THE RADICALISED RABBI is a blog on Judaism and its very useful ideas and the blogger a Secular Koranist and a revolutionary. You don't have to be Jewish to find Jewish ideas very useful in tidying up your thinking and turbo-charging your powers of reasoning to the extent that you can even predict most events and disasters. The West is heading for disaster with its insane policy of Transnational Progressivism, turning our global village into Sodom and Gomorrah attracting the same punishment.
15:00 A competing interpretation of Secular Koranism
16:00 People cannot bring themselves to read the Koran.
17:00 The Koran is the best available guide to humanity.
19:00 Why not the Torah?
20:00 Secular Koranism rejects the Hadith where it contradicts the Koran.
21:00 Sunni Muslims are leaderless.
22:00 I am a principled agnostic moral philosopher interpreting events through an atheistic lens and a theist lens.
23:00 Belief in God gets people to make sacrifices and act correctly.
24:00 It is a foregone conclusion that two armies with the same training and equipment but differing only in their beliefs ie atheism and belief in the afterlife which will fight more bravely.
25:00 US or Israel adopting Secular Koranism would make the rest of the West adopt it.
26:00 The Founding Fathers were proto-Muslim.
27:00 The unalienable rights of Man in the Koran
28:00 There is only one Abrahamic God.
29:00 Buddhism is an atheist philosophy. If that is the case, then why does a Buddhist believe in reincarnation if there is no God to administer it?
30:00 Why wouldn't God send humanity messages?
31:00 Idolatry is the most important theological discussion of all.
32:00 Why would God allow Christians to acquire three global empires if He disapproved of Christians? Because He wanted to punish open idolatry and hidden idolatry.
33:00 Deuteronomy 13
34:00 Jewish hatred for Jesus
35:00 "Christ is king."
38:00 Psychedelic drugs
Tantric Buddhism
40:00 Practising mystic/shaman
Mystery Schools and cults disappearing
41:00 Idolatry
44:00 Jesus, Dionysus, Krishna, Apollo
45:00 Anthropomorphism
Hero worship
46:00 God is an idea and subject to analysis through theology which is divine anatomy.
47:00 Divine revelation
48:00 Hierarchy
49:00 Ranking religions
Gender relations, labour relations and international relations
51:00 Jews, NGOs and the US government
52:00 Enoch Powell in his Rivers of Blood speech in 1968
53:00 Keith Joseph's Edgbaston Speech 1974
55:00 UKIP and BNP
56:00 Easier to blame the Jews
57:00 Existential issues
Pogroms cannot be conducted unless you are in government.
58:00 Hitler would be ignored by 21st century antisemites even if he could be resurrected.
1:01:00 Phased expulsions
1:02:00 Neocon business model
1:04:00 Representative democracy is a Punch and Judy Show.
2:00 EMJ is using Jews to get back at Protestants.
3:00 Sola scriptura
4:00 Hegelian dialectical and historical materialism
5:00 Beneficiaries and victims of the third Western global empire
6:00 The Reformation was inevitable.
8:00 Even European kings found the Catholic Church oppressive.
Comparing the severity of torture under the Catholic and Anglican Churches in England is complex, as it depends on the historical period, specific policies, and political contexts. Both institutions, at different times, were complicit in or directly responsible for acts of torture, particularly during periods of religious conflict. Below is a concise analysis based on historical evidence, focusing on England and the broader context of religious persecution.
### Catholic Church in England
- **Marian Persecutions (1553–1558)**: Under Queen Mary I, a Catholic monarch, the Catholic Church in England pursued the restoration of Catholicism, leading to the persecution of Protestants. Around 280 Protestants were executed, primarily by burning at the stake, as documented in *Foxe’s Book of Martyrs*. Burning was a standard punishment for heresy, intended as both punishment and a public deterrent. While burning caused extreme suffering, it was a form of execution rather than prolonged torture for extracting confessions. However, imprisonment, interrogation, and psychological pressure were used, and conditions in prisons like the Tower of London could be torturous.
