THE FORBIDDEN GODDESSES
In the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD, there arose in what is now northern Iraq an Arabian kingdom called Hatra, named after its capital city. Made wealthy with the caravan trade from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, the Arab kings of Hatra built magnificent temples to their gods and goddesses.
The one you see above is known to archaeologists as The Lady of Hatra as what the Arab Hatrans called her is not known. Three others, however, are definitely known – for they are the Forbidden Goddesses, worshipped and adored by Arabs 2,000 years ago, hated and feared by over one billion people today.
Here they are – Al-Lat in the center, flanked by Manat, and Al-Uzza – the daughters of Allah.
Last Friday morning (8/12), while giving a talk in Chautauqua, upstate New York, Salman Rushdie was attacked and stabbed ten times by Moslem fanatic Hadi Matar from Lebanon. For 33 years, since 1989, Iran’s Mullahs have placed a fatwa death warrant on Rushdie for “insulting Islam” by writing a book disclosing the Moslem religion’s most scandalous secret: The Satanic Verses.
Funny thing is, almost no one save for scholars on the history of Islam and Moslem fanatics knows what these “Satanic verses” are. So what are they?
First, what they’re not – having anything to do with Rushdie’s book, which is a poorly-written novel about the problems immigrants from India face living in Britain. Yet the book does reference them in a dream by one of the characters – which let Islam’s cat out of the bag when Khomeini lost his mind over it, giving the book world-wide publicity. No one would have paid much attention to the book otherwise.
Yet still, after a third of a century of world-wide fame and infamy, maybe one person in 10,000 you meet on the street can tell you what these “verses” are. Or 100,000.
So, some background.
Koran is not a name, it is the Arabic word meaning recitation.
The Islamic scripture known as The Koran is, Moslems believe, a transcription dictated by Mohammed of the voice he heard in his head. The voice, said Mohammed, was that of an angel named Gabriel who claimed he was reciting the words of Allah, God Himself.
Mohammed was illiterate, and so could not write down himself the words he heard in his head. Thus the chain of dictation, in official sacred Islamic history:
At various times over a period of 22 years, Allah speaks to Gabriel, Gabriel says to Mohammed what Allah says to him, Mohammed says to his followers (not all the same but various ones over 22 years) what Gabriel says to him, his followers memorize what Mohammed says to them and write it down (often much later) on whatever is around such as stones and pieces of bark.
Only after Mohammed’s death in 632 were all these stones and pieces of bark or parchment gathered together by Mohammed’s best friend Abu Bakr and compiled into one collection entitled the Koran. None of the inscribed stones, bark, or parchments survive today.
Moslems insist that there is absolutely no chance of mistranslation or misunderstanding at any point in the dictation-transcription chain. Every word, every single word without mistake, in the Koran is the actual real word of Allah.
With one exception.
A literally satanic exception.
The saga of the Satanic Verses starts with the earliest accounts of Mohammed’s life written by accepted Islamic scholars such as Ibn Ishaq (died 767 AD) and al-Tabari (d. 923).
“Accepted” means by Islamic tradition. Mohammed supposedly died in 632 and Ishaq wrote about him over 100 years later – so could not have interviewed anyone who knew him. Yet we only know of Ishaq through quotes of him by Tabari, who lived 300 years after Mohammed.
Thus the earliest source of Mohammed’s life and the alleged founding of Islam was written three centuries later. So we are talking “sacred history” here, not actual history.
Ishaq and Tabari, whose accounts form the official biography of Mohammed, tell a story regarding a chapter or sura in the Koran known as An-Najm, The Star, numbered 53.
Remember that the word Koran means Recitation in Arabic, Mohammed reciting Allah via the voice of Angel Gabriel heard in his head. Every word of the Koran, Moslems believe, is the actual unalterable perfect Word of God. So God Himself, in verses 19-20 of Sura 53, says:
“Have you thought about al-Lat and al-Uzza and Manat the third, the other?”
Yep, the “Daughters of Allah,” goddesses worshipped for many centuries by the Arabs to whom Mohammed was preaching, trying to convert them to his new religion.
Ishaq and Tabari then say the next verses, 21-22, were:
“These are the exalted females whose intercession is to be hoped for.”
Thus, Allah acknowledges that he has three daughters who are gods like him.
Ibn Ishaq and al Tabari (and other recognized early biographers, Ibn S’ad, d. 845, and al-Wakidi, d. 823) then explain Mohammed has made a mistake, Gabriel tells him that he was listening to Satan instead of him, Gabriel and thus Allah – for there is only One God and has no daughter gods.
Oops. Sorry about that, Gabe.
Polytheism is The Big Islamic No-No. Gabriel gets upset at Mohammed for being tricked by Satan. Mohammed has to ask his scribes (as he was illiterate and couldn’t write) to cross out these “Satanic Verses” of Sura 53:21-22 and replace them with:
“Are men’s children to be boys and Allah’s to be girls? That is an unfair division!”
Men only want sons, you see, so it is an insult to Allah to claim he has daughters. How ridiculous. So there can only be One God. The final proof of Allah’s solitary existence is that’s he’s sexist.
How satanic. The alteration of Sura 53:21-22 is the great Skeleton in Islam’s Closet. Moslems are terrified of it being exposed. Satan tricked Mohammed, the supposed unalterable Word of God was wrong and had to be changed. It puts the entire Koran in doubt.
And doubt is the one thing most terrifying of all to Moslem fanatics. So any blasphemous revealing of Mohammed believing in The Forbidden Goddesses, the Daughters of Allah, can drive them murderously insane.
Look at the icons of Al-Lat, Manat, and Al-Uzza again. For many centuries, Arabs revered them as Allah’s daughters, which Mohammed respected. Then all of a sudden, the voice in his head says, “No, that wasn’t me – it was Satan!”
But how could he tell the difference – the voices sounded exactly the same. Meaning he could never tell the difference between Gabriel’s voice in his head and Satan’s voice in his head.
Note in the link above that Hadi Matar has pleaded Not Guilty. How is that possible with incontrovertible evidence he is? Because he’ll plead he was acting in obedience to Allah and this cannot be guilty of a crime – it is Salman Rushdie who is the criminal defaming Allah.
But it turns out instead that Hadi Matar was acting in obedience to Satan.