfall near Port Charlotte, Florida on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004.

· The “Friday the 13th Storm” struck Buffalo, N.Y. on Friday, Oct. 13, 2006.

Then, there’s the connection with death.

In Britain, Friday was the conventional day for hangings and legend say the hangman’s gallows had 13 steps and the noose was wrapped 13 times.

In Norse mythology, the hero Balder was supposedly whacked at a banquet by the Norse god Loki on Friday. Balder had thrown a weekend party and invited 11 friends and — you guessed it — when Loki showed up the group grew to 13 and well, the rest was bad news.

Yet even while millions of residents fear the date, for one Norman man, Friday the 13th is just another day. For Father Edward Menasco, a priest at St. Jospeh’s Catholic Church, Friday the 13th is simply a day before Saturday, the 14th.

“No, I’m not superstitious,” Menasco said. “But I do think the myths surrounding the date came from the Knights Templar thing.”

And though Menasco believes people aren’t as superstitious as they used to be — as we get older, he says, “we become less superstitious — he does have some comfort for those who fear Friday the 13th.

“Just trust that God is protecting us,” he said.

And remember that Saturday, the 14th, will be here before you know it.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com

The 2,500-year-old item was acquired by a rag and bone man who handed it on to his grandson, John Webber, believing it was made of brass.

As a child Mr Webber took pot-shots at the 5.5ins tall cup with his catapult because the two similar female faces on it reminded him of his schoolteacher.

Over the years he either stored it under his bed or in his loft with other “odds and ends”.

It was only when Mr Webber, 70, from Taunton, Somerset, moved house last year he remembered it and had it analysed.

He was amazed when experts dated the cup back to the Achaemenid empire, making it older than the Holy Grail.

Some estimates suggested that the rare cup would fetch hundreds of thousands when it came under the hammer at Dukes Auctioneers of Dorchester, Dorset.

But once the buyer’s premium was added the cup was bought by an unnamed purchaser for a total of £65,725.

Nevertheless, Mr Webber, who was at the auction with his 20-year-old daughter Kate and son George, 17, said he was delighted with the price and was planning a celebratory meal.

He said: “I am very pleased the cup has sold. We as a family have already decided we are going to split the money between us because, at my age, there is not much I need. I imagine my grandfather would be very pleased with the fact the cup is going back to Somerset.”

in: Telegraph

Three 18th century musical scores discovered in a collection at Poland’s Jasna Gora monastery may be the work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, experts say.

The musical scores identified as 18th century manuscript copies “correspond to the style” of the period and “their character allows us to suppose Mozart was their author,” musicologist Remigiusz Pospiech told Poland’s Polska daily.

The three scores are among 18 musical manuscripts attributed to the Austrian genius in the Jasna Gora monastery’s vast archive at Czestochowa, but do not figure in the Koechel catalogue of Mozart’s complete works.

A special commission has already started analysing the authenticity of 18 scores which are signed with the name of the Austrian composer, Polskie Radio says. The notes under examination were put on paper by 18th century copyists.

Polish specialists have already contacted experts in Vienna and Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace in Austria, focused on music in the period between 1756 and 1791, according to Pospiech.

“If we are indeed dealing with a work of Mozart, it is rather his later period in Vienna,” he says, adding that “more study is required to confirm this hypothesis.”

Archives at the Jasna Gora monastery hold some 3,000 manuscripts of musical scores, collected over the centuries for the needs of its orchestra.

The Monastery of Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland, is the third largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. Home to the beloved miraculous icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the monastery is also the national shrine of Poland and the centre of Polish Catholicism.