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Summary: Refreshing truth about insurgent Islam
Review: A welcome analysis of Islamic persecution of Christians and Jews. Ye'or provides a comprehensive study of Islamic treatment of minorities and conquered peoples in Muslim countries over the centuries. Using the writings and statements of Muslims themselves, Ye'or demonstrates that the primary goal of Islam is the forced conversion of all non-Muslim peoples and the conquest of non-Muslim land, just as Islam has conquered, subjugated, and oppressed Christian, Jewish, and pagan populations throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia over the last thousand years. Unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam at heart is a violent, dark, intolerant belief system, and its crimes over the centuries surpass anything committed by Christians. Alarmingly, Islam is growing in the West through disastrous immigration policies. As Ye'or writes: "Remembering that Muslims always began as a minority in the conquered countries...before becoming a majority, the ideologues of [Islam] regard Islamic settlement in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere as a chance for Islam." For this reason this book should be required reading for government officials, academics, activists, Christians and Jews, and all citizens concerned for their childrens' future. It is also highly relevant today, given NATO's policies in the contested Balkans where Christian are again under threat from insurgent, intolerant, violent Islam.
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Summary: Islam Unveiled
Review: Bat Ye'or has done the world an immeasurable service with this very scholary and sobering book on Islam and its Jihad and Dhimmitude against non-Muslims. We in the West, after having endured centuries of wars of religion, have come at last to accept the idea of tolerance of other religions. Islam, however, has an opposite credo: all non-Muslims live in "dar al-harb", the world of war; and Muslims mean this literally. The reader of this work must gird his loins as he learns of the persistent genocide throughout history of non-Muslims, which evil deeds go on even to this day (eg, against the Lebanese Christians). Of course, the same goes for Jews as well as all other non-Muslim religions. We learn from history here unveiled for Western eyes for the first time that, excepting only the Arabian Peninsula itself, the rest of the Middle East was originally (ie pre-Muhammed) non-Arab and pre-dominantly Christian, with large minorities of Jews as well as Zoroastrians, et al. These non-Muslim populations were brutally murdered (often with the women and children sold as slaves) and then the lands re-populated with Arab Muslims! This includes Palestine itself. The idea, then, that Palestinians have a "right" to this land, as they claim, is ipso facto absurd. It was originally Christian and Jewish land, then systematically and violently "de-populated" through Jihads, and then re-populatedwith Arab Muslims; and this occurred in the entire Middle East! That we are only now finding out about this sordid and tragic and unforgiveable history of unrelenting racial and religiious genocide is highly disturbing. And lest we think that this has stopped, read about the Muslims exterminating the Christian Armenians, millions of them, before and during WWI. (Ye'or includes many illustrations from contemporary sources, including a mass grave of Armenians, taken in 1915. And it is this same extermination policy Muslims wish to effect today with Israel as well as now with the obdurate Christian Western nations like the US and Britain (with whatever weapons of mass destruction they can they can get their hands on). If the reader has a strong stomach for history that is backed up with scholarship of the most thorough kind, then I recommend this book unreservedly.
On a personal note, I now understand why Muslims in the West (and of course the East) have been at such pains NOT to have their history be known to us, and not to let us know above all that they, as Muslims, are and must be (as their religious duty, as cited in the Koran) at eternal war with all non-Muslims. We have been told that it is only the "fanatics" who believe such things. Alas, their histsory of 14 CONSECUTIVE centuries belies this--as does the daily rhetoric of hate that pours out of the mouths of Islamic leaders and clerics all around the world. No, the sad but demonstrably true facts are otherwise. Islam, since its inception 14 centuries ago, has proved itself to be the single greatest factor of unrest in the world through perpetual genocidal wars with all other peoples, thus giving the lie to their oft-stated claims that they are a religion of peace, compassion, etc. I defy anyone who has read this work (or her other books) to conclude otherwise than what I have written here. Neither the West in general, nor the US and GB in particular, are the sources of unrest in the world today; this "honor" belongs solely to Islam. It is a religion of hate and perpetual war against all non-Muslims--period. Such is the sad conclusion one must draw from Bat Ye'or's outstanding, and very disturbing scholary work(s). In my opinion, the world must assume a hostile stance towards Islam until and unless Islam, through religious reformation enacted into law, and begun by stopping persecution against all non-Muslims around the world, assumes a stance that not only tolerates non-Muslims, but embraces and learns from them as well. Until that (unlikely) day, this religion, the source of untold suffering throughout history, and of continuous religious and ethnic genocide, will only perpetuate its historical ways in the future (as has occurred recently in East Timor, Nigeria, et al).
