For those of you just joining us, let’s recap: Robert Spencer wrote a book entitled The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades. Chapter four of this book is entitled “Islam: Religion of Intolerance.” On p.47, he summarizes the chapter into three points:
*Islamic law mandates second-class status for Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims in Islamic society.
*These laws have never been abrogated or revised by any authority.
*The idea that Jews fared better in Islamic lands than in Christian Europe is false. [1]
I then wrote a rebuttal of the third point, promising to write a follow up article dealing with the first two. Spencer took a look at my rebuttal and replied, as follows:
As for the one you did link, I took a look. It is an extended (very extended) example of the familiar tu quoque fallacy in which Islamic apologists always indulge: other people have done evil, and therefore our evil is not so bad or not to be spoken of. There are two chief problems with this:
1. I have never said or implied that Muslims have a monopoly on evil. Every group has been guilty of some wrongdoing. Does this mean we should not discuss the threats to human rights constituted by Islamic supremacism? I don’t think so.
2. Even if what this person is saying were true, the whole premise is wrong: the church never had a “doctrine” regarding these matters. These were practices applied in various times and places, never universally, and not based on any church law. In fact, the Popes consistently opposed the persecution of the Jews. This is in sharp contrast to the laws of dhimmitude that are taught by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
And most importantly, no church is behaving in such ways as are described in this article today, but Islamic jihadists in Gaza and elsewhere have declared their intention to reimpose the dhimma on Jews and Christians when they are able to do so.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
Here is my counter-reply, as follows:
Dear Robert Spencer,
You said:
It is an extended (very extended) example of the familiar tu quoque fallacy in which Islamic apologists always indulge: other people have done evil, and therefore our evil is not so bad or not to be spoken of.
I certainly never said that the “evil is not so bad.” What I said was that the “evil” (your choice of words) done to infidels in the Islamic realm was historically less than that done to infidels in Christendom. And I said that to negate chapter four of your book, in which you specifically wrote “the idea that Jews fared better in Islamic lands than in Christian Europe is false,” and “the Muslim laws were much harsher for Jews than those of Christendom.” I am fact-checking your book, and you made a claim, and I refuted it. Simple as that. Now it is up to you to either defend your initial claim or concede that you were wrong to state it.
You have a problem with Islamic apologists who downplay or whitewash the abuses of the Islamic past. But you yourself are a Catholic apologist who downplays and whitewashes the abuses of the Christian past. You replace myth with counter-myth. I, on the other hand, look at the cold hard facts. And the facts are quite clear: the Islamic apologists are wrong to claim that there was an interfaith utopia, but you were wrong to claim that it was worse for infidels in the Islamic world than in Christendom.
As for the claim that I think the “evil…is not to be spoken of,” I never said that either. My article was rigidly fair, speaking of the discrimination prevalent in the Islamic world. The issue here, however, is you, who speaks so much on the topic, yet downplays and completely ignores the even greater abuses in Christian history.
The reason that you are forced to downplay and ignore the abuses in Christian history is obvious: it would completely neutralize your argument which could then no longer be used as a stick to beat the Muslims over the head with. I don’t have a problem with discussing history. I do, however, have a problem with weaponizing history, which is what you do; you downplay and ignore one side’s abuses, exaggerate the other sides, and then top it off with sensationalist fear mongering. In your own words on the cover of your book: “Muslim persecution of Christians has continued for 13 centuries.” I guess replacing that with the more balanced “Muslims and Christians persecuted each other” would not sell as many books, eh?
You call it a tu quoque fallacy. I call it common sense. You cannot possibly single out and demonize the Muslim community–and Islam–when in fact the same criticisms apply equally if not more to all other religious communities and religions–and yours in specific! It’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. One can and should discuss shortcomings and even horrific abuses of the past, but this can be done without the singling out and demonizing which you specialize in and have made into a career.
But in any case, we need not discuss the implications of your statement yet. Right now, the issue is about the veracity of your statement that the Jews were persecuted more in the Islamic world than in Christendom. That is a false claim. You can try to muddy the waters as much as you want, but the bottom line is that your book is based on a horrendous error at best–if not a boldfaced lie.
You said:
1. I have never said or implied that Muslims have a monopoly on evil. Every group has been guilty of some wrongdoing.
Did I ever say that you said the Muslims have a monopoly on evil? Or that you deny that every group has “some” wrongdoing? You implied in your book that historically the Muslims persecuted Jews much more than Christians ever did. That was your statement which I refuted, so stop moving the goalposts. Either defend the thesis in your book, or admit that you were wrong.
You then said:
Does this mean we should not discuss the threats to human rights constituted by Islamic supremacism?
Who said otherwise? Once again, stop trying to squirm your way out of this. It’s very simple: you made a claim in your book, and I refuted it. Your claim was that the Muslims persecuted Jews more than the Christians did. This was your explicit claim, and your implicit claim was that there was a monumental difference between the persecuting Islamic society on the one hand and the supposedly freedom-loving Christian society on the other. (As you put it: “In Christian lands there was the idea, however imperfect, of the equality of dignity and rights for all people.” [2]) The reality of course is anything but. Again: either defend your thesis, or concede; don’t change the topic to something else.
You said:
…the church never had a “doctrine” regarding these matters. These were practices applied in various times and places, never universally, and not based on any church law.
Spencer, this is now getting frustrating. Yes, the Church had a doctrine; they are the ones who founded it! The doctrine of Witness, and of Perpetual Servitude of the Jews, was enunciated by the Church, and the state later adopted it into their concept of Serfs of the Royal Chamber. This was adopted virtually “universally” in the realm of Christendom. Perhaps you ought to read my rebuttal again. Clearly, it was the Church who originated the concept of Perpetual Servitude, propagated it, and championed it. In fact, as I discussed in my rebuttal the Church competed with the state over which would own the Jews.
The anti-Jewish laws were based in Church doctrine. Again, read my rebuttal again before saying something so absolutely false. It leads me to believe that either (1) you don’t possess adequate reading comprehension abilities, or (2) you’ve been refuted so thoroughly that you can’t come up with any counter-point.
Then you said:
In fact, the Popes consistently opposed the persecution of the Jews.
It was through the infallible papal bulls that such ideas as Perpetual Servitude became preponderant in Christendom. Just to give one such example: the Pope in 1452 issued a bull that called for the Christians to “reduce into perpetual servitude” the infidels.
It is true that the papacy forbade killing off the Jews, but the reason for that–as I discussed in my rebuttal–was due to the doctrine of the Witness: Jews were to endure in order to witness the triumph of Christianity and Christ. According to this doctrine, the Jews were to live in a miserable state of “perpetual servitude” which would then serve as a living proof of their misguidance. So yes, the popes did prevent the complete elimination of the Jews, but only that they may live in serfdom/slavery. Similarly, the Church fathers ruled that all of a Jew’s property could be confiscated except the absolute bare minimum which was needed for his survival; again, the Jew must endure to serve as Witness.
Spencer’s statement was challenged by the anti-Islam bigot sheik yer’mami
With all due respect, Robert: “In fact, the Popes consistently opposed the persecution of the Jews” - really? I have a problem with that.
There were some pretty awful popes in the history of the church, and all the things that were done to Jews could hardly have been done without their consent. Throughout the history of the Catholic church we see consolidated efforts to reign in the bishops who were getting too powerful and who were also warlords, something which is probably very little known.
That aside, I don’t think you can find much evidence that popes were opposed to the persecution of Jews….
Spencer then replied with:
Sheik
The record is not monochromatic, but actually, yes, I can find plenty.
First, the bad news. Pope Zachary reaffirmed a prohibition on intermarriage. Leo VII directed the archbishop of Mainz to expel Jews who refused to convert to Christianity from cities within his diocese. Pope Gregory VII forbade Jews to hold authority over Christians.
The Fourth Lateran Council decreed in 1215 that Jews must wear distinctive garb—a directive initially emphasized, then suspended, then insisted upon again by Pope Honorius III. Gregory IX led a campaign against Jewish books that led to a massive book-burning in Paris. Nicholas III required Jews to assemble to hear proselytizing sermons and ordered that those who had been baptized but then returned to Judaism be “turned over to the secular power”—which meant almost certain execution. Honorius IV wrote a letter to the English bishops warning them about Jewish efforts to convert Christians—which ultimately led to the expulsion of the Jews from England. Pope John XXII resumed the campaign against Jewish books, ordering the Talmud suppressed. Centuries later, in 1858, police of the Papal States seized a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, from his family because a Catholic servant girl who worked for the family had baptized him. Pope Pius IX refused numerous entreaties to return the boy to his family. Mortara became a Catholic priest and died in 1940. Many consider the incident one of the chief obstacles to the canonization of Pius IX.
But as I said, the papal record is not monochromatic. Historian and Rabbi David Dalin says this: “The historical fact is that popes have often spoken out in defense of the Jews, have protected them during times of persecution and pogroms, and have protected their right to worship freely in their synagogues. Popes have traditionally defended Jews from wild anti-Semitic allegations. Popes regularly condemned anti-Semites who sought to incite violence against Jews.”
This is not, as some might think, a strictly modern phenomenon. For instance, Pope Gregory I, who wrote harshly of the Jews’ rejection of Christ, nevertheless issued an edict dictating that Jews “should have no infringement of their rights. … We forbid to vilify the Jews. We allow them to live as Romans and to have full authority over their possessions.” When a bishop in Palermo seized a synagogue and converted it into a church, the building could not be returned to its former owner because it had now been consecrated; however, Gregory ordered the bishop to pay the owners a fair price, so that the Jews “should in no way appear to be oppressed, or to suffer an injustice.” He also forbade forced conversion of Jews, a prohibition later repeated by Gregory IV.
Pope Gregory I’s directives formed the basis of the Jews’ status in Western Europe for a considerable time thereafter. Pope Alexander II commended bishops in Narbonne and Spain for protecting Jews from attacks by Christians. When would-be Crusaders massacred Jews in Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Cologne, and elsewhere before the First Crusade, it is noteworthy that local bishops often acted to end these slaughters. Pope Calixtus II thereafter reaffirmed Gregory’s prohibition of attacks on Jews, and also forbade forced conversion and attacks on synagogues.
The popes also held fast against forced conversions and attacks on the Jews. Pope Innocent III, although he condemned Jews as “the sons of the crucifiers, against whom to this day the blood cries to the Father’s ears,” stated: “For we make the law that no Christian compel them, unwilling or refusing, by violence to come to baptism.
Too, no Christian ought to presume…wickedly to injure their persons, or with violence to take away their property, or to change the good customs which they have had until now in whatever region they inhabit. Besides, in the celebration of their own festivals, no one ought to disturb them in any way, with clubs or stones, nor ought any one try to require from them or to extort from them services they do not owe, except for those they have been accustomed from times past to perform. In addition to these, We decree…that no one ought to dare to mutilate or diminish a Jewish cemetery, nor, in order to get money, to exhume bodies once they have been buried.”Those who dared transgress these prohibitions were threatened with excommunication. Innocent also noted that Calixtus and four other popes had extended the same protections to the Jews. According to Dalin, “Calixtus’s defense of the Jews, with its promise of continuing papal protection, was reissued at least twenty-two times by successive popes between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.”
Of course, this reissuing wouldn’t have been necessary if Jews were not continually being attacked in Europe. Many of these attacks centered around the “blood libel,” the contention that Jews killed Christian children and mixed their blood into their Passover matzoh. Pope Innocent IV issued a strong denial of the blood libel, as did Gregory X, Martin V, and Sixtus IV. Paul III denounced those who “pretend, in order to despoil them of their goods, that the Jews kill little children and drink their blood.” That this had to be repeated over several centuries testifies to the persistence of the libel in Christian Europe, but nevertheless, excommunication was consistently the penalty for those who spread such stories or victimized Jews on such a basis.
Gregory X also affirmed the validity of Jewish testimony, declaring, “An accusation against Jews based solely on the testimony of Christians was invalid; Jewish witnesses must also appear.” Clement VI defended Jews from charges that they were responsible for the Black Death; Boniface IX granted full Roman citizenship to Jews; Martin V directed that “every Christian treat the Jews with a humane kindness” and forbade preachers “to preach against the Jews, to attempt to interrupt their normal relations with their neighbors, to infringe upon their religious rights, or to exclude them from normal activities (including attendance at universities).” He also reaffirmed the repudiation of the blood libel.
Leo X ordered the entire Talmud to be printed by a Christian printer in Rome so as to discourage anti-Semitic rumors about its contents. Clement VII commissioned a new translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin, to be completed by six Christians and six Jews working together.
Innocent X and Benedict XIV both worked to end the blood libel and the persecution of Jews in Poland. Leo XIII spoke out in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a French military officer wrongly accused of treason in a notorious case. Pius X and Benedict XV acted against anti-Semitism in Italian politics and media. It was thus not without justification that Pius XI was able to write in 1928: “Moved by this Christian charity, the Holy See has always protected this people [the Jews] against unjust vexations, and just as it reprobates all rancour and conflicts between peoples, it particularly condemns unreservedly hatred against the people once chosen by God: the hatred that commonly goes by the name of anti-Semitism.” Pius XI used his encyclical letter Mit Brennender Sorge — pointedly written in German instead of Latin, and directed to the German bishops — to condemn the anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime. The Nazis, in response, forbade its publication in Germany and denounced Pius XI as half-Jewish. That encyclical, drafted by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who two years later became Pope Pius XII, declared: “Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.”
When Vienna’s Cardinal Innitzer rang the city’s church bells to celebrate Hitler’s entry into the city after the Anchluss in 1938, Pius XI called Innitzer to Rome and rebuked him — and, according to historian Michael Phayer, had the rebuke “communicated through diplomatic channels to the United States so that world governments would know where the Vatican stood regarding Hitler’s Germany.” On September 6, 1938, he told a group of pilgrims from Belgium that “anti-Semitism is inadmissible; spiritually, we are all Semites.”
The record of Pope Pius XII is controversial, but there has been a good deal of misinformation publicized about it. In reality, he helped save many hundreds of thousands of Jews and was memorialized at Yad Veshem. The campaign to blacken his name began later.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
With regards to the papacy, it held a somewhat contradictory position throughout history; it was a source of great intolerance but at the same time it placed some limits to intolerance which benefited the Jews. This is all because the Church adopted the doctrine of Witness, which–as I have explained in some detail in my rebuttal (and reiterated above)–argued that Jews ought not to be killed in order that they might endure as living witnesses of the triumph of Christianity and Christ. But they were to live in a state of perpetual servitude, in order that their pitiful condition prove to the world their defeat for supposedly slaying Jesus. To this effect, we read:
The Catholic Church, in its triumphant march toward the spiritual unification of the world, was mortified that among all the cults that had flourished in the Roman Empire, only the Synagogue had been able to withstand Christian propaganda. The only obstacle in the path of the Christians toward religious supremacy was the handful of Jews “stubbornly entrenched in their satanic blindness.” It is not surprising that the Church yielded to the temptation of using its secular power and influence with the princes to reduce these stubborn, unyielding unbelievers to a state of pariahdom on the fringes of society.
A distinction must be drawn, however, between the attitude of the Papacy and that of the lower clergy. The Papacy was on the whole much less hostile, and maintained in principle the attitude of genuine ambivalence that had developed out of the original schism.
The official attitude of the Church had been defined by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) in his Constitutio pro Judeis, wherein he established the principles protecting the religious practices of the Jews within the strict limits of the Law. The thirteenth century Popes reaffirmed the principles of Gregory I but emphasized the more hostile aspects of his pronouncements. Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) defined the theological position of the Jews in Christian world thus:
“The Jews’ guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and, like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives…the Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith.”
