muslim history of hate

8/4/2019 Muslim History of Hate

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MUSLIM HISTORY OF HATE The Rise of Islam - MO-HAM-MAD, a prophet astute in statecraft and militarystrategy and an inspired statesman, changed the history and destiny of Arabia and of much of the world. He was born about 570 to the Banu Hashim family, reputable

merchants in the tribe of Quraysh in Mecca. According to tradition, he was apenniless orphan who married Khadija, the widow of a rich merchant , somewhatolder than himself . He probably engaged in trade , and is said by some to have hadresponsibilities in connection with the Ka'aba stone. When he was about forty yearsold he began preaching a new religion , eventually meeting the opposition of Meccanoligarchy. Initially, MO-HAM-MAD made few converts and many enemies. His firstconverts were Khadija, Ali (who became the husband of Fatima), and Abu Bakr.

The Hijra - From about 620, Mecca became actively hostile, since much of itsrevenues depended on its pagan shrine, the Kaaba, under the protection of theQuraysh, and an attack on the existing Arab religion was an attack on the p rosperityof Mecca. Following the death of Khadija in 621, MO-HAM-MAD married eleven

other women. Tradition relates that he and his followers were invited to the town of Yathrib by Jewish and Christian tribes after they were no longer welcome in Mecca.In 622, the first year of the Muslim calendar , they set out on the Hijra , the emigrationto Yathrib, later renamed Medina, meaning "the city" where MO-HAM-MADconcluded a treaty with the tribes of Medina. A large number of Medinans, known asthe Ansar (helpers), were attracted to MO-HAM-MAD's cause. According to severalsources, early versions of Islamic practice included Jewish practices such as the fastof Yom Kippur and prayer to Jerusalem, perhaps influenced by the Jews of Medina.These were eventually dropped, and the direction of prayer was turned to Mecca .

Battle of Badr - In 624 MO-HAM-MAD learned of a war party of the Quraysh, whowere setting out to Medina to avenge the apparenly accidental death of one

Hadrami, a relative of the leader of the Quraysh. MO-HAM-MAD and his army, aidedby the ansar auxiliaries, rode out to meet them at Badr. This battle, related in theQuran, is often called the first battle of Islam, but in fact there had been severalskirmishes before Badr. Despite the numerical superiority of the Qurayshites , theBattle of Badr was apparently a clear victory for MO-HAM-MAD. The Quraysh lostabout 70 warriors and leaders and 70 captured (these "round" numbers may behistorical conventions) out of a fighting force of about a thousand.

Battle of Uhud -The Qurayshites prepared better for the battle of Uhud , fought in thefollowing year. They gathered a force of some 3,000 men, including a strong cavalrycontingent led by Khalid Ibn Walid, later a famus general of Is lam. The battle wasfought in the vally of Aqiq, north of Yathrib (Medina) in the shadow of Mount Uhud.

Though the Muslims had the initial advantage, they fell to looting the camp of theMeccans and abandoned a good archery position in the high ground. This allowedKhalid ibn Walid to save the day for the Qurayshites and inflict heavy losses on theMuslims. Tradition relates that the Muslims lost 70 men in this battle. Uhud is oftencalled the second battle of Islam, because it is the second battle re ferred to in theQuran, or perhaps because it was the second Ghazwa. A Ghazwa is a large scaleraid that was led by MO-HAM-MAD in person.



Battle of The Trench - MO-HAM-MAD believed firmly in his position as last of theprophets and as successor of Jesus. Therefore, he seems at first to have expectedthat the Jews and Christians would welcome him and accept his revelations , but hewas soon disappointed. Medina had a large Jewish population that controlled mostof the wealth of the city , and a portion of them at least refused to give their new ruler any kind of religious allegiance. Muhammad, after a long quarrel, appropriated much

of their property, and destroyed two Jewish tribes, the Banu Nadir and the BanuQuraizah. MO-HAM-MAD fought the Banu Nadir and expelled them from Meccah. According to tradition, in 627, remnants of the Banu Nadir instigated the formation of a large alliance (Ahzab) of tribes including the Quraysh , the Banu Quraiza andothers and mounted an attack on Medina with a force of about 20,000. MO-HAM-MAD and his followers constructed a trench around Medina as a part of itsfortification, purposely making one section narrower than the rest, so that theMeccan attackers would try to cross the trench at that point. This formed aconvenient trap which resulted in the death of many Meccans. Unable to cross thetrench, the Meccans besieged Medina. Medina was saved by a miracle reminiscentof the destruction of Senacharib before Jerusalem . After 27 days of siege, accordingto tradition, God sent a piercing blast of the cold east wind. The enemy¶s tents were

torn up, their fires were put out , the sand and rain beat in their faces . Terrified by theportents, they broke camp and lifted the siege .

Treaty of Hudaybieh - In 628, MO-HAM-MAD and his followers set out on apilgrimage to Mecca, and met the Quraysh tribe at Hudaybiyeh, where the Qurayshhad assembled to block the pilgrimage. Instead of fighting, the enemies concluded atreaty and the Muslims agreed not to make the pilgrimage that year. Instead, theyturned on the Jews of the town of Khaybar, who were now no longer protected by theQuraysh, and attacked and subjugated the city. C onquest of Mecca - By 630, MO-HAM-MAD and the Muslims were strong enoughto attack and conquer Mecca, despite the treaty, alleging that the Quraysh hadviolated the treaty first. The Meccans were forced to convert to Islam , and thepowerful Quraish and Umayya tribes were incorporated into the Islamic leadershipby giving members of their leaders, especially Uthman, prominent positions in themilitary and government. By this time pagan Arabia had been converted , and theProphet's missionaries, or legates, were active in the Eastern Empire, in Persia, andin Ethiopia.



The new religion evolved into a way of life and recipe for community organization ,providing a religious and ideological framework for uniting the Arab tribes , and asocial and organizational framework for regulating the unified action of the nomads .The separate tribes had been re-formed into a Muslim-Arab Umma (community).The Qur'an is, among other things, a handbook for rules of war, prescribingthe laws of treaties and of booty and commanding the faithful to Jihad , (holywar) against any who interfere with the practice of Islam. In practice, Jihad was



often carried out as aggressive war well beyond the borders of Islam. MO-HAM-MAD had created powerful force that could now wrest control of much of thesubcontinent. In 632, MO-HAM-MAD died after a short illness. Though he had beenan astute statesman, he failed to make any arrangements for his succession. Hissuccessors were chosen one after the other from among the family and supportersof MO-HAM-MAD.

Abu Bakr, father-law of MO-HAM-MAD, was his first successor. He was givencommand of the faithful as Khalifa (deputy) of MO -HAM-MAD. Several tribes living atsome distance from Mecca refused to accept his rule, and a war of secession, theR idda, was fought by Abu Bakr and his able general Khalid ibn al Walid tosubjugate these tribes. Muslim successes in these wars and real or perceivedthreats from the neighboring Persian and Byzantine empires initiated a series of wars of conquest outside the Arabian peninsula. Abu Bakr died in 634, and wasreplaced by Umar, who completed the initial expansion of Islam. The Byzantine andPersian empires had been greatly weakened by their struggles with each other andinternal decay. The Arabs had perfected a form of warfar e suitable for the desert,and for those times and conditions. The swordsmen mounted on camels, and living

by raids and foraging were self-sufficient and didn't concern themselves with supplylines. They could come out of the desert that bordered Persian a nd Byzantinedomains and strike at will. If they failed in battle, they could quickly retreat into thedesert, where it was difficult for enemies mounted on horseback to follow. The failingByzantine and Persian empires could not organize field armies larg e enough todecisively defeat the Arabs, nor could they provide the manpower for proper stationary defensive fortifications. The Arabs quickly conquered Syria, Palestine,Iraq, Egypt and Persia. The Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem in 640, andguaranteed the safety of the Christian holy places.

The Caliphate is moved from Arabia - On the death of Umar (Omar) in 644,Uthman was chosen as Caliph. Uthman was murdered by mutinous soldiers in656, provoking a civil war over the succession , and laying the foundat ion for aneventual split. In place of Uthman. Ali, the son -in-law of MO-HAM-MAD, who hadmarried his daughter Fatima, became Caliph. Ali moved the capital from Media toKufa, in what is now Iraq. The Arabian peninsula, which had spawned Islam,remained an important religious center and the site of the holy pilgrimage to Mecca,but it was politically eclipsed and did not play an important part in the subsequentexpansion of Islam. Ali fought a civil war against supporters of the party of Uthman and others. He defeated the widow of MO-HAM-MAD and her supportersat Basra, in modern Iraq, in the battle of the Camel . Mu'awiya, who ruled theprovince of Syria from Damascus, claimed that he was the legitimate successor tothe Caliphate, and challenged Ali indecisi vely in the battle of Siflin in 657. The

Kharjites (meaning "those who left") protested against the compromise outcome of the battle and formed a separate movement as adherents of Ali, forming a separatemovement. They continued to be important until about the eleventh century andeventually evolved into Ibadi Islam. Ibadism is neither Sunni nor Shiµi, and existstoday mainly in Oman, East Africa, the Mzab valley in Algeria, the Nafus mountainsof Libya, and Jerba island in Tunisia. Ali was murdered in 661 and the Caliphatemoved to Damascus under Mu'awiya, who founded the Umayyad dynasty.



In the course of history, Islam diverged into numerous schools and sects withdifferent approaches and philosophies ranging from fierce and puritanical schools

such as the Wahhabi of Saudi Arabia to tolerant and spiritualistic Suffipractitioners. Four different Sufi schools (Tasawwuf) arose in different parts of theIslamic world : The Naqshbandiah, the Qadriah, the Chishtiah, and Suharwardiah.Sunni (meaning "orthodox") Islam includes four systems of law. One of these, the

school of Malik ibn Anas (died in 796), which is observed today in much of Africa andIndonesia, originated with the scholars of Medina. The three other Sunni law schools(Hanafi, Shafii, and Hanbali) developed at about the same time, mostly based onIraqi scholarship.

The Rise of Shi'ism -. Despite civil discord, Mu'awiya continued the rapidexpansion of Islam throughout central and Eastern Asia, including Afghanistan.Mu'awiya also launched the first Muslim expeditions against ByzantineConstantinople, though he was unsuccessful. In 680, Mu'awiya died and wassucceeded by Yazid. Yazid was challenged by Hussayn, the son of Ali, in the sameyear, and Hussayn and his followers were massacred in the battle of Karbala inIraq. This event formed the impetus for the growth of the dissident Shi'ite movement,

which had begun with the death of Ali in opposition to the Umayyads. The ranks of the Shi'ites were swelled by various discontented groups, notably by newl yconverted non-Arab Muslims, the Mawali, who demanded equal rights with Arabs.The Shi'a supported successors of Ali and family members of the Prophet as theonly legitimate Caliphs. They spawned several related political and religiousmovements including the Isma'ili sect, the Carmathians and the Fatimid movementand dynasty. A central belief of the Shi'ites relates to the coming of a special leader,the Mahdi, the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish and Christian Messiah. The majorityof Shi'ites recognize a line of twelve leaders, or Imams beginning with Ali and endingwith MO-HAM-MAD al Muntazar (MO-HAM-MAD, the awaited one). These Shia,known as "Twelvers," believe that the Twelfth Imam did not die but disappeared in874, and that he will return as the "ri ghtly guided leader," or Mahdi , and usher in anew, more perfect order. A second Shia group, the Ismailis, or the "Seveners," followa line of Imams that challenged the Seventh Imam and supported a younger brother,Ismail. The major Shi'a ritual is Ashura, the commemoration of the death of Husayn.Other practices include pilgrimages to shrines of Ali and his relatives. The Alawi of Syria and Lebanon are considered to be a branch of Ismaili Shi'ism, as is the Druzereligion, which originated in Fatimid Egypt . Druze, Ismailis and Alawi share beliefs inemanations of God, in supernatural hierarchies, and in the transmigration of souls. The Umayyads - In 683 Yazid died. A second civil war ensued, ending inUmayyad victory at the battle of Marj Rahit. The Caliph Marwan ruled for only a year,but arranged for the succession of his son Abd -al Malik. Abd-al Malik consolidated

Arab gains and put down revolts by Kharjites and others with a heavy hand. Hisdeputy Al-Hajjaj ibn Yussef was send to Iraq against its governor, the brother of Ibnal-Zubayr who was in rebellion, and after dealing with him, al -Hajjaj was sent toMecca with Syrian troops under his command to subdue the rebellion of Ibn al -Zubayr and his followers. After a seven -month seige, Ibn al-Zubayr was killed andunity was restored to the Muslim empire. Al-Hajjaj's cruelty became a byword in

Islam. He is said to have told the faithful at a mosque in Baghdad, "I have seen thatsome heads have ripened and are ready to be picked, I will be the one to pick

them."



