Islam: the ongoing Sunni Islamic inquisition

Ongoing Sunni Islamic Inquisition

SUMMARY: The history books tell us that Buddhism and Hinduism was destroyed in Afghanistan but today we are not talking about history; after all, the ongoing Sunni Islamization process continues today in Kashmir, Southern Thailand, Somalia, the Maldives, Yemen and a host of other mainly Sunni Islamic nations. Therefore, while the Dalai Lama enjoys his world tours he remains mainly silent about the beheading of Buddhist children and monks in southern Thailand and clearly says little about the ban on Buddhism in Saudi Arabia. Even worse, the Dalai Lama praises Islam while fellow Buddhists are being slaughtered and persecuted in southern Thailand.

Therefore, the Dalai Lama and Western duplicity is the problem because you have countless Christian leaders and politicians saying the same while Somali Christian converts are being hounded down and slaughtered one by one. Their silence and lies is enabling southern Thailand and Somalia to take place and the same applies to the destruction of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandits.

In many parts of the Sunni Muslim world it is clear that their societies are going backwards and not forward. Western leaders and many elites alongside political correctness, mean that you have a media blackout “on reality” and instead every excuse is given and we have “moral relativity.”  Yet in the early 21st century it is clear that “the stone age mentality” is still alive in many parts of the world and Sunni Islamic hatred is aimed at non-Muslims and minority Muslim groups like the Ahmadiyya and Shia.

 

Indeed, “the stone age mentality” was more progressive than modern day Saudi Arabia. After all, women would have had more freedom in the stone-age period than they do in modern day Saudi Arabia and clearly you had greater religious pluralism in the stone-age period.

 

After all, in modern day Saudi Arabia which is the cradle of Islam, it is abundantly clear that females must cover up from head to toe and they must not mingle freely with males. At the same time, no non-Muslim places of worship are allowed and Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and others, must not pray openly or speak openly about their faith.

 

The Shia also suffers enormous persecution in Saudi Arabia because Sunni Islamic fanatics deem them to be infidels.  Therefore, converts from Sunni Islam to Shia Islam in Saudi Arabia face persecution.  Also, Ahmadiyya Muslims are not allowed to enter Saudi Arabia because they are deemed to be infidels in the eyes of Sunni Islamic elites in Saudi Arabia.

 

If Buddhists or Christians, or other non-Muslims, speak openly about their faith in modern day Saudi Arabia then they will face the Sunni Islamic inquisition. This means that they will be questioned by the religious police in Saudi Arabia and they will face the wrath of Islamic Sharia law based on Sunni Islamic doctrines.

The situation becomes even more alarming when it applies to a Muslim converting to another religion, because this is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Given this reality, the Sunni Islamic inquisition is a modern day fact in the land of Mecca and Medina and it is abundantly clear that religious and gender equality is seen to be a threat to Sunni Islam.

 

Therefore, females, non-Muslims, or anyone who supports another world view faces the wrath of the ongoing Sunni Islamic inquisition in Saudi Arabia. This applies to all aspects of life and if a Buddhist or Christian male had sex with a Muslim female or wanted to marry a Muslim female; then the penalty would mean death for the non-Muslim male and prison for the Muslim female.

 

If nations like the United Kingdom introduced the same system and imposed even 1% of the same restrictions on Sunni Muslims; then liberals, champagne socialists, and the political correct brigade would be attacking the British government and system. However, the same people who care about human rights and equality have “hit a Sunni Islamic brick wall.”

 

This applies to a blackout on reality therefore it is fine for Sunni Muslims in various parts of the world, for example in Afghanistan, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, to support killing all apostates from Islam and to victimize women into becoming shadows. Yet if someone points out the complete backwardness of this system and religion; then you are deemed to be a racist or other terminologies are used in order to silence you into submission.

 

Radical white converts to Sunni Islam are also continuing this hatred and Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi who was born Ian Dallas before his conversion to Islam clearly hates the Shia and deems all non-Sunni Muslims to be inferior and worthy of jizya and persecution.