And yet these same thirteenth century Popes appealed to Christian charity to protect the Jews from excessive persecution. The theological reasons adduced from this protection were that the Jews were witnesses of the true Christian faith; their very existence was proof of the Gospels and their abasement proof of the triumph of Christianity…Therefore, though the Jews might be oppressed, they must not be exterminated–another example of the strange paradox of tolerance and hatred which has always characterized Christian ambivalence towards Judaism. [3]
This explains the ambivalence of the Church; on the one hand they were promoting a doctrine of intolerance, but at the same time they were placing limits to the manifestation of this intolerance, stopping short of wholesale slaughter.
Spencer, you said:
Historian and Rabbi David Dalin says this: “The historical fact is that popes have often spoken out in defense of the Jews, have protected them during times of persecution and pogroms, and have protected their right to worship freely in their synagogues. Popes have traditionally defended Jews from wild anti-Semitic allegations. Popes regularly condemned anti-Semites who sought to incite violence against Jews.”
This is consistent with what I have said earlier. It is true that the papacy often stepped in to prevent wanton violence against Jews (such as massacres and forced conversions or baptisms), because–loyal to the doctrine of Witness–they wished the Jews to survive so that they might remain as perpetual serfs.
Professor Mark R. Cohen of Princeton University writes:
In his writings, Augustine articulated the doctrine of “witness,” which, over the centuries, served to justify the preservation of the Jews within Christendom…The Augustinian doctrine of witness, with its pragmatic rationale for accepting Judaism within Christendom, may have restrained Christian intolerance; but it could not efface a fundamental and potentially dangerous ambivalence in early Christianity regarding the other…
Inevitably, Jewry law appeared in pronouncements by the Catholic church…In keeping with both Augustinian doctrine and the protections guaranteed in the bull Sicut Judeis, throughout the Middle Ages the papacy maintained staunch and fairly consistent opposition to forced conversion of the Jews as well as to unwarranted physical brutality toward them. Indeed, from time to time, a Pope might even add a clause to the “Constitutio pro Judeis” defending the Jews against some new, current threat. For example, in 1247, Innocent IV reissued his own version of the bull within a year of the first promulgation, adding a section denouncing the newly risen blood libel.
I do not mean to imply that the papacy went out of its way to nurture Jewish life among Christians. Quite the contrary, during the eleventh, twelfth, and especially the thirteenth centuries, as the papacy struggled to assert its supremacy over secular rulers, it also asserted its authority of the Jews. This was done by inculcating the complementary ideas of Jewish subservience and inferiority. Beginning with Pope Innocent III, in 1205, the idea of subservience was expressed in the revival of an old patristic doctrine about the “perpetual servitude” of the Jews, which gave ideological ballast to Innocent’s newly intensified campaign to segregate and subjugate the Jews. [4]
Spencer, you then said:
This is not, as some might think, a strictly modern phenomenon. For instance, Pope Gregory I, who wrote harshly of the Jews’ rejection of Christ, nevertheless issued an edict dictating that Jews “should have no infringement of their rights. … We forbid to vilify the Jews. We allow them to live as Romans and to have full authority over their possessions.” When a bishop in Palermo seized a synagogue and converted it into a church, the building could not be returned to its former owner because it had now been consecrated; however, Gregory ordered the bishop to pay the owners a fair price, so that the Jews “should in no way appear to be oppressed, or to suffer an injustice.” He also forbade forced conversion of Jews, a prohibition later repeated by Gregory IV.
Pope Gregory I’s directives formed the basis of the Jews’ status in Western Europe for a considerable time thereafter.
Indeed, it did. I completely agree with you Spencer that Pope Gregory I’s directives “formed the basis of the Jews’ status in Western Europe for a considerable time thereafter.” But again, you are only showing one side of the coin, not the other. As I quoted above:
The official attitude of the Church had been defined by Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) in his Constitutio pro Judeis, wherein he established the principles protecting the religious practices of the Jews within the strict limits of the Law. The thirteenth century Popes reaffirmed the principles of Gregory I but emphasized the more hostile aspects of his pronouncements…Though the Jews might be oppressed, they must not be exterminated–another example of the strange paradox of tolerance and hatred which has always characterized Christian ambivalence towards Judaism. [5]
Spencer, you then said:
Pope Alexander II commended bishops in Narbonne and Spain for protecting Jews from attacks by Christians. When would-be Crusaders massacred Jews in Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Cologne, and elsewhere before the First Crusade, it is noteworthy that local bishops often acted to end these slaughters.
Yes, Pope Alexander II stepped in to prevent the wholesale slaughter of Jews by Crusaders. But you didn’t tell us why. The reason was, in the words of Pope Alexander II himself, that the Jews–unlike the Muslims–were willing to be the perpetual serfs of the Christians, and thus ought to be tolerated:
[A] Papal pronouncement mentioning Jewish servitude was issued by Alexander II in the middle of the eleventh century…In a letter to the archbishop of Narbonne, the local viscount and the bishops of Spain, Alexander II praised them for protecting the Jews from persecution by knights setting out for war in Spain. He [Alexander II] wrote:
“…the case of Jews and Moslems is certainly different. For one may justly fight those who persecuted Christians and drive them from their towns and habituation. They [the Jews], however, are willing to serve Christians everywhere.”
Alexander II used the service of the Jews as a reason to justify their protection–even though his wording was derived from the pejorative language commonly employed in relation to Jews and Judaism. The entire phrase was incorporated by Gratian into canon law…
Theologians in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries undermined the civil status of the Jews in both theory and practice. They made outright statements to this effect, and increased the restrictions on the Jews. Councils of the Church naturally fell in step, and sometimes used even stronger language [against Jews]. Bernard of Clairvaux, in a letter warning crusaders not to kill Jews, also referred to the punishment the Jews were receiving [i.e. perpetual servitude] for their crime [of killing Jesus]. On another occasion, he stated: ‘There is no more dishonourable or serious serfdom than that of the Jews. They carry it with them wherever they go, and everywhere they find their masters.’ This view was shared by Rupert of Deutz, Thomas Aquinas and other theologians. Thomas, among others, drew practical conclusions from the theological argument: ’since by law[!], Jews were subject to perpetual servitude, thus the rulers of the land may receive their property as if it were theirs [the rulers's]‘ and, since the Jews were the servi of the Church, the Church could dispose of their property. [6]
Spencer you go on to say:
Pope Calixtus II thereafter reaffirmed Gregory’s prohibition of attacks on Jews, and also forbade forced conversion and attacks on synagogues.
Pope Calixtus II had a similar view to Alexander II, in that he goaded Christians to fight the Muslim infidels instead of killing Jews. (If I were Spencer and this was about Muslims, I would ask: why did Christians have this bloodthirsty desire to slaughter Jews instead of fighting on the front against the enemy? As I mentioned in my rebuttal, some 100,000 European Jews were slaughtered by the Crusaders. [7]) Again, the entire issue revolved around the Islamic intransigence and the (supposed) Jewish willingness to accept subjugation. Even though he did protect the Jews from wholesale slaughter, Calixtus II reinforced the Church’s possessory control over Jews:
It is not surprising, then, that Innocent III and his thirteenth-century successors began playing up the theme of Jewish serfdom in an unprecedented fashion. The very Constitutio pro Judaeis, first hesitantly enacted by Calixtus II, became an instrument in the hands of his powerful successors for the reassertion of the Papacy’s ultimate control over Jews. This is why Innocent III, anything but a friend of Jews, considered it his duty to renew that bull on September 15, 1199, within a year after his ascendancy to the see of Saint Peter…The phrasing, quos propria culpa submisit perpetue servituti and sub timore servili became a standard usage in the vocabulary of later popes and canon jurists. [8]
Spencer, you then said:
The popes also held fast against forced conversions and attacks on the Jews. Pope Innocent III, although he condemned Jews as “the sons of the crucifiers, against whom to this day the blood cries to the Father’s ears,” stated: “For we make the law that no Christian compel them, unwilling or refusing, by violence to come to baptism. Too, no Christian ought to presume…wickedly to injure their persons, or with violence to take away their property…”
I almost agree with you Spencer when you say that the papacy “held fast against forced conversions and attacks on the Jews.” Generally (though not always), that part is true. However, what you fail to mention is that the papacy argued that although the Jews ought not to be subjected to wanton physical violence (such as “forced conversions and attacks”), they also held that the Jews were to be perpetual serfs; in fact, the only reason the papacy forbade the former was so that the Jews may endure as the latter! Spencer, you used the example of Pope Innocent III above as a proof that the popes forbade wanton physical violence against Jews. But Pope Innocent III said all the above because he adhered to the doctrine of Witness (and the belief of Perpetual Servitude); here’s what you didn’t quote from the words of Innocent III:
Crucifiers of Christ [the Jews] ought to be held in continual subjection. [9]
Pope Innocent III relegated the Jews to a status of perpetual servitude, saying:
Christian piety accepts and sustains living with Jews who, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord. [10]
And Innocent III said further:
…The Jews, as servants rejected by that Savior Whose death they wickedly contrived, should recognize themselves in fact and in creed the servants of those whom the death of Christ has set free, even as it has rendered them bondmen. [11]
In complete consistency with the doctrine of Witness–and of Perpetual Servitude–Pope Innocent III likened the Jews to Cain, who would not be killed but rather live an existence worse than death, one of shame and misery; Innocent III opined:
The Lord made Cain a wanderer and a fugitive over the earth, but set a mark upon him, making his head to shake, lest anyone finding him should slay him. Thus the Jews, against whom the blood of Christ calls out, although they ought not to be wiped out, nevertheless, as wanderers they must remain upon the earth until their faces are filled with shame and they seek the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. [12]
So yes, the papacy protected the Jews from annihilation. (Spencer, if this had been about Muslims, you would have said something nasty like “Muslim mobs had a propensity to annihilate the Jews.” ) The reason for the papal protection was so that the Jews may live in perpetual servitude as a proof of the victory of Christianity over the Jewish serfs.
Spencer, you go on to say:
According to Dalin, “Calixtus’s defense of the Jews, with its promise of continuing papal protection, was reissued at least twenty-two times by successive popes between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.”
Yes, it was–invariably along with the doctrine of Witness and of Perpetual Servitude. In fact, “papal protection” was in the form of papal possession.
Spencer, you say:
Pope Innocent IV issued a strong denial of the blood libel
Yes, and he also ordered the King to burn the Talmud, leading to the burning of twelve thousand Jewish religious books, which the Jews would call a religious “catastrophe”. [13] Pope Innocent IV decreed:
[I order] that you [the King] order both the aforesaid abusive books [Talmud]…to be burned by fire wherever they can be found throughout your entire kingdom. [14]
And again, he was a strong proponent of the doctrine of Witness and of Perpetual Servitude; Pope Innocent IV decreed:
The Jews…[have] been punished by the Lord to be slaves as it were, for whose death they sinfully plotted, they shall recognize themselves, as a result of this act, as slaves of those whom the death of Christ set free, and made them slaves. [15]
Spencer, the rest of your post is along the same vein. You simply cherry picked the good things the popes did, and highlighted those, ignoring all the “evil” they did. So for instance, if a pope opposed the ritual murder libel (which many did), then you would make sure to mention that, without also discussing how the same pope burned tens of thousands of copies of the Talmud. If a pope overturned a ban on the Talmud, you would make mention of this, but not mention that the same pope only permitted heavily censored versions of the Talmud to be read. And so on and so forth.
It is of course a game that you easily play because most of your receptive right-wing audience is ignorant, and unable to see the other side of the coin. The reality, however, is that the papacy had both a protectionist and intolerant role to play in the treatment of the Jews. The Jews were protected from wanton physical violence and loss of life, but at the same time severely restricted and forced into perpetual servitude. The Augustinian doctrine of Witness–and its corollary of Perpetual Servitude–was the papacy’s general attitude towards Jews. To give just a few more examples…
Pope Pius V declared:
We order that, within 90 days, all Jews in our entire earthly realm of justice–in all towns, districts, and places–must depart these regions…their property [to be] confiscated and handed over to the Siscus, and they shall become slaves of the Roman Church, live in perpetual servitude and the Roman Church will have the same rights over them as the remaining [worldly] lords [have] over slaves and property. [16]
Pope Alexander III opined:
Jews ought to be slaves to Christians. [17]
Pope Gregory IX decreed:
We order all our brother bishops absolutely to suppress the blasphemy of Jews in your dioceses, churches, and communities, so that they do not dare raise their necks, bent under eternal slavery, to revile the Redeemer. [18]
And he said further:
They ought to know the yoke of perpetual enslavement because of their guilt. See to it that the perfidious Jews never in the future become insolent, but that they always suffer publicly the shame of their sin in servile fear. [19]
Pope Innocent III declared:
It is absurd and improper that Jews–whose own guilt has consigned them to perpetual servitude–under the pretext that Christian piety receives them and tolerates their presence should be ingrates [adeo sint ingrati] to Christians, so that they attempt to exchange the servitude they owe to Christians for dominion over them. [20]
Pope Benedict XIV observed:
It is fitting for Jews to serve Christians…The Jews, as slaves rejected by that Saviour Whose death they wickedly contrived, should recognize themselves in fact and in creed the slaves of those whom the death of Christ has set free, even as it has rendered them bondmen. [21]
Keep in mind that Benedict XIV was one of the many popes who condemned the blood libel; yet, at the same time, he was an adherent of the doctrine of Perpetual Servitude. It is in fact his very loyalty to this doctrine which caused him to prevent the blood libel massacres. Again, there was a protectionist aspect coupled with great intolerance–all of which typified the Church’s ambivalent attitude towards Jews.
The Church’s doctrine was a seemingly intolerant policy, but in Christian Europe–where Jews lived in a “veritable hell” [22]–it did afford Jews protection from the antagonistic Christian masses. It should be noted that the papacy often did seek to prevent physical assault on the Jews, but even this was marked by recurrent lapses, and Jews were often expelled at the behest of none other than the pope. Yet, we ought to be fair and speak in generalities–unlike our opponents who take exceptional cases and posit them as the norm–so we must say that the papacy generally operated to preserve the lives of Jews in order that they serve as perpetual serfs:
The repeated mention of Jewish servitude in papal pronouncements lost none of its pungency; when applied to practical affairs, it lost none of its efficacy…[and] pointedly underscored the…perfidy of the Jews, who were condemned to perpetual slavery (perpetua servitute) because they called upon themselves and upon their children the blood of Christ…the Jews’ own sin subjected them to perpetual servitude, and they should suffer the shame of their sin in servile fear (sub timore servili)…In 1263 Urban IV…consigned both Jews and Moslems to ‘perpetual servitude.’…The servitus of the Jews was repeated by popes and other churchmen. [23]
Spencer, going back to your original reply, let me now deal with what you said here:
In fact, the Popes consistently opposed the persecution of the Jews. This is in sharp contrast to the laws of dhimmitude that are taught by all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
It is important here to understand what you mean by the word “persecution.” If by it you mean discrimination, humiliation, and the like, then in that case the papacy did not at all oppose that. In fact, they consistently supported the reduction of Jews to a status of perpetual servitude. But if by “persecution” you mean physical violence (massacres, forced conversions, expulsions, etc.), then in that case it cannot at all be said that the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence condone that. In fact, the dhimma pact granted the dhimmis protection from such persecution. So quite the contrary, all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence forbid such persecution, to such an extent that Muslims were obligated to fight to defend the dhimmis should they come under attack.
