Very Serious Men in Skirts. And dresses.

With heavy jewelry

And only THEY have the right to wear them.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II (L), and Pope Benedict XVI meet at the Vatican June 16, 2007.

o- "Arachno-Papa-Philia"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOx045-UlBc
and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/2372

o- Church abuse scandal reaches the Pope's brother
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/2429

o- Liberation Theology in Brazil, NYTimes Article
"In the early 1980s, when Pope John Paul II wanted to clamp down on what he considered a dangerous, Marxist-inspired movement in the Roman Catholic Church, liberation theology, he turned to a trusted aide: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Now Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI..."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/2045

o- The Crusades, here and now
"Who can deny that we're living through the most fierce, shameless and
deadly Crusades?
...global reactions to the Pope's most recent racist and anti-Islamic remarks."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/1887

o- "Drugs war" is in fact ethnic cleansing
"During the Inquisition cannabis was declared Illegal by pope Innocenty (I believe number IV) and anyone who practised the 'old ways' was murdered. For centuries the western European world was ruled by (Christian) Rome and during those times history has been re-written and most of the referrers to those Shamanic cultures usually contain a hint of "barbarism" as if those cultures had no moral values..."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/1494

o- The Empire Never Ended
"You're so right when you say 'He walks lockstep with the Romans who rule this empire...'. It's true that the Empire never ended. Its capital city has moved a few times throughout our history and changed names, but it's the same Empire:
Roman -> Byzantine -> British -> US Empire.

You echo the brilliant analysis by Phillip K. Dick, author of "Radio Free Albemuth", and "The Divine Invasion": not only is it true that the Empire never ended, but also, the tragic and unbearable truth is that the subjugation of humanity under a planetary totalitarian regime has been accomplished "in the name of god". While at the same time, it has rendered every aspect of the Divine illegal, and every true Path of worship has been driven underground..."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/1240

o- Arch-Conservative German Ratzinger Elected Pope
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Universal_Life_Church/message/1229

* * *

Islam: a Comment from a Reader

A few days ago we received word from a reader that was posted as a Comment to one of our news items. It's an excellent point of view; and an excellent opportunity for us to restate some of our positions on Islam.

Our reader wrote:
"Muslims are the only religion that respect Christos, we are the only people who admire Virgin Maria. My Quran said 'Virgin Maria best woman all over the world'. Muslims did not go to bomb Iraq and kill children, to Bomb Afganistan, to Bomb Vietnam, To Bomb Yugoslavia. My Quran said 'you will find the most friendly are christian'. We are all human, I do not agree with what some muslims are doing but I disagree as well with what many christians are doing in the name of the christianity."
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_24.html?showComment=1269613606777#c8071712710276029299


Since the Comment was addressed to me personally, I'd like to take the initiative in responding on behalf of our Editorial Collective.

There is a global class war going on that is currently ripping up the planet, generating deaths and casualties on the physical plane, with more than a million and a half Arab and Moslem people killed in this decade. This imperialist war is also raging on the ideological plane and in the realms of propaganda. Those of us who are spiritually oriented also understant that beyond being an expression of modern class struggle, the war is also a war on the spiritual planes. But it's the ideological plane that defines the current phase: we are living through the cruelest and most despicable Crusade War against Islam in history.

The people of Islam and the Arab world are being targeted and exterminated with radioactive weapons, with conventional weapons, with chemical bombs, with starvation, by blockade, by destruction of the civil infrastructure and by the most fierce and poisonous ideological campaign ever. It has succeeded in demonizing Islam in the eyes of the West, making Muslims an "easy target". People in the fake christian countries of the West are not very upset morally with the total war that their Governments and Corporations are waging against Muslim and Arab people. The demonization of Islam has been mostly successful in that sense, enabling the war criminals who own and operate the global Empire to continue on their Crusade without much opposition from inside their own countries.

We find this intolerable.

