Andy Partridge Quotes
Will you tell them about that far off and mythical land And how a child to the virgin came? Will you tell them that the reason why we murdered Everything upon the surface of the world Is so we can stand right up and say we did it in his name?
Partridge, Andy. "Dear God." Skylarking, Virgin Records, 1986.
The source was in the form of an autobiography but was written later by someone unknown. Prior to WWII and the German killing of over 25 million people, Tamerlane was responsible for more killings than any other ruler in the world. 17 million is generally given as the number if one analyses the Persian, Indian and other literature. He controlled the Middle East, the Ottoman States, a part of Russia and Eastern Europe, Persia and much of China and India. Although he himself was a Muslim he warred against other Muslim states and warlords defeating them all. Muslim nations are historically very ambivalent about Tamerlane. Pride as a conqueror is eclipsed by this excessive rapine and murder. In one case, the Persian city of Isfahan, he actually built a giant pyramid of 70,000 decapitated heads of prisoners. Also, the fact that he attacked and defeated major Muslim empires violates a current Muslim notion that there is a unity of Islam. He attacked, conquered and butchered the Ottomans, Syria, Iraq, Persia and the Muslim (Mugal) states of India.
Admiral Coligny was a leading French Protestant. He was murdered along with 50,000 Protestants by the French Catholics in what has come to be known as Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Earlier in his career Pius V had been the an inquisitor or the Inquisition and was appointed “Inquisitor General For All Christendom,” so he had an anti-Protestant background. Incredibly enough, he was beatified and canonized a saint despite—some say because of—his participation in and encouragement murders of non-Catholics and even Catholics who happened to dissent on some aspect of theology. It is not clear whether the Pope knew in advance of the planned massacre or whether he or his representatives had any part in the planning of it. Since the end of the Second World War, Popes have been in the forefront of protest and moral condemnation of religious or ethnic atrocities, and it is hard for most of us to conceive that a Pope could countenance the murder of 50,000 souls by his faithful followers.
The implication of a double moral standard for adherents of the faith and for others has been characteristics of many religions.
To modern readers this quotation is surprising in that Bryan is historically viewed as an extreme religious zealot. However, this was his mid-career and the extreme religious identification came later when he was out of office and made his living speaking to religious groups.
Andrew John Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and record producer who founded the rock band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writing and singing about two-thirds of the group's material. While the band were a formative punk group, Partridge's music drew heavily from 1960s songwriters, and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes. The band's only British top-10 hit, "Senses Working Overtime" (1982), was written by Partridge.
