…is an idiot:
“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with. It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets,” he said in a brief telephone call from the central Iranian city of Isfahan, where he underwent the ceremony.
Sean Stone’s famous father is Jewish, while his mother is Christian.
The 27-year-old filmmaker did not say why he converted.
According to Iran’s Fars news agency, Sean Stone had become a Shiite and had chosen to be known by the Muslim first name Ali.
Like father, like son.
This raises so many questions. What is he “converting” from? You can be Christian, or Jewish, but not both, and it’s not clear that he’s ever been either (his mother wasn’t Jewish, so he isn’t Jewish by birth). Does he really believe that the Mullahs will be just fine with his “not abandoning” those other religions (to the degree that he was ever an adherent to them)? Does he know the penalty for apostasy in his new religion?
What is clear from his brief message is that he is as ignorant of Islam as he is of the other two religions.
Giving him the benefit of every doubt one can read that as meaning that since Islam accepts Jesus, Moses, etc as great prophets then he really isn’t abandoning Christianity and Judaism.
Jim, as a believer in Christianity and a follower of Jesus as my personal savior, and as a school boy I spent 8 years in Catholic Grade school learning about Christianity, Jesus is considered to be just a tad more important than just a ‘prophet’, by Christians.
So if Ali Stone accepting Jesus in this subordinate manner, he’s abandoning Christianity as a possibility in his life. To quote Sponge Bob talking to Plankton, “…well, good luck with all that!”
“Not abandoning” makes sense if you believe that when Mohammed was given the Koran, he was given the “uncorrupted” truth of which Judaism and Christianity are distortions. In Islam, Abraham was the first _Muslim_, thus those other religions have the right roots but Man allowed _infidelities_ to that truth to into Judaism, and then by extension Christianity.
So since Judaism and Christianity are just distortions over time of the true religion, he can believe that he’s just adding back the corrections. We don’t have to accept that, but he can believe it.
I’m more p_ssed at him for converting in a country that’s committed to wiping out the infidelities – starting with Jews – by turning us into radioactive dust.
I’ve noticed that in these cases of Western young people converting to Islam, that these kids always have lefty-liberal twits as parents. The kid who grew up in Marin county who tried to do some terrorist bombing about 8 years ago (I forget the kid’s name), I remember that his parents were complete lefty-liberal twits as well.
Wow, it couldn’t be that these direction-free souls are browsing the marketplace of ideas and are naturally attracted to the strongest, most dominating and proscriptive stuff on the shelf — Industrial Strength Meme Complex: conquers spineless cultures on contact!
Your right Titus, about the ‘strength’ issue. But how do they miss that whole part about Islamofascists killing people in droves for Allah?
I’d compare it to a kid who grew up riding on his daddy’s horse drawn wagon and daddy’s job is hauling Jews into and ASHES out of Auschwitz.
The son goes on a quest as a teen for something he can ‘believe’ in. So he joins the Nazi SS! (yeah it’s got holes in it, but…)
The Religion of Peace isn’t very peaceful. How did Ali miss that? Where was HE on 9/11? Or on any day since?
John Walker Lindh? (or Suleiman Ferris or Abdul Hamid or…)
He was on a “spiritual quest.” (Probably in search of a strong horse.) Can’t believe Obama hasn’t commuted his sentence.
Yeah, it was John Walker Lindh that I was talking about. My understanding is that he is from Marin County (in Northern California) and that his parents were the kind of touchy-feelly lefties like those depicted in Nicholas Cage’s first movie “Valley Girl”.
Speaking of this phenomenon, I have heard that it was not uncommon for young people in the 1930’s to visit both Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R., to see both systems as identical to each other, and to believe they were morally superior to American freedom.
Stupidity exists in all generations.
Rand, I’d like to correct something you said regarding Judaism.
You said “his mother wasn’t Jewish, so he isn’t Jewish by birth”
The largest denomination of Jews in the United States is Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism broke with the Conservative and Orthodox denominations over patrilineal descent in 1983. (That’s an oversimplification — there is no central authority that can declare things the way the Vatican can, but there are groups of rabbis , such as the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who work together to create a coherent religion). Reform Jews recognize a child as Jewish by birth if either parent is Jewish.
Here is the text of the 1983 statement by the Central Conference of American Rabbis:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/patrilineal1.html
It is a lengthy text, but the bottom line is that patrilineal descent is recognized, and it literally is at the bottom of the page.
