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- Mar 6, 2017
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The following is an extract from one chapter, including footnotes, from The Industry of Lies by Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini. It is an insightful and concise must-read. The book was published by Norwegian pro-Israel group Med Israel For Fred (MIFF) in 2015 and is now available for free online here in Norwegian (With thanks: Conrad):
A common myth is that the Jews in Arab countries lived in harmony with their non-Jewish surroundings under Muslim rule. [2] āThe Golden Ageā of equality, tolerance, cultural flourishing and interreligious harmony. āThe Golden Ageā, a brief period of Jewish flourishing in Muslim Spain, has been taken out of its original context and become a sort of historical label that paints an image of alleged tolerance and harmony under Muslim rule. Only because of Zionism and the escalation of the conflict in Palestine, it is argued, did this harmony collapse. [3] This lie has been repeated countless times. It should be countered.
The majority of Jews in Arab countries did not experience the horrors of the Holocaust. Until World War II, European Jews suffered more. It does not make the situation for Jews from Muslim countries, even before Zionism, much better. There were periods when Jews lived in relative peace under Muslim rule. There were periods ā such as after the expulsion from Spain ā when the Turkish sultan actually invited the Jews as welcome guests. [4]
But these periods were the exceptions, not the rule. Most of the time, the Jews in Muslim countries lived at the mercy of the authorities, and they were often subjected to humiliation, expulsion, pogroms and systematic deprivation of their rights. It is worth recalling the reply of the Tunisian-Jewish philosopher Albert Memmi to the then ruler of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi, after his invitation to the Jews of Arab countries to return, about the myth that it was Zionism that left Jewish -Arabic harmony in ruins:
The truth is that we lived a life of fear and humiliation in Arab countries. I will not repeat the incidents of slaughter before Zionism [ā¦] The truth is that the Jewish youth in Arab countries became Zionists before Auschwitz; the state of Israel is not a result of Auschwitz, but of the Jewish situation in general, including the situation in Arab countries. [5]
One can of course start with the original conflict between the Jews and the prophet Muhammad. As part of the process of leading the Arabs out of the age of ignorance (jahiliyya), the Prophet took the monotheistic ideaāperhaps primarilyāfrom the Jews. But Muhammad wanted to make the Arabian Peninsula a purely Islamic area. This led to the inevitable conflict with the Jews living in the area, a conflict that ended in the expulsion and massacre of hundreds of Jews. [6]
The religious similarities between the two religions on the one hand, and the frequent conflicts between them in the formative phase of Islam on the other, are reflected in an ambivalence towards Jews in Islamās holy scriptures. The Qurāan and the hadiths have a large number of references to Jews ā not all of them negative. [7]Jews, as a āpeople of the bookā, have the same rights as Christians to practise their religion.
From time to time, from generation to generation, conditions changed. In many cases, the Jews lived under the Omar Pact, named after the Muslim ruler who imposed it. This pact allowed the Jews to live as āprotectedā or dhimmis, although it admittedly meant a lower status than Muslims. According to the covenant, the Jews could practice their religion, they were given protection for life and property, and they were given a certain autonomy in the internal administration of their communities. [8]
In exchange for these rights, the Jews had to accept various forms of discrimination. It was primarily to pay an additional tax, jizya, which only non-Muslims had to pay. But there were also other rules: Jews could not build new synagogues, ride animals used by the nobility (horses and camels) or hire Muslims. Jews, like Christians, were required to wear special hats and clothing to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population. For example, they were not allowed to wear green, Islam and the color of the Prophet Muhammad. A dhimmi could not be a witness in a trial involving a Muslim. There were places where Jewish men could only go to public baths if they had a special mark on their necks that distinguished them from others, and Jewish women were not allowed to use public baths.[9] These laws were designed to draw a clear line between the Muslim rulers and their non-Muslim subjects, as part of the Muslim social order. [10]
Enforcement of these laws varied. [11]Jews were not usually forced to convert to Islam, and they could live in areas that were under Muslim rule ā but at the same time they were condemned to live in an inferior position, in our sense, as second- or third-class citizens. There were better and worse periods. There were rulers who were tolerant, and those who were not. There were also Jews who reached high positions: doctors in the rulerās court, such as Maimonides, administrators and even a small number of military leaders. With the entry of modernism into the Middle East and the creation of nation-states, a Jew was a minister in the first governments of independent Morocco and Iraq.
However, these were the exceptions, not the rule. The Jews lived under Muslim rule as a distinct, excluded and discriminated minority. Islamic law clearly required the Muslim rulers to protect their non-Muslim subjects, but they did not always live up to these obligations, especially in times of trouble or pressure. Under such conditions, it was easy to make the minorities scapegoats.
