Islam And Dhimmitude

Dhimmitude is thus discussed from the perspective of Muslim theory, and also in regard to divergent Christian attitudes to Jews and Zionism."--BOOK JACKET.

Examines the treatment of non-Arab people under the rule of the Muslims and collects historical documents related to this subject

In the classical Islamic ideology of conquest, the first choice offered to non-Muslims was conversion to Islam; the second choice was the sword; and the third was surrender. Mark Durie's innovative book exposes the history and ideology of surrender - the 'Third Choice' - which has determined the lived reality of non-Muslims - known as 'dhimmis' - living under Muslim rule. Durie grounds his analysis of the dhimmi condition in the teachings of Islam and the life of Muhammad. His ground-breaking analyses show how the ideology of the terms of surrender ' known as a 'dhimma' pact ' determines life for non-Muslims under Islamic dominance. The worldview of dhimmitude, he argues, offers indispensable keys for understanding current trends in global politics, including the widening impact of sharia revival, deterioration of human rights in Islamic societies, jihad terrorism, recurring patterns of Western appeasement, and the increasingly fraught relationship between migrant Muslim communities in the West and their host societies.

In two waves of Islamic expansion the Christian and Jewish populations of the Mediterranean regions and Mesopotamia, who had developed the most prestigious civilizations of the time, were conquered by jihad. Millions of Christians from Spain, Egypt, Syria, Greece, and Armenia; Latins and Slavs from southern and central Europe; as well as Jews were henceforth governed by the shari'a (Islamic law).

UNDERSTANDING DHIMMITUDE brings together for the first time twenty-one talks and lectures in which Bat Ye’or explains in layman’s terms the essential concepts from her studies, the fruit of over four decades of groundbreaking research. “Bat Ye’or’s pioneering studies of the Islamic concept of dhimmitude have revolutionized our understanding of Islam’s past, present and future. She remains one of the few analysts in the world with the courage and insight necessary to tell the truth.” —Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch “[Bat Ye’or is] the acknowledged expert on the plight of Jews and Christians in Muslim lands, and their vigorous champion.” —Sir Martin Gilbert “Bat Ye’or’s scholarship is highly impressive, and her analysis is as persuasive as it is terrifying. (. . .) It is imperative that these issues are openly discussed. There are, however, alarming signs of attempts in the West to shut down such discussion on spurious grounds of prejudice. This is, of course, itself a prime example of the condition of ‘dhimmitude’ which Bat Ye’or so graphically describes.” —Melanie Phillips, Jewish Chronicle “It is not surprising that [Bat] Ye’or’s study of jihad and dhimmitude has been stimulating substantial and disturbing discussion in academic and ecumenical circles. (. . .) Perhaps the single most significant contribution of the author is her definition and development of the concept of ‘dhimmitude’ (. . .) [Bat] Ye’or’s books on dhimmitude and jihad have an essential place in the ecumenical world; ignoring them will only perpetuate illusion.” —James E. Biechler, Journal of Ecumenical Studies “Bat Ye'or has enriched our understanding of how Islamic societies are structured by defining the concept of dhimmitude. Her contribution to Islam critique can't be underestimated. Yes, she and her late husband, the human rights activist and historian David Littman, are the king and queen of the genre.” —Professor Johannes J.G. Jansen

The question of tolerance and Islam is not a new one. Polemicists are certain that Islam is not a tolerant religion. As evidence they point to the rules governing the treatment of non-Muslim permanent residents in Muslim lands, namely the dhimmi rules that are at the center of this study. These rules, when read in isolation, are certainly discriminatory in nature. They legitimate discriminatory treatment on grounds of what could be said to be religious faith and religious difference. The dhimmi rules are often invoked as proof-positive of the inherent intolerance of the Islamic faith (and thereby of any believing Muslim) toward the non-Muslim. This book addresses the problem of the concept of 'tolerance' for understanding the significance of the dhimmi rules that governed and regulated non-Muslim permanent residents in Islamic lands. In doing so, it suggests that the Islamic legal treatment of non-Muslims is symptomatic of the more general challenge of governing a diverse polity. Far from being constitutive of an Islamic ethos, the dhimmi rules raise important thematic questions about Rule of Law, governance, and how the pursuit of pluralism through the institutions of law and governance is a messy business. As argued throughout this book, an inescapable, and all-too-often painful, bottom line in the pursuit of pluralism is that it requires impositions and limitations on freedoms that are considered central and fundamental to an individual's well-being, but which must be limited for some people in some circumstances for reasons extending well beyond the claims of a given individual. A comparison to recent cases from the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Court of Human Rights reveals that however different and distant premodern Islamic and modern democratic societies may be in terms of time, space, and values, legal systems face similar challenges when governing a populace in which minority and majority groups diverge on the meaning and implication of values deemed fundamental to a particular polity.

Liberty to the Captives is a resource for equipping the church to minister freedom from the yoke of Islam, both for those who have lived as non-Muslims under Islamic dominance, and for those who have come to Christ out of a Muslim background. Liberty to the Captives identifies the dhimma pact of surrender to Muslim rule, and the shahada-the Muslim confession of faith-as covenants which must be rejected and renounced by followers of Christ. It explains why this is necessary, and how to do it. The prayers and declarations provided here have been tested across six continents, and have proven value for setting people free from fear, breaking spiritual strongholds, and releasing men and women to be bold and effective witnesses to the saving power of Christ.

Islam has always had ambivalent relations with Judaism and Christianity, as also with Jews and Christians. The awkwardness of their character has been accentuated by the creation and perpetuation, on all sides, of partial and ill-intentioned images during the middle ages and by political developments in the modern period. Since the beginning of serious modern study of Islam in the west, these relations have found an important place in scholars' interest, partly because many of those in the west who have studied Islam have been Jews, with a natural attraction to an interest in those topics which affected Jews and other minorities in the Islamic environment. In this volume, we have tried to assemble a collection of papers which reflect something of the diversity of the problems offered by this range of relations. We have also attempted to reflect, in the variety of the papers and the topics discussed in them, the rich variety of approach adopted by scholars over the last century and a half of such study. Israel Oriental Studies has ceased publication with volume 20.