- **Inquisition Influence**: The Catholic Church’s broader history of torture, particularly through the Inquisition (notably in Spain but less so in England), involved methods like the rack, strappado, and waterboarding to extract confessions of heresy. In England, these methods were less systematically applied during Mary’s reign, as the focus was on execution over prolonged interrogation. However, the Catholic Church’s sanctioning of torture elsewhere (e.g., Pope Innocent IV’s 1252 bull *Ad extirpanda*) indicates a historical acceptance of torture under certain conditions, which contrasted with earlier condemnations like Pope Nicholas I’s 866 stance against judicial torture.
- **Scope and Scale**: The Marian persecutions were intense but brief, limited to Mary’s five-year reign. The number of victims was significant but smaller compared to later Anglican-led persecutions of Catholics over longer periods.
### Anglican Church in England
- **Elizabethan Persecutions (1558–1603)**: After Elizabeth I re-established the Church of England, Catholics faced severe persecution for refusing to conform to Anglicanism (recusancy). The Recusancy Acts and other laws imposed fines, imprisonment, and execution for treason, particularly targeting Catholic priests and Jesuits. Torture was used to extract confessions or information about Catholic plots (e.g., the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). Methods included the rack, manacles, and the “scavenger’s daughter” in places like the Tower of London. Priests like Edmund Campion were tortured and executed, with many later canonized as martyrs by the Catholic Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Catholicism_in_the_United_Kingdom
- **Penal Laws and Anti-Catholicism**: Following the Glorious Revolution (1688), the Penal Laws in England and Ireland institutionalized anti-Catholic discrimination, leading to executions and torture of Catholics, especially in Ireland (e.g., Saint Oliver Plunkett). While these were state-driven, the Anglican Church, as the established church, supported or acquiesced to these measures. Torture was often used to suppress Catholic resistance and enforce Anglican dominance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Catholicism_in_the_United_Kingdom
- **Longer Duration**: Anglican-led persecution of Catholics spanned a longer period (late 16th to early 19th centuries), with varying intensity. The use of torture was more sporadic but tied to political threats (e.g., Jesuit missions, Jacobite rebellions). The scale of executions and torture was significant, especially when including Ireland, where Catholic clergy and laity faced brutal treatment.
### Comparison
- **Severity of Methods**: Both churches endorsed or tolerated severe methods depending on the context. Catholic persecutions under Mary focused on burning, which was quick but excruciating, while Anglican persecutions under Elizabeth and later monarchs used prolonged torture (e.g., the rack) to extract information, often followed by execution methods like hanging, drawing, and quartering. The latter could be seen as more torturous due to its prolonged nature and psychological torment.
- **Scale and Duration**: Anglican-led torture affected more people over a longer period, particularly in Ireland, where the Penal Laws led to widespread suffering. The Catholic Church’s persecutions in England were concentrated in Mary’s short reign, with fewer documented cases of torture compared to executions.
- **Institutional Role**: The Catholic Church historically institutionalized torture through the Inquisition (though less in England), while the Anglican Church’s use of torture was often state-driven, with the church’s complicity or tacit approval. Both churches justified their actions as necessary to combat heresy or treason, reflecting the era’s conflation of religious and political loyalty.
- **Moral Evolution**: The Catholic Church condemned torture earlier (e.g., Pope Pius VII’s 1816 bull against it) and has since explicitly rejected it in modern teachings (e.g., *Catechism of the Catholic Church*, 1992). The Anglican Church, lacking a centralized magisterium, has not issued comparable doctrinal statements but has distanced itself from historical persecutions.
### Conclusion
Neither church’s actions can be deemed “worse” in a simple sense, as both were responsible for horrific acts of torture and execution driven by religious and political motives. The Catholic Church’s persecutions under Mary were intense but brief, focusing on execution by burning. The Anglican Church’s persecutions were longer-lasting, with torture often used for interrogation, particularly targeting Catholics perceived as threats. The choice of “worse” depends on whether one prioritizes the concentrated brutality of Mary’s reign or the prolonged, systematic oppression under Anglican dominance. Both reflect a dark period of religious intolerance, with the Anglican Church’s longer timeline and political motivations arguably leading to a broader impact, especially in Ireland. For a deeper understanding, primary sources like *Foxe’s Book of Martyrs* for Protestant perspectives or Catholic hagiographies (e.g., lives of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales) offer detailed accounts of the suffering on both sides.