 

Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, the Sunni Islamic Sufi fanatic, states that

“Jordan, too is split. The mass are modernist but devoid of an ‘Aqida and a Fiqh, while the Rulership openly espouses one-worldist movements and has issued a Declaration accepting the Shi‘a as if it could subsist within Islam. Shi‘ism is not a cancer in the body of Islam, it was a wart which fell off, hence its name.”  

Therefore, Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi is part of the Sunni Islamic hate machine and this non-Muslim did not turn to Islam in order to reach religious enlightenment.  On the contrary, he entered the Sunni Islamic hate theory of all non-Muslims and he clearly loathes Shia Islam.

 

If we look at the situation in many parts of the world, then it is clear that the Sunni Islamic inquisition is ongoing and non-Muslims are being killed or victimized because of their non-Muslim religion.  Also, minority Muslims like the Shia and Ahmadiyya are killed and persecuted by Sunni Islamic fanatics.

 

For example, radical Sunni Islamists in Somalia are intent on destroying all things which are deemed to be un-Islamic and in order to do this Islamic Sharia Law is in full swing, alongside intimidation, the killing of Christians, banning music, chopping hands and feet off, and other draconian measures. This society, according to devout Sunni Islamists in Somalia, is meant to be the “new way” and Sunni Islamists state that they are following the teachings of Mohammed and that their theories are based on the Koran and the Hadiths.

In this sense, radical Sunni Islamists are claiming that it is they, and not liberal Muslims, who are carrying out “real Islam.” In a strange irony, they can claim that this is true because Mohammed stated the following:

 

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.” Qur'an 9:29

Mohammed also stated in Hadith 9:4 that “Wherever you find infidels kill them; for whoever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection.” Mohammed also stated in Hadith 9:50, 57 that “No umma (a member of the Muslim community) should be killed for killing a kafir (an infidel) … Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him.” ( http://www.islamreview.com )

 

Of course not all majority Muslim Sunni societies are the same and you have very different thought patterns, for example Muslims in Senegal or the non-Sunni Alawites in Syria accept accommodation. Islam, like any major religion, will have a huge diversity within the belief system and cultural differences or geography will alter the way Islam is worshipped.

 

However, the more a mainly Muslim society turns to the complete message of Mohammed then clearly the more draconian this nation happens to be. Therefore, in nations where Islamic Sharia law is implemented fully we only see one outcome and this applies to the ongoing Sunni Islamic inquisition.

 

This outcome is complete Sunni Islamic indoctrination and the complete subjugation of all non-Muslims or minority Muslim groups by the dominant Sunni Muslim sect in the respective nation state. For example, in Saudi Arabia it is clear that this society is being governed by the Sunni Islamic inquisition and all non-Muslims and Shia Muslims must abide by the dominant Sunni sect which controls and dictates everything.

 

While in other parts of the mainly Sunni Muslim world we are seeing a fresh wave of Sunni Islamic fundamentalism and in modern day Somalia they stoned a young female to death after she had been raped. The Taliban and Al Qaeda also support the complete annihilation of other religions and the complete subjugation of women. After all, the Taliban even destroyed all forms of Buddhism with regards to statues and temples.

 

In past history the Sufi hypocrites alongside the forces of Sunni Islam completely destroyed ancient Hinduism and Buddhism in Afghanistan.  However, for Sunni Islamic fanatics the mere fact of enslaving and then implementing the Sunni Islamic inquisition was not good enough.  Therefore, once the Buddhists and Hindus had been subdued and enslaved and then systematically destroyed; the final phase is the destruction of every single trace of Buddhism and Hinduism.

 

It is therefore essential that the Sunni Islamic inquisition is challenged and stopped because no nation should violate the rights of either women or other faiths when it applies to one hundred per cent compliance. The first nation that needs to be challenged is the Sunni Islamic state of Saudi Arabia because this nation is funding radical Sunni Islam in many nations and since the time of Mohammed it is clear that all non-Muslims in Arabia have suffered and been religiously cleansed.

