Monday, September 17, 2012

**JP** First Aid, Music or Chinese

aoa,

The  painful incident of the factory fire at Karachi cant be expressed in words. I am totally
speechless about our hardheartedness and thinking that where it will lead us? What will be our end?

I just want to draw the attention of authorities to make the "First Aid" as a compulsory subject in our schools, colleges and at the university level instead of  music and The Chinese. Here in our city the firebrigades, ambulances , police are habitual to take life rather than saving it. They are paid for their cruelties....

Hope somebody will take some attempt in this regard....

Thanx
regards
U N Barry

**JP** Fw: -- U R D U -- ایک کپ کافی دیوار پر



----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Mohammed Saleem <hajisahb@hotmail.com>
To:
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 12:36 PM
Subject: -- U R D U -- ایک کپ کافی دیوار پر


بسم اللہ الرحمٰن الرحیم
السلامُ علیکم و رحمۃ اللہ و برکاتہ
حضرات محترم: میری ایمیلز میری ذاتی پسند ہوتی ہیں، جنکا مقصد آپ سے رابطہ، دوسری ثقافتوں سے آگاہی، علم اور معلومات کا پھیلانا مقصود ہوتا ہے، اگر آپ کو ناگوار گزرتی ہوں تو ضرور آگاہ کیجیئے  http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff404/hajisahb2/emailtohajisahb.jpg


    
ہم دونوں دوست ، پانیوں اور روشنیوں  کے شہر  وینس  کےایک  نواحی قصبے کی مشہور کافی شاپ پر بیٹھے ہوئے کافی سے لظف اندوز ہو رہے تھے کہ  اس کافی شاپ میں ایک گاہک داخل ہوا  جو  ہمارے ساتھ والی  میز کو خالی پا کر یہاں  آ کر بیٹھ گیا۔ اس نے بیٹھتے ہی بیرے کو آواز دیکر بلایا اور اپنا آرڈر یوں  دیا؛  دو کپ کافی لاؤ، اور اس میں سے ایک وہاں دیوار پر۔

 ہم نے اس  شخص کےاس انوکھے  آرڈر کو دلچپسی سے سنا۔  بیرے نے آرڈر کی تعمیل کرتے ہوئے  محض ایک کافی کا کپ اس کے سامنے لا کر رکھ دیا۔ اس صاحب نے کافی  کا  وہ ایک کپ نوش کیا مگر پیسے دو کے ادا کئے۔ اس گاہک کے جاتے ہی بیرے نے دیوار پر جا کر ایک ورقہ چسپاں کر دیا   جس پر لکھا تھا؛ ایک کپ کافی۔  
ہمارے وہاں بیٹھے بیٹھے دو اور گاہک آئے جنہوں نے تین کپ کافی کا آرڈر دیا، دو ان کی میز پر اور ایک دیوار پر، پیئے تو انہوں نے دو ہی کپ، مگر ادائیگی تین کپ کی اور چلتے بنے۔ ان کے جانے کے بعد بھی بیرے نے ویسا ہی کیا، جا کر دیوار پر ایک اور ورقہ چسپاں کردیا جس پر لکھا تھا؛ ایک کپ کافی۔

ایسا لگتا تھا یہاں ایسا ہونا معمول کی بات ہے مگر ہمارے لئے انوکھا اور ناقابل فہم تھا۔ خیر، ہمیں کونسا اس معاملے سے کچھ لینا دیا تھا، ہم نے اپنی کافی ختم کی، پیسے ادا کیئے  اور چلتے بنے۔