Abd-al Malik was succeeded in 705 by Walid, whose reign represented the height of Ummayad power. Walid resumed the expansion of the Muslim empire, conquering

Sind in India and landing in Spain for the first time in 710. Walid was succeededin 715 by Sulayman, who mounted a disastrous expedition against Constantinoplethat almost ruined the Arab state. In 717 he died, passing the Caliphate to Umar ibn Abdel Aziz, or Umar II. Umar II, a pious and able ruler, reconstructed and restored

the Arabian empire. However, he reigned only 3 years, and was followed by Yazidand Hisham, and Marwan, the last Umayyad ruler in the East. In the West however,the Umayyads established an independent dynast in Spain, where Abd ar RahmanIII became Caliph in 912. The last Umayy ad Caliph of Spain was Hisham III, whoruled until 1032

The Abbasids and the Climax of Arab power - Disenfranchised and dissatisfiedelements including Shi'ites united under the leadership of Abu Muslim in Persia, andraised a black flag of rebellion in K hurasan. These forces quickly gathered strengthand swept away the resistance of the Arab tribes at the battle of the Great Zab, bringing to power Abu'l Abbas known as al Saffah, founder of the Abbasid caliphate.The rise of the Abbasid caliphate represent ed a true social revolution. Arabs been

displaced by Persians and others. The distinctions of aristocracy disappeared. Thedistinction between Arab Muslims and converted Muslims was likewise wiped awayand the basis was laid for the eclectic and tolerant M uslim society of the golden ageof Islam. The Abbasid caliph Al-Mansour built a capital city on an island between theTigris and the Euphrates rivers, in place of a small Persian village. He called hiscapital Madinat as-Salam - the city of peace, but it came to be known by most people

by its older Persian name, Baghdad.

The further spread of Islam - Though the caliphate splintered, Islam spread under various rulers to Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, and into Indonesia. InEurope, in addition to Spain the Arabs began attacking Sicily as early as thereign of Mu'awiya. A serious effort was direct at Sicily by Ziyadatallah the Muslimruler of Tunisia in 827, when aiding the dissident Byzantine admiral Euphemious. Hesent a force of about a hundred ships, and with the fortuitous arrival of SpanishMuslims, was able to gain a foothold, occupying Palermo in 831. Muslim rule in Sicilyand parts of southern Italy lasted until 1091 when they were finally expelled by theNormans under Roger I. Spain was conquered by successive waves of Muslim invasions in the eighth

century. The Muslim advance into Europe was soon halted at the battle of Tours(also known as the battle of Tours and Poitiers and the battle of Poitiers) in732. According to some accounts, this was an impressive and critical battle. Abd -er Rahman, governor of Spain led an army estimated to 60,000 to 400,000 soldiers

across the Western Pyrenees and toward the Loire River, but they were met justoutside the city of Tours by Charles Martel, (Charles the Hammer) and the Frankish Army, and defeated. According to other accounts the Muslim army was a smallforward force. In any case, the Muslims persisted in Spain and solidified their holdtheir, Arabizing the culture of Spain and enriching European culture. Spain soonbecame an independent Muslim country and parts of Spain remained in Muslimhands until it was conquered by Christians and the Muslims expelled or converted atthe end of the 15th century. To this day, the expulsion from Spain is

remembered with bitterness by Muslims, and Spain, known as Al- Andalus in



Arabic, is considered territory lost from Dar al-Islam (the realm of peace) toDar al-Harb (the realm of war). The fall of the Abbasids and decline of the Arabs - The Arab empire began to

disintegrate soon after the Golden age, and a period of independent Caliphates andsuccessive chaotic invasions followed. The Shi'ite Fatimids established an

independent Caliphate in North Africa in 910, and conquered Egypt in 969 ,founding the city of Cairo. The Buwayhids occupied the throne of Persia in 932 andconquered Baghdad in 945. The Seljuk Turks in turn conquered Baghdad in1055, and their rule spread to Syria and Palestine, where they displaced theFatimids. The Fatimids, based in Egypt, briefly retook Jerusalem in 1098. In thesecenturies the Assassin sect arose, based mainly in Iran Iraq and derived from theIsmai'ilis. They were hired killers who services were offered to various Muslimrulers. It is frequently said that they used Hashish as a means of increasing their ferocity, but this may be a spurious tale.

The Crusades - The Muslims were challenged by the Crusaders who arrived in theMiddle East in 1096 and captured Jerusalem in 1099. The Muslim world reacted

slowly but surely to the unexpected and unwelcome intrusion of the "Franks." SalahEddin, a Kurd, took control of Fatimid Egypt and declared an end to the Fatimiddynasty in 1171. He reconquered Jerusalem in 1187, having defeated theCrusaders at the battle of Hattin. The Crusaders lingered on in Syria and

Palestine. The last fortress of the Crusaders, Acre, fell in 1291. The Mongols - Despite the conquest of Baghdad by the Buwayhids and SeljukTurks, the Abbasids still ruled nominally as Caliphs until 1258, when the Mongolsunder Hulagu (also Holagu, Huleku) sacked Baghdad, ending the the temporalpower of the Caliphate. The Mongols swept across the Middle East, reaching theMediterranean and wreaking havoc in the already weakened remains of the Arabempire. The advance of Hulagu was finally stopped at the battle of Ayn Jalut near Nazereth in Palestine in 1260. The Mongols eventually converted to Islam and

were integrated in the Muslim domains. However, the invasion of Hulagu wasfollowed in the fourteenth and fifteen centuries by the invasion of Tamurlaine, whoconquered Samarkand in central Asia and reached Syria about 1401.

The Mamluke Turks - The Mamlukes were a slave caste of warriors. About 1250they took power in Egypt from the remains of the Ayubbid dynasty founded by SalahEddin. It was they who defeated the Mongols at Ayn Jalut. Their rule was quicklyextended over Palestine and Syria.

The Safavid Dynasty - In the confusion left by the retreating Mongols of Tamerlane,

the Safavid dynasty took power in Persia in 1501, and established a strongindependent state, though it eventually had to cede Baghdad and all of Iraq to theOttoman Turks. Persians fought against western incursions, against the Uzbeks

and against Sunni Muslims. In particular, the first Safavid Shah, Ismail I, pursued apolicy of persecuting Muslims and interfering with Ottoman interests. Thi s attractedthe ire of the Turkish Sultans, who inflicted a decisive defeat on the Persians in1514, causing the loss of northern Iraq and eastern Asia minor. The Safavid's ruled

until 1732.



The Ottoman Turks - While the Mamlukes were taking power in the southern part of the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks were gathering strength in the Asia Minor andspilling over into Europe. Their success was due to good organization and earlyexploitation of the power of fire arms, which was not realized by other Muslimantagonists. The Mamlukes had been Turkish slaves of the Arabs; the Ottomans inturn created a soldier caste of Janissaries (Y eni Ceri, meaning New Troops), who

were Christians conscripted or captured at any early age and raised as fanaticMuslims. They originally served as the personal guard of the Sultan. After the 1380sSultan Selim I recruited them by taxation in human form called devshirmeh. Thesultan¶s men would conscript a number of non-Muslim, usually Christian, boys ± atfirst at random, later by strict selection ± and take them to be trained. In Asia Minor, Osman I established the beginning of the Ottoman dynasty in 1293.Osman's successor Ohkran conquered most of western Asia Minor. By 1354 theTurks had a base at Gallipoli, a peninsula. on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. In1351, Murad I took Adrianople. The Byzantine Empire was reduced to the city of Constantinople. In 1389, at the Battle of Kossovo, Murad I defeated Christianresistance and Ottoman power extended up to the Danube. Slowed for a time by

the invasions of Tamerlane, the Ottomans maintained their power in their Europeanpossessions and in the 15th century their expansion resumed. In 1443 or 1444, the forces of the Sultan Murad II defeated an army of Christian

allies at the Bulgarian seaport of Varna. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople wasconquered by the Sultan Mehmet the Conquerer (Mehmet the II). The Turks spreadtheir rule progressively over practically the entire Middle East. In 1517 theydefeated the Mamlukes, using canons and guns against the Mamkuke troops

who were armed mostly with swords. The Hashemite Sharif of Mecca acceptedOttoman rule. In 1519 they extended their rule through most of North Africa, andlater conquered and reconquered Iraq. In Europe, the Ottoman Turksconquered Wallachia, Transylvania Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania. Asearly as 1480, they had landed at Otranto in Italy, but their presence thereproved to be short lived. By 1529 they were threatening Vienna, though their siege failed and they did not extend their empire beyond Hungary. The conquest of Constantinople made trade between Europe and the east

more difficult. The Europeans soon sought a sea route that would bring them to thespices of India without the intervention of Arab traders. Vasco Da Gama reached theIndies by sea in 1498, and open ed the ocean trade between Europe and Asia.Thereafter, the overland trade routes of the Arabs and Turks declined in importance.

The Ottoman empire continued to flourish in the 16th and 17th centuries despite

inherent weaknesses in the organization of the Sultanate. The first sign of weaknesswas the Turkish defeat in the sea battle of Lepanto (near Naupactus in Epirus,Western Greece) in 1571, by the an anti -Ottoman alliance known as the HolyLeague. The Holy League was assembled by the influence of Pope Pious V and ledby Don Juan of Austria. It consisted of the Papal States, Spain, Venice and Genoa. The decisive turning point in the Turkish struggle with Europe came with the

second siege of Vienna in 1680. The Turks were beaten back by a combined forceof Germans and Austrians aided by 30,000 Poles under the Emperor Jan Sobieski.



The Ottoman Empire declined in power and importance, but the fact of decline wasnot really grasped for another 120 years. Napoleon's rapid conquest of Egypt in 1798clearly signaled to the Muslims that they had been left behind in the race for culturaldevelopment, and efforts were made to introduce Western arms, printing presses,music and dress.