 

The Islamic inquisition in Arabia began in the 7th century and it continues today in modern day Saudi Arabia. Yet more disturbingly, it is clear that in places like southern Thailand you are witnessing a puritanical version of Sunni Islam amongst some of the Muslims in this part of Thailand. This was alien to most Thai Muslims but of course the combination of Saudi Arabia and madrasas in Pakistan is changing this. Therefore, the Sunni Islamic inquisition is gaining in some parts of the world and if this madness is not tackled then one day it will get closer to home.

 

Turning a blind eye will not work because while liberal kitman Sunni Muslims talk about mutual respect in the West and India; the cold reality is that Hindus in Kashmir face complete Islamization and every single Christian is being searched for and then killed in Somalia by Sunni Islamic fanatics.

 

Coptic Christians in Egypt face a resurgent Islamic Muslim Brotherhood and Sunni Islamic fanatics in Iraq have declared Islamic jihad against Christians, Shia Muslims, Shabaks, Mandaeans, Yazidis and all non-Sunni minorities.

 

However, despite the daily slaughter, intimidation and systematic persecution of non-Muslims and minority Muslims at the hands of Sunni Islamic fanatics, alongside Sunni Islamic institutions which discriminate; little is being done to stem this tide of hatred. 

 

The Islamic inquisition of the 7th century is very much alive today and even in so-called moderate Malaysia the faith of Shia Islam is not tolerated.  Therefore, the potency of Sunni Islamic forces is not only potent but they are intent on destroying and persecuting all religious minorities. 

 

The history books tell us that Buddhism and Hinduism was destroyed in Afghanistan but today we are not talking about history; after all, the ongoing Sunni Islamization process continues today in Kashmir, Southern Thailand, Somalia, the Maldives, Yemen and a host of other mainly Sunni Islamic nations.

Also, stealth jihadists in Western nations and India desire to crush democracy and religious freedom from within.  Therefore, the Islamic inquisition continues to behead Christians in modern day Somalia and persecutes Hindus in Kashmir. However, people who support the Sunni Islamic inquisition are also based in democratic societies.

 

Sunni Islamic kitman alongside Sunni Islamic finance from nations like Saudi Arabia is intent on supplanting the existing order with a future Sunni Islamic state.  Stealth Sunni Islamic jihad is building up and mainstream democratic societies are sleepwalking into a future nightmare.

 

If people think that this can’t happen in the modern world then think again.  After all, the world just sat back and allowed the de-hinduization of Pakistan to take place and this only encouraged Sunni Islamists to subdue and eradicate the Hindu Kashmiri Pandits.

 

Also, nations like Holland face a demographic time bomb which was created by lofty idealists in power who were not only shortsighted but have sowed the seed of a threat to the existing order. 

Nations can change quickly and the Sunni Islamic inquisition is intent on Islamizing.  After all, what is left of Buddhism and Hinduism in Afghanistan and modern day Pakistan?

Written by      Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/thailand-muslims-behead-a-9-year-old-boy-warning-graphic-images/   (THIS VIDEO IS VERY GRAPHIC – SHOWS BEHEADED BUDDHISTS AND BUDDHISTS BEING HANGED BY SUNNI ISLAMIC FANATICS)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmiri_Pandit
http://global-security-news.com/2011/04/08/sunni-islamists-slit-the-throat-of-a-christian-mother-in-somalia/
http://www.kashmiri-pandit.org/kplink/elibrary/books/wailvalley/b2chapter8a.html

Legend Quest Secrets with Symbologist Ashley Cowie

Symbologist Ashley Cowie makes his debut in the new Syfy series Legend Quest on July 13 at 10pm, as Cowie goes on the hunt for the notoriously elusive Ark of the Covenant and the mysterious Mayan Talking Cross. In Legend Quest, Ashley Cowie heads to Africa in search of the Ark of the Covenant before his quest leads him to the Order of the Knights Templar and various locations in Europe to learn where the Ark could possibly be after centuries of hidden secrets surrounding the box that once contained the biblical Ten Commandments.

Ahead of the series debut of Legend Quest on Syfy, TheDeadbolt went on a symbolic phone journey with Ashley Cowie to uncover the secrets within the new Syfy show, his research into the Ark of the Covenant, Cowie's own involvement inthe Knights Templar and what fans can expect from Legend Quest on July 13.