From its very inception, the Cyprus IndyMedia Collective has expressed an appreciation for Islam and an embrace of the truth that is found in the core all spiritual paths and we embedded that within our founding papers - please see the section titled "Politics of the Spiritual realms":
The Short Statement
http://cyprusindymedia.org/The_Short_Statement-KaliMerhaba.htm

Please see also various positions and analyses we have published over the years that show clearly our ideological, political and spiritual assessment of Islam's position in the globe's current state of affairs:

Cyprus: No Troops to Lebanon
http://web.archive.org/web/20071119025112/http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/230/index.php
(The above link responds slowly, please give it a little time.)

Islam is a Religion of Peace
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/islam-is-religion-of-peace.html

Death by Robot versus Universal Love
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/death-by-robot-versus-universal-love.html


And since our reader had addressed me specifically, I'd like to add a few of my personal writings that I think convey a complex, unconventional and multifaceted appreciation of Islam on various levels. I may not qualify as a good muslim, nor as a "good anything" by the criteria of most religions, but I believe that my contributions to the quest for a spiritually meaningful collective social and political liberation, when seen through the eyes of those who are defending Islam, are genuine. And probably of some value to at least some spiritual seekers and freedom fighters.

Here, an exploration of the role of religious concepts and sentiments within the process of the struggle for political liberation, and some specific features of Muslim theology correlated with Socialism:
Easter and Global Revolution
http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-and-global-revolution-2.html

This article is an exposure and exploration of some of the anti-Moslem anti-Arab propagandists who operate spreading hatred and poison within the world of alternative science:
In Dialogue: On the American College of Orgonomy
Special to Paranoia Magazine
http://cyprus-org.net/In-Dialogue-American-College-of-Orgonomy.html
The events of September 11 were cleverly used to stir up hatred against Muslims all over the world. Within the United States there are thousands of people active within the Truth Movement, a movement aimed at exposing the complicity of some elements of the US ruling class and of the US Government who together with the "unknown" terrorists who carried out those terrible acts succeeded in generating enough hatred against Islam to numb and stupefy people in the countries of the West so as to accept a new modern Crusade. Here's a small sample of my participation in that movement:
Butchery of Islam and the new Crucades
http://wtcdemolition.com/blog/node/1217#comment-11723

An overview of the United States in 2008 in its role as "Mother of All Oppression", with a focus on gay and lesbian rights, and US murderous hostility against both its own people and against the artificial enemy it created in the people of Islam:
What the Hell is wrong with the US?
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/85134/index.php
also at:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/12/petros-us-pathetic-in-area-of-human.html

We used to say "The Pope Smokes Dope!" - I wish it were true. Instead, here he is seen maligning the Prophet and giving ideological justification to the Crusades:
The Crusades, here and now
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Universal_Life_Church/conversations/topics/1887

Comments on an article titled "War News - Invasion/Islammunist Revolution" which was aimed at spreading more hatred against Islam.
"It is meant to create an atmopshere in which it seems natural to be killing anyone connected to Islam and communism. The simple picture painted by this article is that we are all wombs of terror, and that we should be eradicated. Many of us are communists and moslems, and also supporters, friends, sympathizers..."
Worse than Fascists
http://archives.lists.indymedia.org/imc-eastern-mediterranean/2002-October/000274.html

"That's why we speak of Resistance to the war, not just Peace. Resistance on all fronts by all means is the inescapable reality in which millions of people have been trapped now in the Arab and Islamic worlds due to the compliance of the Western populations with the Imperial death machine."
Imperial Propaganda
http://web.archive.org/web/20061101184110/http://hamilton.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1171/index.php(The above link responds slowly, please give it a little time.)

And finally an article commemorating Yasser Arafat, a leader who seemed to have a good understanding of the role of the three main populations "of the Book", meaning those who follow Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and their participation in the liberation process:
Eternal Peace and Victory
YASSER ARAFAT Remembered and Honored
http://www.indymedia.org.il/article/2008/11/yasser-arafat-remembered-and-honored


Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo:
Muqarnas dome, Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra palace, Granada, Spain, 1354–1391.
Please click on this to see a full scale reproduction in all its glory:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAr9X6YddoCjILbNIHrgAYi2CQAUhBNSEl7lrYnrrwv9-BKTtAucWNBF4z64dGItMGS9eBrWqRtzzudYwUQzuij-8gncuwDvG2mmYdOkK3sXcAplUjzhzq4i50V9ZCDyNBIe3xXhO91Ef/s1600/islam,Hall-of-TwoSisters,Alhambra.jpg

Easter and Global Revolution

by Petros Evdokas

I was very moved to read the holiday wishes and cards sent to the StopTheWar Coalition by our Palestinian and Nepalese friends, allies and comrades (copies below).