However, the Muslim world failed to industrialize and modernize, and theTurkish Empire continued to retreat before the advances of the Russians and todisintegrate due to internal causes. Throughout the nineteenth century, they werepartly saved by the British and French who were interested in maintaining Turkey asa means of stopping Russian expansion, and in protecting their growing interests inTurkey, which was considerably indebted to them. All the powers, including Russia,pursued a policy of keeping the Sultan in power and maintaining the integrity of theTurkish Empire. At the same time, the Western powers encouraged or tookadvantage of the dissolution of certain parts of the Empire. Greece was taken takenfrom Turkey in 1830 following an internal revolt, and Serbia became autonomous in1829 following the Russo-Turkish War. Lebanon became autonomous in 1861.Egypt remained independent after the withdrawal of Napoleon, though it was forced

to give up conquests in Syria and Palestine. Turkey lost further territories, especiallyin the Balkans, after the Crimean war in 1856 and afte r the Balkan crisis of 1878.

In 1908 the government of Turkey was seized by the Young Turks, a group of college students and dissident soldiers who had focused the discontent of many withthe despotism and inefficiency of the regime, and the nationalist h opes of Arabs andothers. In 1908, the Young Turks forced Sultan Abdülhamid II to reinstitute the 1876constitution and recall the legislature. In 1914, Turkey entered WW I under on theside of the Central Powers. Britain decided that it was time to disman tle the OttomanEmpire. A British officer, T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) aided a Muslim revoltby the Hashemite family, rulers of Mecca and the Hijaz. The British, Australians andFrench carried out a long and bloody battle in the Gallipoli peninsula, and finallywere forced to withdraw, suffering about 250,000 casualties. However, General Allenby conquered Palestine and Syria, and the Turks retreated before the Britishand the rebellious Arabs, as well as the Russians pressing from the north.

Turkey was forced to sign an ignominious peace at Sevres in 1919, but Kemal Ataturk, who seized the government from Young Turks, refused to honor it andnegotiated better terms at Lausanne in 1922 after defeating the invading Greeks. Ataturk abolished the Caliphate formally in the same year and began themodernization of Turkey.

The Ottoman Empire, the last empire of the Muslims, was at an end, and the Middle

East was carved up by Britain and France into nation states, mandates andprotectorates, all of which eventually became independent following World War II. InSaudi Arabia, the Wahhabi Saud family, based in the Eastern Najd areas tookpower, displacing the Hashemites who ruled the Hijaz. The Hashemites had beenpromised an Arabian kingdom by the British in re turn for their support of the Britishand the revolt against the Ottoman Turks. The British compensated the Hashemitesfor the loss of the Hijaz by giving them the Kingdoms of Transjordan and Iraq.



Islam and Muslims is a History of Oppression, Violence, a nd Fanaticism Dr. Sami Alrabaa June 2, 2009 Family Security Matters Have you ever pondered what has been the contribution of Islam and Muslims to theworld civilization until now? The answer is very evident and straightforward:oppression, violence, discrimination, and fanaticism. These negative immoral valueshave been an essential part of Islam since its inception.

Here is the evidence. Muhammad, the leader of Muslims claimed that he was a³prophet,´ and in the name Allah, he ordered his followers to kill the ³infidels,´ non -Muslims; in particular, Jews and Christians.

While Judaism and Christianity were spread peacefully under sacrifices by followersof Moses and Jesus, Islam was spread under the threat of the sword: ³Submit toIslam, otherwise you¶ll be killed.´ Islam considers non-Muslims the enemies of Allah.For more details, check out Understanding Muhammad by Ali Sina.

Also in the name of Allah, Muhammad urged his followers to conquer the world andforce its people to convert into Muslims. Muslims call all this ³Futuhat´ (opening). TheMuslim conquest was bloodier much worse than ³colonialism.´ The British andFrench colonialists never forced people to renounce their local faiths. For further details, check out Islamic Jihad by M.A. Khan.

After Muhammad¶s death, four of his staunchly contemporary followers took over,

called the Caliphs, or ³Al Khulafa¶ Al Rashidun´ (the rightly guided successors) asMuslims prefer to call them. Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, all of them weremurdered by fellow Muslims in bitter fights for the leadership of the rising Muslimempire.

Exploiting a power vacuum in the world after the decline of the Roman Empire,Muslims conquered big parts of the world: the Middle East, North Africa, Spain, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan (and other regions in Central Asia),parts of India, Bangladesh, parts of China, down to Malaysia, and Indonesia.

As Omar Ibn Al Khattab, the second Caliph, was visiting Egypt after his troops hadconquered it, he stood in front of the largest and most precious library in world at the

time, in Alexandria, and asked, ³What is this?´ He was told it was a library. Hestated, ³If its books say what the Koran says, then it is superfluous. If it doesn¶t, itmust be destroyed.´ And it was destroyed.

As a tourist, if you roam Arab and Muslim countries, what historical ruins do yousight? Certainly not Muslim ones. In Egypt you see Paranoiac ruins, in IraqBabylonian ruins, in Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey you sight Greek andRoman ruins, in Lebanon Phoenician ruins, etc.



Two beautiful churches were converted into mosques: the Sophia in Ista nbul and theone that is now called Umayyah Mosque in Damascus.

Since the inception of Islam, Muslims have always divided the world into Darrul -Islam, where Islam is the state¶s religion, and Darul -Harb, where Muslims live inKafir-states (infidel states) as a minority.

According to a study by the AmericanUniversity in Cairo/Egypt, the majority of Muslims all over the world want to see Sharia, the ³law of Allah´ introduced andapplied across the globe.

Ideologically, i.e. religiously, Muslims have always claimed ³purity´ and ³supremacy´of Islam over other religions, in particular Judaism and Christianity, which they allegehave been deformed over the time. Mosques and madrassas all over the worldpreach this day in day out.

Besides, it is unthinkable for the majority of Muslims to separate Islam from the state.They claim that Islam is a full-fledged system that regulates both religious and

mundane life. They also believe that Sharia is ³the best law´ for all, every time andeverywhere.

Advocates of ³rationalism´ and ³secularism,´ like Ibn Khaldun (1336 -1406) and IbnRushd (1126-1198), inspired by Greek philosophy, were prosecuted and put under house-arrest during the so-called ³golden ages´ of the Muslim empire. Both scholarswere able to study Greek philosophy and write their scholarly works not in the center of the Muslim Empire, not in Baghdad and Cairo, but in its peripheries in Spain,which at the time enjoyed an economic and cultural prosperity.

At present, Muslim scholars dare not criticize irrational archaic passages in the

Koran and Hadith. They risk being killed or prosecuted. The Egyptian theologianNasser Hamed Abu Zeid is a case in point.

Heads of religious establishments, who predominantly were and are stillfundamentalist, have enjoyed full power and have staunchly been allies of Arab -Muslim leaders.

Religious establishments, run by ministries of religious affairs, called Wazarat Al Awqaf, or schools like Al Azhar in Cairo/Egypt, have always played a ³vital´ role incementing the rule of political totalitarian regimes. Through their Ijtihad (efforts of interpretation) and fatwas they have tried to justify/legitimate the ruler¶s actionswhenever and wherever it is convenient to both. They have also played an important

role in brain-washing the masses and hence helped subjugate them to the ruler¶swill.

³Submission´ plays a pivotal role in subjug ating the masses, especially the illiterateamong them who constitute the majority in the Muslim world. The word ³Islam´means basically ³submission.´ Additionally, according to both the Koran and Hadith,Muslims must subjugate to the will of ³Walee Al µAmr´ (the ruler) and to elderly menin the family.



Muslims are pacified by the tenet: ³It is all Allah¶s will. The reward will come inParadise.´ Islam urges Muslims to surrender to the will of Walee Al µAmr. It is³haram´ (sinful) to object to the ruler¶s will. As a result, Muslims learn hypocrisy andgrow scared of the altruistic leadership.

Further, Islam, including the Koran and Hadith, rejects the concept of ³democracy´

and formation of political parties which they believe they are pagan fads that onlysplit the Muslim Umma (nation). Instead, Islam advocates ³Shura´ (consultation)among the powerful in society.

Muslims address each other by ³akhi´ (brother) but in practice they do everything intheir hands to accommodate their own interests and disrega rd the common good.Investing in the community is practically unknown in Muslim societies. The powerfuldo everything possible to subjugate the masses.

Muslim leaders do not trust each other and do not tolerate criticism. Every one of them believes that they are acting correctly and those who disagree with them arebranded as ³traitors.´

In addition, the Arab states have always fueled internal and external disputes todistract from their failure to introduce reforms, provide proper development, anddeliver solutions. The Palestinian- Israeli conflict is a prime case in point.

Hence, the Arab and Muslim states have always been plagued with internal division,conflict, and weakness.

The Muslim empire, and later the majority of independent Muslim states ove r the20th century have been and are still being ruled by undemocratic despotic regimes.They are either absolute monarchies like in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Emirates,

Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Morocco, or semi military regimes like in Egypt, Algeria,Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Saddam¶s Iraq. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey,and Indonesia have been ruled by the military on an on -and-off basis.

Arab and Muslim societies are also plagued by delusion and a wishful illusionarymindset. The Arab and Muslim media are replete with brain-washing propagandaand conspiracy theories, depicting Islam as the best religious and socio -economicprogram for all times, and blame the abject misery in the Muslim world on Westernhegemony.

Ali Gom¶a, the grand mufti of Egypt, claims that Islam is the best religion on earth.³Those who do not like it, do so because they do not understand it.´

Islam apologists like Navid Kermani, an Iranian -German, claim that ³very few peopleunderstand Sharia.´ In other words, all those at rocious passages in the Koran andHadith that incite to hatred, violence, and discrimination against women, are all amere ³misunderstanding.´

While Muslims reject ³interests´, demanded and paid by banks, as ³riba´ (usury)they, in reality, take and pay interests, but they call it ³murabaha´ (shared profit).They also brag that Islam has ³liberated´ women, but in theory and practice they are



discriminated against and denigrated. Check out ³ Is Islam a Violent Faith?´ and³Women in Hadith.´

Muslim clerics also brag that the Koran is the ³best scientific book of all times.´

Zaghlul Al Najjar, a Muslim theologian, publishes weekly articles in the Egyptian Al

Ahram propagating that the Koran is the most important scientific book of all times.Just because the Koran mentions the word ³tharra´ (atom), he alleges that the holybook of Muslims is the ³mother´ of all ³scientific books. Also, Muslim propagandists depict ad nausea a wonderful picture of the so -called³golden ages of Islam´ which never were. Scholars like Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Rushedflourished in Spain and not in Riyadh, Baghdad, or Cairo.

Undoubtedly, religion, any religion, becomes part of its followers¶ culture. WhileProtestantism, according to Max Weber, enhanced the Industrial Revol ution, Islamhampered all kinds of social and economic development of Muslims wherever theyhave lived.

Under the title ³Culture and Economic Success,´ in the German monthly magazineMercure, Siegfried Kohlhammer ponders over the relationship between cult ure andeconomic progress.

Kohlhammer defines ³culture´ as the sum of values, religious norms and beliefs,traditional habits that sub- or unconsciously determine the thinking and behavior of people. Culture that we acquire and learn over the process of o ur socializationaffects our ³Weltanschuung´ and perception of our intellectual, human and materialenvironment around us.

This also applies to Muslims where they constitute the majority, or live as minoritiesin developed states.

Kohlhammer dedicates a big proportion of his article to explain why Muslims areeconomically less successful as a majority and less integrated, as immigrants. Hebelieves that certain religious and cultural norms and beliefs hinder Muslims toachieve economic success.

Kohlhammer argues that Muslims in general are extremely protective of their families, especially of their female members. They are also patriarchal. Unlike other cultural groups, they do not allow their female subordinates to work outside the homeand strive for a career. The relationship between migrant Muslims and non -Muslim

communities is dominated by suspicion and mistrust.