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Summary: Great book for zionism!
Review: Bat Ye'Or is a conservative British Jewess who lives in France, and her name is beautiful (For those who speak Hebrew.) In this book she surveys the many sufferings we Jews have endured from the Moslims. Terrifying. The book shows that Moslims cannot be trusted and relied on, and should not be entrusted government over non-Jews. This book can be powerfully used as an argument against a Palestinian state in Israel or against Palestinian / Arab rule over the Holy City. If only the gentiles were less anti-Semitic, they would listen to such books and support Israel.
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Summary: A deeply unbalanced view of Islam
Review: Bat Yeor's book is thoroughly researched, but displays such a deep dislike of Islam from the very first chapter that the neutral reader soon ceases to take what she says seriously.The book seems to be more a reflection of Bat Yeor's own rabid Islamaphobia than the objective study of Islam's treatment of its minorities that it purports to be. In the course of the history of the last thousand years Muslims have often behaved appallingly to non-Muslims, particularly during such episodes as the Turkish massacres of the Armenians. Nonetheless, Islam's record of tolerance is on balance far, far, far better than that of Christianity: think for example of the treatment of Christians and Jews during the period of Islamic Spain and compare the treatment that the Jews and Muslims then suffered when the Christians reconquered Spain under the Catholic Kings: they were either expelled, tortured or exterminated. There is not the remotest feeling of balance in this book, which is a great shame for Bat Yeor clearly has done a great deal of important primary research. Instead all she has done is collate every example of the mistreatment of Christians and Jews that she can find while all examples of Islamic tolerance and syncretism are simply ignored and ommitted. If the author were to include even one example of Islamic tolerance it might give the book some credibility. But in the end this book reads not like a scholarly study but a vendetta.
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Summary: Non Muslims....wake up !!! ....Is it not obvious?
Review: Bravo! As a non-Muslim living among Muslims I'll say the author has done a fantastic job. I am indebted to people like her, Daniel Pipes, Paul Fregosi for daring to go against the current of political correctness....not to mention risking one's life for painting a negative picture of this certain religion which ironically means "Peace". When was the last time you heard Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Bahai "martyrs" hijacking planes and blowing themselves up in embassies, buses, ships and discos? When was the last time you heard Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, Buddhist monks etc issuing a fatwa calling for death against unbelievers, apostates, adulteress and blasphemers? If terrorist attacks are committed by a an extremist minority within Islam, then what have the Christian, Jewish extremists been doing? If it is true that it was "Islam which was hijacked" on 9/11, then why aren't the Muslim clerics issuing fatwas calling for the death of Osama bin Laden and his allies who planned the hijack ....not to mention the tens of thousands who danced on the streets in Muslims countries after Islam was hijacked? Muslim armies conquered and promote Islam throughout Arabia, then to the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Anatolia and India ...and then to Spain.... and then to the Balkans. How else would have "tolerant" Islam spread if not by the sword?!! Thanks to the author, this book shed light into how Christian and Jews lived as dhimmis under Islamic rule. Although this is a "history" book, one must not forget that oppresion on a similar scale as that of dhimmis or Non-Muslims still occur today in Sudan and Iran. Even today, not even in the most moderate of Muslim countries such as Turkey and Malaysia are non-Muslism in practice treated equally.
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Summary: Exposes Islamic history using Muslims' own historical texts
Review: Despite the number of people posting here saying this book is biased, no one has come forward to refute its conclusions. Why? Because they can't. Bat Ye'or uses eye-witness accounts and Muslims' own historical writings to tell the sad story of Christians and Jews who were made accomplices in their own cultural and actual destruction by the cruel laws of Islamic sharia. This is a very important book that tells the story of a forgotten people. In the 19th century especially, their sufferings were ignored and abetted by Islam-intoxicated Westerners refusing to face up to the aims of a relentless political ideology (NOT a religion) bent on world subjugation and domination. Sadly, such Westerners still exist and still seek to ignore and disguise the sufferings of millions of people persecuted by Islamic law and tradition: the Coptic Christians; Iranian Ba'hais; Indonesian Buddhists and Christians and Southern Sudanese animists/Christians. John Esposito and Karen Armstrong should shrink with shame at the very name of the great Bat Ye'or, an Egyptian scholar who, unlike those two famous Islamic apologists, must publish under an assumed name to avoid the consequences of telling the truth about the dark side of Islam.
