Today, in a symbolic act, Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal—which they described as a symbol of Satan—in various cities across Iran in response to the release of the Epstein documents.

  • NABDad@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Say what you want, but their effigy-burning commitment is absolutely top notch.

    They build a fucking statue that any Baal-worshiper would be thrilled to have in their home and then burn it.

    That statue is awesome. Blows Banksy’s picture-shredder out of the water.

    I’m just wondering if they contracted the statue out to some artist without sharing their plans.

    “You did what with it? Dude, that took me fifteen fucking months. MY WIFE LEFT ME!!!”

    • absentbird@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Burning a statue of Baal is metal as fuck. Set flame to the dying and rising god Baal, let his ashes bring strong harvests and renewal 🤘

    • bampop@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      It’s a pretty random bunch of things to burn though. My guess is they had this stuff lying around for a while and they needed to make room for something else

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      6 days ago

      I’m just wondering if they contracted the statue out to some artist without sharing their plans.

      I think the first part is a safe assumption, but I can I can’t imagine any reason for secrecy. It may have been state or community or corporate funding.

  • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    Western Mainstream Media: look at these 5 iranians we found who want the US to bomb Iran and install the Shah

    • Iranians burning US and Israeli flags

    Western Mainstream Media: check out these AI slop videos of Jared kushners plans for gaza

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Exactly. That’s how sacrifice worked. You burned shit to give it to the gods. These guys just gave Baal a really nice statue of Satan to put in his living room.

        • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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          4 days ago

          i wonder how long we stop pretending w this jesus guy and cut out the middle man to go straight to worshipping baal again. lol

    • DrQuickbeam@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Does this mean they sculpted dozens of statues and shipped them around the country to burn some gas on them? Old Hadad is making a come back

  • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    I feel like I don’t understand what the message being sent here is. Are they mad that the Epstein files got released? Mad about what’s in them? Something else?

    • Armio2@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 days ago

      They are mad about all the violence towards children, the cannibalism the pedophilia the violence proven in the Epstien files. Hence they are burning this effigy to show that they are against all of this and they oppose it.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    If I learned anything from Burning Man it’s that, in order to burn something in effigy, you first need to construct a combustible effigy.

  • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    … Now I wanna know why there was a statue of Baal on the street in iran. Like, is there a Baal worshipping segment of the population? Was it some ancient statue? An art piece? Ragebait? I have so many questions.

    • Armio2@lemmy.mlOP
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      6 days ago

      They built the statues specifically to burn them down for this symbolic act, they are not stone statues. I answered this to our other friend who asked as well🙏🏻

      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Oh that explains it, thank you! I wonder why Baal was singled out instead of just building a statue of satan himself? There’s a cultural aspect here I’m missing.

          • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Yeah, but… why go after baal for being satanic, instead of going after satan directly? I don’t quite understand why baal is taking the spotlight when you could have simply made a statue of satan, but I’m sure there’s a reason.

            • Sandouq_Dyatha@lemmy.ml
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              6 days ago

              Muslims don’t generally don’t have a representation of what Satan looks like, Baal is an idol, already has a shape

              • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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                6 days ago

                If you’re going for textual literalism sure fair enough, but what’s confusing me is that they then go outside the bounds of that to invoke satan anyways. And aside from that, it’s not like (figures that you can reasonably call a satan/devil analog if you dont want to start a fight) aren’t in the Torah, Koran and Bible - why not build a statue of Iblis, the progenitor of devils? And why describe Baal as a symbol of satan instead of just going after satan directly, since that means you already believe satan exists?

                I guess I’m just trying to figure out the symbolism here. Burning the flags is pretty clear, but the statue and the obelisk seem more like they’re an act aimed at worshiping false idols (what Baal is primarily used for in the various texts) which… is that what they’re accusing the US/Israel of? Because that seems like a largely semantic question given they’re all worshiping the same god, and just burning a satan-analog would be a much clearer message about opposition to evil than the sorta abstract concept presented by Baal in any of the texts.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club
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    6 days ago

    Iranians set fire to the flags of Israel and the United States, as well as an obelisk and a statue of Baal which they described as a symbol of Satan in response to release of the Epstein documents.

    These bingo wins are getting way too specific …

    How is this a real event that got to world news?
    (I’m not disputing anything, just the combination of events that lead to this.)

    • Armio2@lemmy.mlOP
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      6 days ago

      Obelisk and statue of Baal are both associated with satanism, Obelisk is way more famous and way more used, Baal is a god representing high corruption and requiring child sacrifice from it’s worshippers (even in bible). Jeffery Epstien also named his bank accound Baal which was seen in the Epstien Files.

      • woodenghost [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        6 days ago

        Baal was just a normal local god for a long time. Actually several different gods, as the word just means God, but one was most famous. He was associated with weather and fertility. There’s absolutely no evidence for human sacrifices. The Romans were more tolerant than the abrahamic religions. When they build the largest temple complex ever outside Rome in the city of Baalbek in Lebanon, they allowed the locals to worship Baal in the huge entrance hall to the Jupiter temple. The intolerant monotheistic religions invented all the bad stuff about him to gain influence. Today, you can get tours and visit jazz concerts in the temples, if Israel is not currently bombing the site of the irreplaceable world cultural heritage, which they did of course.

      • HarryLime [any]@hexbear.net
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        6 days ago

        But my question is, what are they doing there? Who built them and for what purpose? I’m assuming this is in Iran. Those don’t look like ruins, Baal was never worshiped in Iran to my knowledge, that Obelisk is decorated with hieroglyphs which aren’t Iranian.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    6 days ago

    Isn’t there evidence that the Canaanite gods El and Ba’al were merged into Yahweh, who remains to this day the Christian god and the Islamic Allah? These people are burning their own god

    Edit: My Lemmy client is messing up and won’t let me respond to comments. Just wanted to add that yeah, the Muslim Allah is the same Abrahamic God that Christians and Jews worship. In fact, the name “Allah” is directly derived from the god “El”:

    The majority of scholars consider[Allah] to be derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- and ilāh “deity, god” to al-lāh meaning “the deity, the God.” Originally, ʾilāh was used as an epithet for the West Semitic creator god ʾIlu (the Ugaritic version of El), before being adopted as the proper name itself for this god

    El, Ba’al, Yahweh, God, and Allah are all wrapped up in each other

    • railcar@midwest.social
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      5 days ago

      It’s likely better to think of baal and yahweh as effectively the same deity for rival regional clans. Many psalms etc in the Bible are directly plagiarized from baal.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Saying that polytheism and monotheism are actually the same thing and therefore they’re burning their own god is quite a large stretch.

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        5 days ago

        I didn’t say that. Yahweh used to be a part of a polytheistic religion and over time became the only god. That doesn’t make polytheism and monotheism the same thing, but it does make Allah and God the same god as the Yahweh from the original polytheistic religion.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          Linguistically they seem to use a word for “God” but that is about where the similarities seem to end. A quick search shows your theory being a prominent Quota answer which usually isn’t a great indicator of truthfulness, but also it claims Baal and Yahweh being two entirely different polytheistic gods and then Yahweh winning out over time (at least according to some rando on Quota). So even following that line they aren’t the same and Iran isn’t “burning their own God.”

  • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    a statue of Baal—which they described as a symbol of Satan

    Cringe as fuck. “Satan” exist in a real manifestation in the form Capitalist Governments. You don’t need throw religion into it.