Therefore, no matter which way we interpret your argument, it is weak. If you use the former definition of the word “persecution” then in that case the papacy reduced the infidels to a far worse state of degradation than the Islamic clerics ever did–for it was the difference between perpetual servitude/slavery on the one hand and free (albeit second-class) citizenship on the other. But if you rely on the second definition of “persecution,” in that case it is simply an inaccurate statement, for even the discriminatory Pact of Umar strictly forbade any persecution (i.e. physical violence) against infidels.
Furthermore, it is altogether curious how you first say that “the Popes consistently opposed the persecution of the Jews,” but when sheik yer’mami questioned your statement, you responded by saying “the papal record is not monochromatic” and even listed some of the “bad news.” Well, which is it? Do you see how you have contradicted yourself here?
In any case, it is debatable whether or not the papacy was consistent in its prevention of persecution–by either definition. Yes, the papacy generally reigned in on wanton physical violence, but not always. Indeed, there were numerous instances in which the Church took part in the expulsion of the Jews. But if we expand our definition of persecution to discrimination (as you seem to do when talking about the realm of Islam), then there is no question at all about the matter: the papacy surpassed the Muslim discrimination by far.
Lastly, it is important to note here that it would be inappropriate to exclusively focus on the papacy, as you have done. Rather, we must look at the Church overall and the realm of Christianity in general. The clergy underneath the papacy were generally far more intolerant. Indeed, when the papacy did step in to prevent wholesale slaughter of Jews, it was often the clergy who were involved in the persecution. Why should you exclude this from our analysis, Spencer? The reality is that the actions of the clergy in general–not just the popes–had significant impact on the Jews. When we take into consideration the fact that the intolerant papacy was the better of the two, one can begin to imagine the plight of the Jews under the even more intolerant clergy.
Moving on, you conclude:
And most importantly, no church is behaving in such ways as are described in this article today, but Islamic jihadists in Gaza and elsewhere have declared their intention to reimpose the dhimma on Jews and Christians when they are able to do so.
Spencer, did I not explicitly say in my rebuttal that I will address the first two points in a follow-up article? My rebuttal was simply of your third point. We can debate about the first two points after I churn out my follow up article (which I guarantee will not disappoint). But until then, let’s focus on the third point instead of trying desperately to move the goalposts.
You made the explicit claim in your book that Jews fared better in Christendom than in the Islamic world, and your implicit argument was that it was a monumental difference between the two, in that one was freedom and dignity loving and the other discriminatory and persecuting. The reality is that your entire claim is false.
Is it any wonder that your reply did not deal with the actual point I refuted at all? The reason you were forced to move the goalposts is obvious: you have no leg to stand on. The entire premise of your line of attack was this made up idea that history was characterized by an evil Islamic menace that terrorized the Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims. My rebuttal deflated your entire cartoonish paradigm, because it rightly pointed out that the Judeo-Christian tradition that you so champion has been–to use your words and your standards–more “evil”. When this fact becomes known, that mighty stick you use to beat Muslims over the head with–that dishonest weaponization of history–becomes as useless a blunt object as the daintiest of feathers.
All you ever do is cherry pick the absolute worst examples from Islam and compare them with the cherry picked best examples from Christianity, and then draw erroneous conclusions from this unequal comparison. This sort of selective and shoddy scholarship typifies your entire ideological camp, and epitomizes your modus operandi. And it is for this very reason that refuting your book will be ever so easy for me, because I will continue to expose your hypocrisy and absurd double standards. With regard to this particular issue, if you repeatedly harp on dhimmitude, we will remind you of perpetual servitude, in order that your xenophobia be thwarted.
Perhaps it be that when your own religion and religious community is held to the same absurd standard that you set for Islam and Muslims [24] you might realize the error in your ways. It is my sincere hope that you reflect on your behavior, and correct yourself. Robert, I call on you to eschew xenophobia and fear-mongering, opting instead for tolerance and cautious optimism. Do you really want hate to be the sum total of your life’s work? It is not too late to set your course aright.
Sincerely,
Danios.
Summary:
1. Robert Spencer’s hypothesis is that the Jews were historically (far) better off in the Christian world than the Islamic one. He is wrong about this. Nothing in his counter-reply to my rebuttal addresses this point, making his entire reply extraneous.
2. He claims that the Church never had a doctrine regarding these matters. He is wrong. The Church had the doctrine of Witness, and of Perpetual Servitude, as enunciated by the papacy repeatedly.
3. Spencer claims that such discriminatory policies were never applied universally, nor based in Church law. He is wrong on both counts. The discriminatory laws were applied almost universally throughout Christendom and were widespread, often originating from the Church’s direct and indirect influence.
4. He claims that the papacy consistently acted to prevent the persecution of Jews. He is wrong. Spencer’s own follow up comment directed to sheik yer’mami refutes his claim! (It’s tough to stay consistent when you have no fidelity to facts.) Second, the papacy was involved in the expulsion of Jews on numerous occasions, something which by all definitions would be considered persecution, and therefore negates the idea that the papacy was very consistent.
5. Yes, the papacy did frequently step in to prevent the wholesale slaughter of Jews (from none other than Christians–which Spencer seems to think doesn’t count in our analysis of the Christian and Islamic realms), but it was in order to preserve the Jews as perpetual serfs.
6. Spencer claims that all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence advocate persecution of dhimmis. He is wrong. None of them do. Physical violence, forced conversions, and expulsions against dhimmis were not permitted–which is what the papacy would often reign in on, so we must assume that this is what Robert Spencer is referring to, due to his usage of the words “this is in sharp contrast to…”
7. His last point about Gaza is a red herring designed to move the goalposts. Spencer’s hypothesis–which I refuted–had nothing to do with the situation nowadays. I simply refuted his argument that Jews were historically treated worse in the Islamic world than in Christendom. The situation in Gaza today does not prove or disprove the hypothesis. I have promised to debate this ancillary topic in a future article, but it has no relevance to Spencer’s hypothesis above. Even if I concede that Muslims today want to reimpose the dhimmitude (which I do not), this would not prove Spencer’s hypothesis that Jews were historically treated better in Christendom than in the Islamic world.
Update: Click here to read my refutation of Cassidy, a frequent visitor to our site.
Footnotes
refer back to article 1. Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades, 47. ISBN 0-89526-013-1
refer back to article 2. Ibid., 59
refer back to article 3. Rudolph M. Lowenstein, Christians and Jews: A Psychoanalytic Study, 97-98. ISBN 140675868X, 9781406758689
refer back to article 4. Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: Jews in the Middle Ages, 20-38. ISBN 069101082X, 9780691010823
refer back to article 5. Rudolph M. Lowenstein, Christians and Jews: A Psychoanalytic Study, 97-98. ISBN 140675868X, 9781406758689
refer back to article 6. Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, 98. ISBN 0888441096, 9780888441096
refer back to article 7. David H. Solomon, A History of My Family, 8
refer back to article 8. Salo Wittmayer Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 137-138. ISBN 0231088469, 9780231088466
refer back to article 9. Innocent III, Epistle to the Hierarchy of France, 7/15/1205, PL 215
refer back to article 10. Norman Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization: An Encyclopedia, 131. ISBN 0415937124, 9780415937122
refer back to article 11. Nathan Zuckerman, The Wine of Violence: An Anthology on Anti-Semitism. Association Press, 1947. 138
refer back to article 12. Innocent III, Epistle to the Count of Nevers
refer back to article 13. Isaac Unterman, The Talmud: An Analytical Guide to its History and Teachings, 260
refer back to article 14. Lynn Thorndike, University Records and Life in the Middle Ages. Columbia University Press, 1949. 50
refer back to article 15. Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, 100
refer back to article 16. Pius V, Hebraeorum Gens
refer back to article 17. Third Lateran Ecumenical Council, Canon 26
refer back to article 18. Maurice Pinay, The Plot against the Church. St. Anthony Press, 1967. 651
refer back to article 19. Gregory IX, Epistle to the Hierarchy of Germany
refer back to article 20. Magda Teter, Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland, 16. ISBN 0521856736, 9780521856737
refer back to article 21. Quoting Pope Innocent III, Etsi Judaeos
refer back to article 22. Nissim Rejwan, Israel’s Place in the Middle East: A Pluralistic Perspective, 47. ISBN 0813016010, 9780813016016
refer back to article 23. Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, 100-101
refer back to article 24. It is important here to note that I am not at all trying to bash Christianity, Catholicism, or even the papacy. I understand that times were different back then and that the papacy was not “monochromatic”. Furthermore, I certainly do not wish to weaponize history; it would be despicable to use Christian history as a stick to beat Christians over the head with. But detailing Christian history in order to counter the bigotry of some Christian Islamophobes–to bring them to their senses–is a powerful means of exposing the horrific double standards that are at play.
A frequent visitor to our site, Cassidy, tried desperately to respond to my rebuttal, as follows:
Actually Jews in Ireland, Scotland and Wales were treated better than Jews in the Islamic world; Ireland only had one violent incident of anti-semitism in it’s history, the limerick pogrom which took place in the 20th century and was widely criticized outside of limerick. Scotland also provided a sanctuary for Jews fleeing England, here’s a quote from the Scottish declaration of Arbroath:
“there is neither bias nor difference between Jew or Greek, Scot or English”
My response is as follows:
Not only is everything Cassidy said incorrect, but it is not even in the same ballpark as reality. Cassidy wrote:
Actually Jews in Ireland, Scotland and Wales were treated better than Jews in the Islamic worlds
1. Ireland:
No record of or reference to Jewish life in Ireland exists up until the eleventh century. The first mention we have of Jews in the region is in 1079, when five Jews migrated to Ireland, only to be turned back. Five Jews in Ireland were considered five too many, and a ban on Jewish residency was established:
‘Five Jews’ we read ‘came from over sea with gifts to Toirdelbach, and they were sent back again over the sea’. [25]
Historians lose any reference to Irish Jews for about another century. In 1174, Jews are afforded the right to exist in Ireland, but only as the property of the King–the familiar theme of Serfs of the Royal Chamber (refer to my rebuttal), the Christian state’s corollary to the Church’s Perpetual Servitude. In 1290, Jews are expelled from Ireland, and do not return for hundreds of years…until about 1665. (You’re really making this argument right, Cassidy?)
Upon their return to Ireland, Jews faced severe discrimination, and legislation proposing citizenship for Jews was roundly defeated in 1743. Irish Jews, like their coreligionists in the rest of Christian Europe, were forbidden from entering guilds–a crushing occupational and financial burden that explains why Jews of Europe had it so much worse than their counterparts in Islamdom (refer here).
In the 1890’s and early 1900’s, antisemitism made a resurgence, resulting in a boycott of Jews and culminating in the Lemirick pogrom which you mention. In the 1920’s and 30’s, antisemitism reached a fever pitch due to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy. In the 1940’s, thousands of Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany were denied refuge in Ireland. In the 1960’s, a Jewish synagogue–one of only four in Ireland–was burned down to the ground…It burned to the ground just like Cassidy’s argument that Irish Jews fared better than the Jews of Islam.
We read:
The earliest evidence of Jewish settlement in Ireland is a grant made in 1232 to a certain Peter de Rivall, giving him “custody of the King’s Jews in Ireland.” In 1290, Irish Jews, like their English brethren, were expelled from Ireland and did not return until around 1655. [26]
And:
Although officially refused residency in 1079, a number of Jews immigrated to Ireland after the Anglo-Norman invasion…The Irish Jews were expelled along with the English Jews in 1290, and with the exception of a few Spanish conversos [Jewish converts to Christianity], there were no Jews in Ireland until the Cromwellian Settlement [during the mid-seventeenth century]…Jews, along with Catholics, were excluded from the guilds in the eighteenth century: Legislation offering Jews citizenship was defeated in 1743…
In the 1890s, there were anti-Jewish demonstrations in Dublin and Cork and a major anti-Jewish boycott and attack in Limerick in 1904. This mirrored an increase in anti-Semitism…Throughout the 1920s and 1930s…[there was] virulent anti-Semitism premised on the Protocols…During the Holocaust, thousands of entry requests were denied on economic and anti-Semitic grounds. After the war, a few Jews were admitted. In the 1960s, a Dublin synagogue was set on fire. To describe modern alienation and exile, James Joyce made the protagonist of his masterpiece Ulysses (1922) a Jew. [27]
And:
Jews are first mentioned as resident in Ireland in eleventh-century documents; Henry II acknowledged their presence (and legitimated it) by assigning custody of the King’s Judaism in Ireland to one of his lords in 1174. From the time of the Norman Conquest the King’s Judaism meant that the Jews were literally the king’s chattel…Jews were expelled from Ireland, as from England, in 1290 and were resettled in both countries under Cromwell in the mid-seventeenth century. [28]
2. Wales:
Perhaps one of the reasons Cassidy mentions Wales is because there were no Jewish communities in the region up until the eighteenth century, a fact which of course reveals her ignorance on the subject. Yes, the Jews were treated wonderfully because they did not exist! (Actually Jews were denied residence.) Nonetheless, there may have been a few Jews here and there, who were then expelled in 1290:
Jews were expelled from Wales in 1290 with the rest of the Jews in Britain, but in the eighteenth century they began to return. Prior to the Expulsion, there were individual Jews living in places like Caerleon and Chepstow, but Wales was not a hospitable place for Jews, and regions of the country were legally permitted to deny Jews residence. [29]
Subsequently, there is no historical record of any Jewish existence in Wales up until 1665. The first Jewish community in Wales came into existence as late as the eighteenth century!
3. Scotland
Similarly, “the first reference to a Jewish settler in Scotland is on 1st September, 1665.” [30] The Jewish immigrants faced anti-Jewry laws, as Scotland was under the jurisdiction of the British. Admittedly, the Scottish Jews faced far less discrimination than their counterparts in the rest of Europe. For example, they were not barred from universities as in other Christian nations: in 1787, the first Jewish graduate from Glasgow University matriculated, and the first Scottish Jew entered the field of medicine. [31] (Jews in the Islamic world had always been able to attend university, and had long since excelled in the field of medicine.)
Scottish historian David Daiches argued that Scotland was the only European country in which there was no state persecution of the Jews. [32] At first, this statement would seem to support Cassidy’s stance–yet in reality it is a damning statement of Christendom’s treatment of Jews. In other words, there was only one small sliver of land–no more than 32,000 square miles–in which Jews were not persecuted by the Christian state…And that too only after the 1700’s when Jewish communities emerged in the area. To further illustrate the complete absurdity of such a comparison, it is interesting to note that–according to a 2001 census–there are only 6,400 Jews in Scotland…as if the treatment of a handful of Jews can offset the way the great majority of them were treated in Christendom!
Cassidy’s approach typifies the Islamophobic mindset, as I already discussed in my reply to Robert Spencer above:
All you ever do is cherry pick the absolute worst examples from Islam and compare them with the cherry picked best examples from Christianity, and then draw erroneous conclusions from this unequal comparison. This sort of selective and shoddy scholarship typifies your entire ideological camp, and epitomizes your modus operandi.
Robert Spencer’s argument was that the Jews of Europe were treated better than the Jews of the Islamic world. Clearly then, we should compare the overall treatment of Jews in all of Christendom, with that of the general treatment of Jews in all of Islamdom. Instead, Cassidy is trying to foist upon us this unfair comparison, taking the absolute best of Christian Europe and comparing it with that of the absolute worst–or even the average–situation in the realm of Islam.
Even if I were to concede that Irish Jews were treated better than their counterparts in the Islamic world (which I do not!), this would not at all prove Spencer’s claim that the Jews were treated better in Christendom than in the Islamic East, because an exception to the rule (which Scotland clearly was!) can hardly be used in a just comparison. If Cassidy wants to use the absolute best case scenario under Christendom, then she ought to compare it to the best case scenario in the realm of Islam. Certainly there were times during Islamic history in which the dhimmis flourished, with little discrimination.