"Who cares about religion?" one might say. There's some truth to that objection. But there is a deeper, more significant truth in embracing the spiritual and social yearnings of the People. When revolutionaries embrace, cultivate and defend the best and most beautiful elements of our Peoples' cultures and yearnings, the People in return find more direct and clear motives to embrace, cultivate and defend the Revolution itself.

Freedom fighters who emerge from actual struggle in the various active fronts of the global Liberation Movement have an instinctual understanding of this. It's not "just politeness", "policy", or "diplomacy" as some clever supposedly emancipated secularists might say to dismiss our comrades' sentiments. There's something essential about easter references to the Resurrection of the Soul and Revolution.

"But why? What is the meaning of all this?"

Our comrades from Nepal, Palestine, Kurdistan, Lebanon, have a direct and inner awareness that the true culture of the people, which includes the peoples' spiritual life in its pure forms, separate from the distortions it manifests when it is dominated by the authoritarian church and other pseudo-religious institutions, is the moral and cultural foundation of liberation which, married to the realities of a freed up production, common ownership and people's power applied to direct democracy can generate a whole new world.

"But isn't it just backwards and reactionary religionism?"

It is precisely the opposite. The shocking truth of our people's true culture resides actively within our own words and is wholy embedded within our hidden semi-subconscious culture. This truth even survives in the international language, english:

o~ Primarily within the hellenic/greek language, but in almost all languages of the world, the words for Strike (Στάσις), Revolution (Επανάστασις), and Resurrection (Ανάστασις) are all slight variations of each other in meaning, in sound and reference. They are also conjoined at the root in conveying process and condition, expressing variations of a particular state of being.

This unity of concepts, spread out through the millennia as our culture helped to sculpt significant parts of modern civilization still survives in english: there is a close relation between Insurrection and Resurrection.

Who wants more? The unity between Communion and Communism?

In the hellenic/greek language:
o~ The word for Communion and Society is the same: Κοινωνία (Koinwnia).
o~ The phrase for a self-governed body of citizens is the same as the word for church: Εκκλησία του Δήμου (Ecclesia).

The domination of our peoples' lives by Capital and the State is matched equally by the domination of our culture by the authoritarian Church. There's no way to strive for, or even to perceive of, a local and global Liberation without paying attention to the efforts aimed at affirming, nurturing and freeing up our true culture from the claws of the Church demons who hold it hostage with superstition, mystification and moral perversion.


An awareness of the spiritual, emotional and moral significance of political events is an essential part of popular Consciousness. Every person with a Conscience in the western world perceives Palestine as the enduring Crucifixion. Bleeding, tormented, screaming and dying on the cross erected by the global Empire, Palestine is perceived by the western world in precisely those terms; this is the true essence of the peoples' culture expressing itself through its primeval archetypes.

And totally appropriate. Modern Palestine writhing on the Crucifix is located exactly where the easter references place it geographically: in the gateway to the Middle East, in the center of the Holy Lands. No matter how strongly the western Churches allied to Capital and Empire try to erase this from awareness, people in the West still connect to the idea and to the emotions related to Palestine through this archetype. Easter and Palestine on the Crucifix are an integral part of the moral~spiritual landscape within the awareness of most people in the West.

Let's say it again: An awareness of the spiritual, emotional and moral significance of political events is an essential part of popular Consciousness.

The Revolution unfolding recently and securing itself in Nepal is a Resurrection of the collective Soul. Both society and the person are becoming reborn through it with the pains, the joys and the awareness of an old/new Soul becoming re-established within existence, re-anchoring itself to the here and now.

Rebirth of Consciousness - Resurrection - is built into the very essence of all cultures in countries of the East; both the secular and the spiritual elements of eastern culture are embedded with ideas and concepts entirely filled with those archetypes. Is there anyone in the eastern countries who does not perceive social and personal revolution that way?

