format_quote Originally Posted by SpaceFalcon2001
It's interesitng you quote this because the truth is, in many Muslim lands before zionism, Jews were horribly persecuted.
Syria:
Friedman wrote in "The Myth of Arab Tolerance", "One Caliph, Al-Hakem of the Fatimids devised particularly insidious humiliations for the Jews in his attempt to perform what he deemed his role as "Redeemer of Mankind". First the Jews were forced to wear miniature golden calf images around their necks, as though they still worshipped the golden calf, but the Jews refused to convert. Next they wore bells, and after that six pound wooden blocks were hung around their necks. In fury at his failure, the Caliph had the Cairo Jewish quarter destroyed, along with it's Jewish residence, in".
Greetings SpaceFalcon, before you quote someone, you should atleast carry out a small research just to substantiate that what you've cited is entirely accurate.
al-Hakim was never recongized as a Caliph and there is a two fold reason for this:
1. He claimed to be God incarnate (Druze sect)
2. He persecuted both non-Muslims AND Muslims
But for the sake of argumentation, let's assume that he was fully reconigzed as a Caliph. By claimin' that he only persecuted Jews is entirly false since he persecuted the Jews, Christians and Muslims. He didn't make any distinction who he persecuted and ergo why he was labeled by the Muslim historians as a madman.
Iraq:
Jews had prospered in what was then Babylonia for 1200 years before the Muslim conquest in AD 634; it was not until the 9th century that Dhimmi laws such as the yellow patch, heavy head tax, and residence restriction were enforced. Capricious and extreme oppression under some Arab caliphs and Momlukes brought taxation amounting to expropriation in AD 1000, and 1333 the persecution culminated in pillage and destruction of the Bagdad Sanctuary. In 1776, there was a slaughter of Jews at Bosra, and in bitterness of anti-Jewish measures taken by Turkish Muslim rulers in the 18th century caused many Jews to flee.
Obviously, the author of this statement prolly hasn't fully studied the Islamic history. Note how he doesn't mention "these Caliphs".
The only so-called Caliph (not reconigzed) that persecuted the Muslims and to a extent the Non-Muslims was Al-Hakim between the 10th and 11th century CE. The re-iteration of this non-Islam set of rules was at the decline of the Islamic Empire. Once the Muslims enforced this set of rules, the Islamic Empire declined.
This is evident in the words of Prof. Thomas Arnold:
A later generation attributed to 'Umar a number of restrictive regulations which hampered the Christians in the free exercise of their religion, but De Goeje and Caetanihave proved without doubt that they are the invention of a later age; as, however, Muslim theologians of less tolerant periods accepted these ordinaces as genuine, they are of the importance for forming a judgement as to the condition of the Christian Churches under Muslim rule. This so-called ordinace of 'Umar runs as follows: "In the name of God.......... you are at liberty to treat us as enemies and rebels".
As for Busra, I have looked at the Chronology presented between the 18th and 19th century in the book the Ottoman Empire -- 1700-1922 -- by Donald Quataert and yet I couldn't find this "important" event. I then looked on the internet and only found the Anti-Muslim sites presentin' this so-called fact without any reference. This led me to conclusion that this incident is mostly like an act of revisionism.
It's an fact of history that the Jews were known to flee to the Islamic Empire when they were persecuted by the their Christian counterparts. The Ottomans even rescued more than 200k Jews durin' the holocaust.
Let me a cite a excerpt regardin' the Protection of the Jews in General by the Ottoman Empire:
Jewish communities in Anatolia flourished and continued to prosper throughout the Ottomans anconquest.
When the Ottomans captured Busra in 1324 and made it their capital, they found a Jewish community oppressed under Byzantine rule. The Jews welcomed the Ottomans as saviors. Sultan Orhan gave them permission to build the Etz ha-Hayyim (Tree of Life) synagogue which remained in service until 50 years ago.
Early in the 14th century, when the Ottomans had established their capital at Edirne, Jews from Europe, including Karaites, migrated there.-(Mark Allen Epstein, The Ottoman Jewish Communities and their Role in the 15th and 16th Centuries.) Similarly, Jews expelled from Hungary in 1376, from France by Charles VI in September 1394, and from Sicily early in the 15th century
found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. In the 1420s, Jews from Salonika then under Venetian control fled to Edirne. -(Josef Nehama, Histoire des Israeliies de Salonique.)
Ottoman rule was much kinder than Byzantine rule had been.
In fact, from the early 15th century on, the Ottomans actively encouraged Jewish immigration. A letter sent by Rabbi Yitzhak Safati (from Edirne) to Jewish communities in Europe in the first part of the century "invited his coreligionists to leave the torments they were enduring in Christendom and to seek safety and prosperity in Turkey." -(Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam.)
When Mehmet II "the Conqueror" took Constantinople in 1453, he encountered an oppressed Romaniot (Byzantine) Jewish community which welcomed him with enthusiasm. Sultan Mehmet II issued a proclamation to all Jews " to ascend the site of the Imperial Throne, to dwell in the best of the land, each beneath his Dine and his fig tree, with silver and with gold, with wealth and with cattle…." -( Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 16 page1532.)