چند دنوں کے بعد ہمیں ایک بار پھر اس کافی شاپ پر جانے کا اتفاق ہوا۔ ہم بیٹھے کافی سے لطف اندوز ہو  رہے تھے کہ یہاں ایک ایسا شخص داخل ہوا جس کے کپڑے اس کافی شاپ کی حیثیت اور یہاں کے ماحول سے قطعی میل نہیں کھا رہے تھے۔ غربت اس شخص کے چہرے سے عیاں تھی۔ اس شخص نے بیٹھتے ہی  پہلے دیوار کی طرف دیکھا اور پھر بیرے کو بلایا اور کہا؛ ایک کپ کافی دیوار سے لاؤ۔ بیرے نے اپنے روایتی احترام اور عزت کے ساتھ اس شخص کو کافی پیش کی جسے پی کر یہ شخص بغیر پیسے دیئے چلتا بنا۔ ہم یہ سب  کچھ حیرت سے دیکھ رہے تھے کہ بیرے نے  دیوار  پر لگے ہوئے ورقوں میں سے ایک ورقہ اتار کر کوڑے دان میں پھینک دیا۔  اب ہمارے لئے اس بات میں کچھ چھپا نہیں رہ گیا تھا، ہمیں سارے معاملے کا پتہ چل گیا تھا۔اس قصبے کے باسیوں کی اس عظیم الشان  اور اعلیٰ انسانی قدر نے ہماری آنکھوں کو  آنسووں سے بھگو  کر رکھ دیا تھا۔

کافی نا تو ہمارے معاشرے کی ضرورت ہے اور نا ہی ہمارے لئے واجبات زندگی طرح  کی اہم کوئی کوئی چیز۔ بات تو صرف اس سوچ کی ہے کہ کسی بھی نعمت سے لطف اندوز ہوتے ہوئے آپ  ان لوگوں کا تصور ہی  کرلیں جو اس نعمت  کو اتنا ہی پسند کرتے ہیں جتنا کہ آپ مگر وہ اس کے حصول  سے محروم ہیں۔

اس بیرے کے کردار کو دیکھیئے جو صاحب حیثیت لوگوں اور ضرورتمندوں کے درمیان رابطے کا کردار نہایت خندہ پیشانی اور کھلے دل کے ساتھ لبوں پر مسکراہٹ سجائے کر رہا ہے۔

اس ضرورتمند کو دیکھیئے جو اس کافی شاپ میں اپنی عزت نفس کو مجروح کیئے بغیر ہی داخل ہوتا ہے، اور اسے یہ پوچھنے کی قطعی ضرورت پیش نہیں آئی کہ آیا اس کو ایک کپ کافی مفت میں مل سکتا ہے یا نہیں۔ اس نے دیوار پر دیکھا، کافی کا آرڈر موجود پا کر،  یہ پوچھے اور جانے بغیر ہی، کہ یہ کپ کس کی طرف سے اس کو دیئے جانے کیلئے موجود ہے، اپنے لئے ایک کپ کا آرڈر دیا،  کافی کو سرور کے ساتھ پیا اورخاموشی سے چلتا بنا۔

جب ہم اس مذکورہ بالا کہانی کی جزئیات کو جانیں گے تو ہمیں اس کہانی کے کرداروں کے ساتھ ساتھ اس دیوار کے کردار کو بھی یاد رکھنا پڑے گا  جو اس قصبے کے درد دل رکھنے والے باسیوں کی عکاس بنی ہوئی ہے۔  
(عربی سے مترجم و منقول)
آپکی دعاؤں کا طالب ہوں۔ محمد سلیم/شانتو-چائنا



The password fallacy: Why our security system is broken, and how to fix it








http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/the-password-fallacy-why-our-security-system-is-broken-and-how-to-fix-it/262155/

 

The Password Fallacy: Why Our Security System Is Broken, and How to Fix It

Rachel Swaby | Sep 10, 2012

Our password system is broken, and it's about time we change it.

What if the idiosyncrasies of our touch-screen gestures could serve as our passwords? (shoo/Shutterstock

)

For the few that haven't yet spotted technology journalist Mat Honan's storyabout his unfortunate hacking, here's the capsule version: What started as an attempt at his Twitter feed via an Amazon account security hole quickly escalated into several wiped devices, a gutted Gmail account, and devastating data loss, both personally and professionally. The terrifying tale ended on a cry for users to embrace Google's two-step verification, which requires a second level of authentication when accessing your Gmail. When James Fallows wrote about his wife's ordeal with a compromised account last year, he came to the same conclusion.