Generally speaking, Muslims attribute thei r material failure to ³Allah¶s will.´ Theybelieve that earthly life is trivial and not worth of being economically proactive. Someof them are deeply convinced that they are the only ones who would be allowed intoParadise. ³Ambition´ is equivalent to ³greed´ in the Arab Muslim culture. This attitudeand restrictive economic incentives have become part of the Arab work ethics andeconomic culture.



In order to survive in a repressive economic environment, Arabs and Muslimsdevelop ³creative´ methods of deception towards the state and fellow citizens.Deceptive bargaining and bribing are an essential part of daily transaction. Retailsalesmen would swear by Allah that the ³price´ is the ³cost price.´ As the customer turns to leave, they call them back and sell at the price offered by the customer, i.e.the ³cost price,´ which of course is not true. This kind of transaction is called

³Shatara´ (smartness) and dominates trade in Arab and Muslim countries, notrational honest trade. The majority of Arab and Musl im immigrants exploit the welfaresystem in Europe as also a kind of Shatara. In the Arab world, Arab regimes are not really interested in economic developmentfor the whole population through a modern free economic market. The small number of successful Arab businessmen is an integral part of the regime. These people areusually partners of the regime.

Economic repression is maintained as an instrument of political oppression. Basicconsumer goods like bread, sugar, tea, etc. are subsidized by the state in an attemptto buy allegiance of the population and an instrument of control. A modern, free,

deregulated market might create progress and prosperity. This, in turn, wouldempower people, further independence, and enhance them to demand democracy,free speech, and human rights.

In most Arab Muslim countries, secure lucrative jobs are predominantly available ingovernment departments and state-run institutions. The elite and people of themiddle class are largely employed by the state apparatus. Most basic services andpeople who work for these services are controlled by the state. The private sector scarcely offers good jobs. A population growth of 2 ± 3 percent yearly is increasinglymaking it difficult for both the state and private sector to provide enough jobs. MostMuslim states are bankrupt and the private sector is almost paralyzed. Nepotism andcorruption are used to ³subsidize´ mediocre incomes and offset striding inflation.

Potential bribe receivers are government officials, the police, judges, and evenuniversity professors. The rest of the population lives in dire deprivation. This corruptenvironment is suffocating human energy, initiative, and creativity. It is generating a³culture´ that is feeding conspiracy theories, and rumors, ³the others are guilty for our misery, primarily the West.´ Yet, Islamists and nationalists repeat ad nauseum, ³Weare the best Umma (nation) on the earth, but the West is hampering our development.´

Solid economic planning is missing. Arab and Muslim state leaders and war lordskeep their populations busy with atrocious clashes ± oiled by the same leaders and

lords ± in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Afghanistan, and most recently Somalia.

The political discourse of Arab regimes is defiant and belligerent. For instance, after Saddam Hussein of Iraq was executed, Al Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator, announcedthe erection of a statue for Saddam in every Libyan city.

Most Arabs are ³experts´ in political and economic analysis, their favorite pastimeconversation. Criticism of local political leaderships and demonstrations are hushedup and perpetrators punished by jail and torture. On the other hand, tiny



demonstrations by international human rights organizations against Guantanamo arereported on every Arab state-controlled TV.

As minorities, Muslims have not been either as successful as other ethnic andreligious minorities, in both developed and underdeveloped countries. Minorities likeJews, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and Armenians are

the most successful people in North and South America, in Africa, and Asia, butMuslims are not.

The Jews, the arch enemies of Muslims, in the U.S. make up just 1 percent of the American population, but enjoy a living and education standard that is 80% higher than that of their American compatriots. Sixteen percent of all Nobel Prize winnershave been Jews.

The Chinese community, for instance, in Indonesia (a country of a Muslim majority),in Thailand, and America is economically the most successful. The same applies toJapanese, Indian, and Korean ethnic minorities. In Uganda and Kenya, the Indianminorities contribute 35 percent of the gross national product.

Muslim Arabs and Muslims in general in America and Europe are not so successful.In Great Britain, 61 percent of Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants (all Muslims)are jobless. Forty-eight percent of Pakistanis and 60 percent of Bangladeshis have alow standard of education. On the other hand, the income of Indians in the UK ishigher than that of average Britons.

In Sweden, while the rate of employment among the local population is about 74percent, it is only 42 percent among Turks, 31 percent among Lebanese, 21 percentamong Iraqis, and 12 percent among Somalis.

On the other hand, according to a recent study by a team of re searchers at the American University in Beirut/Lebanon, Arab Christians, as minorities in Muslim andnon-Muslim societies, are economically more successful than their Muslimcounterparts.

The Muslim culture, loaded with a medieval repressive religion, cal led Islam, hasnever gone through a modernization process. Unless this happens, Islam will keephampering progress in Muslim societies.

Therefore, political and religious reforms are urgently needed in the Arab and Muslimworld, and the enlightened world must increase it pressure on Arab/Muslim regimesto do so. Only then the war on deprivation and extremism can be won.

Political and religious reforms are the key to development and peace in the Muslimworld. Usually, I¶m not a pessimist, but this time around, I am.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim, is aprofessor of Sociology and an Arab-Muslim culture specialist. He has taught atKuwaitUniversity, KingSaudUniversity, and MichiganStateUniversity. H e also writesfor the Jerusalem Post.



The Legacy of Jihad in Historical Palestine(Part I)

November 19th, 2005 Violent jihad warfare on infidels is the norm, not the exception, in Islamic history.Once successful, jihad leads to the imposition of humiliating, degrading, violent, andexpensive oppression under dhimmitude, the institutionalized imposition of lowlystatus upon those who refuse to abandon their faith and adopt Islam. Among theworst victims of jihad and dhimmitude have been the Jews and Christians who livedin historic Palestine. Edward Said¶s ridiculous polemic, The Question of Palestine, quotes the followingobservation by a Dr. A. Carlebach published in Ma¶ariv (October 7, 1955).

The danger stems from the [Islamic] totalitarian conception of the world«Occupation by force of arms, in their own eyes, in the eyes of Islam, is not at all

associated with injustice. To the contrary, it constitutes a certificate anddemonstration of authentic ownership. [1]

Said cites Carlebach with ostensibly self -evident derision. Unwittingly, Said thusreveals his own belligerent obliviousness to Carlebach¶s acute perceptions about theugly realities of jihad war, the resultant imposition of dhi mmitude, and their brutallegacy in historical Palestine and the greater Middle East. As elucidated by Jacques Ellul, the jihad is an institution intrinsic to Islam, and not anisolated event, or series of events: .. .it is a part of the normal functioning of the Muslim world« The conquered

populations change status (they become dhimmis), and the shari¶a tends to be putinto effect integrally, overthrowing the former law of the country. The conqueredterritories do not simply change µowners¶. [2] The essential pattern of the jihad war is captured in the great Muslim historian al -Tabari¶ s recording of the recommendation given by Umar b. al -Khattab to thecommander of the troops he sent to al -Basrah (636 C.E.), during the conquest of Iraq. Umar reportedly said: Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept it from them,(This is to say, accept their conversion as genuine and refrain from fighting them) butthose who refuse must pay the poll tax out of humiliation and lowliness. (Qur¶an

9:29) If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency. Fear God with regard towhat you have been entrusted. [3] Jihad was pursued century after century, because jihad, which means ³to strive inthe path of Allah,´ embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formallyconceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th to 9th centuriesonward, based on their interpretation of Qur¶anic verses and long chapters in theTraditions (i.e., ³hadith´, acts and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, espe ciallythose recorded by al-Bukhari [d. 869] and Muslim [d. 874] ). [4]



Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist (Maliki), renowned philosopher, historian, andsociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad: In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of theuniversalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to

Islam either by persuasion or by force« The other religious groups did not have auniversal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense« Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations. [5] Indeed, even al-Ghazali (d. 1111), the famous theologian, philosopher, and paragonof mystical Sufism, (who, as noted by W.Montgomery Watt, has been ´.. .acclaimedin both the East and West as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad.. .´ [6]), wrote thefollowing about jihad:

...one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year«one mayuse a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown

them«If a person of the Ahl al- Kitab [People of The Book -Jews and Christians,typically] is enslaved, his marriage is [automatically] revoked«One may cut downtheir trees« One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as bootywhatever they decide«they may steal as much food as they need« [7] By the time of the classical Muslim historian al -Tabari¶s death in 923, jihad wars hadexpanded the Muslim empire from Portugal to the Indian subcontinent. SubsequentMuslim conquests continued in Asia, as well as Eastern Europe. The Christiankingdoms of Armenia, Byzantium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia,and Albania, in addition to parts of Poland and Hungary, were also conquered andIslamized.

Arab Muslim invaders engaged, additionally, in continuous jihad raids that ravagedand enslaved Sub-Saharan African animist populations, extending to the southernSudan. When the Muslim armies were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683, over a millennium of jihad had transpired. These tremendous military successes spawneda triumphalist jihad literature. Muslim historians recorded in detail the number of infidels slaughtered, or enslaved and deported, the cities and villages which werepillaged, and the lands, treasure, and movable goods seized. Christian (Coptic, Armenian, Jacobite, Greek, Slav, etc.), as well as Hebrew sources, and even thescant Hindu and Buddhist writings which survived the ravages of the Muslimconquests, independently validate this narrative, and ,complement the Muslimperspective by providing testimonies of the suffering of the no n-Muslim victims of

jihad wars. [8] In The Laws of Islamic Governance al-Mawardi (d. 1058), a renowned jurist of Baghdad, examined the regulations pertaining to the lands and infidel (i.e., non -Muslim) populations subjugated by jihad. This is the origin of the system of dhimmitude. The native infidel population had to recognize Islamic ownership of their land, submit to Islamic law, and accept payment of the poll tax ( jizya).