In 1470, Jews expelled from Bavaria by Ludvig X found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. -(Avram Galante, Histiore des Juifs d'Istanbul, Volume 2.)
On the midnight of August 2nd 1492, when Columbus embarked on what would become his most famous expedition to the New World, his fleet departed from the relatively unknown seaport of Palos because the shipping lanes of Cadiz and Seville were clogged with Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain by the Edict of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain.
Sultan Bayazid II's offer of refuge gave new hope to the persecuted Sephardim. In 1492, the Sultan ordered the governors of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire "not to refuse the Jews entry or cause them difficulties, but to receive them cordially." -(Abraham Danon, in the Review Yossef Daath No.4.) According to Bernard Lewis, "the Jews were not just permitted to settle in the Ottoman lands, but were encouraged, assisted and sometimes even compelled."
Immanual Abobab attributes to Bayazid II the famous remark that "the Catholic monarch Ferdinand was wrongly considered as wise, since he impoverished Spain by the expulsion of the Jews, and enriched Turkey." -(Immanual Abobab, A Consolacam as Tribulacoes de Israel, III Israel.)
Over the centuries an increasing number of European Jews, escaping persecution in their native countries, settled in the Ottoman Empire. In 1537 the Jews expelled from Apulia (Italy) after the city fell under Papal control and,
in 1542 those expelled from Bohemia by King Ferdinand found a safe haven in the Ottoman Empire. -(H. Graetz, History of the Jews.) I
n March of 1556, Sultan Sulayman "the Magnificent" wrote a letter to Pope Paul IV asking for immediate release of the Acona Marranos, whom he declared to be Ottoman citizens. The Pope had no alternative but to release them, the Ottoman Empire being the "Superpower" of that time.
In the words of Huston Smith when he stated:
“...Muslims point to the long centuries during which in India, Spain, and the Near East, Christians, Jews, and Hindus lived quietly and in freedom under Muslim rule.
Even under the worst caliphs, Christians and Jews held positions of influence and in general retained their religious freedom. The Christians, not Muslims, we are reminded, expelled the Jews in the fifteenth century from Spain where they had lived in freedom while the Muslims were in power.”
Yemen:
In Yemen from the seventh century on the Jewish populations suffered the severest possible interpretation of the Charter of Omar. For about 4 centuries, the Jews suffered under the fierce fanatical edict of the most intolerant Islamic sects. The Yemen Epistle by Rambam in which he commiserated with Yemen's Jewry and besought them to keep the faith, and in 1724 fanatical rulers ordered synagogues destroyed, and Jewish public prayers were forbidden. The Jews were exiled, many died from starvation and the survivors were ordered to settle in Mausa, but later, this order was annulled by a decree in 1781 due to the need of their skilled craftsmen. Jacob Sappir a Jerusalem writer describes Yemeni Jews in Yemen in 1886: "The Arab natives have always considered the Jew unclean, but his blood for them was not considered unclean. They lay claims to all his belongings, and if he is unwilling, they employ force...The Jews live outside the town in dark dwellings like prison cells or caves out of
fear...for the least offense, he is sentenced to outrageous fines, which he is quite unable to pay. In case of non-payment, he is put in chains and cruelly beaten every day. Before the punishment is inflicted, the Cadi[judge] addresses him in gentle tones and urges him to change his faith and obtain a share of all the glory of this world and of the world beyond. His refusal is again regarded as penal obstinacy. On the other hand, it is not open to the Jew to prosecute a Muslim, as the Muslim by right of law can dispose of the life and the property of the Jew, and it is only to be regarded as an act of magnanimity if the Jews are allowed to live. The Jew is not admissible as a witness, nor has his oath any validity.".
This again is grossly incorrect and Jacob Sappir who is not only a Jerusalem writer but also a JEWISH SCHOLAR demonstrates his biasedness with exaggerations. The Yemenite Jews were liberated and enjoyed a great deal of tolerance from the Muslim rulers 'till the Shia Imams (at a later period) forced them to wear distinctive clothes.
A good to read that is free from biasedness is the Spread of Islam in the World by Prof. Thomas Arnold who happens to be a Non-Muslim.
Wasn't it for the tolerance propagated by the Muslims, thousands of Jews would have been the victims of such great intolerance executed in Dark Ages Europe. An mentionable occasion that I would like to state is that durin' the Spanish Inquisition, the Jews and Muslims were exiled to North Africa. The Muslims still aided them and brought them safely to North Africa where an another Golden Age flourished.
The tolerance demonstrated to the Jews by the Muslims has never been paid back but instead returned 'ethnic cleasning', 'land stealing', massacres and what more.
I've said it before. When the Palestinians love their children more than they hate the Jew, peace will come.
Contrary, when the Zionists stop persecutin', provokin' war and ethnic divisions, sowing xenophobia and hatred then maybe, peace will come.
History bore witness that the Jews lived peacefully under the Muslim rule and it can happen again when there is a new Caliphate in Palestine.
Peace
format_quote Originally Posted by yoshiyahu
]Source?
Hi yoshiyahu, this is common knowledge my friend. The PLO fully reconigzed Israel's right to exist in '88 and in the Oslo agreement in '93. You can simply a do google search my friend.
Peace