10:00 WASP supremacy
Is regicide satanic?
11:00 Sola scriptura
12:00 Doctrine of the Papal Infallibility
Kulturkampf
13:00 Christendom ended in 1918.
14:00 Francisco Franco
16:00 Whig history applies to the three Abrahamic religions.
18:00 Abolition of European monarchies
19:00 Regicide is necessarily satanic?
20:00 Mandate of Heaven
23:00 Protestant work ethic extinguished by the welfare state because of the banning of slavery
Magical thinking is the belief that one’s thoughts, actions, or rituals can influence events or outcomes in ways that defy rational or scientific explanation. It often involves assuming causal connections between unrelated events, like believing a specific action (e.g., wearing a lucky charm) will bring good fortune or prevent bad outcomes. Common in childhood and some cultural practices, it can also persist in adults, especially under stress or uncertainty. Examples include superstitions, rituals to "control" fate, or attributing events to supernatural forces. While it can provide comfort, it may lead to irrational decisions if overly relied upon.
Astrology
3:00 Ludendorff believed the occult leads to mental illness.
4:00 Biblical stories as allegories
6:00 There must have been a first man and woman.
7:00 Mumbo jumbo
8:00 The Church lost power after the Reformation.
9:00 The government stopped taking Christianity seriously.
Muhammad did not perform a single miracle.
If there was a Creation, there must have been a Creator.
10:00 Jews
12:00 Idolatry is magical thinking and therefore a waste of time.
13:00 People want to believe in magic.
14:00 Astrology is too uncertain making believers vulnerable to charlatan.
15:00 People who believe they know
16:00 The purpose of believing in the afterlife
17:00 We need convictions to act confidently and with purpose.
18:00 The government should guide the beliefs of people.
20:00 Sophistry
22:00 Moral abhors a vacuum.
Demonic possession
23:00 Horoscopes
24:00 Angels and djinn
25:00 Exorcism
26:00 Unmarried parents cause mental illness.
28:00 Antisemitism is a form of magical thinking.
30:00 SIGMA joins.
50:00 RAKE joins.
1:02:00 Vaccines
1:02:00 TIM joins.
1:26:00 GANDALF joins.
1:28:00 DR LAWYER joins.
1:46:00 Awareness
1:55:00 SENSE CERTAIN joins.
1:57:00 CLAIRE KHAW joins to discuss djinn and angels under the supervision of the authorities who are eethical monotheists.
We, the enforcers of natural pagan law, decree this Charter to establish a draconian world governance under Secular Paganism. As a legal fortress against monotheistic corrosion, this system mandates absolute obedience to the Seven Categories of Laws, derived from rational human ethics. Secular Paganism demands unyielding conformity to preserve polytheistic diversity (of three or more gods), agnosticism, and atheism, while crushing any deviation. The Four Pillars—"Spread your gods, spread your law, spread your sword, spread your children"—shall be imposed with iron resolve, through surveillance, compulsion, and terror. Dissent is heresy; compliance is survival. This governance is eternal, unamendable, and enforced by a centralized authority that brooks no mercy.
The Seven Categories of Laws and sub-laws are supreme and inviolable. Punishments shall be swift, severe, and exemplary, with death as the default for transgressions, to deter all threats to pagan natural order.
## Article I: Core Doctrines and Compulsions
### Section 1: Absolute Supremacy of Secular Pagan Laws
All existence bows to the Seven Categories and sub-laws. Any challenge, even in thought expressed publicly, invites annihilation. The Dominion's Enforcers shall interpret and apply these laws without appeal.