He notes that ³The enemy makes a payment in return for peace and reconciliation. ´ Al- Mawardi then distinguishes two cases: (I) Payment is made immediately and istreated like booty, ³it does, however, not prevent a jihad being carried out againstthem in the future. ´. (II). Payment is made yearly and will ³constitute an ongoingtribute by which their security is established´. Reconciliation and security last as long as the payment is made. If thepayment ceases, then the jihad resumes. A treaty of reconciliation may berenewable, but must not exceed 10 years. [9] A remarkable account from 1894 by an Italian Jew traveling in Morocco,demonstrates the humiliating conditions under which the jizya was still beingcollected within the modern era:

The kaid Uwida and the kadi Mawlay Mustafa had mounted their tent today near theMellah [Jewish ghetto] gate and had summoned the Jews in order to collect fromthem the poll tax [jizya] which they are obliged to pay the sultan. They had mesummoned also. I first inquired whether those who were European -protected

subjects had to pay this tax. Having learned that a great many of them had alreadypaid it, I wished to do likewise. After having remitted the amount of the tax to the twoofficials, I received from the kadi¶s guard two blows in the back of the neck. Addressing the kadi and the kaid, I said´ µKnow that I am an Italian protectedsubject.¶ Whereupon the kadi said to his guard: µRemove the kerchief covering hishead and strike him strongly; he can then go and complain wherever he wants.¶ Theguards hastily obeyed and struck me once again more violently. This publicmistreatment of a European-protected subject demonstrates to all the Arabs thatthey can, with impunity, mistreat the Jews. [10] The ³contract of the jizya´, or ³dhimma´ encompassed other obligatory andrecommended obligations for the conquered non-Muslim ³dhimmi´ peoples.Collectively, these ³obligations´ formed the discriminatory system of dhimmitudeimposed upon non-Muslims-Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists-subjugated by jihad. Some of the more salient features of dhimmitude include: theprohibition of arms for the vanquished non-Muslims (dhimmis), and of church bells;restrictions concerning the building and restoration of churches, synagogues, andtemples; inequality between Muslims and non -Muslims with regard to taxes andpenal law; the refusal of dhimmi testimony by Muslim courts; a requirement thatJews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, including Zoroastrians and Hindus, wear special clothes; and the overall humiliation and abasement of non -Muslims. [11]

It is important to note that these regulations and attitudes were institutionalized as

permanent features of the sacred Islamic law, or Shari¶ a. Again, the writings of themuch lionized Sufi theologian and jurist al -Ghazali highlight how the institution of dhimmitude was simply a normative, and prominent feature of the Shari¶a:

...the dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle.. .Jews, Christians, andMajians must pay thejizya [poll tax on non-Muslims]...on offering up thejizya, thedhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits [thedhimmi] on the protruberant bone beneath his ear [i.e., the mandible]... They are notpermitted to ostentatiously display their wine or church bells«their houses may not



be higher than the Muslim¶s, no matter how low that is. The dhimmi may not ride anelegant horse or mule; he may ride a donkey only if the saddler-work] is of wood. Hemay not walk on the good part of the road. They [the dhimmis] have to wear [anidentifying] patch [on their clothing], even women, and even in the [public]baths«[dhimmis] must hold their tongue. [12 ]

The Great Jihad and the Muslim Conquest of Palestine

September 622 C.E. marks a defining event in Islam- the hijra. Muhammad and acoterie of followers (the Muhajirun), persecuted by fellow Banu Quraysh tribesmenwho rejected Muhammad¶s authenticity as a divine messenger, fled from Mecca toYathrib, later known as Al-Medina (Medina). The Muslim sources described Yathribas having been a Jewish city founded by a Palestinian diaspora population whichhad survived the revolt against the Romans. Distinct fr om the nomadic Arab tribes,the Jews of the north Arabian peninsula were highly productive oasis farmers. TheseJews were eventually joined by itinerant Arab tribes from southern Arabia whosettled adjacent to them and transitioned to a sedentary existence . [13]

Following Muhammad¶s arrival, he re-ordered Medinan society, eventually imposinghis authority on each tribe. The Jewish tribes were isolated, some were thenexpelled, and the remainder attacked and exterminated. Muhammad distributedamong his followers as ³booty´ the vanquished Jews property-plantations, fields, andhouses-and also used this ³booty´ to establish a well -equipped jihadist cavalry corps.[14] Muhammad¶s subsequent interactions with the Christians of northern Arabiafollowed a similar pattern, noted by Richard Bell. The ³relationship with the Christiansended as that with the Jews (ended) ± in war´, because Islam as presented byMuhammad was a divine truth, and unless Christians accepted this formulation,which included Muhammad¶s authority, ³conflict was inevitable, and there could havebeen no real peace while he [Muhammad] lived.´ [15]

Within two years of Muhammad¶s death, Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, launched theGreat Jihad. The ensuing three decades witnessed Islamdom¶s most specta cular expansion, as Muslim armies subdued the entire Arabian peninsula, and conqueredterritories which had been in Greco-Roman possession since the reign of Alexander the Great. [16]

Gil, in his monumental analysis A History of Palestine, 634-1099, emphasizes the

singular centrality that Palestine occupied in the mind of its pre -Islamic Jewishinhabitants, who referred to the land as ³ al-Sham´. Indeed, as Gil observes, the

sizable Jewish population in Palestine (who formed a majority of its inhabitants,when grouped with the Samaritans) at the dawn of the Arab Muslim conquest were,

³the direct descendants of the generations of Jews who had lived there since thedays of Joshua bin Nun, in other words for some 2000 years«´ [17] Jews andChristians speaking Aramaic inhabited the cities and the cultivated inner regions,devoid of any unique ties to the Bedouin of the desert hinterlands, who wereregarded as bellicose and threatening, in the writings of both the Church Fathers,and in Talmudic sources. [18]

The following is a summary of the devastating consequences of the Arab Muslimconquest of Palestine during the fourth decade of the 7th century, directed by the



first two Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar b. al-Khattab [notwithstanding PervezMusharaff¶s hagiography of the latter, in a recent New York City speech].

The entire Gaza region up to Cesarea was sacked and devastated in the campaignof 634, which included the slaughter of four thousand Jewish, Christian, andSamaritan peasants. Villages in the Negev were a lso pillaged, and towns such as

Jerusalem, Gaza, Jaffa, Cesarea, Nablus, and Beth Shean were isolated. In hissermon on the Day of the Epiphany 636, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem,bewailed the destruction of the churches and monasteries, the sacked to wns andvillages, and the fields laid waste by the invaders. Thousands of people perished in639, victims of the famine and plague wrought by this wanton destruction.

The Muslim historian Baladhuri (d. 892 C.E.), maintained that 30,000 Samaritansand 20,000 Jews lived in Caesarea alone just prior to the Arab Muslim conquest;afterward, all evidence of them disappears. Archaeological data confirms the lastingdevastation wrought by these initial jihad conquests, particularly the widespreaddestruction of synagogues and churches from the Byzantine era, whose remnantsare still being unearthed. The total number of towns was reduced from fifty -eight to

seventeen in the red sand hills and swamps of the western coastal plain (i.e., theSharon).

Massive soil erosion from the Judaean mountains western slopes also occurred dueto agricultural uprooting during this period. Finally, the papyri of Nessana werecompletely discontinued after the year 700, reflecting how the Negev alsoexperienced the destruction of its agriculture, and the desertion of its villages.[19] Dhimmitude in Palestine During the Initial Period of Muslim Rule

Dramatic persecution, directed specifically at Christians, included executions for

refusing to apostasize to Islam during the first two decades of the 8th century, under the reigns of Abd al- Malik, his son Sulayman, and Umar b. Abd al-Aziz. Georgian,Greek, Syriac, and Armenian sources report both prominent individual and groupexecutions (for eg., sixty-three out of seventy Christian pilgrims from Iconium in AsiaMinor were executed by the Arab governor of Caesarea, barring seven whoapostasized to Islam, and sixty Christian pilgrims from Amorion were crucified inJerusalem).

Under early Abbasid rule (approximately 750-755 C.E., perhaps during the reign[Abul Abbas Abdullah] al -Saffah) Greek sources report orders demanding theremoval of crosses over Churches, bans on Church services and teaching of thescriptures, the eviction of monks from their monasteries, and excessive taxation. [20]

Gil notes that in 772 C.E., when Caliph al -Mansur visited Jerusalem,

..he ordered a special mark should be stamped on the hands of the Christians andthe Jews. Many Christians fled to Byzantium. [21]

Bat Y e¶ or elucidates the fiscal oppression inherent in eighth century Palestine whichdevastated the dhimmi Jewish and Christian peasantry:



Over-taxed and tortured by the tax collectors, the villagers fled into hiding or emigrated into towns. [22] She quotes from a detailed chronicle of an eighth century monk, completed in 774:

The men scattered, they became wanderers everywhere; the fields were laid waste,

the countryside pillaged; the people went from one land to another. [23] The Greek chronicler Theophanes provides a contemporary description of thechaotic events which transpired after the death of the caliph Harun al -Rashid in 809C.E. He describes Palestine as the scene of violence, rape, and murder, from whichChristian monks fled to Cyprus and Constantinople. [24] Perhaps the clearest outward manifestations of the inferiority and humiliation of thedhimmis were the prohibitions regarding their dress codes, and the demands thatdistinguishing signs be placed on the entrances of dhimmi houses. During the Abbasid caliphates of Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and al-Mutawwakil (847-861), Jewsand Christians were required to wear yellow (as patches attached to their garments,

or hats). Later, to differentiate further between Christians and Jews, the Chri stianswere required to wear blue. In 850, consistent with Qur¶anic verses associating themwith Satan and Hell, al-Mutawwakil decreed that Jews and Christians attach woodenimages of devils to the doors of their homes to distinguish them from the homes of Muslims. [25] Muslim and non-Muslims sources establish that during the early 11th century periodof al-Hakim¶s reign, religious assaults and hostility intensified, for both Jews andChristians. The destruction of the churches at the Holy Sepulchre [1009 C .E.] wasfollowed by a large scale campaign of Church destructions (including the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, and additional churches throughout the Fatimid

kingdom), and other brutal acts of oppression against the dhimmi populations, suchas forcible conversion to Islam, or expulsion.

The discriminatory edicts al-Hakim imposed upon the dhimmis beginning in August1011 C.E., included orders to wear black turbans; a five pound, 18 -inch cross (for Christians), or five pound block of wood (for Je ws), around their necks; anddistinguishing marks in the bathhouses. Ultimately al -Hakim decided that there wereto be separate bathhouses for the dhimmis use. [26] During the early through themid 11th century, the Jews, in particular, continued to suffer frequently from botheconomic and physical oppression, according to Gil. [27] Muslim Turcoman rule of Palestine for the nearly three decades just prior to the

Crusades (1071- 1099 C.E.) was characterized by such unrelenting warfare anddevastation, that an imminent ³End of Days´ atmosphere was engendered. [28] Acontemporary poem by Solomon ha-Kohen b. Joseph, believed to be a descendantof the Geonim, an illustrious family of Palestinian Jews of priestly descent, speaks of destruction and ruin, the burning of harvests, the razing of plantations, thedesecration of cemeteries, and acts of violence, slaughter, and plunder. [29] The brutal nature of the Crusader¶s conquest of Palestine, particularly of the major cities, beginning in 1098/99 C.E., has been copiously documented. [30] However,



the devastation wrought by both Crusader conquest and rule (through the lastdecades of the 13th century) cannot reasonably be claimed to have approached, letalone somehow ³exceeded´, what transpired during the first four and one -half centuries of Muslim jihad conquests, endless internecine struggles for Muslimdominance, and imposition of dhimmitude. Moreover, we cannot ignore the testimony of Isaac b. Samuel of Acre (1270 -1350C.E.), one of the most outstanding Kabbalists of his time. Conversant with Islamictheology and often using Arabic in his exegesis, Isaac nevertheless believed that itwas preferable to live under the yoke of Christendom, rather than that of Islamdom. Acre was taken from the Crusaders by the Mamelukes in 1291 by a very brutal jihadconquest. Accordingly, despite the precept to dwell in the Holy Land, Isaac b.Samuel fled to Italy and thence to Christian Spain, where he wrote:

...they [the Muslims] strike upon the head the children of Israel who dwell in their lands and they thus extort money from them by force. For they say in their tongue,...¶it is lawful to take money of the Jews.¶ For, in the eyes of the Muslims, the childrenof Israel are as open to abuse as an unprotected field. Even in their law and statutes

they rule that the testimony of a Muslim is always to be believed against that of aJew. For this reason our rabbis of blessed memory have said, µRather beneath theyoke of Edom [Christendom] than that of Ishmael. [31]