THE DEADBOLT: Since there are so many theories surrounding the Ark of the Covenant, can you talk about how you find the right road to follow to know that you have the best possible location?

ASHLEY COWIE: Yes, and that’s a great observation. I mean, it’s been done so many times - people looking for the Ark. My methodology is to take everything that’s been written so far, I research everything that it cannot be and, like Sherlock Holmes says, “hopefully end up with what can only be.” I’ll be honest, when you see the show; we’ve [encountered] a number of dead ends along the way for the Ark of Covenant. But when I find a clue, see a symbol or something that’s absolutely indicative of where the Ark was taken next, we follow that.

When in the show we’ve hit a dead end, we’ll go back to the last stage and then take it forward again. But that’s methodology. It’s really following your nose as we go. Rather than making up history, if we find something that doesn’t work, we backtrack ourselves and then go forward, which is a nightmare for production who have half an hour to cover an artifact. But I insisted the whole way along, we cannot make anything up with this. It’s got to be there or else we’re going backwards. And there are a number of occasions where we go backwards.

THE DEADBOLT: From what you know and have investigated, how is it possible that the Ark could still be out there somewhere?

COWIE: The Ark existed. As far as we know the Ark actually existed. We know that it appeared in 556 BC when the Babylonians invaded the Temple of Solomon. So many other relics from that time that were taken from the Temple have turned up in the last 40 or 50 years since archaeology started using technology. We’re going on the premise that the Ark is out there somewhere and there are lots of clues and legends within medieval text from everywhere from Africa all the way through to Northern Europe.

So, you know what? To be absolutely honest with you, we have to go on the same assumption that everybody else from Indiana Jones to a professor from London did and that is that it exists. Therefore, if it exists, where would it be? The only way we can prove it is out there is we actually find it. And we’ve done pretty well with the show, I must add.

THE DEADBOLT: In the episode, you mention that you are a Templar Knight.

COWIE: Indeed.

THE DEADBOLT: What does it mean to be a templar today as compared to what’s been written? Can you demystify that for me?

COWIE: Yes, I would love to. So many modern orders have sprung up since the Da Vinci Code was released, modern Knights Templar, and in Scotland. About 10 to 12 years ago I was approached by not a secret order but an order with secrets who asked me to put some of my research work into the order, come along and meet them. So what I’m involved in is a bunch of guys whose average age is about 75.

They are keepers of historical knowledge. They protect certain sacred sights and certain churches and chapels in the UK, they fundraise for charity. So a modern Knight Templar is somebody that tries to live by the virtues of the old order. But we live in 2011, so we do not run about on clandestine orders with super secrets. We do not have the Holy Grail, but we have a bunch of like-minded guys who are involved in historical study and the protection of the heritage of Scotland. So that’s pretty much what I’m involved in and I could answer any question you want about modernKnights Templar, as we do not have secrets. We always believe that if somebody has the ability to ask a question, they deserve an answer.

THE DEADBOLT: Sounds like Freemason.

 

COWIE: It’s kind of like Freemason. However, we do not stipulate that you have to be a Freemason to be a Knights Templar. We’re not a Masonic order. There is a Masonic Knights Templar order, but that is not ours. We are from the original order that through Scotland, so certainly not freemasonry.

THE DEADBOLT: Even though you’re a Templar yourself, why was it so hard to get answers about the Ark from your own brotherhood?

COWIE: Yes, that’s interesting. The Knights Templar today, there are two or three different embodies out there. You have the modern Catholic Church, they have their own Knights Templar order. You have to be an ordained Catholic, you have to be a member of the Catholic Church, and answer to Supreme Grand Master within the Vatican. Those are the people that have the history of the Ark.

The order I belong to is a Scottish-based order. We have membership in affiliate countries. But each order and each Knight Templar, depending on his pedigree, has different histories. Each person within each order has different knowledge and different information depending where they are within the order. So I can’t send a group e-mail out going, "Hey guys, where is the Ark of the Covenant?" What I can do is sit down and peel, ask questions, and converse with them. That’s we do in the show. We meet variousKnights Templar in the show. Some of them have information; some of them don’t know what the last person was talking about. But I’ve got to try and piece that all together.

