Notes on Dhimmitude

There is no such thing as dhimmitude, and besides, it was a good thing.

The current Islamic thanatocracy spins itself into the ground lying and whingeing and weeping over illusory and lost glories of the Caliphate. We'd like to see the day when the world body buries the rotten corpse and lets life rule again in the currently Islamic world. Not likely to happen. Worse is that the West is sucked into the death-rule of self-imposed dhimmitude, and the rot sets in deeper daily.

We take it as axiomatic that dhimmitude is historical and evil. We are more concerned here with its current practice in the West than in its historrical practice. Our focus here is on the fascist Left resurrection of dhimmitude for the Left's agenda of restoring feudalist fascism in Europe and spreading it to the New World. There are some who either don't believe there is such a thing as dhimmitude, or that it was a great thing for the dhimmis under Islamic control.

We have four short pieces below on dhimmitude. The first is some stuff we put here for the sake of giving expresion to those we might not agree with; and the following three pieces are reviews of books by some of those whom we deeply admire, Bostom, Ye'or, and Spencer.
***

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/

Gentiletude and Dhimmitude

by Yamin Zakaria

(Thursday March 17 2005)

---

"Reporters, Political Commentators, Journalists, and Politicians who have any backbone and objectivity left in them at best they tread carefully in fear while others sign up to become part and parcel of this fad of showing obedience to Gentiletude or anti-Semitism. It is always easy to comply with what is fashionable instead of being principled, driven by right and wrong."

All gentile children are animals.

-- (Yebamoth 98a)

When a Jew murders a gentile, there will be no death penalty. What a Jew steals from a gentile he may keep.

-- (Sanhedrin 57a)

Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg declared, "We have to recognize that Jewish blood and the blood of a goy are not the same thing."

-- (NY Times, June 6, 1989)

After centuries of prospering as Dhimmis [1], ironically, they are now engaged in a campaign to distort history and denigrate the very people who gave them protection. Instead of pogroms, ethnic cleansing and holocausts, the Jews experienced the golden age in Andalusia (Islamic Spain) under the Muslim rule, an era unparalleled in their 5000+ years of history. Even the noted Orientalist scholar Bernard Lewis who's writings are not known to be complimentary towards Muslims and Islam has stated that the Jews prospered under Muslims rule, at a time when "Jew-Baiting" was Christian-Europe's favourite past time. Finally when the cruel inquisition did arrive in Spain, they migrated to the safe haven city of Istanbul, the capital of the Islamic State.

One of the leading ambassadors of promoting this vicious anti-Islamic agenda is Dr. Daniel Pipes [2]. His crude statements make him appear as though he is a member of some white supremacist group like the Ku Klux Klan. He is like many of the other extreme rightwing Jews that operate behind the cover of their American identity promoting Israeli interests. Their immense grip on the mass media and the popular media like the Hollywood film industry has resulted in presenting a one-sided view, stirring up a frenzy of nationalism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslims sentiments, ironically that is so reminiscent of how the Jews felt under Nazi Germany. How short is the their memory? Daniel Pipes forgetting his own abysmal history states that Dhimmitude [3] is: "…a state in which (among other features) non-Muslims dare not say anything critical about Islam and Muslims."

If there is such a thing as Dhimmitude then Gentiletude is a reality that no one can deny. It is a giant octopus in comparison to Dhimmitude with its tentacles buried deep within every facet of society. Gentiletude usually manifests as anti-Semitism. It has even been incorporated into the US foreign policy as the White House have legislated the new global anti-Semitism monitoring law. Salah Amer, a Cairo University international law professor, called the new legislation "terror of thought", obviously designed to silence Israeli criticisms; facilitating the continuation of the Israeli State Terrorism and ethnic cleansing process in order to make way for the 'chosen' people of God.