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Summary: LAND OF ISLAM, A 'VALLEY FULL OF DITCHES' 2 KINGS 3:16
Review: Elisha prophesied to the King of Judah, Jehoshaphat, that he would not see wind nor rain, yet G-d would miraculously fill that dry, famished, war-ridden land with water giving sustenance and victory to Judah over the invading Moabites/Edomites. G-d deceived the Moabites because when they looked into the ditches, they did not see water but blood, and thought their victory was ensured, or so they thought. The reality within Dar al-Islam, however, for peoples of other faiths, most resembles ditches full of their bodies and shed blood which can be found in two photographs in this book of Armenians killed in 1915. Of course, massacres didn't happen all of the time, yet look today at the Sudan or Israel where conflicts of some sort, these days, happen fairly frequently.
Bashir Gemayel was the president-elect of Lebanon who was assasinated on September 14, 1982. By faith, a Maronite Christian, he was the originator of the concept and word dhimmitude to describe the complexities of the dhimmis' (the peoples, non-muslim) world within Islamic lands. His aim, once in office, was to rid Lebanon of PLO guerrillas, especially at the border of Israel. He's only briefly mentioned in Bat Ye'Or's Introduction and notes whose work for 30 years has been on this subject; so, I supply you with that bit of trivia.
This book has had my name on it for some time, yet I set it aside because I knew it would require time and concentration to faithfully digest the contents. I purchased my copy from Bat Ye'Or herself when she was in Boston speaking at a small gathering of people where I was the only christian. Of the books for sale, this book was recommended to me. This book is ancient history like I never learned it, yet the contents are applicable to today's situation also. I have to admit I had biases of my own before I read this book which were only confirmed and elaborated on in this book. This book, I would think, should be read by seminary students because it sheds light on the state of christianity before and during the advent of Islam. It seems that the christian world prior to 600 A.D. was riddled with factions, disputes, corruption, possibly, (I think), after the Roman emperor Constantine declared christianity the official religion of Rome in 332 A.D.. At the time of Muhammad in 622 A.D., there seemed to be two predominate factions within christianity, Nestorian (Persia) and Monophysite (elsewhere). Muhammad took advantage of dissatisfied and oppressed christianized arab marauders and nomads in the first Islamic wave of conquests and enlisted them in his ranks to overturn an oppressive yoke of christian administrators/tax collectors. So, it seems to me, that Islam was a reactionary movement against injustices suffered under Christian rule, yet, not all christians were as corrupt as their own overseers, and yet, christians and everyone else became victims of a new, unjust, and oppressive regime. Proverbially, out of the frying pan, into the fire. Yet, it is not wise to generalize, and Bat Ye'Or, to her credit, never does. That's an amazing feat given the amount of information from so many centuries, so many cultures, so many different situations. This book is not a speed read, but it is very thorough, very comprehensive. It is thought provoking, and I think muslims would not be offended by her fair-minded analyses. When I first tried to read this book, I only made it to the third chapter. Second time around, I read the last half, first, which contains documents and letters from non-muslim and muslim persons describing life of the dhimmis in the dar al-Islam, land of Islam. Reading it this way made the bulk of the book, in the first half, easier to comprehend. This book was highly recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to others. I also suggest reading from the biblical book of Daniel, Chapter 2(Nebuchadnezzar's dream, his statue), and Chapter 8 (Daniel's vision). The split of the Roman empire is depicted in the legs of the statue, (I think). Daniel's vision is interpreted as a conflict between Persia and Greece (Asia vs. Europe) which had been ongoing centuries before Daniel was born and continued for many centuries after Christ's birth. More homework I give you!
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Summary: Those who fail to learn the lessons fo the past...