Sure, adding an extra lock would have spared both a fair amount of trouble, but there's a much bigger problem at hand. We're required to take downright ridiculous precautions to maintain our online security, and it's not sustainable. In fact, it never was. Our password system is broken, and it's about time we change it.

Let's take a little tally of where we've found ourselves, shall we? Studies show that we log into some 10 sites a day. Places that hold our most important data, like Gmail, Dropbox, and our bank, might ask us to jump through two tiers of password hoops in order for them to ensure our online security. Overall we're asked to hold keys to 30-40 sites in order to read the news, access our email, or book a haircut. For each of these sites, security analysts recommend using a unique string of 14-characters made up of letters, numbers, and special symbols. But remember: Computers are quick to guess dictionary words, your birth year, and numbers substituted for letters. No repeats allowed. Oh, and whatever you do, don't write anything down.

Who can possibly remember all those characters?

It's a nutty system, so we ignore it, spreading the five or six passwords that we can remember across every online interaction. But that's not a good solution. Connect our sites with shared login information, and we're risking enormous chunks of our online lives. As Steve Ragan, a journalist at The Tech Herald demonstrated in January, a free program and a $300 computer can crack more than 25,000 passwords in seven minutes. Perhaps XKCD said it best: "Through 20 years of effort, we've successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess."

The craziest thing is: We've known all along that our brains are not cut out for this. Researchers observed password fatigue in the earliest days of computing. In a 1979 study conducted by Bell Labs cryptologist Robert Morris and computer scientist Ken Thompson, the challenge was clear: "Human beings being what they are, there is a strong tendency for people to choose relatively short and simple passwords that they can remember. Given free choice, most people will choose their passwords from a restricted character set (e.g. all lower-case letters), and will often choose words or names."

The researchers found that 60 percent of user passwords were less than 5 characters long, and overall, 86 percent relied on dictionaries or name lists to create them. Morris and Thompson concluded, "the results were disappointing, except to the bad guy."

Sound familiar?

People have been crying, "the password is dead," for years (that one was courtesy of Bill Gates in 2004), but we're finally in a position where change is possible. When a keyboard was our only input, text passwords made sense, but now we have so many other entry points -- touch screens, cameras, microphones -- that are harder to replicate from afar. It might just be possible to create a login that doesn't sacrifice security for usability. So let's get on with it already.

The good news is, we've already started. Researchers are aiming for a new system that's not only human-compatible, but maybe even enjoyable, too. Take, for instance, the satisfying swipe. Touch-screen keyboards are annoying, but sliding your finger across a reactive surface at least initially caused a bit of a thrill. Android phones have taken this motion and applied it to a 3 x 3 grid login screen made of dots. Set up the phone with a pattern you fancy, repeat, and you're logged in.

Windows 8 has strengthened the idea by swapping the dots with a user's photo. By linking parts of the image that stand out (think: a mountain top, a sloth's nose) with lines, circles, and taps, you're actually telling the computer to remember a pattern dragged over a 10 x 10 grid. Work the same magic when you return, and you're in.

Touch-based operations get even more close to home. Nasir Memon, a professor of computer science engineering at NYU's Polytechnic Institute is taking our offline verification system, our signature, and making it an online one. His iPhone app, called iSignOn, learns your finger's path across the screen, unlocking when the shape and speed of the signature is repeated. The app is also a password manager, so once you're in, it will open the doors to a bunch of frequently used services.

The touch screen experience is breezy, but there are still problems. Android users, for instance, have expressed concern over "reverse smudge engineering." Because your finger traces a consistent pattern, the oils impart a trail that someone could follow to your data.

Memon estimates that iSignOn reaches about an 8-character password security equivalent. Still, he says, "A signature may come out differently if you're standing, sitting, or walking." So he's running trials, attempting to nail down the perfect mix of ease and rigor. "A four-digit password you enter only once. If I have to enter a gesture multiple times, I would not find that acceptable."