Notes: [1] Edward Said. The Question of Palestine . New York: Vintage Books, 1980, pp. 89-90. [2] Jacques Ellul. Foreward to Les Chretientes d¶Orient entre Jihad et Dhimmitude. VIIe ± XXe siecle, 1991. Pp. 18-19. [3] Al-Tabari, The History of al-Tabari (Ta¶rikh al rusul wa¶l-muluk), vol. 12, The Battle of Qadissiyah and theConquest of Syria and Palestine , translated by Yohanan Friedman, (Albany, NY.:State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 167. [4] The Noble Qur¶an ;Translation of Sahih Bukhari; Translation of Sahih Muslim [5] Ibn Khaldun, TheMuqudimmah. An Introduction to History , Translated by Franz Rosenthal. (New York,NY.: Pantheon, 1958, vol. 1), p. 473. [6] Watt, W.M. [Translator]. The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali , Oxford, England, 1953, p. 13. [7] Al -Ghazali (d. 1111). Kitabal-Wagiz fi fiqh madhab al-imam al-Safi¶i , Beirut, 1979, pp. 186, 190-91; 199-200;202-203. English translation by Dr. Michael Schub in Andrew G. Bostom, editor , TheLegacy of Jihad-Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, Amherst, NY,Prometheus Books, 2005, p. 199.[8] Bostom, Th e Legacy of Jihad , especially pp. 24-124, 368-681.[9] Bostom, The Legacy of Jihad , pp. 190-95.[10] Cited in, Bostom,The Legacy of Jihad , p.31.[11] Bostom, The Legacy of Jihad , pp. 29-37.[12] Bostom,The Legacy of Jihad , p. 199.[13] Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099,

translated by Ethel Broido, Cambridge and New York, 1992, p. 11. [14] Gil, A History of Palestine,p.11.[15] Richard Bell, The Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment ,London, 1926, Pp. 134-135; 151; 159-161. [16] Demetrios Constantelos, ³GreekChristian and Other Accounts of the Moslem Conquests of the Near East´, inChristian Hellenism : Essays and Studies in Continuity and Change , New Rochelle,N.Y., A.D. Caratzas, 1998, pp. 125-26.[17] Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, p.2. [18] Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp. 15, 20; Constantelos, ³GreekChristian and Other Accounts of the Moslem Conques ts of the Near East´, pp. 126-130.[19] Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam , p. 44.; Bat



Ye¶or, ³Islam and the Dhimmis´, The Jerusalem Quarterly , 1987, Vol. 42, p. 85.Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp. 61, 169-170; Naphtali Lewis, ³NewLight on the Negev in Ancient Times´, Palestine Exploration Quarterly , 1948, vol. 80,pp. 116-117; Constantelos, ³Greek Christian and Other Accounts of the MoslemConquests of the Near East´, pp. 127-28; Al-Baladhuri The Origins of the Islamic State (Kitah Futuh al-Buldan), translated by Philip K. Hitti, London, Longman,

Greens, and Company, 1916, p. 217. [20] Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp.471-474; Constantelos, ³Greek Christian and Other Accounts of the MoslemConquests of the Near East, p. 135.[21] Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099,p. 474. [22] Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam , p. 74.[23]Chronique de Denys de Tell -Mahre, translated from the Syriac by Jean-BaptisteChabot (Paris, 1895), part 4, p. 112. English translation in: Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, p. 74.[24] Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp. 474-75. [25] Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, p.159; Q16:63-³By God, We (also) sent (Our apostles) to peoples before thee; but Satan made, (tothe wicked) their own acts seem alluring: he is also their patron today, but they shallhave a most grievous penalty´; Q5:72-³They do blaspheme who say: µAllah is Christthe son of Mary.¶ But said Christ: µO Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and

your Lord.¶ Whoever joins other gods with Allah, - Allah will forbid him the garden,and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong -doers be no one to help.´Q58:19- ³The devil hath engrossed them and so hath caused them to forgetremembrance of Allah. They are the devil¶s party. Lo! is it not the devil¶s party whowill be the losers?´; Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam , p.84. [26] Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp. 371-379. [27] Moshe Gil,³Dhimmi Donations and Foundations for Jerusalem (638 -1099)´, Journal of theEconomic and Social History of the Orient , Vol. 37, 1984, pp. 166-167. [28] MosheGil, A History of Palestine, 634-1099, pp. 412-416. [29] Julius Greenstone, in hisessay, ³The Turcoman Defeat at Cairo´ The American Journal of Semitic Languagesand Literatures, Vol. 22, 1906, pp. 144-175, provides a translation of this poem[excerpted, pp. 164-165] by Solomon ha-Kohen b. Joseph [believed to be adescendant of the Geonim, an illustrious family of Palestinian Jews of priestlydescent], which includes the poet¶s recollection of the previous Turcoman conquestof Jerusalem during the eighth decade of the 11th century. Greenstone comments[p. 152], ³As appears from the poem, the conquest of Jerusalem by Atsiz was verysorely felt by the Jews. The author dwell at great length on the cruelties perpetratedagainst the inhabitants of the city«´ [30] For example, Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades- Vol. 1- The First Crusade and the Foundation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge, 1951, Pp. 286-87; Moshe Gil, A History of Palestine, 634-

1099, p. 827 notes, ³The Christians violated their promise to the inhabitants that theywould be left alive, and slaughtered some 20,000 to 30,000 people, a number whichmay be an exaggeration«´[31] Isaac b. Samuel of Acre. Osar Hayyim (Treasure

Store of Life) (Hebrew). Ms. Gunzburg 775 fol. 27b. Lenin State Library, Moscow.[English translation in, Bat Ye¶or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam , Pp.352-54. Dr. Bostom is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and author of the recently released, The Legacy of Jihad , on Prometheus Books.



The Legacy of Jihad in Historial Palestine (Part II)November 20th, 2005 Violent jihad warfare on infidels is the norm, not the exception, in Islamic history.Once successful, jihad leads to the imposition of humiliating, degrading, violent, and

expensive oppression under dhimmitude, the institutionalized imposition of lowlystatus upon those who refuse to abandon their faith and adopt Islam. Among theworst victims of jihad and dhimmitude have been the Jews and Christians who livedin historic Palestine. Part II of this article examines jihad and dhimmitude in historicalPalestine in the pre-modern and modern eras Although episodes of violent anarchy diminished during the period of Ottomansuzerainty (beginning in 1516-1517 C.E.), the degrading conditions of the indi genousJews and Christians living under the Sharia¶s jurisdiction remained unchanged for centuries. For example, Samuel b. Ishaq Uceda, a major Kabbalist from Safed at theend of the 16th century, refers in his commentary on The Lamentations of Jeremiah,to the situation of the Jews in the Land of Israel (Palestine):

...there is no town in the [Ottoman] empire in which the Jews are subjected to suchheavy taxes and dues as in the Land of Israel, and particularly in Jerusalem. Were itnot for the funds sent by the communities in Exile, no Jew could survive here onaccount of the numerous taxes« The [Muslims] humiliate us to such an extent thatwe are not allowed to walk in the streets. The Jew is obliged to step aside in order tolet the Gentile [Muslim] pass first. And if the Jew does not turn aside of his own will,he is forced to do so. This law is particularly enforced in Jerusalem, more so than inother localities. [32] A century later Canon Antoine Morison, from Bar -le-Duc in France, while traveling inthe Levant in 1698, observed that the Jews in Jerusalem are ³there in misery and

under the most cruel and shameful slavery´, and although a large community, theysuffered from extortion. [33]

Similar contemporary observations regarding the plight of both Palestinian Jews andChristians-subjected to the jizya [infidel tax], and other attendant forms of social,economic, and religious .. discrimination, often brutally imposed, were made by thePolish Jew, Gedaliah of Siemiatyce (d. 1716), who, braving numerous perils, cameto Jerusalem in 1700. These appalling conditions, recorded in his book, Pray for thePeace of Jerusalem, forced him to return to Europe in order to raise funds for the

Jews of Jerusalem.

No Jew or Christian is allowed to ride a horse, but a donkey is permitted, for [in the

eyes of Muslims] Christians and Jews are inferior beings« The Muslims do not allowany member of another faith-unless he converts to their religion-entry to the Temple[Mount] area, for they claim that no other religion is sufficiently pure to enter this holyspot.

In the Land of Israel, no member of any other religion besides Islam may wear thecolor green, even if it is a thread [of cotton] like that with wh ich we decorate our prayer shawls. If a Muslim perceives it, that could bring trouble.



Moreover, the Muslim law requires that each religious denomination wear its specificgarment so that each people may be distinguished from another. This distinction als oapplies to footwear. Indeed, the Jews wear shoes of a dark blue color, whereasChristians wear red shoes. No one can use green, for this color is worn solely byMuslims. The latter are very hostile toward Jews and inflict upon them vexations inthe streets of the city«the common folk persecute the Jews, for we are forbidden to

defend ourselves against the Turks or the Arabs. If an Arab strikes a Jew, he [theJew] must appease him but dare not rebuke him, for fear that he may be struck evenharder, which they [the Arabs] do without the slightest scruple. This is the way theOriental Jews react, for they are accustomed to this treatment, whereas theEuropean Jews, who are not yet accustomed to suffer being assaulted by the Arabs,insult them in return. Even the Christians are subjected to these vexations. If a Jew offends a Muslim, thelatter strikes him a brutal blow with his shoe in order to demean him, withoutanyone¶s being able to prevent him from doing it. The Christians fall victim to thesame treatment and they suffer as much as the Jews, except that the former arevery rich by reason of the subsidies that they receive from abroad, and they use this

money to bribe the Arabs. As for the Jews, they do not possess much money withwhich to oil the palms of the Muslims, and consequently they are subject to muchgreater suffering.[34]

These prevailing conditions for Jews did not improve in a consistent or substantivemanner even after the mid 19th century treaties imposed by the European powers onthe weakened Ottoman Empire included provisions for the Tanzimat reforms. Firstintroduced in 1839, these reforms were designed to end the discriminatory laws of dhimmitude for both Jews and Christians, living under the Ottoman Shari¶a.European consuls endeavored to maintain compliance with at least two cardinalprinciples central to any meaningful implementation of the reforms: respect for thelife and property of non-Muslims; and the right for Christians and Jews to provideevidence in Islamic courts when a Muslim was a party. Unfortunately, these efforts toreplace the concept of Muslim superiority over ³infidels´, with the principle of equalrights, failed. [35]

Almost two decades later, two eyewitness accounts from Jerusalem, one written bythe missionary Gregory Wortabet, (published in 1856), and the second by BritishJerusalem Consul James Finn, (reported November 8-11, 1858) make clear that thedeeply ingrained Islamic religious bigotry, discriminatory regulations, andtreacherous conditions for non-Muslims in Palestine had not improved, despite asecond iteration of Ottoman ³reforms´ in 1856. Wortabet¶s narrative depicts thecommon, prevailing attitudes of Muslim Jew hatred derived from a purely Islamic

perspective. Indeed, Wortabet refers, quite plausibly to the hadith aboutMuhammad¶s poisoning by a Khaybar Jewess as a primary source of such animus.Finn¶s report highlights the legal discrimination and physical insecurity suffered byboth Jews and Christians.

