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August 16, 2006
Book Review: The Dhimmi
In his introduction to a 2001 edition of Mein Kampf, Abraham Foxman speaks of the need to read the 'Bible of National Socialism' in the spirit of remembering, so that we'll be able to build a brighter future for our children. Mr. Foxman illustrates this need with an example:
Recently the Taliban regime in Afghanistan ordered all Hindus to wear identifying badges. International alarms sounded; we remembered the yellow stars that Nazis forced on the Jews more than fifty years ago, when we saw that such badges helped identify the wearer as "the other;" a necessary precursor to more significant persecution. The world took not of the Taliban's efforts and is intently watching that troubled regime.
More recently, the Islamic Republic of Iran's leadership discussed whether to make non-Muslims wear distinctive clothing. The world 'took note' again, and comparisons were drawn between Iran and Nazi Germany.
Reading Bat Yeor's The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam (p.47), however, one learns the following: "In the dhimma [pact of protection--RD] granted to Hira (Iraq) in 633, a specific clause was introduced dealing with the principle of a vestmental distinction between Muslims and non-Muslims."
Six-hundred and thirty-three A.D.? Say it isn't so. Only one year after the death of Islam's prophet, the practice of making subject peoples wear distinctive clothing was introduced. The practice preceded Nazi yellow stars by a full 1,300 years.
The Dhimmi has a knack for such facts: did you know, for example (document 94), that the great Maimonides wrote about the subjugation of Jews under Islam that "Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase and hate us as much as they...?" But beyond interesting facts a portrait of the Dhimmies, the forgotten and oppressed of Islam is re-captured: the persecuted, humiliated and oppressed peoples whose very cultures were twisted, sometimes destroyed, under the relentless Islamic onslaught.
Bat Yeor's work is irrefutable; her historical facts have only been countered with propaganda. In a more just world her later works would not have been "controversial" but rather updates and complements to her earlier work. The Dhimmi could then be discarded as an outdated book.
And thus, in a strange twist, the ideologically-motivated rejection of The Dhimmi keeps it relevant. Because it is not simple a ground-breaking work of historical research; it is also a warning for those of us who wish to beat back Islamic expansionism and preserve our liberty. Because if we lose, the fate of the Dhimmies will be our fate.
Posted by Ruy Diaz at August 16, 2006 4:19 PM
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