In his quest for a better experience, Memon is also experimenting with biometrics on tablet devices. "Biometrics of the past required special equipment, which added to the cost. And besides, it was creepy. People don't like to feel that with their fingertips, their identity is being taken," he says. "Today it's different. The camera, the accelerometer, sensors--it's all there for you to use for free." What he's devised as a potential tablet login is a simple spin of a digital dial (the underlying engineering is anything but). Placing all five fingers on the screen gives the program data on the distance between your digits, their speed and shape as they spin, and their footprint -- not their fingerprint -- as they land on the surface. The information captured should eventually create a unique enough signature (it's at about six-character strength at the moment) to offer accurate access.

One step past your physical signature is your cognitive one. The idea is this: What if just going about your business could offer continuous online security? Just as an errant charge on your credit card sets off the bank's alarm bells, software could be designed to collect the data hidden in the rhythm of our keyboard taps, our attitude on the touchpad, or even how rapidly we scan a page. It's an appealing idea, mostly because it requires no effort on our part, but also because the so-called active authenticationsounds seriously secure. Earlier this year DARPA sent out a cry for software-based proposals that would find a new way to capture these tics. The hope is that eventually they'll be able to better safeguard their work stations -- without driving their employees crazy.

As new gadgets roll out, so do improved tools to fiddle with our password predicament. Pressure sensitivity on touch screens, for instance, would improve the device's ability to read biometric data. And the DARPA trickle down effect could eventually hit us like, well, the Internet did.

Are any of these approaches a panacea? Nope. Not even close. And as it stands, we've not yet nailed down a how many of these ideas measure up quantitatively. Getting them all to work together is considerably more daunting. Moreover, a system wide change will come at a staggering cost to businesses, so they'll resist it. And even once we've scaled all these hurdles, real world tests like an attack on a biometrically protected Twitter account will surely take place.

There's a reason that eight years after Gates declared the death of the password that some Microsoft researchers came out strongly on the other side: "Passwords, though unloved, deserve some words of praise. They have brought us this far: They are the means by which two billion Internet users access email, banking, social networking and other services." The idea is worthy of a nod, certainly. But amid a sea of stolen data due to a system stretched way beyond human limits, we're over it.


 


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The thief who stole from a car wash




Dr. Eowyn posted: "Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems. These are complete systems that include not just the washing-drying-waxing machines, but also the money changer and money-taking machines. Bill's company installed a car wash system in "
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New post on Fellowship of the Minds

The thief who stole from a car wash

by Dr. Eowyn

Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems. These are complete systems that include not just the washing-drying-waxing machines, but also the money changer and money-taking machines.

Bill's company installed a car wash system in Frederick, Maryland. The problem started when the new owner complained to Bill that he was losing significant amounts of money from his coin machines each week.

So they set up a video cam....

Look at the picture above again.

That's a bird sitting on the change slot of the machine!

The bird had to go down into the machine, and back up inside to get to the coins!

It's a starling!

That's three quarters he has in his beak!

Another amazing thing is that it was not just one bird -- there were several working together. Once the humans identified the thieves, they found over $4,000 in quarters on the roof of the car wash and more under a nearby tree.

This gives new meaning to the term "nest egg"! :D

And to think the expression "bird brain" is associated with being dumb. Not these birds. In fact, starlings are among the most intelligent of birds.

H/t FOTM's beloved moxielouise!

See also my post on the baby starling I rescued, here.

~Eowyn

Dr. Eowyn | September 17, 2012 at 4:00 am | Tags: European starling | Categories: Animals, God's creation, Humor, United States | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-he8

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To President Obama: The 2nd Amendment Is About Fighting Tyranny, Not Hunting Deer



Harold posted: " Michael Scheuer9/17/2012 Soon after the Denver shootings, President Obama said it was time to put stricter gun-control measures in place. With the failure of Attorney General Holder's "Fast and Furious" ploy to void the 2nd Amendment, it seems O"
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New post on ACGR's "News with Attitude"

To President Obama: The 2nd Amendment Is About Fighting Tyranny, Not Hunting Deer

by Harold

Michael Scheuer 9/17/2012 Soon after the Denver shootings, President Obama said it was time to put stricter gun-control measures in place. With the failure of Attorney General Holder's "Fast and Furious" ploy to void the 2nd Amendment, it seems Obama thought he might capitalize on the Denver shootings to further damage the Constitution. The negative [...]

