The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> the religious angle...

the religious angle...
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Wednesday, February 20 2013, 16:59:38 (UTC)
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What makes the claim to assyrian heritage suspect is the religious/political bias of assyrians against Islam. Iraqis agree that they are descended from all the ancient peoples of Iraq, including the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hurrians, Chaldeans and Arabs too. No one "denies" the assyrian etc. heritage, they only deny that it has to be a Christian one exclusively. They dispute and reject assyrian claims that ONLY Christians today are descended from the ancients, who knew nothing about Christ and cared less. Thus when you see that this new book has as much of religion to it as it does of history, you have to wonder.

The notion that all Assyrians became Christian, or that Assyrians today can, and must, only be Christians, is the idiocy that shoots the whole thing down... the idea that any Assyrian who turned Christian (a completely foreign and non-existent religion to the ancients), is today the MOST "Assyrian", even though it's a Jewish religion he follows...but that any assyrian who subsequently turned to another, equally foreign religion such as Islam, can NOT any longer be assyrian...tells you all you need to know about the people who push this sort of thing: they are not historians, even if they have degrees in history and teach the subject...they are religious zealots with a Christian axe to grind.

The supposed assyrian heritage of today is nothing more than a Christian heritage. Christmas and Easter are "Assyrian" holidays and all myths and rituals and customs associated with Christianity are re-named "Assyrian"...much as the Church of the East re-named itself the Assyrian Church of the East, adding that word only in 1976, that's A.D.

This is all religious stuff posing as political in order to wrest some oil-rich lands from Iraq....and, most shamefully, history is abused and misused to bolster a case no one takes seriously....at least not the people who matter most in disposing of such bizarre claims.

As I posted on Wikipedia, that pimp of knowledge, only on their site will you find any mention of the existence of modern-day Assyrians (all made by the same zealots)...no other respected source of information and knowledge, not the Britannica or Americanna or any other source, mentions such a thing....why?

Besides which, in the case of this new book, the authors start out by accepting the existence of an exclusive Christian assyrian heritage...when the first thing that needs to be addressed is whether or not there is any meaningful assyrian heritage at all...in other words: are, or CAN, there be any assyrian descendants left...in any meaningful sense of the word especially when people are claiming land-rights and back-pay for "suffering" on that basis. That has to be answered first, instead this bunch got their information from "young assyrians" who naturally believe all they were told growing up....that is not a solid or even respectable source for such information....as Joseph points out, there are lots of people in the MidEast who claim descent from ancient heroes...that doesn't make their claims valid or historical.

Before assessing an assyrian "identity" or "heritage", in the modern era, some actual evidence has to be put forth for the existence of such phenomena....simply taking young peoples' word for it is not enough...or, shouldn't be, from a legitimate historical entity...or publisher.

As I said, the ability to deal openly and honestly with ALL the material on this subject is a good indication of the validity of any study...and while Dr Joseph has welcomed and addressed all challenges, those on the other side have not, in addition they have distorted and selectively shopped though the historical record to prove their points....one side avoids, the other doesn't. That should say it all.



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