[Wortabet¶s account ] The Jew is still an object of scorn, and nowhere is the name of ³Yahoodi (Jew)´ more looked down upon than here in the city of his fathers. Oneday, as I was passing the Damascus gate, I saw an Arab hurrying on his donkeyamid imprecations such as the following:



µEmshi ya Ibn-el-Yahoodi (Walk, thou son of a Jew)! Yulaan abuk ya Ibn -el-Yahoodi(Cursed be thy father, thou son of a Jew)!¶ I need not give any more illustrations of the manner in which the man went on. Thereader will observe, that the man did not curse the donkey, but the Jew, the father of the donkey. Walking up to him, I said: - µWhy do you curse the Jew? What harm has he done you?¶ µEl Yahoodi khanzeer (the Jew is a hog)!¶ answered the man. µHow do you make that out?¶ I said. µIs not the Je w as good as you or I?¶ µOgh!¶ ejaculated the man, his eyes twinkling with fierce rage, and his brow knitting. By this time he was getting out of my hearing. I was pursuing my walk, when heturned round, and said: - µEl Yahoodi khanzeer! Khanzeer el Yahood i! (The Jew is a hog! A hog is a Jew!)¶ Now I must tell the reader, that, in the Mahomedan vocabulary, there is no wordlower than a hog, that animal being in their estimation the most defiled of animals;and good Mahomedans are prohibited by the Koran fro m eating it.

The Jew, in their estimation, is the vilest of the human family, and is the object of their pious hatred, perhaps from the recollection that a Jewess of Khaibar firstundermined the health of the prophet by infusing poison into his food . Hence ahog and a Jew are esteemed alike in the eye of a Moslem, both being the lowest of their kind; and now the reader will better understand the meaning of the man¶s

words, µEl Yahoodi khanzeer!¶ ³

[Finn¶s account ]...my Hebrew Dragoman, having a case for judgment in theMakhkameh before the new Kadi«was commanded to stand up humbly and take off his shoes«during the Process, although the thief had previously confessed to therobbery in the presence of Jews, the Kadi would not proceed without the testimonyof two Moslems ± when the Jewish witnesses were offered, he refused to accepttheir testimony-and the offensive term adopted toward Jews«(more offensive thanGiaour for Christians) was used by the Kadi¶s servants« In continuing to reportconcerning the apprehensions of Christians from revival of fanaticism on the part of the Mahometans, I have« to state that daily accounts are given to me of insults inthe streets offered to Christians and Jews, accompanied by acts of violence« the

sufferers are afraid.[36] Tudor Parfitt¶s analysis concluded that these problems persisted through the close of the 19th century,

...the courts were biased against the Jews and even when a case was heard in aproperly assembled court where dhimmi testimony was admissible the court w ouldstill almost invariably rule against the Jews. Inside the towns, Jews and other



dhimmis were frequently attacked, wounded, and even killed by local Muslims andTurkish soldiers. Such attacks were frequently for trivial reasons. [37] During World War I in Palestine, the embattled Young Turk government actuallybegan deporting the Jews of Tel Aviv in the spring of 1917 ²an ominous parallel tothe genocidal deportations of the Armenian dhimmi communities throughout

Anatolia. A contemporary Reuters press release discussing the deportation statedthat,

Eight thousand deportees from Tel Aviv were not allowed to take any provisions withthem, and after the expulsion their houses were looted by Bedouin mobs; twoYemenite Jews who tried to oppose the looting wer e hung at the entrance to Tel Avivso that all might see, and other Jews were found dead in the Dunes around Tel Aviv.[38] Ultimately, enforced abrogation of the laws and social practices of dhimmituderequired the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, which only occurred during theEuropean Mandate period following World War I. Remarkably soon afterwards,

however,( i.e., within two years of the abrogation of the Shari¶a!) by 1920, MusaKazem el-Husseini, former governor of Jaffa during the final years of Ott oman rule,and president of the Arab (primarily Muslim) Palestinian Congress, demandedrestoration of the Shari¶a in a letter to the British High Commissioner, HerbertSamuels:

[Ottoman] Turkey has drafted such laws as suit our customs. This was done relyingupon the Shari¶a (Religious Law), in force in Arabic territories, that is engraved in thevery hearts of the Arabs and has been assimilated in their customs and that hasbeen applied «in the modern [Arab] states« We therefore ask the Britishgovernment«that it should respect these laws [i.e., the Shari¶a]...that were in forceunder the Turkish regime«[39] A strong Arab Muslim irredentist current, which achieved pre -eminence after the1929 riots, promulgated the forcible restoration of dhimmitude via jihad, culminatingin the widespread violence of 1936 -39. Two prominent Muslim personalities SheikhIzz al-Din al-Qassam, and Hajj Amin el-Husseini, the former Mufti of Jerusalem,embodied this trend. And both these leaders relied upon the ideology of jihad, withits virulent anti-infidel (i.e., anti-Jewish, anti- Christian, and anti-Western) incitement,to garner popular support.

Al-Qassam called for the preservation of the country¶s Muslim-Arab character,exclusively, and urged an uncompromising and intensified struggle against the

British Mandate and the Jewish National Home in Palestine. Palestine could be fr eedfrom the danger of Jewish domination, he believed, not by sporadic protests,demonstrations, or riots which were soon forgotten, but by an organized andmethodical armed struggle. In his sermons he often quoted verses from the Qur¶anreferring to jihad, linking them with topical matters and his own political ideas. Al -Qassam and his devoted followers committed various acts of jihad terror targetingJewish civilians in northern Palestine from 1931 through 1935. On November 20,1935, al-Qassam was surrounded by British police in a cave near Jenin, and killedalong with three of his henchmen.



In the immediate aftermath of his death,

Virtually overnight, Izz al-Din al-Qassam became the object of a full-fledged cult. Thebearded Sheikh¶s picture appeared in all the Arabic-language papers, accompaniedby banner headlines and inflammatory articles; memorial prayers were held inmosques throughout the country. He was proclaimed a martyr who had sacrificed

himself for the fatherland, his grave at Balad al -Shaykh became a place of pilgrimage, and his deeds were extolled as an illustrious example to be followed byall. In addition, a countrywide fund -raising campaign was launched in aid of familiesof the fallen, and leading Arab lawyers volunteered to defend the m embers of the[surviving] band who were put on trial. [40] Hajj Amin el-Husseini was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem by the British HighCommissioner, in May 1921, a title he retained, following the Ottoman practice, for the remainder of his life. Throughout his public career, the Mufti relied upontraditional Qur¶anic anti -Jewish motifs to arouse the Arab street. For example, duringthe incitement which led to the 1929 Arab revolt in Palestine, he called for combating and slaughtering ³the Jews´, not merely Z ionists. In fact, most of the

Jewish victims of the 1929 Arab revolt were Jews from the centuries old dhimmicommunities (e.g., in Hebron), as opposed to recent settlers identified with theZionist movement.

With the ascent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, the Mufti and his coterieintensified their anti -Semitic activities to secure support from Hitler¶s Germany (and later Bosnian Muslims, as well as the overall Arab Muslim world), for a jihad toannihilate the Jews of Palestine. Following his expul sion from Palestine by theBritish, the Mufti fomented a brutal anti -Jewish pogrom in Baghdad (1941),concurrent with his failed effort to install a pro-Nazi Iraqi government.

Escaping to Europe after this unsuccessful coup attempt, the Mufti spent theremainder of World War II in Germany and Italy. From this sanctuary, he providedactive support for the Germans by recruiting Bosnian Muslims, in addition toMuslim minorities from the Caucasus, for dedicated Nazi SS units . [41] The

Mufti¶s objectives for these recruits²and Muslims in general²were made explicitduring his multiple wartime radio broadcasts from Berlin, heard throughout the

Arab world: an international campaign of genocide against the Jews. For example,during his March 1, 1944 broadcast he sta ted:

Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. [42] Invoking the personal support of such prominent Nazis as Himmler and Eichmann,

[43] the Mufti¶s relentless hectoring of German, Rumanian, and Hungariangovernment officials caused the cancellation of an estimated 480,000 exitvisas which had been granted to Jews (80,000 from Rumania, and 400,000 from

Hungary). As a result, these hapless individuals were deported to Nazi concentrationcamps in Poland.

A United Nations Assembly document presented in 1947 which contained the Mufti¶sJune 28, 1943 letter to the Hungarian Foreign Minister requesting the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Poland, includes this stark, telling annotation: ³As a Sequel to



This Request 400,000 Jews Were Subsequently Killed´. The Mufti escaped to theMiddle East after the war to avoid capture and possible prosecution for war crimes.

The Mufti¶s legacy of virulent anti -Semitism continues to influence Arab policy towardIsrael. Not surprisingly, Yasser Arafat, beginning at the age of 16, worked for theMufti performing terrorist operations. Arafat always characterized the Mufti as his

primary spiritual and political mentor.

Yasser Arafat orchestrated a relentless campaign of four decades of brutal jihadterrorism against the Jewish State, [44] beginning in the early 1960s, until his recentdeath, interspersed with a bloody jihad (during the mid 1970s and early 1980s)against the Christians of Lebanon. [45] Chameleon -like, Arafat adopted a thin veneer of so-called ³secular radicalism´, particularly during the late 1960s and 1970s. Sober analysis reveals, however, that shorn of these super ficial secular trappings, Arafat¶score ideology remained quintessentially Islamic, i.e., rooted in jihad, throughout hiscareer as a terrorist leader. And even after the Oslo accords, within a week of signing the specific Gaza-Jericho agreements, Arafat issued a brazenpronouncement (at a meeting of South African Muslim leaders) reflecting his

unchanged jihadist views:

The jihad will continue and Jerusalem is not for the Palestinian people alone«It isfor the entire Muslim umma. You are responsible for Palestine and Jerusalem beforeme«No, it is not their capital, it is our capital. [46] During the final decade of his life, Arafat reiterated these sentiments on numerousoccasions.¶He also acted upon them, orchestrating an escalating campaign of jihadterrorism which culminated in the heinous orgy of Islamikaze violence [47] that leadto Israel¶s Operation Defensive Shield military operations in the West Bank two daysafter the Netanya Passover massacre on March 27,2002. Moreover, throughout Arafat¶s tenure as the major Palestinian Arab leader, his efforts to destroy Israel andreplace it with an Arab Muslim sharia-based entity were integrated into the larger Islamic umma¶s jihad against the Jewish State, as declared repeatedly in officialconference pronouncements from various clerical or political organizations of theMuslim (both Arab and non-Arab) nations, for over five decades. [48]

These excerpts from the recent 2003 Putrajaya Islamic Summit speech by former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad highlight the official, collectivesentiments of Muslim leaders reiterated ad nauseum since the creation of Israel:

To begin with, the governments of all the Muslim countries can close ranks and havea common stand if not on all issues, at least on some major ones, such as on

Palestine« We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks andwarships« We may want to recreate the first century of the Hijrah, the way of life inthose times, in order to practice what we think to be the true Islamic way of l ife l.3billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. Andwe can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategize and then to counter -attack. As Muslims, we must seekguidance from the AI-Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Surely the 23 years¶struggle of the Prophet can provide us with some guidance as to what we can andshould do« [49]



After more than thirteen centuries of almost uninterrupted jihad in historicalPalestine, it is not surprising that the finalized constitution for the proposedPalestinian Arab state declares all aspects of Palestinian state law to be subservientto the Shari¶a, while contemporary Palestinian Authority religious intelligentsia,openly support restoration of the oppressive system of dhimmitude within a Muslimdominated Israel, as well. [50]

An appropriate assessment of such anachronistic, discriminatory views was providedby the Catholic Archbishop of the Galilee, Butrus Al -Mu¶alem, who, in a June 1999statement dismissed the notion of modern dhimmis submitting to Muslims:

It is strange to me that there remains such backwardness in our society; whilehumans have already reached space, the stars, and the moon« there are still thosewho amuse themselves with fossilized notions. [51] A strange notion for our modern times, certainly, but very real, ominous, andsobering.