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The Oldest Reference to Allah








The Oldest Reference to Allah

by Admin on SEPTEMBER 13, 2012 in GENERAL

Ted Shoebat

So what is the oldest reference to "Allah" discovered in antiquity? Who was he and what did he represent?

The answer should shock many in the scholarly community.

The oldest reference to "Allah" (before this publication), according to Kenneth J. Thomas, was discovered in Northern and Southern Arabia dating back to the fifth century B.C. [1]

But new research linking "Allah" being worshipped as a deity can be found in the Epic of Atrahasis chiseled on several tablets dating to around 1700 BC [2] and was not found in Arabian records, but in Babylonian.

What should shock historians and theologians alike is that this much older reference to the literal name of a deity called "Allah" was never even linked by any of the experts on Assyriology who have written on the subject or any of the translators of the Atrahasis epic.

Even more troubling for Muslims today is that this deity was described nearly four millennia ago to be a god of "violence and revolution". The beginning of the Epic of Atrahasis describes Allah as how all of the gods labored endlessly in grueling work, under the rule of the patron deity Enlil or Elil. But soon revolt of the gods had erupted, and one deity of "violence and revolution" named Allah (spelled by the experts as Alla), as the following inscription recounts:

Then Alla made his voice heard and spoke to the gods his brothers,' Come! Let us carry Elil, the counselor of gods, the warrior, from his dwelling. Now, cry battle! Let us mix fight with battle!' The gods listened to his speech, set fire to their tools, put aside their spades for fire, their loads for the fire-god, they flared up.[3]

This link sheds new light since for many years we have been hearing various ideas on where Allah came from. Christian and Muslim scholars – as well as secular professors – presented numerous arguments on just who Allah really is, not from an actual name reference but as to the attributes of this deity being similar to others in pre-Islamic times. For example, the renowned historian W. St. Clair Tisdal had found traits of the Persian religion Zoroastrianism in Islam;[4] while many Christian writers have argued that Allah was a moon-god in Arabia and Babylon, but such an argument has been difficult to conclude, on account of the absence of a smoking gun chiseled in ancient inscriptions directly by naming Allah literally and connecting him with lunar worship.

Muslim thinkers on the other hand have always argued that Abraham originally worshiped Allah purely without the corruption of idolatry or Christianity or Judaism, as the Koran states:

Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allah ]. And he was not of the polytheists.[5]

Perhaps the biggest problem for this argument is that there is no ancient inscription found to date in the Near East or anywhere else for that matter, which describes Allah being worshipped purely, without idolatrous connotations.

What is also amazing is that no expert on Assyriology or Sumerology had even suspected that "Alla" had a connection with the Arabian "Allah". I checked the work of Thorkild Jacobsen, a foremost authority on Mesopotamian history, and while he writes on some aspects of "Alla",[6] he makes no connection with the Arabian Allah. I even perused the dictionary of the translator, Stephanie Dalley, to see if she could provide me with the significance behind "Alla", but the name of the deity was entirely absent from it. I could even find a definition for the word "Earth", and for even obscure names of other gods such as "Hurabtil", "Kakka", "Gerra", and "Haharnu", but yet not one explanation for "Alla".[7] She makes no connection between the Babylonian "Alla" and the Arabian "Allah", nor does she even speculate a connection.

Yet, Dalley has made a theory trying to make the Biblical Yahweh an indigenous deity of Hamath in Syria. She uses as evidence to support this claim, the name of a leader from Hamath, Yau-bi-di, by saying that the "Yau" in the name is a form of Yahweh, and thus assuming that He was worshipped indigenously in Syria.[8] She also came to the conclusion that the name of a north Syrian prince, Azri-Yau, bears the name of Yahweh.[9] While she speculates and concludes that certain names with "Yau" are in reality bearing the name of Yahweh, she does even suspect that the "Alla" of the Babylonians is referring to the Arabian Allah.