Unfortunately, history is made with up with points of view and perspectives and everyone has their own. So what I have to do is kind of move through that, tremulous rhetoric, so to speak. Then that’s why I can’t go to any one person within aKnights Templar order, because there are three separate orders and each person knows different things.

THE DEADBOLT: How much does the Vatican factor into the past and current status of these religious artifacts? Why are these things being kept secret?

 

COWIE: If you go on the Da Vinci Code, the Vatican are holding secrets that could cripple the world, take it to its knees, are holding everything. But it’s not altogether true. These are [sectionalized] versions - The Vatican does have 76 kilometers of secret archive underneath their building there in Italy, what they say are documents and historical papers but very few actual artifacts.

They are not going to claim to own the Ark of the Covenant. They will not claim to have the Holy Grail or any one of these artifacts. It’s just not good business practice to do that. Plus they’ve stripped so many countries of artifacts over the last 400 years that they cannot say we have any one thing. They just have to blanket and canvas deny having anything that’s of any value. I don’t think that conspiracies [are going on] up there. I think there are just good business practices in the same way as Coca-Cola. I will not give out their ingredients, just have the public enjoy the drink.

THE DEADBOLT: During World War II, the Germans also searched for these artifacts.

COWIE: Yes, indeed.

THE DEADBOLT: Did you factor that into your research? If so, what did you learn from Hitler’s search?

COWIE: You’re going to love the Holy Lance [episode]. It takes me to the heart of the SS cult movement in Germany and I interview Germans. I go to one of the most sinister places I have ever been to in the world. I realized when I was there that I did not know a thing about the pain of World War II until I stood in that building where the 12 generals of the SS gathered to put together their different occult ideas and practices and whatnot. We interviewed a lot of the people about that and had to be very, very careful doing it.

But the Nazis did go searching for two of the relics indeed that we’re looking for. The Holy Lance, Hitler was obsessed with the Holy Lance. General George Patton got a hold of it. Hitler was obsessed with it and he seized it from Viennas. First act of oppression when he came into [power] was to seize the Hofburg Museum, the treasury in Vienna, and seize the lance that pierced the site of Christ. He got that artifact.

He also sent people looking for the Cintamani Stone in the Philippines. He sent people looking for the Talking Cross in Peru. There were searches done in the Antarctic for different relics. And of course, the Grail itself. He sent [Rudolph] Hess over to Scotland in the early part of the 20th Century looking for the Holy Grail. So he had a big involvement. At all corners I was looking over my shoulder, not for modern day Nazis but just to make sure I wasn’t offending people by asking them and really searching with hard questions.

THE DEADBOLT: So you’re saying Hitler did find the Lance?

COWIE: It’s believed he certainly did. He seized it from Vienna and he took the Lance to Nuremburg. That’s historical fact. And General Patton seized the Lance in 1945 - I think it was September '45 - and he gave it back to Austria. He give the Holy Lance back to Austria after the war. So Hitler certainly got a hold of the Lance. I mean, there was a book written. Whether it’s credible or not is always argued. Trevor Ravenscroft, I believe, wrote a book called The Spear of Destiny in ’73, later the story of Hitler seeing the Lance, grabbing the Lance, what he did with the Lance.

Of course the Holy Lance is said to have the power to control the destiny of the world for good or evil. 47 generations of holy Roman empires had it and Charlemagne had it. Napoleon drove his forces into Northern Europe looking for it. It's one of the most powerful artifacts in the history of mankind. Now, whether it holds supernatural powers or whether it generates the beliefs within the holder to actually go out and do these things, it certainly has had a huge influence on European history, and Hitler did have that one artifact.

Source : 

Vatican paper set to clear Knights Templar

The mysteries of the Order of the Knights Templar could soon be laid bare after the Vatican announced the release of a crucial document which has not been seen for almost 700 years.

A new book, Processus contra Templarios, will be published by the Vatican's Secret Archive on Oct 25, and promises to restore the reputation of the Templars, whose leaders were burned as heretics when the order was dissolved in 1314.