So, it is not just Muslims but any group that dare say anything critical about Judaism and Jews would potentially face the US sanctions followed by bombs and bullets, no doubt it will all be cloaked with the lofty values of human rights and even freedom of speech! But why is the US so concerned about anti-Semitism? Surely in light of the recent carnage in Iraq, the shamelful episode of Abu-Ghariab, Camp-X-Ray etc. should the US not be more focused on anti-American sentiments around the world? It gives credence to the idea that there is disproportionate influence from the Jewish lobby that is real. Dr Mahatir did speak the truth on the matter. Perhaps you also realise why Ariel Sharon stated that now we control America, like the tail now controls the body of the cow.

Also, recently, the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, likened a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard there was an uproar. Everyone calling for his apology, never mind the 100,000 slaughter in Iraq or the 13 year old Palestinian girl shot at close range, those events did not register in the 'moral' radar of the British intelligentsia! How are we as Muslims to interpret such paradoxical responses from one of the bastions of freedom and democracy? Or could it be that our 'violent' and 'primitive' nature prevents us from understanding such sophisticated response of a developed democracy, where they go mad over the perceived politically incorrect comments of Ken Livingston while remain oblivious to the bombs and bullets killing thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq who have done no harm to their country! Who can forget when the British and American troops were burying Iraqis soldiers alive in the desert sands en masse during the first Gulf War in 1991, the public were outraged at the suffering of animals caught in the oil spillage!

Another example of the hysteria of Gentiletude is when Dr. Mahatir praised the Jews for being resourceful and successful despite being numerically small and having suffered under Nazi Germany, there was uproar. Western Intelligentsia went into fenzy with accusations of "anti-Semitism" while remaining oblivious to the routine Israeli raids in Gaza, killing many innocent civilians. The mere unauthorised uttering of the word 'Jews' creates instant response from the gentiles coming to their defence even as the Jewish nation is engaged in the shedding of blood. All the above mentioned examples clearly demonstrate the power of Gentiletude.

Reporters, Political Commentators, Journalists, and Politicians who have any backbone and objectivity left in them at best they tread carefully in fear while others sign up to become part and parcel of this fad of showing obedience to Gentiletude or anti-Semitism. It is always easy to comply with what is fashionable instead of being principled, driven by right and wrong. Hence, you see the flexibility of the politicians being with what is fashionable so they always leave room for backtracking and sidetracking like a slimy snake while they beat the drums of their commitment to noble values. Certainly, it is also fashionable to attack the Muslims and Islam so you find plenty of journalists and politicians happily engaging in this exercise to appeal to the other majority. Isn't that what democracy is about?

Therefore, Dhimmitude is largely mythical and has not surfaced due to the stifling of criticisms of the Muslims and Islam. It is a convenient term developed by the likes of D. Pipes to denigrate those who oppose the removal of the few remaining fragile barriers giving some nomical protection to Muslims and Islam. Removing those barriers is perhaps the last step before calling for the rebuilding of the concentration camps and the gas chambers. Many would of course argue that Camp X-Ray, Bagram and Belmarsh were miniature models of those horror chambers. How ironic the very people who were subjected to such treatment about 60 years ago are now at the forefront of inciting the US to pursue that route, while invoking victimhood of the Nazi Holocaust.

Today we as Muslims are often muzzled and demonised by the stick of anti-Semitism. A phenomenon that we neither created nor did we practice by systematically eradicating Jewish population. Incongruously, those who have, tend to be the first to lecture us, in the same way they make noise about human rights after committing centuries of genocide the most recent being in Iraq. Similarly, they shout about women's rights while they use 'freedom' to profit from the ever increasing flesh based porn industry, prostitution and the infamous sex tourism. How ironic that while Hilary Clinton and Cherry Blair lecture about women's rights to Muslims, their men were busy in sex-tourism in the Far East where poverty of the poor women are exploited by capitalist wealth made in democracies. If you are really sincere and honest about women's rights then lead by examples by criminalising such activities thus putting your own house in order first! And we as Muslims know for sure that you cannot.