And to those who accuse me of basing my conclusion, that Alla is Allah, on solely prejudice against Islam, I will present further evidence for my belief. It must be known to the reader that the author of the Atrahasis epic was one Ipiq-Aya who lived under the reign of the Old Babylonian king Ammi-Saduqa, and that he wrote it in the Akkadian language [10] (the tongue of the Old Babylonian kingdom).[11] The "Akkadians" it must be noted did not originally spring from Iraq, but had migrated from south Arabia, specifically Yemen, into Mesopotamia, where south Arabian inscriptions have been discovered, as in Kuwait on the Arab shores of the Persian gulf close to the borders of Iraq.[12] The deities of Shamash (the Sun), and Ashdar/ Athtar (Venus) were both brought by the Akkadians from South Arabia into Mesopotamia.[13]

Athtar was originally a male deity of Venus for the Akkadian Arabs, but because when they had settled into Mesopotamia, they had equated Athtar with the Sumerian goddess of Venus Inanna, and would become the Babylonian Ishtar.[14] This Athtar was also identified with the Arabian Allat,[15] the female consort of Allah who was so revered by the Mesopotamians that they had called her Um-Uruk, or "the mother of the town of Erech," [16] an infamous city of ancient Iraq.

Since Allat was the feminine root of Allah, and was worshipped in Mesopotamia, and equal to the Sumerian Inanna, since they were both Venus goddesses, we should be able to find Allah associated with this goddess, based on inscriptions. In fact, we do, a Sumerian verse which directly identifies "Alla" with the bridegroom of Inanna, Dumuzi or Tammuz who was an ancient deified king who once ruled the city-state of Erech, or Uruk, as the fourth king of its First Dynasty, [17] at around—according to Kramer—the third millennium B.C.,[18] and whose death was ritually lamented by the Sumerians.[19]

It must be emphasized that this identification of Dumuzi with Alla is not made by university scholars, but by the ancient Sumerians themselves. In the following text which gives Alla as another Tammuz, amongst others, it reads:

Alas the lad, the warrior Ninazu! Alas the lad, my lad, my Damu! Alas the lad, the child Ningishzida! Alas the lad, Alla, owner of the net!…The shepherd, lord Dumuzi, bridegroom of Inanna.[20]

Alla's identification with Dumuzi is made specifically in a lament for the king, who is called "the lad," after his death, in which it refers to him as Alla, amongst other names:

[The bitter cry for him! the bitter] cry [for him!] [The bitter] cry for the captive D[umuzi!] The bitter cry [for] the captive Ama-ushumgal-anna! Woe the lad, the child Ningishzida! Woe the lad, Ishtaran of shining visage! Woe the lad, Alla, owner of the net![21]

The more one peruses this ancient text, the more one realizes that this "Alla" is, in fact an ancestral deity who was worshipped in Mesopotamia. Within the same text we find mention of the deity's grave, in which Dumuzi, or Alla, in the mythic narrative, tells his sister Geshtinanna that his mother "will make you search for my corpse." [22]

The tomb of Alla is mentioned specifically in another text, in which it states:

…in the cupbearers' house, among the little bronze cups, Alla, lord of the net, is laid to rest. [23]

By the testimony of the Sumerians, it is clear that this Alla, or Tammuz, was once an infamous king of Erech, to only be deified by the superstitious masses of Mesopotamia. By reading the Kings' List of both the city-states of Ur and Isin, we find that later rulers were in fact equated with this Tammuz after their deaths. Kings of Isin and Ur, such as Ishbi-Girra, Gimil-ili-shu, Idin-Dagan, Ishme-Dagan, Bur-Sin, Ur-Nammu, and Idin-Ishtar, were all deified after their perishing, as Tammuz.[24] And because the Sumerians identified Tammuz with Alla, it becomes logical to affirm that these kings were indeed deified as Alla as well. But besides being identified with later kings of Sumer, Tammuz is also recorded by an Arab writer named Ibn Washiyya to have been an ancient and idolatrous prophet, a cult of whom was observed by an Arabian people called the Nabateans.

