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August
9, 2002, 9:00 a.m. By Bat Yeor |
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the current political climate, it is tempting to maintain the taboos on
those historical subjects that could be easily exploited by xenophobes.
One such taboo is dhimmitude, which resulted when Christians and Jews
(dhimmis), in addition to other non-Muslim, indigenous peoples, were conquered
by jihad wars, and henceforth "tolerated" and "protected"
as subjects of Islam. This "tolerance" and "protection,"
however, was afforded only upon submission to Islamic domination by a
dhimma, or pact, which imposed discriminatory and humiliating regulations.
The main principles of dhimmitude are: (1) the inequality of rights in
all domains between Muslims and dhimmis; (2) the social and economic discrimination
against the dhimmis; (3) the degradation and vulnerability of the dhimmis.
Dhimmitude has existed for 13 centuries in the Muslim empire established, primarily, on former Christian lands. Extending over three continents — Africa, Asia, and Europe — this field of history was the setting for jihad, the Crusades, Reconquista, and the Balkan and Israeli wars of independence. Countless populations, swept along in the whirlwind of centuries, were marked in the crucible from which issued the death of civilizations and the birth of others. Dhimmitude convulsed the whole 19th century, and Europe — as obsessed as it was divided — floundered in endless debates on the Eastern Question: how to put an end to dhimmitude.
World War I affected a 180-degree turn. Colonial imperatives, World War II and the Cold War, oil, economic, geostrategic and religious interests in the Muslim world — all combined to suppress this history. Today, a heightened desire for security recommends leaving this cadaver to rot in its bandages of lies and oblivion. Is amnesia not preferable, particularly during the crisis period we currently live in? Not at all. A candid discussion of this history of dhimmitude, which embraces the three-dimensional relationship of the People of the Bible — Jews and Christians — and of the Koran, is essential if current ideological conflicts are to be unraveled and deadlocks broken.
Let us hope we have not missed the opportunity to talk frankly and initiate that critical dialogue with the Muslim elites about dogmas and jurisdictions that were so traumatic for the "People of the Book" — Jews and Christians, whom Islam joined together in the same dhimmi status — "protected" and "tolerated," because subjugated and humiliated. It is imperative for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to explore together the cruel episodes in this shared history in order to alleviate, if not eliminate, the cultural conflicts in which religious fanaticism takes root.
Following the cataclysmic events of September 11there has been a tendency to recall nebulous "Golden Ages" of idyllic multi-religious societies, invented so effectively, that today one feels defenseless and disoriented, when brought face-to-face with the conflicts from another age, deliberately erased from history. We must forego this whitewashing and opt instead for a shared, candid reflection on the past to unite us in a joint effort for peace and mutual respect. The history of dhimmitude, so long repressed by our collective cowardice, is unfolding around us, before our very eyes. It is claiming victims in Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, the Sudan, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, Kashmir, the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere. It even forms part of our daily lives, governed by antiterrorist measures in the United States, Europe, and now worldwide, and it wreaks havoc among the Muslim elites, responsible for having concealed it. This forbidden history, banished from memory, is casting its dark shadow over the world's future.
Dhimmitude must be discussed in academia, the media, and elsewhere, without apology. This frank discussion will allow Muslim intellectuals to rethink their whole relationship with the People of the Bible — and non-Muslims in general — without renouncing their faith, and uniting all peoples in the fight against tyrannical oppression and dehumanization. In the absence of such genuine interfaith dialogue, I fear the 21st century will become a bloodbath, in which civilizations will continue to collide.
— Bat Yeor is the author of three books on jihad and dhimmitude, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam (1985), The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude(1996), and Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (2002). Andrew G. Bostom, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Brown University Medical School contributed to this essay.