zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — a visual DoubleQuote on the difference between artist and politician ]
.

As you may have gathered, I’m an admirer of the artist Alyce Santoro‘s work, and yesterday I came across her Existential Navigational Chart, with its little note in the bottom left corner:

Soundings in the Unfathomable at Mean Low Water (MLW)

In any case, it reminded me of the enormous difference between a political slogan and an artist’s insight.

Obama‘s HOPE (upper panel, below) was a lure, an appeal to an ideal in the sea of practical politics — and opinions are divided as to how well he managed to fulfill that one-word promise:

Alyce‘s navigational mapping of area surrounding the the Hope Islands (lower panel, above) on the other hand, is both more fanciful and more realistic — a wonderful combination if you think about it. Notice the nuance she manages to pack into her map, with Inner Hope Island, Little Hope Island, Hope Island, and on southwards to Lost Hope Island, False Hope Island, and Hope Ledge — and all so close to both Little Despair Island, and Love Rocks —

Who, truly alive, has not been stranded on one or more of those islands, nor dashed against Love Rocks?

**

You can download a print quality, high resolution file of Alyce’s chart without cost, or click through to her Philosoprop shop to purchase a signed copy.

[ by Charles Cameron — following on from Dabiq issue 15, specific notes part 1, Crucifixion ]
.

The second part of my two-parter for LapidoMedia on the 15th issue of the Islamic State magazine Dabiq focuses on the Islamic State’s reading of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity in light of the Islamic doctrine of Unity or Tawhid. The post is headlined:

West’s foreign policy only a secondary reason for hatred

That’s true and important — and you’ll find it in the tail end of my piece — but the main focus, as I said, is Tawhid and Trinity. Here are the opening paras:

Whipping up hatred against the West for religious beliefs it has barely heeded for a century is not without irony.

But in the latest issue of Dabiq magazine, it is clear that IS are doing a better job of reminding the West of its founding faith – while getting most of it wrong – than any amount of papal bulls or clerical press conferences.

The fifteenth issue of the eighty-page glossy takes on the Trinity which classical Islam views as polytheism, and so in contradiction to tawhid, ‘the defining doctrine of Islam’ according to the Oxford Dictionary of Islam.

Tawhid declares that God is one without a second. Shirk, the greatest of sins, is its polar opposite, and means associating anything, even thoughts but especially partners, with God.

The Qur’an Sura 4 verse 171 exhorts Jews and Christians – known as the People of the Book: ‘Do not exaggerate in your religion, nor utter anything concerning God save the truth. Verily the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His Word, which He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and say not, “Three.” Refrain! It is better for you, God is only one God.’

This is possibly a reference to the tendency, still evident in remote Christian communities today, to identify the Trinity as Father, Son Jesus and Mother Mary, which is of course blasphemous.

Read the rest on the Lapido site here.

[ by Charles Cameron — noting a further IS propaganda effort to frame its terror as a war against Christendom ]
.

Fake Dabiq 15:

Fake version/s of #SIS English mag, #Dabiq 15, are circulated on twitter. Not 1st time bogus #ISIS/ #AQ mags surface pic.twitter.com/yYUK0Bc71T

— Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) June 9, 2016

Clicking through the two images will allow you to see them in full. These are the fake Dabiq 15s.

**

Authentic Dabiq 15:

Latest release of #ISIS magazine #dabiq (n.15) strongly focuses on the fight agst Christians: "Break the Cross" pic.twitter.com/CvtGYfsa41

— Laurence Bindner (@LoBindner) July 31, 2016

**

Dabiq 15’s Break the Cross page:

**

DoubleQuoting Dabiq 15 and the Gospel:

This one’s for Tim Furnish. Upper panel above, the claim of the Islamic State; lower panel, the claim of Christianity.

[ by Charles Cameron — I googled “star shapes clip art” ]
.

**

I’m not a Trump-fancier, but i try not to let my dislikes and likes influence my reading of what others are saying with their words, typefaces, graphics, speeches, video clips, tones of voice, facial gestures, and so forth.

So when the image of H Clinton surrounded by dollar bills and a six-pointed star came up in a Trump tweet, I didn’t immediately think “anti-Semitism”. Today, though, it occurred to me to do a little research. So I popped the phrase “star shapes clip art” into Google’s image stash, expecting to find some six-pointers along with five-pointers, inverse (satanic) five-pointers, eight- and twelve-pointers and various indiscriminate start-bursts.

If I saw any six-pointers in the double-triangle formulation known as the Star of David, I’d have noticed and noted them. What I simply wasn’t expecting was what I got:

At the most basic level of graphic design, six-pointed stars — let alone Stars of David — are just not thought about, not wanted, not present.

Okay, next time I see a six pointed star next to money and the face of a political opponent, J won’t be so keen to allow for the possibility that it’s a sherrif’s badge, or just a good old six-pointed, y’know, star.

[ by Charles Cameron — on borrowing the atrocities of others for propaganda advantage ]
.

So @ICC4IDF uses a photo from Syria, bottom right, 2 illustrate his point @QueenWillRock @adamlambert. Enjoy Israel pic.twitter.com/6M7QysIp4T

— Ben Af Rothenberg (@RisingRedStorm) June 15, 2016

and:

@wake_theFup um that's #Syria. @Google image search it. @tabloidnewsxtra @stateofisrael pic.twitter.com/BSx8sssR9o

— Ben Af Rothenberg (@RisingRedStorm) June 21, 2016

**

It’s not as though this is the first time I’ve seen this done, nor is Syria > Palestine necessarily the trajectory — see for example this DoubleTweet from Phillip Smyth, Photographic enantiodromia at the Zaynab shrine?.