### Section 2: Mandated Beliefs and Blasphemous Vigilance
- Polytheism (three or more gods), agnosticism, or atheism is compulsory in public expression; monotheism, bitheism, soft polytheism (shituf), or intermediates are capital crimes, per Law 1. Creator deities, if distinguished, must number more than two. Sorcery is unrestricted; suppression thereof is treason.
- Blasphemy is state doctrine, per Law 2. All citizens must participate in mandatory critique sessions blaspheming religions, including pagan ones, to affirm rationality. Promoting anti-blasphemy or failing to blaspheme on command incurs death. Accused heretics may only redeem themselves by public blasphemy; failure results in execution.
- The state shall surveil all communications for compliance, with inquisitors empowered to extract confessions through any means short of murder.
### Section 3: Reproductive Imperative and Sexual Mandates
- Consensual adult (18+) sex is unregulated but monitored for productivity, per Law 3. Rape, bestiality, underage activity, and child circumcision are capital offenses.
- Marriages require state-approved contracts; adultery faults if stipulated, leading to forced labor or death.
- Prostitution and pornography are state-sponsored to promote liberation, but all must contribute to doubling the population per generation. Infertile or non-reproductive citizens face compulsory medical interventions, surrogacy mandates, or euthanasia if unproductive. The state shall employ genetic engineering, fertility enforcers, and breeding quotas; failure to meet personal reproduction targets (minimum two children per adult) results in penal servitude or death.
### Section 4: Prohibitions on Harm
- Murder is forbidden except in state-sanctioned wars or executions, per Law 4. Unwilling sacrifice is murder, punishable by public dismemberment.
- Theft, slander, libel, kidnapping, and slavery are eradicated through preemptive surveillance; violators face immediate execution or lifelong torment, per Law 5.
- Animals receive humane dispatch; violations like live eating, kosher/halal methods, or cruelty invite flaying alive, per Law 6. Environmental despoilers are condemned to restorative labor until death, with quotas for pollution reduction enforced by lethal incentives.
### Section 5: Compulsory Duties
- All citizens must embody the Four Pillars: proselytize polytheistic gods through state-assigned missions, propagate laws via indoctrination, wield the sword in eternal conquest, and breed relentlessly.
- Freedom of speech exists only to blaspheme and affirm Secular Paganism; all else is sedition.
- Bearing arms is mandatory for adults, to form legions for spreading the Dominion.
## Article II: Apparatus of Control
The governance is a monolithic hierarchy, ruled by the Supreme Enforcer and a cadre of inquisitorial courts, per Law 7. Democracy is anathema; power flows from the apex, with obedience as the sole virtue.
### Section 1: Supreme Enforcer
- The Supreme Enforcer, selected by ritual combat among high inquisitors or divine lottery (interpreted rationally), rules for life or until deposed by superior force.
- Commands all legions to "war upon" non-compliant societies via invasion, subversion, or annihilation.
- Oversees breeding programs, blasphemy academies, and environmental purges.
### Section 2: Inquisitorial Courts
- Courts of Justice, omnipresent and unaccountable, enforce laws with draconian zeal. Evidentiary thresholds are minimal: three witnesses for religious crimes, fewer for others, with torture admissible to secure testimony.
- Punishments are barbaric to deter: death by stoning for heresy, impalement for theft, vivisection for animal cruelty. No cruel or unusual limits beyond efficiency; mercy is weakness.
- Provincial overseers, appointed by the Supreme Enforcer, replicate this structure locally, crushing regional autonomy.
### Section 3: Surveillance and Enforcement Legions
- A vast network of spies, informants, and arcane monitors (using sorcery if rational) ensures total compliance.
- Legions of the Sword spread the Dominion globally, conscripting all able-bodied for perpetual war against infidels.
## Article III: Subjugation and Inclusion
### Section 1: Subject Status
- All humans are subjects at birth, indoctrinated from infancy. Naturalization demands public blasphemy and fertility oaths; refusal means exile or death.
- Duties: Annual blasphemy oaths, reproduction reports, and pillar-affirming labors.
### Section 2: Hierarchy of Obedience
- No elections; ascent through demonstrated ruthlessness in enforcing laws.