The Knights Templar were a powerful and secretive group of warrior monks during the Middle Ages. Their secrecy has given birth to endless legends, including one that they guard the Holy Grail.

Recently, they have been featured in films including The Da Vinci Code and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Order was founded by Hugues de Payns, a French knight, after the First Crusade of 1099 to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. Its headquarters was the captured Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount, which lent the Templars their name.

But when Jerusalem fell to Muslim rule in 1244, rumours surfaced that the knights were heretics who worshipped idols in a secret initiation ceremony.

In 1307, King Philip IV "the Fair" of France, in desperate need of funds, ordered the arrest and torture of all Templars. After confessing various sins their leader, Jacques de Molay, was burnt at the stake.

Pope Clement V then dissolved the order and issued arrest warrants for all remaining members. Ever since, the Templars have been thought of as heretics.

The new book is based on a scrap of parchment discovered in the Vatican's secret archives in 2001 by Professor Barbara Frale. The long-lost document is a record of the trial of the Templars before Pope Clement, and ends with a papal absolution from all heresies.

Prof Frale said: "I could not believe it when I found it. The paper was put in the wrong archive in the 17th century."

The document, known as the Chinon parchment, reveals that the Templars had an initiation ceremony which involved "spitting on the cross", "denying Jesus" and kissing the lower back, navel and mouth of the man proposing them.

The Templars explained to Pope Clement that the initiation mimicked the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the hands of the Saracens, while the kissing ceremony was a sign of their total obedience.

The Pope concluded that the entrance ritual was not truly blasphemous, as alleged by King Philip when he had the knights arrested. However, he was forced to dissolve the Order to keep peace with France and prevent a schism in the church.

"This is proof that the Templars were not heretics," said Prof Frale. "The Pope was obliged to ask pardon from the knights.

"For 700 years we have believed that the Templars died as cursed men, and this absolves them."

Rights Groups Say Burma Army Using Prison Labor on Front Lines

Rights groups say they have new details about how Burma’s military forces prisoners to work as laborers and human shields on the front lines of its battles against ethnic militias.

Human Rights Watch and the Karen Human Rights Group say Burma’s military is forcing hundreds of convicts to work as porters, mine sweepers and human shields as it battles ethnic militias.

In a joint report released Wednesday in Bangkok, the rights groups detailed the abuses through interviews with 58 escaped prisoners.

The convicts say they were used in military operations from 2010 to 2011 against ethnic militias in eastern Burma’s Karen state and Pegu (Bago) region.

All say they were forced to work without pay and described slave-like conditions including inadequate medical care, food and shelter, as well as beatings, torture, and summary executions.

David Mathieson, a Burma researcher with Human Rights Watch, told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand that the abuse of prison labor is systematic and widespread.

“This is not just something that happens in Karen state and a local rogue commander decides to be brutal. This was something that someone senior in the military instructed the Ministry of Home Affairs to assemble numbers of men from different facilities and then transport them through the country. And, it’s quite chilling how well organized it is,” Mathieson said.

The Karen Human Rights Group has documented the use of convict porters in Burma since 1992 but authorities have denied prisoners are exposed to fighting.

Rights groups say the mistreatment of convict porters on the front lines is one of many ongoing war crimes in Burma and the United Nations should be investigating through a commission of inquiry.

Human Rights Watch cites attacks on civilians, extrajudicial killings, forced relocations, torture, rape, and the use of child soldiers.

The New York-based group says Burma’s armed ethnic groups are also committing abuses including forced labor, indiscriminate use of land mines, and child soldiers.

Elaine Pearson is deputy Asia director for the group. She says there were hopes that Burma’s election last year would lead to a gradual improvement in human rights. “But, since the elections, the fighting has actually intensified in northern ethnic areas. And, there really hasn’t been any change in the army’s brutal behavior against civilians,” she stated.

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Burma has fought sporadic battles against ethnic militias seeking autonomy.

The internal conflict is one of the world’s longest running and is a major reason authorities cite for decades of military rule.

