MOHAMMAD AND TAIPING REBELLION

Dear Earthlings,


For many Muslims, the prophethood of Mohammad is a miracle that is self-evident from his victories against the numerically superior Arabic tribes under seemingly hopeless conditions.  Only Allah and his angels could have stolen victory for the Muslims from the jaws of defeat.  The victories of the jihadi armies over the Persian empire and the Byzantines confirm their belief.  They take great pride in having defeated both the superpowers in Afghanistan and predict the eventual Islamic victory over all non-Muslims.


However, today we are going to find a simple explanation for this phenomenon by comparing it to a parallel occurrence in distant China.  The Taiping rebellion and story of Hong Xiuquan bears striking resemblance to the story of Islam and Mohammad.  Hong traveled to Guangzhou to take the imperial examinations but failed to pass and met a missionary, Edwin Stevens, preaching Christianity whose assistant Liang Fa gave him some pamphlets on Christianity.  In Mohammad's time there were many converts called Hanifs who preached some missionary-based belief systems.


After three failed attempts to pass the examination, Hong had a nervous breakdown.  He was delirious for many days and hallucinated about visiting heaven where God gave him a sword to fight demons.  He saw Confucius being punished for leading people astray.  Mohammad also claimed to visit Heaven on a ladder and meet God personally.


Hong claimed that he was the brother of Jesus and had been entrusted with the task of ridding the world of demon worship.  He began by burning all Confucian and Buddhist statues and books in his house.  Mohammad too began by preaching against idolatry in Mecca.  Hong's first converts were his close relatives and so were Mohammad's.  Hong's iconoclasm invited opposition from others and he was exiled just like Mohammad.


Hong studied Christianity under the Southern Baptist misionary, Issachar Jacox Roberts.  Mohammad also studied Christianity under his converted cousin Waraqa.  Some of Hong's followers started having trances of their own in which they claimed to have direct messages from God and Jesus.  Mohammad claimed that he received messages from Allah and his angel Jibril.  Many Arabs inspired by Mohammed started claiming to be prophets themselves, prominent amongst whom was Mussaylima who claimed to be a partner of Mohammed.


Mohammad claimed that his Quran was the original book of God, while Hong claimed that his Taiping Bible was the original version of the ancient religion of China which had been distorted by Confucius.  Mohammad also claimed that Kaaba was the original temple of God which was hijacked by Meccans and therefore it belonged to the Muslims.


Hong's growing popularity led to military conflict with the Chinese authorities and after initial successes he declared the foundation of the Heavenly Kingdom in 1851 just like Mohammad started the Islamic rule in Medina.  In 1853, Hong captured Nanjing and made it his capital.  In 1964, however, it was besieged and Hong died possibly because of poisoning.


What we can learn from this is the similarity of the deleterious influence of Christianity on human psychology in places as far removed as Arabia or China, be it the 7th century or the 17th century.  Today's liberals declare that the more you oppress some ideology the more it strengthens.  17th century Chinese did not have such modern inhibitions and this rebellion was effectively crushed after its initial stupendous success.


We can apply the same lessons to Islam even in the 21st century.  FIRST WE NEED TO DISCREDIT IT WITH THE HELP OF THE FACTS AND NOT GLORIFY IT AS A RELIGION OF PEACE.  Second, those who use violence to promote Islam have to be destroyed.


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