Instead, it is as if the Islamophobes seek to compare the Almohad tyranny with that of the best situation in the realm of Christianity! This is of course quite typical of their entire approach. Furthermore, even if I concede that the Jews of Scotland were treated better than the Jews of Islam (which I do not!), then I could argue back that the Jews of Islam were treated better than all of the rest of Europe other than a few thousand Jews on a small sliver of land in a remote corner of the continent! If perpetual servitude was the miserable lot of Jews throughout all of Europe but a tiny area, what then would be the efficacy of the anti-Muslim battle cry of “dhimmitude”?
In any case, Cassidy would have to prove that the Jews of Scotland were treated better than the Jews of Islam by providing a citation from a reliable academic/historian/expert, as I have done. I will not simply take her word for it, considering how unbelievably off the mark she was about Ireland and Wales!
Cassidy wrote:
Scotland also provided a sanctuary for Jews fleeing England, here’s a quote from the Scottish declaration of Arbroath:
“there is neither bias nor difference between Jew or Greek, Scot or English”
This is a deceptive argument, which relies on the reader’s ignorance of said document. Historians consider the Document of Arboath to have been “royal propaganda.” It was simply a letter written to the pope to convince him of Scottish independence. As such, it cannot be used as a reliable indication of what the actual situation was in Scotland:
The unanimity implied by the Declaration of Arbroath was much more apparent than real…The Declaration was primarily a piece of propaganda, directed at an audience both within and outside Scotland. [33]
And:
Such language is dramatic and inspiring but should be read in its context…The letter of the barons was, like these documents, a piece of royal propaganda, presenting a case to the curia. [34]
In any case, I am not denying that the Jews of Scotland fared relatively well as compared to their coreligionists in the rest of Europe. I have already addressed this point above.
To conclude: Cassidy attempted (futilely) to find a way to overcome my rebuttal, but was unable to. Her claims–that Jews were treated better in Ireland and Wales as compared to the Islamic world–are comically incorrect. As for Scotland, she has no proof to verify her claim; furthermore, the condition of a few thousand Jews in Scotland–who only lived there since the eighteenth century–is hardly relevant to a discussion of the historical treatment of Jews in the Middle Ages. As for the treatment of minorities in the modern day, that is an issue I have promised to tackle in a follow-up article.
SECOND UPDATE: First things first, Cassidy is a male, so I apologize for mixing that up in my response above. Secondly, he has conceded the debate, saying: “I admit I was wrong about Ireland, Scotland and Wales.” Well, thank you for your honesty and courage to admit fault. Cheers.
Footnotes
refer back to article 25. Aubrey Gwynn, The Irish Church in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. 383. ISBN 1851820957, 9781851820955
refer back to article 26. Mordecai Schreiber, The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia, 126. ISBN 0520253973, 9780520253971
refer back to article 27. Lelia Ruckenstein, Everything Irish: The History, Literature, Art, Music, People, and Places of Ireland, From A-Z, 211. ISBN 034544129X, 9780345441294
refer back to article 28. Don Gifford, Ulyesses Annotated: Notes from James Joyce’s Ulysses, 40. ISBN 0520253973, 9780520253971
refer back to article 29. Toni Kamins, The Complete Jewish Guide to Britain and Ireland, 107-108. ISBN 0312244487, 9780312244484
refer back to article 30. The Jewish Quarterly, V. 3-5. Jewish Literary Trust, 1972. 30
refer back to article 31. Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Scotland.html
refer back to article 32. David Daiches, Two worlds: An Edinburgh Jewish Childhood. Canongate, 1987. ISBN 0862411483, 9780862411480
refer back to article 33. Andrew D.M. Barrell, Medieval Scotland, 122. ISBN 052158602X, 9780521586023
refer back to article 34. Michael Brown, The Wars of Scotland, 218. ISBN 0748612386, 9780748612383
December 6th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Beautiful man. How long before spencer responds.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Your refutation(s) of Spencer (et al, for that matter) is, simply, breathtaking! Fantastic work! I do not think that I have ever read any refutations and articles against Spencer and his friends–at least on the net–with this level of research, knowledge and thoroughness.
Thank you!
December 6th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I love how you guys exposed his christian apologist agenda. Like you guys said, it’s wrong to be a Muslim apologist, but it’s a-okay to be a christian apologist even though both sides have done wrong.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Thanks, guys.
Ilm:
“it’s wrong to be a Muslim apologist, but it’s a-okay to be a christian apologist”
I wouldn’t say it’s wrong to be an apologist, but it certainly is wrong to be an apologist who skews the truth, which is unfortunately often the case–and is definitely the case with regard to the Catholic apologist Robert Spencer.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Danios: “Spencer, your post is along the same vein. You simply cherry picked the good things the popes did, and highlighted those, ignoring all the “evil” they did. So for instance, if a pope opposed the ritual murder libel (which many did), then you would make sure to mention that, without also discussing how the same pope burned tens of thousands of copies of the Talmud. If a pope overturned a ban on the Talmud, you would make mention of this, but not mention that the same pope only permitted heavily censored versions of the Talmud to be read. And so on and so forth.”
Precisely. Spencer’s reading is one-dimensional and utterly flawed. His selective take on Papal history is summarized from his own book “Religion of Peace” (pp. 115-120). Spencer thinks that by repeating his heavily biased and selective take on the historical record and buttressing it with any amount of evidence from whatever source he can find, when an informed and honest rebuttal is made he can simply silence it through more repetition, dodging the vital points (moving the “goalposts”) and false characterizations (of the argument and the authors). More rebuttals will prove that this is consistently the case with whatever subject he chooses to tackle, whether Islamic history, theology and civilization, or Christian history, theology and civilization, or world politics and conflicts.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Danios,
Of course it isn’t wrong to be Muslim apologist. I meant that spinster insinuates that being a Muslim apologist is wrong and full of lies. Rather being a christian apologist is okay because they haven’t done any wrong. Like you said, it’s skewing the truth.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree with you, Ilm. Thanks.
Muzammil, thanks for your analysis–on point as always.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Wow Danios! So, you reached at LEAST the 63 email barrage from Spencer, I see! That’s just my official record of these email exchanges. You brought up one of the major points in debating with Spencer, which you summed up PERFECTLY here:
Did I ever say that you said the Muslims have a monopoly on evil? Or that you deny that every group has “some” wrongdoing? You implied in your book that historically the Muslims persecuted Jews much more than Christians ever did. That was your statement which I refuted, so stop moving the goalposts. Either defend the thesis in your book, or admit that you were wrong.
He can only ever change the argument around, switch topics and generally flail about trying to get you angry, which he’s too absurd to pull off. I’ve NEVER seen him defend any book, post or statement yet. EVER. By the end he finally just gets insulting.
I did get sick enough of his mails last year that I finally asked why he was spending so much time (this was the 63 mail record) arguing with a struggling musician/stay-at-home mom in Kansas. That shut him up.
Ooops, forgot to wave!! HEY SPENCER!! ENJOYING THIS THREAD YET???
December 6th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Danios,
One of your signature posts about the Christian Crusades is needed. Spencer’s extreme revisionist take on the Crusades as a defensive strategy against Muslims is something that must be thoroughly refuted. It goes to the heart of Spencer’s Christian supremacist ideology. The armchair warrior longs for another Christian-Muslim clash. His hatred is not simply opportunistic, it’s part of his extremist viewpoint of the non-Christian world.
BTW: Great refutation. But Spencer will play the same game if he replies.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Awesome Reply! I was just wondering, though: if he some how does reply to this w/o resorting to libel + Muslim-bashing (He’ll link you to CAIR, lol), what will you do?
December 6th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Oh, you guys. Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly love you any more…
December 6th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I fixed the links to the footnotes…Should work now…Same problem as last time. Let me know if it works now.
Lex:
“He can only ever change the argument around, switch topics and generally flail about trying to get you angry, which he’s too absurd to pull off”
Absolutely correct. He desperately tried to muddy the water and change the topic, but we must make sure to force him back to the actual argument.
James:
“One of your signature posts about the Christian Crusades is needed. Spencer’s extreme revisionist take on the Crusades as a defensive strategy against Muslims is something that must be thoroughly refuted. It goes to the heart of Spencer’s Christian supremacist ideology.”
I will definitely be writing on Spencer’s revisionism of the Crusades in the future. It’s in his book, and I plan on refuting every single one of his arguments in it. Stay tuned!
“BTW: Great refutation. But Spencer will play the same game if he replies.”
Thanks. I will not take Spencer’s bait when he tries to change the topic. I will tenaciously make sure that I do not indulge his red herrings.
WDSF:
“Awesome Reply! I was just wondering, though: if he some how does reply to this w/o resorting to libel + Muslim-bashing (He’ll link you to CAIR, lol), what will you do?”
If he replies, I will counter-reply. I can go 12 rounds with him, although I suspect he’ll be knocked out before that…
Nat:
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 6th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Footnotes work for me.
December 6th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Great article.
December 6th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Danios,
In your constructive response to Robert Spencer’s very poor response to your monumental essay entitled [ The Church's Doctrine of "Perpetual Servitude" was Worse than "Dhimmitude" ],you have responded correctly with the following statements:
Quote
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In any case,we need not discuss the implications of your statement yet. Right now,the issue is about the veracity of your statement that the Jews were persecuted more in the Islamic world than in Chritendom. That is a false claim. You can try to muddy the waters as much as you want,but the bottom line is that your book is based on a horrendou error at best-if not a boldface lies.
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Robert Spencer will never admit he is wrong. Because if he does,the whole house of cards of bigotry against Islam and Muslims will crumble which is not the reason I am addressing this post to you. The reason has to with a monumental book written by an ardent Zionist. The title of the book and name of its author are:
My People: The Story Of The Jews
By
Abba Eban
Mr. Abba Eban(diceased) was Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 1960s. He was well known as an ardent Zionist. In his book,Mr.Eban’s views about the treatment of Jews under Christendom and Islam are strikingly identical to yours. He has devouted Chaptr 11 to Islam,under the heading:
“The Age Of Islam”. I will not burden you with the fascinating details of Chapter 11 except in the last statement by which has ended that Chapter:
Quote
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For never under Christian domination has the Jewish spirit attained the hight of cultural expression it had once done under Arab Rule.
Unquote
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It is obvious that the significance of the statement quoted above stems from the fact that it was made by a Jew who was not only well known as an ardent Zionist but also he was well known as an intellectual and well versed in human history. All that was very obvious to me through his eloquence in the English language as I listen to his speeches delivered at the United Nations,on my Black and White TV in the 1960s. Although I disagreed with everything he said then about the Palestinians and the Arab countries,but I had respected his knowledge of history and intellectual talents.
May I suggest to take a look at Aaba Eban’s book for your exchanges with Spencer? I may be of some help.
Danios: Being a life time student of Islamic civilization,human history, Arabic language,poetry and prose and anti-Ziofascism since 1950s,I cannot thank you enough for the spledid and,indeed,marvelous job you have been doing in your effort to expose the bigots and their bigotry against Islam and Muslims. Most appreciated
December 7th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Stop picking on me so much! What do you guys want from me?! My parents never gave me much attention in my childhood so I was forced to turn to LSD! And what’s up with you guys obliterating my girlfriend pamela? She never did anything to you! She also take LSD to ease our pain! I don’t care if I’m an overweight, zionist, overwight, right-wing hitler loving uneducated scholar on Islam! Would it hurt you guys to call me a scholar? At least once? Do you know how much time I spent on my books? I freaking listened to every geert wilder speech before I wrote those god damn books! I’m just so frustrated with you guys exposing me everytime! Shawarmas? Really? You guys want to ban Shawarmas? I freaking love Shawarmas!
December 7th, 2009 at 1:43 am
I also love gyros.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Actually Jews in Ireland, Scotland and Wales were treated better than Jews in the Islamic world; Ireland only had one violent incident of anti-semitism in it’s history, the limerick pogrom which took place in the 20th century and was widely criticized outside of limerick. Scotland also provided a sanctuary for Jews fleeing England, here’s a quote from the Scottish declaration of Arbroath:
“there is neither bias nor difference between Jew or Greek, Scot or English”
Second of all European nations would later go on to reform their treatment of Jews while Jews in Islamic lands suffered discrimination) examples include the Netherlands granting equality to Jews in 1796 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s emancipation of Jews, the Ottoman empire on the other hand emancipated Jews in 1839.
Comment by Danios: I have replied to your comment here. Better luck next time.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:49 am
In cricket lingo, Danios hit Spencer for a six and the ball went clear out of the stadium. Danios gets 4 extra runs in addition to the sixer because Spencer was chucking instead of bowling (again).
December 7th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Danios,
Correction for my last post on this thread:
I have meant to say “It May be of some help” and not “I msy may be of some help.” In other words,just change the “I” to “It”.
Sory for the typing mistakes.
December 7th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Robert Spencer is a cheap lying history revisionist. I mean, the Jews themselves (except Zionist extremist revisionists ) say that they were better off under Muslim rule than Christian.
Even Daniel Pipes (in his articles and book reviews) and Bernard Lewis assert this, and they are neoconservative Jews, so called “experts” on Islamic history and Jews.
Below are some Jewish scholarly referneces reviewd by Daniel Pipes for Robert Spencer to check. The reason I am posting reviews, articles and interviews by Daniel Pipes, is because Spencer cannot say that Pipes and Lewis are “leftists” or “Islamophiles” with sympathies to Islam.
Antisemitism Today
by Rachael Kohn
ABC (Australia): The Spirit of Things
February 13, 2005
http://www.danielpipes.org/4114/antisemitism-today
Rachael Kohn: “As an historian, you would know that Jews had comparatively better time under Muslim rule than they did under Christian rule. When did it change so radically?”
Daniel Pipes: “It was very radical and quick. The Jewish experience from the origins of Islam in the 7th century, until rather specifically in 1945, was better under Muslim rule than under Christian rule. And since 1945, it’s been better under Christian rule than Muslim rule. One can see it for example by exchange of populations. Jews fled the Christian countries for the Muslim countries, until 1945.
As late as the 1930s, when Jews fled Germany to go to Turkey. Since then, it’s been the reverse. I think this points to the fact that things change. You know, what looked like it was a permanent thing, the fact that Jews were better off in Muslim countries, just changed on a dime, in a moment, just changed. It also points to the fact that the Muslim world is going through a very difficult stage now, and it’s presumably a temporary one.”
………………..
The New Anti-Semitism
by Daniel Pipes
http://www.danielpipes.org/226/the-new-anti-semitism
“The second view, which I associate with Bernard Lewis, holds that anti-Semitism is essentially an import from Europe; that Islam lacks the Christian tradition of exaggerating Jewish power, and that just because it results from disdain rather than fear, Jews have had no particular importance in Islam The modern obsession with Jews in the Muslim world is a recent phenomenon that derives from Europe. Just as the Muslims learned about forks and knives and airplanes and modern medicine from Europe, so they received their notions of the Jew from Europe.”
………………..
The Jews of Arab Lands
A History and Sourcebook by Norman A. Stillman
Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
“Islam is the only monotheistic religion that has allowed to participate so fully in its culture. By contrast, in the European Enlightenment many centuries later, Christianity had to be removed as a central element of culture before Jews could join in a common space discourse.”
“Protected to some degree by religious precepts, Jews had fared better under Islamic law than they did in the newly independent states of the 20th century. The side effects of European power — including such disparate and mutually contradictory phenomena as new legal systems, political anti-Semitism, the Alliance Israelite Universelle, and Zionism — worked to create less bearable circumstances, forcing the Jews to leave.”