It's not a coincidence that in many countries of the East where the language is related to Sanskrit or Hindi, a political slogan is called a "mantra".

It's not a coincidence that two of most important and universal principles of Socialism are embedded within the theology and organization of Islam:

o~ Both Socialism and Islam affirm a social organization and management of resources aimed at the fulfillment of the needs of the people, stemming "from each according to one's ability, to each according to one's need";

o~ Both Socialism and Islam affirm a universal identity articulated by the Islamic concept of Fitrah, according to which all people without exception are born as embodiments of The All, Allah, and that each one of us only realizes (becomes aware and actualizes) Universal Consciousness according to the realities our collective and personal circumstances as experienced by the influences and conflict of class, religion, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, gender and sexual identities.

We say "it's not a coincidence", in order to underline the fact that there is continuum of ideas, concepts, emotions and factual realities ranging from objective to the subjective and the metaphysical, from the global peoples' spiritual cultures to the political struggles of the revolutionary global liberation process and all the way to the objective tenets and self-evident truths of Scientific Socialism.

As we move forward in the 21st century we recognize more clearly that social institutions that used to be progressive at one point in history are now reactionary chains holding us back: we move to seize back social production and resources from the claws of Capital; we move to seize back social administration, defence and justice from the claws of the State; and we move to seize back our own spiritual and cultural lives from the claws of the authoritarian Church.


In Cyprus, torn up and destroyed by the global Imperial State and Capital with the collusion of the local ruling class, both in the north and the south the leaders of the progressive political forces and those who pretend to be leading Patriots, Socialists and Freedom lovers have entirely betrayed both Socialism and the need to defend, protect and liberate the Motherland. They have joined themselves with the vultures of the global Imperial State to directly rule over, manage and oversee the exploitation of their own people and have joined in with the suppression of our people's own true native spirituality and culture. Their treason and byzantine intrigues have brought our indigenous culture and spirituality to the brink of extinction.

Additionally, they portray themselves as secularists, supposedly free from "religious superstition". At the same time they constantly pose in public at every opportunity with leaders of authoritarian Religion, reinforcing the most sick and oppressive connections between State, Religion and Capital. The people are left defenseless and without guidance. How do we wrestle back from their claws what is ours? Our spiritual and cultural treasures? Our country's social production and natural resources? Our communities' administration and the management of our own affairs?

When the leaders abandon the people, how are supposed to act? In what direction?

Meanwhile, when the leadership is truly immersed in the struggle and embraces the people's culture and its spiritual traditions, miraculous achievements become feasible and placed on the table of possibilities:

o~ the Vietnamese revolutionary forces embraced the religious and traditional Lunar~Solar New Year in 1968 with passion for freedom and military organization, initiating the Tet Offensive which led to the spreading of the revolutionary People's War everywhere in the country, leading the avalanche that finally defeated the greatest imperial country in the world's history. The US Empire is still yelping from that injury.

Class struggle, national liberation, collective and personal spiritual emancipation go hand in hand. Our comrades from countries where the struggle is active and where the Liberation Movement has not abandoned its basic principles, understand this reality intuitively. But in Cyprus, it seems, another heaven and another hell must pass before we are able to shake off the numbness induced by shopping and television in order to remember how and why to live. And die.

Petros Evdokas
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: NEPAL

The Nepalese Equality Partner Association for Liberty, NEPAL wish you all the best on the occasion of Happy Easter!
With warm regards;

Durja Man Tamang
--
Nepalese Equality Partner Association for Liberty
(NEPAL),
Nicosia, Cyprus
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: belal.abdelhai@gmail.com

Η ΠΑΛΑΙΣΤΙΝΙΑΚΗ ΠΑΡΟΙΚΙΑ ΣΑΣ ΕΥΧΕΤΑΙ ΚΑΛΟ ΠΑΣΧΑ
The Palestinian Community in Cyprus wish you a Happy Easter
الجالية الفلسطينية في قبرص تتمنى لجميع الاخوة المسيحيين فصح سعيد

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Definition of Fitrah
By Yasien Mohamed
http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/DefinitionFitrah.htm

{ Please click on the image of the card to see the details in Arabic, English, and Hellenic (greek) }

~~~ *** ~~~