I think more recent research indicates that Judaism is located on the X chromosome, which is why it’s passed down on the mother’s side and why Jesus was Jewish, as are all Jewish males. Note that different strains of Judaism (Orthodox, Reform, etc) arose through conventional gene swapping between X chromosomes.
Islam is carried on the Y chromosome which is why it’s passed down on the father’s side. Unlike Judaism’s males, Muslim females aren’t even carriers (having no Y chromosome), which is why they have almost no status, can be killed for displaying non-Islamic behaviors (because they aren’t really Muslims and can revert at any time), and why they are fiercly guarded from non-Islamic influences. Since the Y chromosome can’t swap genes, it evolves inordinately slowly, which is why Islam shows so few changes and why there are only three branches, and even those are virtually identical.
Christianity, oddly enough, is carried by intestinal bacteria, which is why it spreads so easily and mutates so rapidly, producing thousands of denominations at the drop of a hat. That’s also the reason Christians take communion (which is like probiotic yogurt) and have so many pot-luck dinners. This theory gained wide acceptance when theological researchers noticed that a person from denomination A who attends too many pot-luck dinners of denomination B is very likely to join denomination B. It’s just gut bugs. That’s also why Catholism has a much lower mutation and branching rate than other denominations, because it has much more frequent replentishment of gut bugs from a central supply.
Shinto and Hinduism comes from contact with soil fungi native only to Japan or India, respectively, but some people have a natural immunity.
Buddhism seems to be airborne.
From a seperate interview, it appears that his decision was based as much on a dislike for capitalism than religious philosophy.
Messianic Jews and Christians familiar with the roots of their faith would disagree. Christianity views Jesus as a fulfillment of Jewish prophesy.
since Islam accepts Jesus, Moses, etc as great prophets
Mmmm, no. This is one of those falsehoods that gets repeated so much that people think that it must be true.
At best it could be claimed that Islam is a Jewish heresy, like Christianity. That Mo (currently a resident of the 9th Malebolgia), disgusted and petulant that the Jews wouldn’t accept him as their messiah, started his own religion and declared war on those same Jews.
As for sharing the same “prophets”, Islam bears the same relationship to Christianity and Judaism that Scientology bears to “science.”
@Raoul,
‘As for sharing the same “prophets”, Islam bears the same relationship to Christianity and Judaism that Scientology bears to “science.”’
Do you mind if I use that in future?
That is as perfect a description as I’ve seen lately.
The fruit apparently doesn’t fall far from the tree. So I guess the autumn of my years is going to be afflicted by the beyond spoiled fruits of yet another so-called filmmaker named Stone. Not worthy to be a boil on the @$$ of Huston, just like his father.
What is clear from his brief message is that he is as ignorant of Islam as he is of the other two religions.
As an atheist I personally can’t claim great knowledge of any of these religions.
When his nitwit son gets stoned to death for apostasy, Oliver Stone will find a way to blame Bush.
He is an opportunist, just like dad. He has glommed onto Islam so that he can get some cool footage for his documentary and when it’s done he will blow off Mohamed.
What is he “converting” from?
Possibly atheism*; one “converts to” a religion when becoming an adult member, by convention, even if one did not formally or practically hold any religion at all in the first place.
(* Yeah, yeah, it’s not a religion. Doesn’t matter.)
(PeterH said, “Messianic Jews and Christians familiar with the roots of their faith would disagree. Christianity views Jesus as a fulfillment of Jewish prophesy.” … well, as for the latter half of that, Christians in general certainly don’t consider themselves to “be Jewish”, religiously or otherwise.
Nor do Jews consider them to be Jews (unless they would be regardless of their Christianity, by having a Jewish mother).
So I think, apart from the theological issues, we can safely say that if both groups think that they’re separate, they’re probably really separate, in general.)
Being a Christian does not require one to be a Jew. There was a major controversy over that point in the early church, with many holding that Christians must be Jews. Today few Christians are Jews, but there is a group of Jews who have accepted Christ without abandoning their Judaism. Christian groups, in general, accept them as fellow Christians. Other Jews are generally less accepting in their identity as Jews.
I think Stone is just going native while making his film. Totally in the vein of his dad. No commitment to any values of any specificity, but a perversely deep fascination with the human condition.