………………..
The Jew As Ally of the Muslim: Medieval Roots of Anti-Semitism
by Allan Harris Cutler and Helen Elmquist Cutler. Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
http://www.danielpipes.org/33/the-jew-as-ally-of-the-muslim-medieval-roots-of-anti
“As the title of this study suggests, Allan and Helen Cutler believe that the tendency of medieval Christians to see the Jew as an ally of the Muslim was the decisive factor in the development of anti-Semitism. In making their case, the Cutlers challenge conventional wisdom, which holds that anti-Semitism originated in the charge of deicide (that Jews killed Jesus) and the Jews’ anomalous socio-economic status in Europe.”
“The authors strongly believe that medieval Christian perceptions remain a force today, that the notion of Jewish-Muslim alliance still fuels anti-Semitism.”
December 7th, 2009 at 6:29 am
Another excellent, excellent post.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:03 am
Good article Loon Watch. Keep up the excellent work! I echo Nat’s sentiments.
Robert Spencer’s account of history completely clash with classical history and scholars of eminence over the centuries. Promient historians over the centuries have spoken with awe of the tolerance that the Islamic empires ruled with. It was the other way round with Christinaity. Spencer is lying out and out. Though there were times when extremism prevailed, these were the exceptions rather than the rule. Certainly both Christians and Jews were better treated under Islamic rule. This is a historical fact, obviously Spencer has not been to a University to learn. He fabricated all his history revising, in his vengeance against those who wronged his family.
I’d say his Zionism is just a convenient tool to vent his bigotry against Muslims. One of the uglier aspects of the far right Zionist cause is that its main proponents are bigots and anti-semites who only see the Muslims as a bigger threat, hence their support. They don’t care about Israel or Jews, but just use them to vent their bigotry, that’s why they’re paid.
Spencer is always saying Muslims see non Muslims as “infidels”, but Does Spencer ever say how Christianity sees those who don’t accept Jesus? They’re hell bound. Does he see see Jews as needing a conversion to Jesus to be saved? I’d like to hear his response to that. Islam does see Book People as fellow monototheists, but I wonder how he as a Catholic so called lover of Jews will get around this,
Now compare Spencer’s “history” to what these historians and philosphers say:
Dr. William Draper in ‘History of Intellectual Development of Europe’
“During the period of the Caliphs the learned men of the Christians and the Jews were not only held in great esteem but were appointed to posts of great responsibility, and were promoted to the high ranking job in the government”
Thomas Arnold in ‘The Call to Islam.’
“We have never heard about any attempt to compel Non-Muslim parties to adopt Islam or about any organized persecution aiming at exterminating Christianity. If the Caliphs had chosen one of these plans, they would have wiped out Christianity as easily as what happened to Islam during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain; ”
Michael the Elder (Great) as Quoted in ‘Michael the Elder, Chronique de Michael Syrien, Patriarche Jacobite d’ Antioche,’ J.B. Chabot, Editor, Vol. II, Paris, 1901.
“This is why the God of vengeance, who alone is all-powerful, and changes the empire of mortals as He will, giving it to whomsoever He will, and uplifting the humble beholding the wickedness of the Romans who throughout their dominions, cruelly plundered our churches and our monasteries and condemned us without pity, brought from the region of the south the sons of Ishmael, to deliver us through them from the hands of the Romans.
James Addison in ‘The Christian Approach to the Moslem,’ p. 35.
“Despite the growth of antagonism, Moslem (Muslim) rulers seldom made their Christian subjects suffer for the Crusades. Not until the Moslem victories could they enjoy their rights as Christians.”
Marmaduke Pickthall in his 1927 Lecture on ‘Tolerance in Islam,
Before the coming of Islam it (tolerance) had never been preached as an essential part of religion… “If Europe had known as much of Islam, as Muslims knew of Christendom, in those days, those mad, adventurous, occasionally chivalrous and heroic, but utterly fanatical outbreak known as the Crusades could not have taken place, for they were based on a complete misapprehension…
“The tolerance within the body of Islam was, and is, something without parallel in history; class and race and color ceasing altogether to be barriers.”
Dozy in ‘The Moslems in Spain.’
“Cruel and fanatical, the Leonese rarely gave quarter; when they captured a town they usually put all the inhabitants to the sword. Tolerance such as that accorded by the Muslims to the Christians could not be expected of them.”
Sir George Bernard Shaw in ‘The Genuine Islam,’ Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936.
“If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam.” I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
Jostaf Lopond, in his book, The Arabs Civilization, states, ‘ Force was never a factor in the spread of the Glorious Quran. In fact, Arabs left the freedom of choice to the people they overcome and conquered. Some of the Christians, who converted to Islam and took the Arabic language as a medium of communication, were merely impressed with the Arabs conquerors’ justice. Such people never noticed any such astounding justice from their previous masters. Secondly, such converts noticed a great ease in dealing with the Islamic life, faith and principles.’ (Ibid, page 314).
Historian De Lacy O?Leary?s opinion
De Lacy O?Leary in the book ?Islam at the crossroad? gives the best reply to the misconception that Islam was spread by the sword: ?History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myth that historians have ever repeated.?
(Political Thought in Medieval Islam, p.21)
A. J. Arberry has also pointed out that the reason for the spread of Islam is Islam itself and its religious values. (Aspects of Islamic Civilization,)
He states: The rapidity of the spread of Islam, noticeably through extensive provinces which had been long Christian, is a crucial fact of history..
December 7th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Danios–I applaud your patience. And trust me, I gave it a full honest try–with Spencer AND Plastic Pammy. I, too, tried to keep Spencer on topic, but this proved to be an impossible feat. I may try to watch some of the debates he has participated in that are posted online; plenty come up at YouTube (I know because I kept having to ignore them in my quest to get heinous screen caps of Spencer up close and preferably laughing, and oh boy, did I ever find some!).
Good luck with keeping him on topic in emails. I assume that’s the mode of communication at any rate. If you, by any chance, decide to go and debate these points in threads at Jihad Watch, I for one will gladly be part of your Infantry;)
December 7th, 2009 at 8:15 am
What I read about the crusades is that at the time, Muslims have been in jerusilam (idk how to spell it) for 400 years and, despite periodic tension, have been living with Chrisitains in peace. The pope at that time was asked by people to take back jerusilam but there was no immediate justification for war. So he started a propaganda campaign against Muslims, and the reason he wanted to do wa to strengthen his own power at home, since some states were going away from the papacy at that time.
December 7th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Cassidy, click here to read my reply to you.
*Danios pops his collar* [note: see definition three]
As for your last paragraph, that’s again trying to move the goalposts and I will not be baited. How hard is it for you to understand that I will deal with the contemporary situation in a follow-up article? And trust me, I’ll be popping my collar then too.
Everyone else: Thank you very much for your kind words. I will reply to each of you tomorrow, as I am officially pooped after writing what I did to Cassidy. Do check out the Update and let me know what you all think. I admit I run on compliments.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 7th, 2009 at 11:11 am
OMG, there is some serious carnage happening on this page!! Pieces of Spencer lying all over the place. Absolute gem of a rebuttal Danios!! There’s not a chance in hell he can recover from this. Amazing!!
December 7th, 2009 at 11:23 am
On your great rebuttal of cassidy’s ridiculous post:
cassidy is a pro-Israel propagandist. She would excuse the brutal treatment of Jews in Christian Europe if it would provide an anti-Muslim/anti-Arab narrative. This allows her to argue that Muslims have always been bad to the Jews and so their anti-Israel stance is nothing new whereas Christians treated Jews more fairly and so their pro-Israel stance is understandable and consistent with history.
This is the context of her post. Always keep it mind when reading her comments. I took her to task on her anti-Palestinian posts in another article.
December 7th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Danios,
Great article. Danios, Cassidy sounds a lot like another person who used to comment here, remember Barry Lyndon?
These loons can’t get enough. No need to regurgitate info these people can’t bear to swallow, just link ‘em back to the replies they have already received. Nice.
-Garibaldi
December 7th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Cassidy
Please provide a reference source for your assertion.
Danios,
brilliant work, you guys are reallllllllly awesome, (i know i sound like a sick parrot) you and Garibaldi, and Emperor, and Mooneye, and the others, (since i’ve been here, i’ve read you four but im sure there are others i’ve missed) you have material here that isn’t available anywhere on the internet. I marvel at this website.
I note that you and Lex and Muzammil have some kind of history with Rob Spencer. I never really bothered with him, as most of his reading base is the uneducated mass in America. Unfortunatley, by world standards, Americans rank low in historical knowledge, that is why he even has a market. Bat Yeor’s book, on Eurabia, only sold 50 copies in Europe, where people are more well informed.
I was wondering, are the comments at this website automatically sifted as spam sometimes?
I’m not sure if this is a good idea. I’ve noticed that some of my posts, don’t appear, which i post from other identities. I use a different name from my laptop, and another yet again from my home computer. Which means that maybe there are other people whose posts do not appear. I hope you or admin can review that, if that is the case. It will be offputting for new commentors, and they may not post. I know that in online survery’s almost overwhelmingly people say they don’t post comments if there is a long waiting list or a censor or too many bells and whistle to register etc.
Regarding the article above your rebuttal to Spencer’s assertion that Jews were treated better under Christianity, others above have already posted scholarly resources, interestingly, Daniel Pipes has done a review of Mark Cohens book that you used above. He concurs with him.
Does Robert Spencer think that Daniel Pipes doens’t know his own history? Since they are buddies, is there anyway you could ask Spencer to comment on this?
i will post an article by Daniel Pipes in my next post, which explains how Christian colonisers brought anti-semitism to the Mid East.
But before I do that, i want to give you the contact details of one of the best Mid East publishers in London called “Saqi”. They also have bookshops. I know it’s early days, and your book “Pathetically incorrect guide to Islam by Robert Spencer” isn’t complete yet, but you could approach them and plan, The book may be too niche for a mainstream publisher to take on.
http://www.saqibooks.com
Akbar S. Ahmed and the renowned Brian Whittaker (The Guardian journalist who exposed MEMRI as being an Israeli far right propoganda machine) have published books with them.
I (and other readers here) look forward to seeing your book on Amazon too:)
December 7th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Nabeela,
Thank you for your post and the compliments for the site.
Also thank you for the feedback, I understand your complaint, but at the moment we are quite happy with the moderated forum for discussion in the comment section. It might make a few people unhappy, but I think our comment policy is quite reasonable. We check Spam to make sure to retreive any comments that don’t belong there.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
iSherif:
Thank you!
Yusuf:
I agree with you about Cassidy’s huge bias.
Garibaldi:
“Danios, Cassidy sounds a lot like another person who used to comment here, remember Barry Lyndon?”
Ahhhh, yes I see it now. The two sound exactly alike. Perhaps Cassidy will now reinvent herself/himself with another alias, due to the embarrassment of being shut down so hard.
Nabeela:
“brilliant work, you guys are reallllllllly awesome,”
Thanks!
“Garibaldi, and Emperor, and Mooneye, and the others,”
Don’t forget about Zingel, who has been posting some awesome stuff.
“I note that you and Lex and Muzammil have some kind of history with Rob Spencer.”
Actually, I do not have any history with Robert Spencer. Just want to clarify that.
Nabeela, the points you bring up about Daniel Pipes are really good. I am thinking of adding them to the article itself. I read the review by Pipes long time ago, and yes you are right: Pipes does not contest the conclusion. Perhaps is the remnant of scholarship in him, which his “truck driver mentality” could not get out of his system. Although I don’t consider Pipes an academic (as he was unfit for academia and left it), I do think that his experience must have made him realize how stupid he would sound if he used Robert Spencer’s childish argument that Jews were treated better in Christendom than in the realm of Islam.
Anyways, if you could shoot us an email with all your points about Pipes, it would make my job ten times easier…that way I wouldn’t have to sift through all the comments to find the other points you raised in other places…Then I’ll try to find a way to add it to the original article or a future one. Thanks.
“But before I do that, i want to give you the contact details of one of the best Mid East publishers in London…”
Interesting. Thanks. I’ll definitely look into it in the near future.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
AF:
Thanks a lot.
Garo:
“Danios: Being a life time student of Islamic civilization,human history, Arabic language,poetry and prose and anti-Ziofascism since 1950s,I cannot thank you enough for the spledid and,indeed,marvelous job you have been doing in your effort to expose the bigots and their bigotry against Islam and Muslims. Most appreciated”
Thank you for the kind words and the other quotes you provided.
Obert S. Pencer:
I changed your user name from Robert Spencer to Obert S. Pencer just because I do not want to allow the precedent of using other peoples’ names. But I thank you for the funny comments! Feel free to post as Obert.
Pagan:
Thanks!
Reza:
Thank you for your excellent post. The point about Daniel Pipes is extremely strong and I think I’ll add it to the original article. (I seem to have confused you with Nabeela, as I thought it was her who had brought up this point earlier. Seems like you both have. Well, it’s a great point, and I think I’ll add it.)
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Zatti:
Thanks a lot.
Layla:
“Good article Loon Watch. Keep up the excellent work!”
Thank you.
Lex:
“Good luck with keeping him on topic in emails. I assume that’s the mode of communication at any rate. If you, by any chance, decide to go and debate these points in threads at Jihad Watch, I for one will gladly be part of your Infantry;)”
To clarify: I am not debating Robert Spencer via email, as I would find that to be a waste of time. Rather, I am posting my rebuttals of him on this website (LW). I will be refuting each and every single one of his arguments here on this site, and will be monitoring his website for counter-replies. This is the only fair way to debate with Spencer: I post my replies on our site, and he on his…Nobody can be accused of censoring the other then.
But thank you for your support, and yes we can definitely use infantry!
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Danios,
LOL, regarding the truck driver comment about D Pipes, He doesnt revise history as much as Spencer, that’s why the right wing kooks denigrate him so much. Believe it or not, some call him an “Islamophile” pretending to be “counter Jihadi”. I explained this to Lex in another thread, when he said, that Pipes was villified in Gellers circle.
Anyway, here are two more Dan Pipes references, others have been posted above already. The reason he has credibility here more than Mark Cohen is because Spencer actually sees Pipes as on the “same side”. He will merely dismiss Mark Cohen as an “Islamophile” or “dhimmi”.
Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages
by Mark R. Cohen
http://www.danielpipes.org/677/under-crescent-and-cross-the-jews-in-the-middle-ages
Yes, he concludes, Jews were better off in the Muslim world. In part, this was a matter of physical security. “The Jews of Islam, especially during the formative and classical centuries (up to the thirteenth century), experienced much less persecution than did the Jews of Christendom
The Politics of Muslim Anti-Semitism
http://www.danielpipes.org/161/the-politics-of-muslim-anti-semitism
by Daniel Pipes
” This is puzzling, for until recently Muslims had nothing in their lexicon corresponding to Christian anti-Semitism. Jews had lived among Muslims since the days of Muhammad without ever becoming the target of base, far-fetched attacks ”
“A Muslim believes so confidently in the perfection of Islam that he cannot quite comprehend why Jews and Christians continue to follow their outmoded and imperfect versions of the truth.
Oddly enough, this very confidence has allowed Islam to tolerate minorities better than Christianity, as may be seen in the greater religious diversity of the Middle East than in Europe.”
“Such sanctioned toleration has no Christian counterpart; under Islam, Jews were second-class citizens but they were part of the legal landscape, not the problematic anomaly they presented the Christian world.
Historically, Jews and Christians under Muslim rule received about equal treatment.”
In pre-modern times, they lived markedly better under Islam than under Christianity.”
Muslim attitudes toward Jews began to change in the nineteenth century.