In short, the two terms of "Gentiletude" and "Dhimmitude" may not carry opposite meaning in the linguistic sense, but their usage indicates that they are in opposite motion. The latter is used to remove the remaining fragile barriers in order to continue the persecution of the Muslim community often using 'freedom' of speech as a license. On the other hand, Gentiletude is used in the guise of anti-Semitism to reduce the existing scope ('freedom') for expressing criticism of the Jewish State. The insanity of Gentiletude is waning in Europe slowly as its ordinary citizens begin to realise the truth through the fog created by the one-sided mass media coverage. They see the crimes committed against innocent nations. They see that Iraq never attacked the US or the UK in its entire history, the Palestinians never occupied the Jewish homes and lands prior to 1948 coming from East Europe. Iraqis and the Palestinians are indeed the victims of organised State Terrorism and Gentiletude is one component of that policy.

Notes:

[1] Non Muslim citizens of the Islamic State. Please see the article for a comparative analysis on: http://www.icssa.org/dhimmi.html

[2] Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum (A think tank that promotes American interests in the Middle East) and a prize-winning columnist for the New York Sun and The Jerusalem Post.

[3] The term was originally coined by another Jewish group http://www.dhimmitude

by courtesy & © 2005 Yamin Zakaria

***

In response to the drivel above one can turn to three books off the shelf to get some intelligent input into the discussion on dhimmitude. Below we include three reviews from Amazon.com., two by one of our favorite writers on Islam, A. Boston, whose website, American Thinker, is at the top of our list for good writing and intelligent discussion.

The following reviews come from: http://www.amazon.com/
***

Denying the Legacy of Dhimmitude at Our Peril, January 16, 2002

Bat Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide

Reviewed by Andrew G. Bostom

Previously I forwarded a review of this book by Raphael Israeli, PhD, published in the 1/11/02 edition of The Jerusalem Post. The following is my own review:

V. S. Naipaul, the Nobel laureate writer, depicts in both "Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey", and "Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples" how Islam attempts to erase the pre-Islamic history of conquered, indigenous peoples. Indeed, in awarding its 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature to Mr. Naipaul, the Nobel Committee , credited the author "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

Bat Ye'or's thirty years of scholarship on "dhimmitude", the religious, cultural, and political fate of non-Muslims, in particular Christians and Jews, living under Islamic rule, is a seminal effort to recapture this specific suppressed history. In her current work, "Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide", the author bravely elucidates how doctrinal patterns of subjugation of the dhimmi peoples (i.e., Christians and Jews) initiated during the Arab and Turkish waves of Islamic conquest, the jihad-dhimmitude continuum, are of immediate relevance to contemporary historical trends and specific events.

Ye'or's unique prism reveals striking, poignant hypocrises. For example, she compares the paucity of Western press coverage of the brutal ongoing, 20-year jihad waged by the Islamist Khartoum government against thousands of black African Christian and Animist inhabitants of the southern Sudan, to the ceaseless, exaggerated reporting of the so-called al Aqsa intifada:

"None of the Christian or animist children deliberately enslaved, converted to Islam by force, mutilated, obliged to flee, or killed had his photograph blown up in the Western press. And none of them was mentioned, nor their fate pitied. But Muhammad al-Dura, a Muslim Palestinian child- accidentally killed in a crossfire exchange between Palestinians who initiated it, and Israelis- became the most well known child victim on the globe. He was an effective banner for antisemitic and revengeful frustration against Israel- for the million and a half Jewish children deliberately rounded up, deported, and killed in Europe sixty years earlier. The serious Geneva daily, Le Temps, chose this tragedy as the 'photograph of the year' (December 30, 2000)."

This disturbing, graphic juxtaposition captures the books two key thematic elements: the violent, living legacy of jihad and dhimmi suppression in the Sudanese example, impossible to distinguish in its theological and juridicial underpinnings from the jihad of the Arab (634 to 750 C.E.) and Turkish (1021 to 1683 C.E.) waves of Islamization; and the notion of a "dhimmitude of the West", particularly evident in Europe, as manifested by official Church and/or European press silence regarding the blatant Islamist persecution of a Christian minority in the Sudan, or the rising tide of antisemitic violence in France, in particular, in contrast to the over wrought European reaction to perceived "persecution" of the Palestinians, strongly influenced (in a striking example of the self-loathing "dhimmi syndrome") by the distorted propaganda of dhimmi Christian Arab clerics,

A painstakingly documented book, its message requires urgent exposure in light of the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001. Indeed, the media, academia, and the lay public ignore Bat Ye'or's scholarly insights at our collective peril.
***

Shattering Taboos on Jihad and Dhimmitude, September 16, 2003

Robert Spencer, Onward Muslim Soldiers
Review by Andrew G. Bostom. Robert Spencer's meticulous research and documentation, complemented by a lucid writing style, has yielded a remarkably informative work that transitions seamlessly between classical Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and sociopolitical history, and contemporary events, especially modern manifestations of jihad war ideology.