Burma in November held its first election in 20 years, replacing a military government with a nominally civilian one led by former military leaders.

The election was widely condemned as a sham designed to keep the military in power.

Where was the Shroud of Turin from 1204 to 1357?

We know that the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade looted the treasures of Constantinople and carried away many riches and relics. The Edessa Cloth disappeared with other priceless treasures. Evidence suggests that the Edessa Cloth was taken to Athens. About a year after Constantinople was plundered, Theodore Ducas Anglelos wrote in a letter to Pope Innocent III:

The Venetians partitioned the treasure of gold, silver and ivory, while the French did the same with the relics of saints and the most sacred of all, the linen in which our Lord Jesus Christ was wrapped after His death and before the Resurrection. We know that the sacred objects are preserved by their predators in Venice and France and in other places, the sacred linen in Athens. 

 

In 1207, Nicholas d'Orrante, Abbott of Casole and the Papal Legate in Athens, wrote about relics taken from Constantinople by French knights. Referring specifically to burial cloths, he mentions seeing them "with our own eyes" in Athens. 

There is some indication that the Shroud may have passed into the hands of an order of warrior monks known as the Knights Templar. This order was founded in the early 12th century among Crusaders in the Holy Land.

Ian Wilson and John C. Iannone relate stories that link the Edessa Cloth to the Marquis Boniface de Montferrat who led the attack on the Bucholean Palace and Pharos Chapel in Constantinople where the cloth was kept; how when it appeared in Athens it was in the trust of Otto de la Roche, an associate of Boniface; and how it may have passed into the hands to the Knights Templar from there. They go on to relate how the knights were later accused of secret idol worship of a "bearded head." We know, also, that the Templars had amassed a significant cache of relics from the Crusades. 

In 1945, at a Knights Templar site in Templecombe, England, a panel of wood was found above a plastered ceiling that contained a painted image of Jesus' head that closely resembles the face on the Shroud. Ian Wilson tells us that carbon 14 dating of the wood panel dates the panel to as early as 1280 CE.

The Shroud's history suffers from gaps in documentation. This is true of almost all ancient artifact. There are plausible reasons why the Shroud may have been concealed from public knowledge. In Jerusalem, it would likely have been sought out and destroyed by the Temple authority had its very existence been known. While that is conjecture, it is nonetheless a possible explanation why no early mention is made of it. 

 

During the many persecutions of the first three centuries valuable relics, writings and ceremonial items of the church were routinely destroyed. We know of early persecutions of Jesus' post-crucifixion followers in Jerusalem. There is evidence of persecutions in Edessa as early as the latter part of the first century. And there were the numerous Roman persecutions that persisted until Constantine. If, in fact, the Shroud was taken to Abgar V of Edessa, it might have been hidden in the city walls as early as the reign of Ma'nu VI who is thought to have reverted to paganism. 

If the Templars obtained the Edessa Cloth in Constantinople, in Athens, or later, it is perfectly reasonable to think that they might have concealed it. We know that they were a powerful, rich and secretive organization. Under Phillip IV of France, efforts to suppress their power and acquire their assets resulted in extraordinary charges being leveled against them, including secret rituals of worshipping an image with a bearded man's face. In 1307, the leaders of the Templars, were executed. One of the leaders was a knight called Geoffrey de Charny, possibly a relative of the Geoffrey de Charny who displayed the Shroud in Lirey in 1357 and was reluctant to explain where it came from.

Attempts to fill the gaps from legend and possible scenarios is but theory and plausible explanations. It is not history. It is science that comes to the rescue with hard evidence that the Shroud was at one time in Jerusalem and in the environs of Constantinople and Edessa. It is the study of textiles that identify the cloth as like those once used at Masada that link the Shroud to that period and place in history. Art history strongly corroborates connections between the Edessa Cloth and the Shroud. And the Sudarium of Oviedo adds another piece to the puzzle of the Shroud's history. We can conclude, with a high degree of certainty, historically, that the Shroud dates to the sixth century. Likely, it goes back to Jerusalem in the first century. We just cannot be sure exactly where it has been and when before the fourteenth century.