Along with much else, they also learned about anti-Semitism. Not surprisingly, the Arabic-speaking Christians of the Levant proved most receptive to theories of Jewish perfidy. Assisted by Europeans living in the region, Middle Eastern Christians played a key role in transmitting anti-Semitic notions to the Muslims.
The Nazis also did much to familiarize Muslims with anti-Semitism.
To a large degree anti-Semitism followed political hostilities with Israel - it did not cause them.
————–
Also, I had to add this, just so that Spencer can see, that the founding fathers of the US wanted to separate state from Christianity. They saw that Christianity had hindered progress in Europe for centuries. Europe actually got her knowledge from the Islamic empires, until she shed Christiantiy for secularism, but that did not happen till after the USA was formed.
James Madison, original mastermind of the USA Constitution, wrote In 1785 :-
“What have been [Christianity’s] fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
December 7th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
“cassidy is a pro-Israel propagandist.”
I’m nothing of the kind.
“She would excuse the brutal treatment of Jews in Christian Europe if it would provide an anti-Muslim/anti-Arab narrative.”
That wasn’t my point at all, second of all I’m a he.
“This allows her to argue that Muslims have always been bad to the Jews and so their anti-Israel stance is nothing new whereas Christians treated Jews more fairly and so their pro-Israel stance is understandable and consistent with history.”
I’ve barely mentioned Israel while I’ve been here, but in your world anyone who disagrees with you must be a ‘zionist’.
“I took her to task on her anti-Palestinian posts in another article.”
You did nothing of the kind, my reply to you simply wasn’t posted.
December 7th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Cassidy, first: sorry for referring to you in the feminine. I’ll fix that.
Second: Are you Barry? You sound like him.
Third: you said, “You did nothing of the kind.” Well, I posted your reply and responded. Will you be man enough to admit that you were taken to task?
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 7th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
“Historians lose any reference to Irish Jews for about another century. In 1174, Jews are afforded the right to exist in Ireland, but only as the property of the King–the familiar theme of Serfs of the Royal Chamber (refer to my rebuttal), the Christian state’s corollary to the Church’s Perpetual Servitude. In 1290, Jews are expelled from Ireland, and do not return for hundreds of years…until about 1665. (You’re really making this argument right, Cassidy?)”
They were expelled on the order of Edward I; a foreign occupier, pretend somebody takes over a man’s home and abuses his family can you blame the abuse on the original owner? Second of all you’re wrong about Jews not returning to Ireland until 1665, Marrano Jews settled in Ireland in the 15th century.
“Upon their return to Ireland, Jews faced severe discrimination”
If so then why did Ireland only have one pogrom? Why was William Annyas (an Irish Jew) elected to the office of mayor?
“and legislation proposing citizenship for Jews was roundly defeated in 1743.”
“Irish Jews, like their coreligionists in the rest of Christian Europe, were forbidden from entering guilds–a crushing occupational and financial burden that explains why Jews of Europe had it so much worse than their counterparts in Islamdom (refer here).”
Right but those were laws imposed by a foreign occupier (which parallel the conditions so many Irish people lived under just look at the penal laws for example). Second of all Irish Jews actually fared better than the Irish themselves, since the Irish Jews weren’t sold into slavery, massacred by Cromwellian forces etc.
“In the 1890’s and early 1900’s, antisemitism made a resurgence, resulting in a boycott of Jews and culminating in the Lemirick pogrom which you mention.”
Obviously anti-semitism existed but it couldn’t have been widespread since there was only one pogrom.
“In the 1920’s and 30’s, antisemitism reached a fever pitch due to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy.”
A fever pitch with only one pogrom and people welcoming Jewish refugees into their homes? Bit of a stretch, not to mention during the 1930s anti-semitism exploded amongst muslims (ie attacks of Jews during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt), I’m bringing that up since your central argument is that the Islamic world was the lesser of two evils.
“In the 1940’s, thousands of Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany were denied refuge in Ireland.”
Except you failed to mention that Eamon de Valera over-ruled the Department of Justice and allowed refugees into Ireland and let’s not forget about how many muslims fought for the Nazis (although six thousand Arabs did fight in the Palestine brigade that number’s dwarfed by the Handzar division alone).
“In the 1960’s, a Jewish synagogue–one of only four in Ireland–was burned down to the ground…It burned to the ground just like Cassidy’s argument that Irish Jews fared better than the Jews of Islam.”
And it was a terrible hate crime, however it was kids stuff compared to the wave of terrorist attack launched on Israel by - wait for it - muslims.
“Perhaps one of the reasons Cassidy mentions Wales is because there were no Jewish communities in the region up until the eighteenth century, a fact which of course reveals her ignorance on the subject.”
Did I say that Jews had been in Wales prior to the 18th century? No I did not.
“Cassidy’s approach typifies the Islamophobic mindset, as I already discussed in my reply to Robert Spencer above”
I am not an islamophobe that be as absurd as a Robert Spencer fanboy calling you a ‘dhimmi’.
“Instead, Cassidy is trying to foist upon us this unfair comparison, taking the absolute best of Christian Europe and comparing it with that of the absolute worst–or even the average–situation in the realm of Islam.”
My intention was to mention history that you left out, I wasn’t trying to stick up spencer.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:07 am
First of all it’s absurd to use Pipes as a source, y’know the same guy who was ‘elated’ by a fascist.
“The Nazis also did much to familiarize Muslims with anti-Semitism.”
Quick question, if Muslims were totally unfamiliar with anti-Semitism prior to the Nazis why did so many ally themselves with the Nazis?
“Also, I had to add this, just so that Spencer can see, that the founding fathers of the US wanted to separate state from Christianity. They saw that Christianity had hindered progress in Europe for centuries.”
Wrong, they didn’t all agree on Christianity, it’s incorrect to act as if the founding fathers had their brains wired together.
“Europe actually got her knowledge from the Islamic empires until she shed Christiantiy for secularism, but that did not happen till after the USA was formed.”
Wrong, Europe was not some barbaric hellhole in need of the saving touch of islam, take the Visigoths for example who had an advanced culture (influenced by the Romans) and a law system that gave women far more rights than islamic law and that’s just one example. Second of all the claim that ‘the west got it’s knowho from islam’ is incorrect (apart from the fact that Greek science flourished before islam even existed) since it’s actually the other way around since the Islamic world greatly benefited from the translation of Greek texts and no Arab science cannot be credited to Islam, that would be as absurd as crediting Copernicus’ genius to Catholicism.
James Madison, original mastermind of the USA Constitution, wrote In 1785 :-
“What have been [Christianity’s] fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”
Madison had a strong disdain for Christianity so quoting him on Christianity is like quoting Bobby Spencer about islam.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:07 am
“Cassidy, first: sorry for referring to you in the feminine. I’ll fix that.”
No worries.
“Second: Are you Barry? You sound like him.”
Yup.
“Third: you said, “You did nothing of the kind.” Well, I posted your reply and responded. Will you be man enough to admit that you were taken to task?”
Are you talking the ‘daniel pipes palestinians’ thread?
December 8th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Cassidy/Barry:
Please email me your address so I can send you your diploma. (Since you’ve been schooled so much here on this site, I thought it fitting for you to at least get a certificate for your efforts.)
I’ve lost all respect for you. I need not reply to your nonsense drivel, considering that my initial reply to you was sufficient to shut you down. People can read my logical response and compare it to your tangential incoherence. Debating with you would be a never-ending process, since you’ll just keep going in circles.
You debate in a schizophrenic manner, and are not man enough to admit that your argument was thoroughly refuted. I do not have any more time to waste on you. For those who want to know the truth of the matter, they can simply read my initial rebuttal of Robert Spencer, my counter-reply to Spencer, and finally my response to Cassidy.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:04 am
I want to know if the site below is a genuine one or not. Can we trust news coming from these people ? If what they are saying in the link below is right, then Catholics were running concentration camps murdering Jews during WW II.
“During World War II, Pavelic Regime Offered Croatian Jews Conversion To Catholicism & Contributing Personal Property - In Return For Not Being Deported To Death Camp. However, IsraCast Has Uncovered Evidence That Even These Jews & Their Families Were Later Executed By Ustasha” -
http://www.isracast.com/article.aspx?ID=544&t=Exclusive—CATHOLIC-COLLUSION-IN-CROATIA
December 8th, 2009 at 3:29 am
Cassidy
“First of all it’s absurd to use Pipes as a source, y’know the same guy who was ‘elated’ by a fascist.”
I don’t think you even read my response or you’d understand why I did use Pipes, NAMELY, THAT LIKE ROB SPENCER HE IS A NEO CON, AND JIHADWATCH QUOTES DANIEL PIPES ENDORSEMENT AT THEIR WEBSITE. If you read in other threads, I have said that Pipes knowledge of Islamic history is way better than Spencer, and Spencer endorses him. I can bring plenty other sources, I suggest you re-read the post. The sources quoted include other Jews too, Bernard Lewis, Norman Stillman, and others. It kind of makes Spencer say, “look, the Jews don’t know their history”, much like he says “the muslims don’t know their history” . I know better.
In this case, Pipes is the best source to use, even though there are plenty of others. Let him debunk Pipes, his buddy whose endorsement he seems to cherish. He didn’t even try to honestly tackle the material that Danios wrote. He BLATANTLY DANCED AROUND THE ISSUE, and pretended that Danios was talking about intolerence. He wasn’t. Spencer didn’t address the simple point that he lied about, that Jews were better off under Christian rule than Muslim one. THAT was the point.
“Quick question, if Muslims were totally unfamiliar with anti-Semitism prior to the Nazis why did so many ally themselves with the Nazis? “
The Nazi’s made alliances with anyone they thought they could use to further their aims. But that wasn’t the point, allying yourself with a Nazi, doesn’t mean you have to have been an anti-semite.
If you’re referring to the Mufti of Jerusalem, his antismeitism was driven by Zionism at the time and his motivation was to stop Zionists entering Palestine. In war unlikely alliances are made out of despair. Hitler was killing Jews, yet Jews were allied with him, and Zionists allied with Nazi’s at the expense of their own.
The responsibility of the mainstream (Labor Zionist) Israeli leaders
during the Holocaust.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/leaders4.htm
51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis (Hardcover)
by Lenni Brenner
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569802351/102-3202813-0902510?v=glance&n=283155
“This book presents 51 historic documents to indict Zionism for repeated attempts to collaborate with Adolf Hitler.
“Wrong, they didn’t all agree on Christianity, it’s incorrect to act as if the founding fathers had their brains wired together.”
Again, not the point. It wasn’t about whether they agreed on Chrisitnaity or not. The founding fathers were deists, atheists, Christians. It was about wanting the constitution separating state and religion. Unike in Europe.
“Madison had a strong disdain for Christianity so quoting him on Christianity is like quoting Bobby Spencer about islam.”
I didn’t quote him on Christianity, but thank you for confirming the point. It was a disdain for Christinaity that led the founding fathers to AGREE to separate state from religion regardless of their own beliefs. The point was the Christianity as a ruling religion doesn’t allow progress. It caps science on superstitious grounds, and has other anti learning dogma. The Christian Right for the last 8 years tried to take the USA back to where Europe was 300 years ago. That is proof for you.
You are arguing just for the sake of arguing. You did not tackle the crux of the argument, namely that JEWS WERE BETTER UNDER ISLAM THAN CHRISTIANITY. What you do, is pick something totally unrelated and start a spin off topic.
Cassidy, could you answer a simple “yes” or “no” to:-
1. Do you agree with Spencer’s assertion that Jews were better off under Christian Rule?
2. Do you agree that the founding fathers of the USA wanted to separate state from religion in the constitution?
December 8th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Cassidy
” the claim that ‘the west got it’s knowho from islam’ is incorrect (apart from the fact that Greek science flourished before islam even existed) since it’s actually the other way around since the Islamic world greatly benefited from the translation of Greek texts ”
If you bother to read Islamic and Arab history books, we don’t deny that we TOOK the wisdom of the Greeks (and others) and EXPOUNDED upon it. Credit is given where it is due. We also made unique discoveries, that were directly related to our religion, in any case the accomplishments were far greater and more influential than anything that the Greeks discovered.
It’s not the other way round, because it was the Quran and Islam itself that was the motivation behind the Arabs taking the Greek science and EXPOUNDING upon it. Before the dawn of Islam, others could could have, but they didn’t. Specific discoveries/inventions were directly related to the Islamic religon. SEe the Muslim Heritage site below it’s a UK educational site, used worldwide, and it also has an art spin off.
“How Islam Created the Modern World,” written by award-winning author Mark
Graham.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Islam-Created-Modern-World/dp/1590080432/sr=8-1/qid=1157638890/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0126589-7657723?ie=UTF8&s=books
Product Description
Their accomplishments were staggering, including the development of modern medicine, chemistry, and algebra. Muslim scientists correctly calculated the circumference of the globe in the tenth century. Muslim musicians introduced the guitar and musical notation to the Europe. And Muslim philosophers invented the scientific method and paved the way for the Enlightenment. At the dawn of the Renaissance, Christian Europe
was wearing Persian clothes, singing Arab songs, reading Spanish Muslim
philosophy and eating off Mamluk Turkish brassware. This is the story of how Muslims taught Europe to live well and think clearly. It is the story of how Islam created the Modern World.
—————–
How Islamic inventors changed the world
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article350594.ece
Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and
identifies the men of genius behind them
Published: 11 March 2006
—————–
MuslimHeritage.com
http://www.muslimheritage.com/
Bringing life to Muslim Heritage
Discover 1000 years of missing history and explore the fascinating Muslim contribution to present day Science, Technology, Arts and Civilisation.
———-
1001 inventions
Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World
Learn about a lost age of Muslim innovation and invention!
Discover the Muslim origins of many Western discoveries!
Brought to you by the makers of http://www.MuslimHeritage.com, 1001 Inventions is a unique UK based educational project that reveals the rich heritage that the Muslim community share with other communities in the UK, Europe and across the World.
1001 Inventions consists of a UK and world wide travelling exhibition, a colourful easy to read book, a dedicated website and a themed collection of educational posters complementing a secondary school teachers’ pack and a curriculum enrichment programme.
Discover Muslim Heritage in our World in seven conveniently organised zones: home, school, market, hospital, town, world and universe.
————
Inventions of the Islamic Golden Age
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_of_the_Islamic_Golden_Age
————
R. Briffault: The Making of Humanity.
“The Miracle of Arabic science, using the word miracle as a symbol of our
inability to explain achievements which were almost incredible…
unparalleled in the history of the world.”
“There is not a single aspect of European growth in which the decisive
influence of Islamic civilization is not traceable”
“It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilisation
would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain that but for them,
it would not have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend
all previous phases of evolution.”
———
George Sarton
It was during the period of high Muslim apogee: 8th-13th centuries that most decisive scientific inventions were made, and the foundations of modern civilisation were laid, scientists and scientific discoveries in their thousands, artistic creativity, great architecture, huge libraries,
hospitals, universities, mapping of the world, the discovery of the sky and
its secrets, and much more.
————
The noted French historian, Gustave Ie Bon, writes of the Arab contribution
to Modern Europe:
Observation, experimentation and inductive logic which form the
fundamentals of modern knowledge are attributed to Roger Bacon but it needs
to be acknowledged that this process of reasoning was entirely an Arab
discovery.
———-
H. G. Wells says in his book Milestones in Human History:
“They advanced in medicine far beyond the Greeks, they studied science and
the functions of various parts of the body, and preventative medicine. Many
of the treatment methods that they used are still used by us until today.