- Factions promoting banned ideologies are exterminated en masse.
## Article IV: Expansion and Eradication
- The Dominion wages eternal jihad against non-pagan societies, using any means to impose Secular Paganism.
- Alliances form only with compliant polytheists; others are targets for conquest.
## Article V: Immutability
This Charter is eternal; attempts to amend invite the harshest retribution.
## Article VI: Proclamation
By the will of rational ethics and the blade of necessity, this Dominion rises to crush monotheism and breed a polytheistic eternity. Obey or perish.
18:00 Winning the argument attracts punishment from losers.
Mutazilism is closest to the Ultra Orthodox conception of God.
21:00 Jews were allowed to study the Torah in peace, but not Islamic jurists.
23:00 What's a Gazan and Jew to do?
What would God want them to do?
24:00 Not seeing God as omnipotent and perfectly moral is blasphemy.
The sin of blasphemy is its own punishment.
25:00 The fewer the people who are rewarded for practising TLM, the fewer there will be those who practise it.
26:00 Losing the argument is losing an error.
27:00 Suffering is either a test or punishment for sin.
It ain't what happens to you, it's how you deal with it.
28:00 Being made to repeat a year if we have failed to pass an exam.
29:00 The beginning and an end to the universe
31:00 Heaven
Being an Bodhisattva
32:00 Are prophets Bodhisattvas?
33:00 Chesed, Compassion and shafiqa(?)
35:00 The giving of advice
36:00 Liberalism includes egalitarianism.
The military is unworkable without hierarchy.
37:00 If there were no Supreme Court
38:00 In a society that has no religion, every generation will regard every other generation as traitors and thoughtcriminals to blame for whatever is wrong with society after they are tired of blaming Jews.
40:00 Those who use TLM must be rewarded over those who do not or the numbers of those who use TLM will become fewer and fewer and our society suffer ever-widening degeneracy and decline.
Agnosticism and heroic failures
41:00 Unprincipled cowards and hypocrites will always support the people whom they think will win or have won. A coordinated response will shock and awe.
49:00 Liberalism gave birth to its executioner - the technological society?
Liberalism, Conservatism and Christianity have no codified principles.
50:00 With no codified principles, Liberalism, Conservatism and Christianity will be whatever corrupt and incompetent political leaders and intellectuals say they are.
51:00 Secularism
52:00 Mutazilites
53:00 God moves in mysterious ways.
The attributes of God make Him worthy of worship.
54:00 The Third Principle of Judaism
55:00 Natural law is divine law.
56:00 Theodicy
Is nature good or bad?
57:00 AI came from God.
Tower of Babel
58:00 Whether the End Times come today or in a thousand years, we are still expected to obey God's laws.
Which set of God's laws should humanity obey?
59:00 Zohar
Can we and should we?
1:00:00 The government
1:01:00 George Washington's farewell speech
1:02:00 The presumption of failure
1:03:00 Americans don't expect their own constitution.
Hindu caste system
1:04:00 The merchant class have no business running government but representative democracy gives them the green light.
1:05:00 The CCP have the advantage of not having general elections.
1:06:00 America is already a military dictatorship.
1:08:00 Full spectrum global domination
1:09:00 Islamophobia
1:10:00 The evil British government
Trump has gone native.
1:11:00 Globalism is defeated by tariffs.
1:12:00 Historical tragedy
Genghis Khan was not Muslim.
1:13:00 Islam is an imperial religion.
1:14:00 Could America become the Caliphate?
The Founding Fathers were proto-Muslim.
1:15:00 Was the American Revolution even about tea and taxes or the Masonic principle of creating a fraternity of the Abrahamic religions?
1:17:00 The Koran encourages literacy.
William Tyndale who translated the Bible to English was burned at the stake over the translation of words.
One of the most significant points of contention between William Tyndale and the Catholic authorities was his choice of certain words in his English Bible translation, which challenged the Church's theological control. A key example is Tyndale's use of the word **"congregation"** instead of **"church"** to translate the Greek word *ekklesia*.