(full article in Norwegian :
miff.no
www.jewishrefugees.org.uk
A common myth is that the Jews in Arab countries lived in harmony with their non-Jewish surroundings under Muslim rule. [2] āThe Golden Ageā of equality, tolerance, cultural flourishing and interreligious harmony. āThe Golden Ageā, a brief period of Jewish flourishing in Muslim Spain, has been taken out of its original context and become a sort of historical label that paints an image of alleged tolerance and harmony under Muslim rule. Only because of Zionism and the escalation of the conflict in Palestine, it is argued, did this harmony collapse. [3] This lie has been repeated countless times. It should be countered.
The majority of Jews in Arab countries did not experience the horrors of the Holocaust. Until World War II, European Jews suffered more. It does not make the situation for Jews from Muslim countries, even before Zionism, much better. There were periods when Jews lived in relative peace under Muslim rule. There were periods ā such as after the expulsion from Spain ā when the Turkish sultan actually invited the Jews as welcome guests. [4]
But these periods were the exceptions, not the rule. Most of the time, the Jews in Muslim countries lived at the mercy of the authorities, and they were often subjected to humiliation, expulsion, pogroms and systematic deprivation of their rights. It is worth recalling the reply of the Tunisian-Jewish philosopher Albert Memmi to the then ruler of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi, after his invitation to the Jews of Arab countries to return, about the myth that it was Zionism that left Jewish -Arabic harmony in ruins:
The truth is that we lived a life of fear and humiliation in Arab countries. I will not repeat the incidents of slaughter before Zionism [ā¦] The truth is that the Jewish youth in Arab countries became Zionists before Auschwitz; the state of Israel is not a result of Auschwitz, but of the Jewish situation in general, including the situation in Arab countries. [5]
One can of course start with the original conflict between the Jews and the prophet Muhammad. As part of the process of leading the Arabs out of the age of ignorance (jahiliyya), the Prophet took the monotheistic ideaāperhaps primarilyāfrom the Jews. But Muhammad wanted to make the Arabian Peninsula a purely Islamic area. This led to the inevitable conflict with the Jews living in the area, a conflict that ended in the expulsion and massacre of hundreds of Jews. [6]
The religious similarities between the two religions on the one hand, and the frequent conflicts between them in the formative phase of Islam on the other, are reflected in an ambivalence towards Jews in Islamās holy scriptures. The Qurāan and the hadiths have a large number of references to Jews ā not all of them negative. [7]Jews, as a āpeople of the bookā, have the same rights as Christians to practise their religion.
From time to time, from generation to generation, conditions changed. In many cases, the Jews lived under the Omar Pact, named after the Muslim ruler who imposed it. This pact allowed the Jews to live as āprotectedā or dhimmis, although it admittedly meant a lower status than Muslims. According to the covenant, the Jews could practice their religion, they were given protection for life and property, and they were given a certain autonomy in the internal administration of their communities. [8]
In exchange for these rights, the Jews had to accept various forms of discrimination. It was primarily to pay an additional tax, jizya, which only non-Muslims had to pay. But there were also other rules: Jews could not build new synagogues, ride animals used by the nobility (horses and camels) or hire Muslims. Jews, like Christians, were required to wear special hats and clothing to distinguish themselves from the rest of the population. For example, they were not allowed to wear green, Islam and the color of the Prophet Muhammad. A dhimmi could not be a witness in a trial involving a Muslim. There were places where Jewish men could only go to public baths if they had a special mark on their necks that distinguished them from others, and Jewish women were not allowed to use public baths.[9] These laws were designed to draw a clear line between the Muslim rulers and their non-Muslim subjects, as part of the Muslim social order. [10]
Enforcement of these laws varied. [11]Jews were not usually forced to convert to Islam, and they could live in areas that were under Muslim rule ā but at the same time they were condemned to live in an inferior position, in our sense, as second- or third-class citizens. There were better and worse periods. There were rulers who were tolerant, and those who were not. There were also Jews who reached high positions: doctors in the rulerās court, such as Maimonides, administrators and even a small number of military leaders. With the entry of modernism into the Middle East and the creation of nation-states, a Jew was a minister in the first governments of independent Morocco and Iraq.
However, these were the exceptions, not the rule. The Jews lived under Muslim rule as a distinct, excluded and discriminated minority. Islamic law clearly required the Muslim rulers to protect their non-Muslim subjects, but they did not always live up to these obligations, especially in times of trouble or pressure. Under such conditions, it was easy to make the minorities scapegoats.
(full article in Norwegian :
JĆødenes skjebne i arabiske land
En vanlig myte er at jĆødene i arabiske land levde i harmoni med sine ikke-jĆødiske omgivelser under muslimsk styre.
miff.no
The Jewish 'nakba' was greater than the Arab ā¢ Point of No Return
The following is an extract from one chapter, including footnotes, from The Industry of Lies by Israeli journalist Ben-Dror Yemini. It is an insightful and concise must-read. The book was published by Norwegian pro-Israel group Med Israel For Fred (MIFF) in 2015 and is now available for free...
www.jewishrefugees.org.uk