They used anaesthetics for their operations and they used to perform some of the most difficult surgeries that are known. “
“Every religion that is not suited to civilization should be rejected. I
have not found any religion that is suited to civilization except Islam. “
———
Bertrand Russel in ‘History of Western Philosophy,’ London, 1948, p. 419.
“From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What
was lost to christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary…”
————–
Phillip Hitti in ‘Short History of the Arabs.’
“For centuries, Arabic was the language of learning, culture and intellectual progress for the whole of the civilized world with the exception of the Far East. From the IXth to the XIIth century there were more philosophical, medical, historical, religiuos, astronomical and geographical works written in Arabic than in any other human tongue.”
When Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C.,
in June 1957, his 500-word talk effused good will (”Civilization owes to theIslamic world some of its most important tools and achievements”)
————–
“and no Arab science cannot be credited to Islam, that would be as absurd as crediting Copernicus’ genius to Catholicism.”
There are plenty of websites on the internet where you can learn more about the links between science and Islam and why/how Islam/Quran was the basis for the Islamic golden age. It has to be said that Atheist and non Muslim scientists have converted to Islam after themselves realising there was a link. Follow the links below, which in turn have many more, and make up your own mind.
http://www.miraclesofthequran.com/index.php
http://www.scienceandquran.com/
The Bible, the Qur’an and Science
http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Quran-Science-Scriptures-translated/dp/0935782494
December 8th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I want to respond to just one from the long string of Cassidy’s misrepresentations and lies:
He wrote “many muslims fought for the Nazis, although six thousand Arabs did fight in the Palestine brigade that number’s dwarfed by the Handzar division alone”
During the period of 1941-1945 nationalist Serbian zealots (Chetniks) killed approximately 10% of Muslim Bosnians (about 100,000 people). Himmler capitalised on this to encourage the Muslims to fight against Serbian communists in the North who threatened the Germans. To be sure Muslim religious leaders from Bosnia forbade Muslims from Croat-Nazi collaboration, and Muslim Bosnians were not involved in killing Jews; as Stephen Schwartz wrote “In Bosnia, the infamous Bosnian Waffen SS units played no role in the removal of Jews on their territory, which was carried out by Germans and Croats”. So even in their so-called collaboration with the Nazis, Bosnian Muslims fought a just war against nationalist genocidal forces.
The general Muslim sentiment, like the Palestinian Arabs who faught against the Nazis, was opposition to Nazism (the mufti was an exception and generally not heeded). In fact the highest rate of Jewish survival in Europe was in Albania, and the lowest were in non-Muslim areas. For more on Muslim resistance to Nazism in both religious leadership and the army, see: http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/may_jun_09_shakir
“Perhaps the greatest testimony to the Muslims who actively opposed fascism is the work of the Paris Mosque in protecting Jewish children from the Nazis, who were sending French Jews-men, women, and children-to perish in the death camps of Eastern Europe. The mosque itself was built by the French government in appreciation of the 500,000 Muslims who had fought for France during World War I, with 100,000 losing their lives in the trenches. It is estimated that the mosque helped to save over 1,700 Jewish children, by providing them with shelter, transit, and Muslim names. A pamphlet that circulated among Algerian Muslims in Paris at the onset of the Nazis’ campaign against the Jews in France stated:
‘Yesterday at dawn, the Jews of Paris were arrested. The old, the women, and the children. In exile like ourselves, workers like ourselves. They are our brothers. Their children are like our own children. The one who encounters one of his children must give that child shelter and protection for as long as misfortune-or sorrow-lasts. Oh, man of my country, your heart is generous.’”
Senegalese, Algerian, Palestinian, Indian (now Pakistani), Turkish, Albanian, Moroccan Muslims all helped in the fight against Nazism and Nazi ideology.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Cassidy: “Bit of a stretch, not to mention during the 1930s anti-semitism exploded amongst muslims (ie attacks of Jews during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt)”
More like anti-Arabism/Islamophobia. As noted in a Wikipedia article “Initially, Jewish immigration to Palestine met little opposition from the Palestinian Arabs. However, as anti-Semitism grew in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish immigration (mostly from Europe) to Palestine began to increase markedly, creating much Arab resentment”. In fact Jewish immigration was initially supported by the Turkish government and some Palestinian Arabs. It was only after the steep rise that the Palestinians felt threatened (rightfully so - they don’t have a state now).
The uprising in the late thirtees was violently squashed by the British and Jewish paramilitary (Haganah) and Jewish terrorist groups (Irgun) - many more Arabs died in the revolt than Jews. At this time, Palestinian Arabs did not engage in terrorism, it didn’t even cross their minds to commit such heinous acts - Jewish groups did engage in terrorism, and a few decades later the Arabs followed in their footsteps. The hard truth is anti-semitism in the Muslim world was because of the political circumstances shaping the Middle East during the early twentieth century, whereas anti-semitism is indigenous to Christian Europe (I wouldn’t go as far as Rosemary Radford Ruether who says anti-semitism is the “right hand of Christology”, but certainly a church-synagogue divide very early on led to such ugly anti-semitism as that of John Chrysostom and others - which was necessary though not sufficient for the Nazi Holocaust as said by Richard Rubenstein).
December 8th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Cassidy: “take the Visigoths for example who had an advanced culture (influenced by the Romans) and a law system that gave women far more rights than islamic law and that’s just one example”
Do you have proof for this? Visigoth civilisation as far as I’m aware cannot be called “advanced” by any stretch of the imagination. As for the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, this was a response to Jewish request and Jews supported the Muslim invaders. During the seventh century the Visigothic oppression of Jews escalated and the only options Jews were given were: baptism or exile - see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-visigothic1.html
Ibn Hazm a prominent Spanish Muslim of the eleventh century explicitly mentions the justification of Muslims’ invasion of Spain was the oppression of the Jews.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Cassidy: “Second of all the claim that ‘the west got it’s knowho from islam’ is incorrect”
And you do not offer any evidence. You simply reiterate old assumptions that recent scholarship has falsified. The early period of Islamic science was characterised by “appropriation” (AI Sabra’s term) of earlier civilisations’ sciences (i.e. Muslims did not simply passively recieve it, they actively appropriated it). And the later period was characterised by a more mature science that was “naturalised” into the very fabric of Islamic civilsation. As George Saliba, a specialist in the history of Islamic astronomy, wrote “Whether it was in mechanics, with the works of Jazari (1205); or in logic, mathematics and astronomy, with the works of Athir al-Din al-Abhari (c. 1240), Mu’ayyad al-Din al-Urdi (d. 1266), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274), Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (d. 1311), Ibn al-Shatir (d. 1375), al-Qushji (d. 1474), and Shams al-Din al-Khafri (d. 1550); or in optics, with the works of Kamal al-Din al-Farisi (d. 1320); or in Pharmocology, with the works of Ibn al-Baitar (d. 1248); or in medicine, with the works of Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288), every one of those fields witnessed a genuine original and revolutionary production” (Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe, 21).
There is also clear evidence of a rise in interest in Arabic science during the renaissance and all the way till the 18th century. European “science” only really took off with Pope Sylvester’s interest in Islamic science. All the forbears of Western scholasticism, Abelard and Scott etc, were trained in Muslim Spain. Similarly Aquinas borrowed heavily from Avicenna, Ghazali and Averroes. Roger Bacon’s optics was borrowed almost completely from Alhazen. The movement it appears is clearly in the opposite direction (from the Muslim to the Western world). Copernicus certainly learned many of his mathematical and astronomical models from Muslim astronomers.
This was only hampered in the 16th century when European civilisation enriched itself by robbing the New World and destroying the Native population of the Americas. This economic prosperity gave them an edge which eventually led to colonialism and ambitions of conquering the known world - pretty much destroying Muslim civilisation.
Some historians you should read are: Dimitri Gutas, Donald Routledge Hill, George Saliba, AY al-Hassan, all mainstream historians of Islamic philosophy and science.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
“More like anti-Arabism/Islamophobia.”
So all the attacks on Jewish civilians by Muslims never happened?
“Do you have proof for this? Visigoth civilisation as far as I’m aware cannot be called “advanced” by any stretch of the imagination.”
Well let’s see Visigothic law gave women equality, Visigothic architecture still stands today, Visigothic art was highly advanced, given the facts it’s safe that the Visigoths definitely had an advanced culture.
“As for the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, this was a response to Jewish request and Jews supported the Muslim invaders. During the seventh century the Visigothic oppression of Jews escalated and the only options Jews were given were: baptism or exile - see: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-visigothic1.html”
Hahahahah! So you really believe that the brutal conquest of Spain took place because the Islamic invaders cared about the Jews? I really wish I could stop laughing.
“Ibn Hazm a prominent Spanish Muslim of the eleventh century explicitly mentions the justification of Muslims’ invasion of Spain was the oppression of the Jews.”
Not exactly a neutral source.
“And you do not offer any evidence.”
No evidence? Other than the blatant fact that Europe already had forms of science before islam came into existence?
“There is also clear evidence of a rise in interest in Arabic science during the renaissance and all the way till the 18th century.”
While it’s true that Renaissance men did read Arabic texts the Renaissance cannot be credited to islam since it would have happened anyway due to the sheer amount of texts preserved by monasteries and the Byzantine Empire, as I stated before Arabic science cannot be credited to islam.
“All the forbears of Western scholasticism, Abelard and Scott etc, were trained in Muslim Spain.”
Pure fiction, Abelard was taught by William of Champeaux.
“Roger Bacon’s optics was borrowed almost completely from Alhazen.”
You’re right but that cannot be credited to islam, it can however be credited to Alhazen’s genius. I don’t deny that there have been brilliant Muslims, however it’s a complete myth that Europe in the ‘dark ages’ was a barbaric hellhole.
“This was only hampered in the 16th century when European civilisation enriched itself by robbing the New World and destroying the Native population of the Americas.”
You like how the Muslim invaders robbed and destroyed Visigothic civilization?
December 8th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
“So even in their so-called collaboration with the Nazis, Bosnian Muslims fought a just war against nationalist genocidal forces.”
Apart from the fact that you’re sticking up for Nazis, the idea that the Handzar division never touched civilians couldn’t anymore removed from reality.
“The general Muslim sentiment, like the Palestinian Arabs who faught against the Nazis, was opposition to Nazism (the mufti was an exception and generally not heeded). ”
What an amusing fairy tale! In reality pro-nazi sentiment was widespread throughout the middle east, examples include the young Egypt movement, Sayid Qutb, Abdel Nasser, Hassan al-Banna , General Aziz al-Misri, the Nazis hand in the creation of the muslim brotherhood. The mufti is the most prominent example but it’s a complete lie to say that he was an exception (since he received a hero’s welcome in Egypt and Arab Palestine). Fun fact: It was estimated by a secret report during the war that 90% of Egyptian intellectuals and government employees supported the Axis powers over the West.
“Sympathy with the Axis powers were widespread among the common people of the Arab countries… these feelings permeated the majority of the population, while the leaders often cooperated directly with the Axis. Fascist and Nazi ideologies were not so much imitated as paralleled in the Arab world; they fitted into modes of thought already in being and were taken up by existing political clubs and associations.”
-Mayor Robert Wagner
How does it feel to be a nazi apologist? Do you hang out with David Irving very much?
December 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Look how Cassidy/Barry has managed to change the topic of conversation so dramatically. Almost admirable.
I hope one day we can return to the topic at hand…which is that the Jews of Islam in general fared better than the Jews of Europe.
Muzzamil: I stopped reading the comments because they were so unbelievably off topic, but thank you for replying to that stubborn fellow. You have more patience than I.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 8th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Cassidy,
Nobody, not even Danios said that Jews never suffered mistreatment, so i’m not sure why you keep coming back with “how about this incident and that”
Danios also said that he was referring to a particular period of history that excluded modern times, because the article above was confined to the medieval age. Didn’t he say he has yet to write about the World War Two period, so why are you harping on about Nazi’s?
It doesn’t appear that you’re here to learn, otherwise your questions would be factual and on topic. They are not. They seem like a devious attempt at subterfuge and diverting to related but off topic subjects.
Why do you post here Cassidy?
December 8th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
“Look how Cassidy/Barry has managed to change the topic of conversation so dramatically. Almost admirable.”
I didn’t change anything, I was replying to Nabeela and Muzzamili.
“I hope one day we can return to the topic at hand…which is that the Jews of Islam in general fared better than the Jews of Europe.”
I admit I was wrong about Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
“Muzzamil: I stopped reading the comments because they were so unbelievably off topic, but thank you for replying to that stubborn fellow. You have more patience than I.”
What a nice thing to say to a nazi apologist.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
“Nobody, not even Danios said that Jews never suffered mistreatment, so i’m not sure why you keep coming back with “how about this incident and that”
Simple, Danios’ central argument is that the Islamic world was the lesser of two evil therefore a 1960s synagogue burning (while horrible) is the lesser evil compared to the numerous terrorist attacks launched against Israel during the 1960s.
“Danios also said that he was referring to a particular period of history that excluded modern times because the article above was confined to the medieval age.”
Then why did he mention 20th century history in his reply to me?
“Didn’t he say he has yet to write about the World War Two period, so why are you harping on about Nazi’s?”
Because Danios’ key argument is that the Islamic world was the lesser of two evils and my point was while the Irish government’s policy toward Jewish refugees was horrible (although Eamon de Valera was an exception which is why Israel planted a forest in his honor) the greater of the two evils was the significant amount of pro-Nazi sympathy in muslim nations (the young Egypt movement for example). Second of all I also mentioned the nazis because of muzzamili’s disgusting attempt to white wash muslim collaboration with naizs, if he hadn’t made those comments I wouldn’t have brought it up.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
“I admit I was wrong about Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”
Thank you. I take back what I said about losing respect for you. Takes a big man to say what you just did and I respect you for that. Forgive me for my harsh tone with you.
“What a nice thing to say to a nazi apologist.”
Like I said, I didn’t read the comments, but I doubt he is a Nazi apologist. I’ve read his comments before and they seem very reasonable. Can you please quote exactly what he said that makes you levy this accusation? It seems that you keep doing this: as you also accused Ustadh of being a Hezbollah apologist (although I did not read any such thing from him/her)…I believe you also accused Dr. Norman Finkelstein of being an anti-Semite. (Care to give proof of this?) It seems as if you like to use this tactic against opponents, even though you recoil at the thought of being called an Islamophobe (which by the way I made sure not to do in this thread, since I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt).
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
“Then why did he mention 20th century history in his reply to me?”
Cassidy, this is a fair point and I’ll concede it, i.e. that I shouldn’t have brought up this point about the Holocaust. Let’s strike it from the record, and focus instead on the historical treatment of the Jews–not the modern period, which I have promised to discuss in a follow up article.
In my defense, I had written over 120 pages–and only in two lines did I mention the Holocaust…But you ignored all of that, and instead latched on to those two lines, trying to shift the debate to that topic since you knew you didn’t stand a chance on the real topic. However, to be fair, I opened myself up to that by mentioning it (albeit in passing) in my reply to you.
So I admit I was wrong to mention it…But let’s now get back on topic. I think we can all admit now that Jews were historically treated better in the Islamic world than in Christendom, and that’s what the entire debate was. I will definitely give you a chance to discuss the modern period when I complete my follow up article.
As for your entire claim about the Nazis and Muslims, it is an absurd argument and I will definitely be writing an article about it in the future, since Islamophobes tend to bring it up a lot.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 8th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
“Forgive me for my harsh tone with you.”
No problem.
” but I doubt he is a Nazi apologist. I’ve read his comments before and they seem very reasonable. Can you please quote exactly what he said that makes you levy this accusation? ”
He claims that the Handzar division fought a just war,he dismissed examples of muslim collaborating with nazis and claimed that Amin El Husseini was an exception and generally not heeded (which doesn’t explain why he recieved hero’s welcome in Palestine), so yeah I think it’s fair to call him a nazi apologist.