The same Arab writer recounts how Tammuz had told a king to worship the seven planets and the twelve signs of the zodiac, which was to the fury of the king who had the wizard killed. To commemorate his death, the Nabatean Arabs, just like the Sumerians, had ritually wailed for him, and also lamented the death of another prophet called Yanbushad, whose name is prefixed with that of the god Nabu.[25] The renown Jewish writer Maimonides, wrote on the origins of the ritual of mourning for the deceased Tammuz:

When the false prophet named Thammuz preached to a certain king that he should worship seven stars and the twelve signs of the zodiac, that king ordered him to be put to a terrible death. On the night of his death all the images assembled from the end of the earth unto the temple of Babylon, to the great golden image of the sun, which was suspended between heaven and earth. That image pretreated itself in the midst of the temple, and so did all the images around it, while it related to them all what had happened to Thammuz. The images wept and lamented all night long, and then in the morning they flew away, each to his own temple again to the ends of the earth. And hence arose the custom every year, on the first day of the month Thammuz, to mourn and weep for Thammuz.[26]

Maimonides traces the origin of this ritual to Babylon, which would mean that it had come from Mesopotamia into Arabia at a time of far antiquity. And because Tammuz was identified by the Sumerians with Alla, we must conclude that the false prophet described by Maimonides and Ibn Washiyya, was also this same Alla.

Theodore Shoebat, For God or For Tyranny
Author and history researcher
Tedshoebat.com

1 Kenneth J. Thomas, Allah in Translations of the Bible, references to René Dussaud, Les Arabes en Syrie avant l'Islam (Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1907), pp. 141f., and Hitti, loc. cit., pp. 100f., citing the work of F. V. Winnett, A Study of the Lihyanite and Thamudic Inscriptions (Toronto: 1937), p. 30

2 Date from Stephanie Dalley's introduction to Atrahasis, in her Myths from Mesopotamia, p. 3.

3 Atrahasis, tablet i, OBV i, i-ii, trans. Stephanie Dalley, in her Myths from Mesopotamia, p. 10, underline mine.

4 Sources of the Qur'ân : Zoroastrian and Hindu Beliefs, By W. St. Clair Tisdall, Chapter 5

5 Koran 3.67

6 See Jacobsen, The Harps that Once, part i, pp. 2, 53, 59, 60

7 See Stephanie Dalley's Glossary Deities, Places, and Key Terms, in her Myths from Mesopotamia

8 See John Barton and Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah, ch. xi, p. 179

9 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05162011-154113/unrestricted/04chapter4.pdf

10 See Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. viii, p. 270

11 See Dalley's Glossary of Deities, Places, and Key Terms, under the term 'Akkadian'

12 See Langdon, The Mythology of All Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. i, pp. 3-4

13 See Langdon, The Mythology of All Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. i, pp. 2-4

14 See Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. i, pp. 4-5, 14, 19

15 Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. i, p. 24

16 See F. Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, ch. ix, p. 116

17 Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. xi, p. 341; Gadd, Ideas of Divine Rule in the Ancient East, lect. i, p. 17, n. 2; Kramer, The Sumerians, ch. ii, p. 45; ch. iv, p. 140

18 Kramer, The Sumerians, ch. iv, p. 140

19 See Kramer, The Sumerians, ch. iv, p. 156

20 In the Desert by the Early Grass, in Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps that Once, part i, p. 61, Ellipses mine

21 Vain Appeal, in Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps that Once, part i, p. 53

22 Vain Appeal, in Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps that Once, part i, p. 55

23 In the Desert by the Early Grass, in Thorkild Jacobsen, The Harps that Once, part i, p. 77; see also the same historian's intro to this text, p. 59

24 See Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. xi, pp. 345-346

25 See Langdon, The Mythology of all Races, vol. v: Semitic, ch. xi, pp. 337, 339; James Townley, Reasons of the Laws of Moses, ch. iv, pp. 164-165

26 Maimonides, More Nevochim, in J. Garnier, The Worship of the Dead, part i, ch. iv, pp. 70-71

 


 


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