Conclusions Ibn Warraq¶s trenchant critique of Edward Said pointed out the bizarre evolution of this Christian agnostic into,

...a de facto apologist and protector of Islam, the least Christian and certainly thereligion least given to self -doubt. [52] Moreover, as Warraq observed, despite Said¶s admission,

...that he does not know anything about Islam, and«the fact that he has never

written a single scholarly work devoted to Islam, Said has always accepted the rolein the West of an Islamic expert, and has never flinched from telling us what the realIslam is. [53] Warraq highlighted this tragic irony, just prior to Said¶s d eath, which even had Saidlived, is unlikely to have ever been resolved. It is almost certain, for example, thatSaid would have reacted with hypocritical silence to the early September 2005Palestinian Muslim pogrom against the small West Bank Christian v illage of Taiba.

As a secularist defending Islam, one wonders how he will be able to argue for anontheocratic state once Palestine becomes a reality. If Islam is such a wonderfulreligion, why not convert to it, and why not accept it as the basis for any new

constitution? At some stage, Said will have to do what he has been avoiding all hisadult life, criticize Islam, or at least indirectly the idea of a theocracy. [54] Ibn Warraq has also noted how Said ± the Literature Professor and literary critic,made a distressingly stupid error in Orientalism, (both in the 1979 and 1994 editions)confusing the words ³eschatological´ and ³scatological´. [55] A revealing, evenpathognomonic error to this medically-trained observer.



In closing, let me move, mercifully, from the ridiculousness of Edward Said to thepenetrating insights of Bat Ye¶or. Noting the ceaseless calls for jihad in Palestineduring modern times, from 1920 through the present era, Bat Ye¶or observed, that jihad remained,

«the main cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since Israelis are to be regarded,

perforce, only as a religious community, their national characteristics ± ageographical territory related to a past history, a system of legislation, a specificlanguage and culture ± are consequently denied. The ³Arab´ character of thePalestinian territory is inherent in the logic of jihad. Having become fay territory byconquest (i.e. ³taken from an infidel people´), it must remain within the dar al-Islam.The State of Israel, established on this fay territory, is consequently illegal. [56] And she concluded,

«Israel represents the successful national liberation of a dhimmi civilization. On aterritory formerly Arabized by the jihad and the dhimma, a pre -Islamic language,culture, topographical geography, and national institutions have been restored to life.

This reversed the process of centuries in which the cultural, social and politicalstructures of the indigenous population of Palestine were destroyed. In 1974, AbuIyad, second-in-command to Arafat in the Fatah hierarchy, announced: ³We intend tostruggle so that our Palestinian homeland does not become a new Andalusia.´ Thecomparison of Andalusia to Palestine was not fortuitous since both countries were Arabized, and then de-Arabized by a pre-Arabic culture. [57] Andrew G. Bostom, M D, MS is the author of the recently published, TheLegacy of Jihad , This text was delivered as a lecture on Monday October 31,2005 at a C onference on Post- C olonial Theory sponsored by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East

Notes

[32] Samuel b. Ishaq Uceda, Lehem dim¶ah (The Bread of Tears) (Hebrew). Venice,1606. [English translation in, Bat Ye¶or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam, Pp. 354. [33] Bat Ye¶or, Islam and Dhimmitude- Where Civilizations Collide. Cranbury, NJ.: Associated University Presses, 2001; p. 318. [34] Gedaliah of Siemiatyce, Sha¶alu Shelom Y erushalayim (Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem), (Hebrew), Berlin, 1716. [English translation in, Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of

Eastern Christianity Under Islam, Pp. 377-80.]

[35] Edouard Engelhardt, La Turquie et La Tanzimat, 2 Vols ., 1882, Paris, Vol.p.111, Vol. 2 p. 171; English translation in, Bat Ye¶o r. Islam and Dhimmitude- WhereCivilizations Collide , Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001, pp. 431 -432;Reports from Her Majesty¶s Consuls Relating to the Condition of the Christians inTurkey , 1867 volume, pp. 5,29. See also related other reports b y various consulsand vice-consuls, in the 1860 vol., p.58; the 1867 vol, pp. 4,5,6,14,15; and the 1867vol., part 2, p.3 [All cited in, Vahakn Dadrian. Chapter 2, ³The Clash Between



Democratic Norms and Theocratic Dogmas´, Warrant for Genocide, New Brunswick,New Jersey, Transaction Publishers, pp. 26-27, n. 4]; See also, extensive excerptsfrom these reports in, Bat Ye¶or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity , pp. 409-433;and Roderick Davison. ³Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian -Muslim Equality inthe Nineteenth Century´ American Historical Review , Vol. 59, pp. 848, 855, 859, 864.

[36] Gregory Wortabet, Syria and the Syrians. Vol. II , London, 1856, pp. 263-264;Consul James Finn, published in, Albert M. Hyamson. The British Consulate inJerusalem (in relation to the Jews of Palestine) , Edward Goldstein Ltd., London,1939, p. 261.

[37] Tudor Parfitt, The Jews of Palestine, 1800-1882 , Suffolk, England, The BoydellPress, 1987, p. 168, 172-173. [38] Yair Auron, The Banality of Indifference , New Brunswick, NJ, Transaction

Publishers, 2000, p. 77. [39] Musa Kazem el-Husseini, (President Palestinian Arab Congress), to High

Commissioner for Palestine, December 10, 1920 (Translated January 2, 1921),Israel State Archives, R.G. 2, Box 10, File 244. [40] Shai Lachman, ³Arab Rebellion and Terrorism in Palestine 1929 -39: The Caseof Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam and His Movement´, in Z ionism and Arabism inPalestine and Israel , edited by Elie Kedourie and Sylvia G. Haim, Frank Cass,London, 1982, p. 72. [41] Joseph B. Schechtman, The Mufti and The Fuehrer , New York, 1965; ZviElpeleg, The Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Hussaini , translated by David Harvey, FrankCass, 1993; Yossef Bodansky, Islamic Antisemitism as a Political Instrument ,Houston, 1999, p. 29.; Jennie Lebel , Hajj Amin ve Berlin (Hajj Amin and Berlin) , Tel

Aviv, 1996; Jan Wanner, in, ³Amin al-Husayni and Germany¶s Arab Policy in thePeriod 1939-1945´, Archiv Orientalni Vol. 54, 1986, p. 244, observes,

³His appeals«addressed to the Bosnian Muslims were«close in many respects tothe argumentation used by contemporary Islamic fundamentalists«the Mufti viewedonly as a new interpretation of the traditional concept of the Islamic community(umma) sharing with Nazism common enemies´

[42] Joseph B. Schechtman, The Mufti and The Fuehrer , p. 151.

[43] Joseph B. Schechtman, The Mufti and The Fuehrer , pp. 152-63; Jan Wanner, in

his 1986 analysis (³Amin al-Husayni and Germany¶s Arab Policy´, p. 243.) of theMufti¶s collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II, concluded,

³«the darkest aspect of the Mufti¶s activities in the final stage of the war wasundoubtedly his personal share in the extermination of Europe¶s Jewish population.On May 17, 1943, he wrote a personal letter to Ribbentrop, asking him to prevent thetransfer of 4500 Bulgarian Jews, 4000 of them children, to Palestine. In May andJune of the same year, he sent a number of letters to the governments of Bulgaria,Italy, Rumania, and Hungary, with the request not to permit even individual Jewish



emigration and to allow the transfer of Jews to Poland where, he claimed they wouldbe µunder active supervision¶. The trials of Eichmann¶s henchmen, including Dieter Wislicency who was executed in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, confirmed that this wasnot an isolated act by the Mufti.´

[44] Efraim Karsh, Arafat¶s War , New York, 2003.

[45] Walid Phares, Lebanese Christian Nationalism , Boulder, CO, 1995; Farid El-Khazen, The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon - 1967-1976 , Cambridge, 2000. [46] Efraim Karsh, Arafat¶s War , p. 117. A decade and one half earlier, upon

Khomeini¶s ascension to power in Iran, Arafat immediately cabled the Ayatollahrelaying these shared jihadist sentiments (February 13, 1979): ³I pray Allah to guide your step along the path of faith and Holy War (Jihad) in Iran,continuing the combat until we arrive at the walls of Jerusalem, where we shall raisethe flags of our two revolutions.´Quote from, Bat Ye¶or, ³Aspects of the Arab -IsraeliConflict´, Wiener Library Bulletin , Vol. 32, 1979, p. 68. [47] Raphael Israeli, Islamikaze- Manifestations of Islamic Martyrology , Frank Cass,London, 2003. [48] For example, From Cairo, 1968, The Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research, Sheikh Hassan Khalid, Mufti of the Republic of Lebanon,(excerpts from, Bat Ye¶or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam , Pp.391-94.)

³Your honorable conference has been an Arab, Islamic and patriotic necessity inview of the present circumstances in which the Arabs and Muslims face the most

serious difficulties. All Muslims expect you to expound Allah¶s decree concerning thePalestine cause, to proclaim that decree, in all clarity, throughout the Arab andMuslim world. We do not think this decree absolves any Muslim or Arab from Jihad(Holy War) which has now become a duty incumbent upon the Arabs and Muslims toliberate the land, preserve honor, retaliate for [lost] dignity, restore the Aqsa Mosque,the church of Resurrection, and to purge the birthplace of p rophecy, the seat of revelation, the meeting-place of Prophets, the starting-point of Issa, and the scenesof the holy spirit, from the hands of Zionism ± the enemy of man, of truth, of justice,and the enemy of Allah«The well -balanced judgement frankly expressed with firmconviction is the first stop on the road of victory. The hoped -for judgment is that of Muslim Scholars who draw their conclusions from the Book of Allah, and the Sunnaof His prophet. May Allah guard your meeting, and guide your steps! Ma y your

decisive word rise to the occasion and enlighten the Arab and Muslim world, so thatit may be a battle-cry, urging millions of Muslims and Arabs on to the field of Jihad,which will lead us to the place that once was ours«Muslims who are distant fro m thebattle-field of Palestine, such as the Algerians, the Moroccans, all the Africans, Saudi Arabia people, Yemeni people, the Indians, Iraqi people, the Russians, and theEuropeans are indeed sinful if they do not hasten to offer all possible means toachieve success and gain victory in the Islamic battle against their enemies and theenemies of their religion. Particularly, this battle is not a mete combat between twoparties but it is a battle between two religions (namely, it is a religious battle).



[55] Ibn Warraq. ³Edward Said and the Saidists´, p. 476. The original 1979 edition aswell as the 1994 reissue edition of Orientalism each contain this howler, supporting

the notion that the use of the word ³eschatological´ instead of the appropriate³scatological´ was not a mere typographical error. Here is the relevant paragraphfrom p. 68 of both editions: Mohammed¶s punishment, which is also his eternal fate, is a peculiarly disgustingone: he is endlessly being cleft in two from his chin to his anus like, Dante says, acask whose staves are ripped apart. Dante¶s verse at this point spares the reader none of the eschatological [sic«should be ³scatalogical´] detail that so vivid apunishment entails: Mohammed¶s entrails and his excrement are described withunflinching accuracy.

[56] Bat Ye¶or. The Dhimmi-Jews and Christians Under Islam. Cranbury, NewJersey: Associated University Presses, 1985, p. 116. [57] Bat Ye¶or. The Dhimmi , pp. 122-123. After the Ottoman Empire fell, Muslim violence was kept in check throughEuropean colonialism. However, with the advent of Arab nationalism and oilrevenues, Muslim violence and wars are again a world-wide problem.

muslim history of hate

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