“It seems that you keep doing this: as you also accused Ustadh of being a Hezbollah apologist (although I did not read any such thing from him/her)”
I’ll see if I can find the link but she posted a rambling rant that spoke very highly of hezbollah.
“I believe you also accused Dr. Norman Finkelstein of being an anti-Semite. (Care to give proof of this?)”
Finkelstein openly supports Hezbollah, supports Iran and has praised David Irving, so yeah I think it’s perfectly fair to call him an anti-semite.
“It seems as if you like to use this tactic against opponents”
Only when they have made anti-Semitic comments; I don’t consider sane criticism of Israel to be anti-semitism.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Danios’s piece by piece dismantling of Spencer and his cohorts is a testament to the greatness of this website and why I keep coming back. I will continue to do whatever I can to support the fantastic work being done at LoonWatch.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Cassidy:
I did not approve your second comment about the Nazis and Muslims. The reason is that it is completely off topic, and I have already promised to write an article about it in the future. As I always do, I will box in my opponents so that they have absolutely no way to reply…except of course by changing the topic and talking about topics I haven’t replied to yet. So you will have to wait till then to talk about the Nazis and Muslims, although I’m sure when I publish that article you will switch to something else.
As for your accusations against Muzammil, Ustadh, and Norman Finkelstein…I don’t want your deceitful paraphrasing of what they supposedly said. I just want their quotes that you find offensive. None of your dishonest commentary is necessary. Just post their words to back up your claims. No elaboration should be needed.
Let’s examine your deceitful paraphrasing:
You said: “Finkelstein…has praised David Irving.” The reality? Here is what Dr. Finkelstein said about David Irving: “I don’t like the fellow. I think he is a Nazi.” (Q&A Session, October 20, 2005, http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?ar=99&pg=11)
As for your claim about Hezbollah, I have listened to Finkelstein speak on that topic. He is of the view that Hezbollah is a brutal organization, and he likened it to the Soviet resistance against Nazi occupation. In that particular context (of an Israeli occupation of Lebanon), he finds Hezbollah to be the lesser of two evils (i.e. brutal freedom fighters), just like Americans supported the Soviet resistance to Nazis. So again, a deceitful paraphrasing on your part. Here’s what Dr. Finkelstein said:
“I don’t think the Hizbullah question is particularly complicated. We have, with all due respect, we have oldsters in the room. And I think a lot of the oldsters, in particular if they’re of Jewish descent, they were 100% behind the Red Army’s victory over the Fascist occupation. And they were thrilled when the Red Army smashed the Nazi war machine. And I’m sure a lot of the oldsters in this room were thrilled at the communist and socialist resistances in many of the countries of Western Europe to the Nazi occupation. Now, Stalin’s record on human rights was NOT exactly what you would call stellar… And neither was the record of the Communist Parties… but we all recognize the right of any people to resist a foreign occupation of their land. And the Hezbollah resisted the brutal Israeli occupation of Lebanon and dealt them a swift blow and defeat. I, for one, am very glad about that… I think a foreign occupier should be thrown out of countries [they occupy]… And I personally would be the very worst hypocrite in the world were I to condemn the Hezbollah for its defeat of the Israeli occupation, whereas ’till this day I still celebrated the Red Army’s defeat of the Nazi occupation of Europe. I refuse to be a hypocrite. They had a right to expel the foreign occupiers, so does Hezbollah…” [Q&A & end of talk , (Santa Cruz, CA), http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=600
In any case, how would support for Hezbollah be a proof for antisemitism? Or do you simply throw out wild accusations?
As for the issue about Iran, can you give the exact quote along with the entire context, properly cited? Again: how does support for Iran entail antisemitism? So are all Iranians antisemitic to you, if they support their own country?
You truly are a dirty fighter…hurling accusations left and right, instead of debating the actual issue.
The actual issue–to bring you back to it–is that the Jews of Islam were treated better than the Jews of Christendom. We all agree on this: you’ve conceded it; now let’s move on. No need to throw feces around everywhere.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
“As for your accusations against Muzammil, Ustadh, and Norman Finkelstein…I don’t want your deceitful paraphrasing of what they supposedly said. I just want their quotes that you find offensive.”
So even in their so-called collaboration with the Nazis, Bosnian Muslims fought a just war against nationalist genocidal forces.”
-Muzammil on the Handzards
If you don’t see anything offensive about claiming that a Nazi unit fought a just war then congrats, you are a robot. And I couldn’t find Ustadh’s comments since she posted them months ago and I don’t the entry title.
“So again, a deceitful paraphrasing on your part.”
Just watch this video and prepare to be disgusted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDe65-nF3FQ
“I have no problem saying that I want to express solidarity with them and I’m not going to be a coward or hypocrite. I don’t care about Hezbollah as a political organization, I don’t know much about their politics”
In other words Finkelstein admitted that he supports anti-Semitic terrorists and that he barely even knows that much about their politics. Oh did I mention that he claims that Hitler would have liked to have achieved his aims peacefully?
“In any case, how would support for Hezbollah be a proof for antisemitism?”
So you don’t see anything anti-semitic about supporting a group that claims that claimed that Jews of deliberately spread H.I.V. and other diseases to Arabs throughout the Middle East? You don’t see anything anti-semitic about supporting a group that launched terrorist attacks against Jews?
“And where does he support Iran? Can you give the exact quote along with the entire context, properly cited? And again: how does support for Iran entail antisemitism? So are all Iranians antisemitic to you, if they support their own country?”
For starters I wasn’t offering his support for Iran as an example of anti-semitism it angers me to see somebody support a state that murders homosexuals in public. Here’s an example of his support:
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/fact-and-fiction-on-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/
“Iranian politicians are rational actors.”
Awfully nice words to describe scum who murder people just for being homosexuals wouldn’t you say?
December 9th, 2009 at 12:54 am
Cassidy:
I asked you specifically not to give your irksome commentary, but you couldn’t resist, because you knew that the quote alone does not do what you want it to do
You called Muzammil a “Nazi apologist.” Here is Muzammil’s quote:
“So even in their so-called collaboration with the Nazis, Bosnian Muslims fought a just war against nationalist genocidal forces.”
I don’t see his quote as proof that he is a “Nazi apologist”. In fact, I’ll bet that Muzammil dislikes Nazism a lot. Why don’t we just ask him, instead of jumping to conclusions? I think the only thing we’ve established is that you are a liar.
“In other words Finkelstein admitted that he supports anti-Semitic terrorists and that he barely even knows that much about their politics.”
So according to you, Finkelstein is an antisemite because he supports a group that you consider antisemitic. Again, a fantastic jump. In fact, Finkelstein has said that antisemitism is not right. (You also accused him of being a “Holocaust denier” even though he clearly says that Holocaust denial is “wicked”–a quote which is ironically in the link you yourself gave.)
Finkelstein is quite clear why he supported Hezbollah in the war against Israel; Israel occupied Lebanon, and the Lebanese people have the right to fight the occupier. As such, even though Hezbollah is “brutal”, Finkelstein supports their right to defend their country from occupation, just like the Red Army did against the Nazis. Of course, you magically reduce that all down to “Finkelstein is an antisemite because he supports anti-semites.” You might agree or disagree with his sentiment, but you cannot jump to the conclusion that he is antisemitic. But I don’t expect better from you.
“Oh did I mention that he claims that Hitler would have liked to have achieved his aims peacefully?”
I’ve listened to his speech when he said that. Do you lack the brain cells to understand why he said that? He was simply saying that if all of Europe simply surrendered to Hitler, he would have taken that option in a heart beat–instead of having to fight for it. And he brought this up only because he was saying that Israel would love to take of Palestine peacefully, but they will do it with war if that is not possible.
“For starters I wasn’t offering his support for Iran as an example of anti-semitism it angers me”
So again, just throwing things out in a schizophrenic way. How about staying on point ever?
“it angers me to see somebody support a state that murders homosexuals in public.”
Does it anger you when a person supports an apartheid state like Israel? Would you automatically assume that any person who supports Israel thinks apartheid is a good idea? Is that the fantastic conclusion you’d reach?
“Here’s an example of his support [of Iran]:
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/fact-and-fiction-on-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/ ”
I skimmed it right now and it seems like an excellent piece. What in it to you is unacceptable? Could it be the truth? In my scan of it, I didn’t see any support of Iran…Can you point that out to me in case I missed it? It simply seemed that he is a supporter of the truth.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Cassidy, this has dragged on long enough. Please go away. You brought up the point about Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. I refuted your point. You conceded you were wrong. That’s it. Discussion over.
Run along now.
Sincerely,
Danios.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Sorry, I stopped following the discussion after I posted my comments. Cassidy threw several accusations at me: “He claims that the Handzar division fought a just war,he dismissed examples of muslim collaborating with nazis and claimed that Amin El Husseini was an exception and generally not heeded (which doesn’t explain why he recieved hero’s welcome in Palestine), so yeah I think it’s fair to call him a nazi apologist.”
I’ll ignore the first as anyone can read my post above to see what I wrote. When I said Amin al-Husseini was generally not heeded, I was referring to the fact there were several Palestinian brigades and tens of thousands of Palestinians in the British Army who actively fought the spread of Nazism. The existence of these Palestinian brigades was more indicative of the mood of the Arab and Muslim masses than al-Husayni’s misguided actions. Therefore, when al-Husayni issued his call for a Muslim jihad against the allied forces his plea was largely ignored. The fascist jihad never materialized.
In fact Palestinian village ulama issued verdicts opposed to al-Husseini’s anti-semitism. Although al-Husseini was a propaganda tool for Nazi anti-semitism, he played no part in encouraging the extermination of Jews. This was alleged of the Mufti in the Eichmann trial, but all evidence pointed to the contrary: “actually there is no evidence that the Mufti’s presence was a factor at all; the Wisliceny hearsay is not merely uncorroborated, but conflicts with everything else that is known about the origins of the Final Solution” (Rafael Medoff). Al-Husseini was also pretty unsuccessful in recruiting Bosnian Muslims into the Waffen SS as the regional ulama issued fatwas against it. As Norman Finkelstein notes in The Holocaust Industry the mufti’s role was greatly exagerrated in order to justify later Zionist crimes. Peter Novick, who Finkelstein quotes, captures this well:
“The claims of Palestinian complicity in the murder of the European Jews were to some extent a defensive strategy, a preemptive response to the Palestinian complaint that if Israel was recompensed for the Holocaust, it was unjust that Palestinian Muslims should pick up the bill for the crimes of European Christians. The assertion that Palestinians were complicit in the Holocaust was mostly based on the case of the Mufti of Jerusalem, a pre-World War II Palestinian nationalist leader who, to escape imprisonment by the British, sought refuge during the war in Germany. The Mufti was in many ways a disreputable character, but post-war claims that he played any significant part in the Holocaust have never been sustained. This did not prevent the editors of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Holocaust from giving him a starring role. The article on the Mufti is more than twice as long as the articles on Goebbels and Goering, longer than the articles on Himmler and Heydrich combined, longer than the article on Eichmann–of all the biographical articles, it is exceeded in length, but only slightly, by the entry for Hitler”
Al-Husseini’s nationalism was clear when the Arab League distanced themselves from him and he attempted to increase Palestinian presence in the Arab League leadership. Al-Husseini’s influence however was more prominently felt in the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt. It is known Sayyid Qutb (who spawned a revolutionary Islamist ideology) was influenced by Nazi literature - he for example read Alexis Carrel; and there remains a lot of anti-semitic sentiment and rhetoric in Egypt till today. However there has been a lot of moderating influences in the Brotherhood since then and they were never monolithic. Most of their leaders originally were not ulama (like al-Banna and even the intellectual Qutb), but eventually ulama joined their ranks like Sayyid Sabiq (d. 2000) who was an important Muslim scholar and opposed extremist elements in the Brotherhood (particularly in its involvement in Sadat’s assassination).
To prove his case that most Arabs were sympathetic to Nazism, Cassidy quotes a politician (Mayer Wagner) not historians - but as Peter Novick notes this was a political tactic and not real history. The real attitude of most Muslims from India to Morocco was opposition to Nazism, see: http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/may_jun_09_shakir . To say Muslims generally collaborated with Nazis would be as slanderous as saying Jews generally collaborated with Nazis (since Judenrate and Kapos collaborated with Nazis).
December 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Cassidy
” the claim that ‘the west got it’s knowho from islam’ is incorrect (apart from the fact that Greek science flourished before islam even existed) since it’s actually the other way around since the Islamic world greatly benefited from the translation of Greek texts ”
Sorry not so, and i challenge you to bring a SCHOLARLY refernece for that.
It’s not the other way round, because it was the Quran and Islam itself that was the motivation behind the Arabs taking the Greek science and EXPOUNDING upon it. Before the dawn of Islam, others could could have, but they didn’t. Specific discoveries/inventions were directly related to the Islamic religon. SEe the Muslim Heritage site below it’s a UK educational site, used worldwide, and it also has an art spin off.
“How Islam Created the Modern World,” written by award-winning author Mark
Graham.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Islam-Created-Modern-World/dp/1590080432/sr=8-1/qid=1157638890/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0126589-7657723?ie=UTF8&s=books
—————–
How Islamic inventors changed the world
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article350594.ece
Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and
identifies the men of genius behind them
Published: 11 March 2006
—————–
MuslimHeritage.com
http://www.muslimheritage.com/
Bringing life to Muslim Heritage
Discover 1000 years of missing history and explore the fascinating Muslim contribution to present day Science, Technology, Arts and Civilisation.
———-
R. Briffault: The Making of Humanity.
“The Miracle of Arabic science, using the word miracle as a symbol of our
inability to explain achievements which were almost incredible…
unparalleled in the history of the world.”
“There is not a single aspect of European growth in which the decisive
influence of Islamic civilization is not traceable”
“It is highly probable that but for the Arabs modern European civilisation
would never have arisen at all; it is absolutely certain that but for them,
it would not have assumed that character which has enabled it to transcend
all previous phases of evolution.”
———
George Sarton
It was during the period of high Muslim apogee: 8th-13th centuries that most decisive scientific inventions were made, and the foundations of modern civilisation were laid, scientists and scientific discoveries in their thousands, artistic creativity, great architecture, huge libraries, hospitals, universities, mapping of the world, the discovery of the sky and its secrets, and much more.
————
H. G. Wells says in his book Milestones in Human History:
“They advanced in medicine far beyond the Greeks, they studied science and the functions of various parts of the body, and preventative medicine. Many
of the treatment methods that they used are still used by us until today.They used anaesthetics for their operations and they used to perform some of the most difficult surgeries that are known. “
“Every religion that is not suited to civilization should be rejected. I have not found any religion that is suited to civilization except Islam. “
———
When Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C.,
in June 1957, his 500-word talk effused good will (”Civilization owes to theIslamic world some of its most important tools and achievements”)
December 9th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@Nabeela and Muzzamil
As Danios pointed this gone on long enough however if you could post your email addresses (or email them to me at Wilburwhately48@gmail.com) I’d be glad to reply to you each privately.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Thank you, Cassidy.
Sincerely,
Danios.
January 8th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
peace Danios
what do you think of this article
http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2010/01/flynns-pile-of-boners.html
March 8th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
BRAVO Danios!!
Fantastic rebuttal. I hope the fact that I’m Jewish and practicing lends more “oomph” to your rebuttal. Honestly, this Spencer dude is just vile. I studied history and it is universally known that Islam treated my people far better than Christianity.
I also have to apologise the way the Israeli government is demonizing Islam.