Posted on 08/16/2010 7:35:34 PM PDT by Celerity
Actually that is a good question. Not necessarily regarding bells, but is there a cultural or religious prohibition to something like this in Islam like there is regarding artistic depictions (which led to the unique artistic styles on classical Islamic architecture)? Bells or horns could be more efficient and certainly wouldn't be unknown.
seems rather obvious to me that a minaret is a stylized representation of a flame. A giant torch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Basil_Moscow_crop.jpg
It’s where hajjis go to bang goats, away from the prying eyes of the Imam.
(It’s not that the Imam MINDS if the hajjis bang goats — it’s that if a peon happens to have a cute one, the Imam will take it for himself. Allahu akbar! Goat is good!)
Back before Islam when the Arabs were pagans worshipping many gods, demons, spirits, and so forth they had a "SKY GOD" and an "EARTH GOD" just like everybody else on the planet at one time or the other. (SEE FRIDAY and WEDNESDAY for a rough explanation).
Anyway, unlike virtually everyone else, the Arabian "skygod" was FEMALE while the Arabian "earthgod" was MALE.
The Arabs built minarets to commune with the skygod.
The 6th and 7th century "reforms" kept the minarets sans their original pagan meanings (supposedly).
The other deal is there really aren't any trees in most of Arabia so if you wanted to climb up one to see who was coming over the hill you'd first need to build one. And as phallic as they may be the Arabs have yet to come up with a minaret to rival the Washington Monument!
Take that sand pounders.
Thanks for that Cindy. Missed it.
One of the links included is very illuminating.
http://www.zimbio.com/Islamization/articles/goXKJCengHT/Christianity+Minarets+Originally+Used+Islam
Christianity’s Minarets Originally Used By Islam To Show Dominance In Conquered Lands
EmailWritten by Cole2 on Dec-6-09 12:15pm
From: islamizationwatch.blogspot.com
Some excerpts:
“...in 1998, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the ruling Islamist party and current Prime Minister of Turkey, recited: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...
“Muhammad founded a creed, perfect for the underdeveloped desert Arab Bedouins. He opposed creating buildings on a grand scale, saying that “Truly the most unprofitable thing that eats the wealth of a believer is building” and that “Every expense of the believer will be rewarded except the expense of the building”.
“... a mosque should be simple and modest, a booth, like the booth of Moses.
“Minarets became a part of mosques in the period of the “Godless” Umayyad dynasty that came to power by ousting the Prophet’s grandson Hasan (661 CE), and later exterminating the Prophet’s offspring, including his other grandson Husayn...
“Umayyad Caliph al-Walid I (r. 695-715) was the first to introduce minarets to mosques, emulating the steeple, a bell-tower structure that was a feature of Christian churches. This move faced strong resistance from the pious, who objected to constructing anything higher than walls of the mosque. They also condemned the rulers for incorporating Christian symbols to sacred mosques.”
Islam prohibits almost everything. Here is what Google found:
"Mohammed has said that “the bell is the devil’s pipe”" (link.)
Maybe not a minaret, but that new Abu Dhabi skyscraper is sure of symbol of some sort.
The Fatiha (Opening) is the first sura (chapter) of the Qur’an and most common prayer of Islam. If you’re a pious Muslim who prays the five requisite daily prayers of Islam, you will recite the Fatiha seventeen times in the course of those prayers.From Wafa Sultan’s book “A God Who Hates” pg. 168:
“A Muslim prays five times a day, and on each occasion he recites the Fatiha, the first verse of the Koran, a number of times. This verse describes Christians as “those who have gone astray” and Jews as “those who have incurred Your wrath.” We see from this that Muslims execrate Christians and Jews a number of times in the course of a single prayer, which they repeat five times a day.
execrate –verb 1. to detest utterly; abhor; abominate. 2. to curse; imprecate evil upon; damn; denounce: He execrated all who opposed him.No mosque - anywhere, in which the call to prayer takes place, and in which congregants chant the fatiha - is interested in building bridges or extending tolerance. They are however fully intent on gaining exceptional degrees of tolerance from all non-believers. When it comes to Islam, tolerance is a one way street. Believe it or else.
It symbolizes what they’re going to stick up our asses, if we don’t soon wake up.
You’re welcome Bhoy.
It has people living in it ~
That doesn't change the who's got the biggest one nature of all this skyscraper construction.
Wonder if the architechs of the ground zero mosque intend to build these high wnough that they become part of the NY skyline?
Hell’s bells is the sound of the catawaller(sp?) screeching from the minaret’s.
That sound is oppression to all those below.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.