Moreover, Spencer's analyses are devoid of politically correct, ahistorical dithering. This is apparent from the opening chapter (in the first of the books three main sections), and the illustrative example of the infamous grenade and small arms attack by American sergeant Hasan Akbar, an African-American convert to Islam, which killed two of his senior officers and wounded 15 others, in northern Kuwait on March 22, 2003. After reviewing statements by designated spokespersons (an Army chaplain and a Pentagon official) dismissing (reflexively) Islamic ideology as a potential motivating factor, and the predictable defense counsel and family attempts to portray religious and/or racial discrimination against Akbar as precipitating the arrest, Spencer cites sacred texts from the Qur'an and hadith (putative deeds and utterances of Muhammad as recorded by his pious followers) prohibiting Muslims from fighting their co-religionists.

The author's provocative analysis is supported by a succinct introduction to the unique Islamic institution of jihad (including jihad war), its central obligation to pious Muslims, and how jihad is linked inextricably to the corollary institution of "dhimmitude." He then makes further disquieting observations germane to contemporary jihad "campaigns" and the basic human rights of all non-Muslims living in societies whose legal codes are inspired either in full or part by the Shari'a (Islamic Holy Law). Subsequently, Spencer returns to the Akbar case, specifically, to review evidence of the funding and related ideological orientation of the mosque attended by Sergeant Akbar.

Jihad was pursued century after century, because jihad, which means "to strive in the path of Allah," embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th and 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of Qur'an verses and long chapters in the hadith. As Spenser notes, appropriately, the consensus on the nature of jihad from all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (i.e., Maliki, Hanbali, Hanafi, and Shafi'i) is clear.
Spencer then reviews the historical implications of the Qur'an's injunction in verse 9:29:

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of The Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, feel themselves subdued."

For example, al-Mawardi (d. 1058), a seminal Shafi'ite jurist during the Abbasid-Baghdadian Caliphate, elucidated the regulations pertaining to the lands and infidel (i.e., non-Muslim) populations subjugated by jihad. The vanquished non-Muslims were compelled to adhere to this pact ("dhimma"), which acknowledged their submission, or face the threat of having the jihad against them resumed. If the payment ceases, then the jihad resumes. This is the origin of the system of dhimmitude- a vast, uniquely Islamic institution of religious apartheid, implemented for over a millennium across three continents- Asia, Africa, and Europe- from the Indian subcontinent to Portugal, north through the Balkans, and south to The Sudan. The native infidel populations had to recognize Islamic ownership of their land, submit to Islamic law, and accept payment of the poll tax (jizya).

Spencer provides this reasoned, sobering assessment of the modern predicament created by the living institutions of jihad and dhimmitude, which is consistently obfuscated by his timid or uninformed peers in modern Western intellectual circles:

"...the simple fact that jihad remains a vital part of Islamic theology is insufficiently appreciated in the West. In stark contrast to apologies for the Crusades issued by the Pope and various Protestant groups, no major Muslim group has ever repudiated the doctrines of jihad. The ideology of jihad, with all its assumptions about unbelievers' lack of human rights and dignity, is available today as a justification for anyone with the will and the means to bring it to life...

The author segues from the Akbar case to a host of other chilling examples which illustrate the pervasive influence of jihad and dhimmitude in both the U.S. and European Muslim communities- primarily mosques expounding these institutions, but also intermediate school textbooks, and college student organizations (for e.g., chapters of the Muslim Student Association).

