Last week I heard about a book by a journalist who had traveled across Africa, following the line which roughly divides Muslim from Christian communities. Evidently this line roughly corresponds to the tenth parallel, as that is the beginning of the book title. First I googled it, beginnin my search with "audio book" then the title. No problem, Amazon had it and So, allegedly, did Audible.com.
So I went to Audible and spent nearly Two Hours looking for it. The only title given on the BBC was, "The Tenth Parallel" and a description of the book. I kept trying to search for this as the book Title. I got Sci. Fi., love stories, history Other than the book I was seeking, etc. I filled out all of the categories I could find. This was a Nonfiction History book, I knew Part of the title, I wanted it Unabridged, in my particular reading format. Zilch!
My last try was just to type in "The Tenth Parallel" and see what happened, with no other info. GOT IT!
So, when I'm done with a couple of other books I'm listening to as I do house work and sewing, I will read This book. For a long time I have thought that more often than not religions get violent when they are used for political reasons. If there is a dispute over land, water rights, corrupt officials, occupation of a country by another, or over settlement patterns or the ways in which former colonial powers carved up the lands they ruled, with no regard for the composition or wishes of the local population, then Religion is used as a Political Weapon to get people enraged over these Political differences and ligitimate issues of Political Dispute. The thing I can't ever figure out is, do believers, both Christian and Muslim, Really think that Their God is a Separate one from the God of the other faith? If not, then Why would Their God want them to kill or burn places of His worship which are used by the other faith? The ones I distrust Most in this kind of situation are Politicians, both here in the U.S. and elsewhere, who Use Religion as a rallying cry to stir up fear, hatred, and to get votes. If they Truly Believe in God they might have a Lot to answer for on the Day of Reckoning, or Judgment Day.
But are my ideas wrong? That is why I want to read this book. Maybe I will learn some things I did not know which have Nothing to do with politics, past or present. I want to find out.
You would think an audio book company would make the search for a book easy, wouldn't you?
People tend to think that the God they believe in is in accord with 99.9% of what that people think. It doesn't have to be people of different religions; people who believe in the "same" God claim ownership and hijack God's will to their suit their wishes. They are greedy God grabbers.
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