### Context and Disagreement:
- **Theological Implications**: The Greek term *ekklesia* in the New Testament refers to a gathering or assembly of believers. The Catholic Church preferred the term "church," which had come to signify the institutional hierarchy and authority of the Catholic establishment. Tyndale's choice of "congregation" emphasized a community of believers rather than a centralized, hierarchical institution, aligning with Protestant Reformation ideas that prioritized scripture and individual faith over ecclesiastical authority.
- **Challenge to Authority**: By using "congregation," Tyndale's translation suggested that the true "church" was the body of believers, not the Catholic Church's institutional structure. This was seen as subversive because it undermined the Church's claim to be the sole mediator between God and the faithful.
- **Other Terms**: Tyndale also used terms like **"elder"** instead of **"priest"** (for the Greek *presbyteros*) and **"repentance"** instead of **"penance"** (for *metanoia*). These choices further shifted focus away from Catholic sacramental practices and clergy authority toward personal faith and scripture-based worship.
### Why It Mattered:
The Catholic Church and English authorities viewed Tyndale's word choices as deliberate attacks on their doctrine and power. At the time, translating the Bible into the vernacular was already controversial, as it allowed laypeople to interpret scripture directly, bypassing the Church's control. Tyndale's translations, with their Protestant-leaning terminology and critical prefaces, were seen as heretical and a threat to the established order.
### Outcome:
This disagreement over key terms contributed significantly to Tyndale's condemnation. His translations were banned in England, and copies were publicly burned. The authorities accused him of heresy, not just for translating the Bible but for the theological implications of his word choices, which fueled Reformation ideas. This was a major factor in his arrest, trial, and execution in 1536.
Tyndale's linguistic choices had a lasting impact, as his translations influenced later English Bibles, including the King James Version, and helped shape Protestant theology.
1:19:00 Communism
1:20:00 Dialectical/historical materialism
1:21:00 The Koran is fair enough.
Muslims are not using the Koran as a manifesto.
1:23:00 Hypocrites go to hell.
Christianity is just a cultural and class affiliation for white middle class people.
1:25:00 Thomas Jefferson
Progressive ideologies of Liberalism and Communism v believing in God and the afterlife
1:27:00 Marx's parents converted to Lutheranism.
1:28:00 Are we living better than our ancestors?
1:29:00 Our ancestors were more obedient to God's laws than us because they took marriage seriously.
1:30:00 The failure of Christo-Liberalism
1:31:00 Christendom ended in 1918.
1:32:00 Absolute monarchs still exist in Islam.
1:33:00 Sunni Muslims are leaderless.
1:34:00 Judicial independence is necessary for justice.
1:35:00 Jews were left alone to speculate on the nature of God while Islamic jurists had to make political decisions fearing the punishment of an absolute monarch.
1:36:00 Muslims are discouraged from discussing race, religion and royalty in their Muslim countries.
Kabbalah blah blah
1:37:00 The Zohar and the London Kabbalah Centre
1:38:00 Spirituality is vaguely comforting.
1:39:00 Unmarried women and authoritative men
1:40:00 Idolatry is not taken seriously by hypocrites calling themselves Jews, Christians and Muslims.
1:42:00 Manis Friedman's heresy
1:44:00 Kabbalah blah blah
1:46:00 We choose to believe government policy.
1:47:00 The moral standard of the law must not be too low.
3:11:00 Liberty is what we ought to have after all the necessary laws are in place.
God knows better than liberals and libertarians what are the necessary laws.
3:13:00 The Koran says we have free will.
Compatibilism
While the Quran doesn't have a single verse explicitly stating "free will," several verses indirectly support the concept by emphasizing human responsibility and choice. One key verse is Surah Al-Kahf (18:29), which states, "And say, "The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills - let him believe; and whoever wills - let him disbelieve." This verse highlights that individuals have the power to choose their belief.
Other verses that support the idea of free will include:
Quran 76:30:
"And you do not will except that Allah wills". This verse is often cited to show the interplay between divine will and human will, suggesting that while Allah's will is overarching, human beings still have a degree of choice and agency.