Spencer's carefully referenced, but concise, thoughtful discussions address a truly impressive array of issues critical to an informed understanding of international jihad conflicts and terrorism. Most importantly, he describes how seminal 20th century Muslim ideologues- the Shi'ite Ayatollah Khomeini, and four Sunnis - Hasan al Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi, and Abdullah Azzam - revitalized and implemented the classical Islamic institutions of jihad and dhimmitude. Since the 1930s, their teachings and actions have had a profound impact on every major jihad campaign across the globe (including, but not limited to Israel, India, Bangladesh, Iran, Sudan, Indonesia, former Yugoslavia, and Algeria). Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, was influenced deeply and directly by Abdullah Azzam, with whom he studied and fought alongside, in Afghanistan.

Sadly, as Robert Spencer demonstrates, dhimmitude is still ignored or obfuscated, and most Muslim (and many Western) intellectuals continue to justify the jihad concept as an inoffensive spiritual engagement with one's own evil instincts, or purely "defensive" combat for "justice." Let us hope the author's elegant, uncompromising analyses prompt intellectual and media elites in general, and the Muslim intelligentsia and media, in particular, to begin the long overdue process of a (self-) critical reflection on the uniquely Islamic institutions of jihad and dhimmitude. Only then can meaningful interfaith dialogue begin to facilitate sincere efforts at reconciliation between Muslim and non-Muslim societies and peoples.
***

A superb analysis of the lifestyle of dhimmis under Islam, December 18, 2004

On Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam

Review by Jill Malter Why do Arabs attack Zionism? In this book, Bat Ye'or gives a surprisingly simple answer. I think she's absolutely nailed the cause of the problem:

"It is well known that the successful revolt of the colonized frequently traumatizes the colonizer. Vengefulness and hatred express the distress of the oppressor confronted by his victim's rebellion. An equality of rights with the inferior party humiliates the dominating group which, deprived of its superiority, seeks compensation in phantasms. Such reactions have been exhaustively analyzed in books dealing with the phenomenon of racism."

The author shows these attitudes in action, as various Arabs complain that the presence of Jews in Israel defiles the land, or that the land is all Arab, with Jews being mere "dhimmis." The liberation of the Jews is sometimes considered a crime against Nature, as we see Egyptian President Nasser call it "the greatest international crime that has been committed in the entire history of mankind."

The terms applied by Arab racists to Jewish dhimmis who sought freedom are now applied to Israel itself: insolent, arrogant, and needing punishment.

I think this book is one of the best at explaining why Arabs and Jews are at odds in the Middle East. And why they'll continue to be at odds until Arabs renounce such racism and until international applause for this racism quiets down.

Bat Ye'or explains the problems of being a dhimmi. A dhimmi lacks rights and is thus dependent on the good will of, um, real people. A dhimmi has no history; actually a dhimmi has no right to have a history, and real people write any history they please regarding dhimmis. And the author shows that although Zionism is more an Oriental phenomenon than a European one, the refusal to acknowledge Zionist history tends to lead to claims that Zionism is exclusively a European movement. In addition, she implies that the refusal of many Arabs to refer to Israel or to allow it to be on Arab maps is another symptom of the tendency to refuse dhimmis the right to a historical existence.

The author contrasts the outrage of many antizionist Arabs with the relative silence of some genuine victims: Jews who were expelled from Arab nations. She attributes some of this to a tendency of dhimmis, with their history of having been exploited, servile, and silent, to think in terms of gratitude and toleration rather than in terms of rights.

In this book, Bat Ye'or does a superb job of explaining the dhimmi condition. And I think we all ought to heed her warning that those who forget history are indeed condemned to repeat it.

***
The focus of our discussion here generally is to give the historical background of Left dhimmitude and Left fascism converging in fascist Left dhimmitude today in the West. We assume for the most part that readers here know very well most of the authors above and their work. For those who don't there's much enjoyment to be had from discovering them.

Robert Spencer, of course, is our personal favorite, and those who might think otherwise are certainly free to contribute their worthless and stupid opinions here. As a rule we don't interfere in readers' discussions of the posts. Feel free to write what you please, remembering as you do that this is a civilized forum.