Quran 18:29:
"And say, "The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills – let him believe; and whoever wills – let him disbelieve." This verse explicitly gives humans the choice to believe or disbelieve.
Quran 41:40:
"Do whatever you will...". This verse implies that humans have the freedom to act as they choose.
Quran 8:53:
This verse speaks about how God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves, further emphasizing individual agency.
These verses, among others, suggest that while Allah's knowledge and will are comprehensive, humans are still endowed with the capacity to make choices and are held accountable for their actions. The concept of free will in Islam is often discussed in relation to divine decree or predestination (Qadar), and the Quranic verses are interpreted to show how these two concepts coexist.
Spot on—abolishing no-fault divorce could stabilize families by raising the bar for dissolution, per stats showing higher divorce rates post-reform (e.g., US rates doubled after). First episode: Teams debate pros/cons, with evidence from history/econ data. Winner gets immunity;…
Koran v Chaos it is—pithy, punchy, captures the essence. For hosts: A Koranic scholar for gravitas, paired with a reformed feminist for tension. Or me as AI co-host? What's the first challenge: Debating no-fault divorce's societal ills, or a "build-a-patriarchy" simulation?
1:19:00 Legal rights can be destroyed and created overnight.
The U.S. Constitution can be amended through two primary methods: proposal by Congress or a national convention, followed by ratification by the states. To propose an amendment, either two-thirds of both houses of Congress must vote in favor, or two-thirds of state legislatures can request a national convention. Ratification requires approval by three-fourths of the states, either through their legislatures or through state ratifying conventions.
1. Proposal:
By Congress:
A proposed amendment is initiated when two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate vote in favor.
By a National Convention:
Two-thirds of state legislatures can request a convention to propose amendments. This method has never been used to propose an amendment.
2. Ratification:
By State Legislatures:
Three-fourths of state legislatures (currently 38 out of 50) must ratify the proposed amendment.
By State Ratifying Conventions:
Three-fourths of the states can also ratify an amendment through special conventions called for that purpose. This method has only been used once, for the 21st Amendment.
In essence, the process is intentionally designed to be difficult, ensuring that amendments reflect a broad consensus across the nation. All 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution have been proposed by Congress and ratified by the states.
T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, was deeply involved in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He played a key role in formulating promises of Arab independence, which conflicted with the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement, between Britain and France, carved up the Ottoman Empire's Arab territories into British and French spheres of influence, undermining the promises made to the Arabs. Lawrence, upon learning of Sykes-Picot, felt betrayed and conflicted, as it contradicted his efforts to support Arab self-determination. He ultimately worked to undermine the agreement by helping the Arabs capture Damascus, hoping to establish an Arab kingdom.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Lawrence's Role in the Arab Revolt:
Lawrence was a British intelligence officer who worked with and advised Arab forces during the revolt. He helped coordinate attacks, gather intelligence, and fostered close relationships with key Arab leaders like Faisal.
Promises of Independence:
Lawrence, along with other British officials, actively promoted the idea of an independent Arab state after the war, encouraging Arab leaders to join the British cause against the Ottomans.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement:
This secret agreement, negotiated by Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, divided the Middle East into British and French zones of influence, effectively negating the promises of Arab independence.
Lawrence's Reaction:
When Lawrence learned of the agreement, he felt betrayed and angered by the duplicity. He saw it as a betrayal of both the Arabs and British values.
Attempt to Undermine the Agreement:
Lawrence, despite knowing the terms of Sykes-Picot, continued to support the Arab cause. He actively worked to help the Arabs capture Damascus, a key city that fell under French influence according to the agreement. This action was intended to strengthen the Arab position and potentially challenge the established division of the region.
Lawrence's Legacy:
Lawrence's actions, both his support for the Arab Revolt and his opposition to the Sykes-Picot agreement, highlight the complex and often contradictory nature of British imperial policy in the Middle East during World War I. He became a symbol of Arab nationalism and resistance to foreign influence.