Review: For all who enjoy the writing of Bat Ye'or, I will say that "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" is only a prelude to his new book (I've read a galley copy), "Eurabia", an examination of the European-Arabic anti-American/Jewish alliance. If "The Decline" presents a horrifying picture of the past, "Eurabia" projects a similar future for any non-Muslims unlucky enought to live within a Muslim society.
If I hear another politician say, "Muslims are just like Methodists" (Bush) I am going berserk. Islam is NOT like any other modern religion in numerous respects. Nor, as the author points out, has it changed its fundamental beliefs and world view in the past 1300 years. It has, from its inception, spread through quite worldly methods - conquest, forced conversion and mass murder. Dhimmitude, that secondary status of all "infidels" within an Islamic society, has been and remains an integral part of the society. Byzantium was once a thriving culture, the original home of Christianity, the pathway between East and West. Yet, over hundreds of years those Christian areas - Turkey, Syria, Southern Europe, Southern Russia - became Muslim through sheer force. One should remember that this was state/church policy, not the decision of isolated kingpins. Muslims believe that subjugation, slavery and unequal treatment are not only allowable but moral if it furthers the faith. Thus, the question is viewed differently from the start.
The writing is detailed, documented, researched. For the most part, the evidence comes from Muslim sources. If Islam has not exactly been open about its society (and it is strangely authoritarian in so many ways) it has not exactly covered up its past. No, it has celebrated the lack of diversity found in almost every Muslim country.
Lastly, the idea of Islamic tolerance. History has shown that the idea of "moderate" Islam is a chimera. The only way a Muslim state achieves tolerance is by ignoring Islam's teachings. Iran under the shah was a prime example: Religious pluralism was practiced, veils were not worn, alcohol was served, night clubs were frequent, art was popular. When religious zealots took control, the country descended into the abyss of ninth century madness. This book serves as a brilliant counterpoint to the argument that all cultures are morally equivalent - they aren't and never will be. It also serves as warning to the West.
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Summary: An accurate account
Review: I have read many books and various documents covering history and this book is historically accurate. It is also historically correct to state that Christianity has had its Reformation but Islam has not. I wonder if Islam is capable of a Reformation and if it is not then Islam is necessarily flawed as a humane, and therefore legitimate, interpretation of God's will.
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Summary: Dhimmitude and the Progressively Christianrein Middle East
Review: In a meticulously documented work of stunning breadth, Bat Ye'or describes the impact of thirteen centuries of dhimmitude on Eastern Christianity. Dhimmitude, as opposed to flimsy notions of "tolerance" and "protection" was (and is) the actual sociopolitical status of Christians (and Jews) conquered by jihad wars across three continents- Asia, Africa, and Europe. Unfortunately, the so-called "tolerance" and "protection" was (and is) afforded only upon submission to Islamic domination by a "Pact" - or Dhimma - which imposed degrading and discriminatory regulations. The main principles of dhimmitude are : (i) the inequality of rights in all domains between Muslims and dhimmis; (ii) the social and economic discrimination against the dhimmis; (iii) the humiliation and vulnerability of the dhimmis. In The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, Bat Ye'or has provided numerous documents from Islamic sources and from the vanquished peoples, establishing a classification scheme so that the origins, development and aims of these regulations can be recognized, including, sadly, during their recent revival (for example, in Iran, Egypt, the Sudan, Pakistan, and of course in Saudi Arabia, and under the Taliban in Afghanistan). With precision and copious supporting evidence, Bat Ye'or soberly debunks the dangerously misleading apologetics promulgated by John Esposito and his ilk, characterized by their: 1) historical negationism, consisting of suppressing or sketching in a page or a paragraph, one thousand years of jihad which is presented as a peaceful conquest, generally "welcomed" by the vanquished populations 2) the omission of Christian and, in particular, Muslim sources describing the actual methods of these conquests, sanctioned by the classical jihad ideology written by numerous Muslim jurists since the 7th century: pillage, enslavement, deportation, massacres, and so on 3) the mythical historical conversion of "centuries" of "peaceful coexistence", masking the processes which transformed majorities (i.e., vast Christian populations, in particular) into minorities, constantly at risk of extinction 4) an obligatory self-incrimination for the Crusades, the Inquisition, imperialism, colonialism, Israel, and other intrusions into the dar al-Islam 5) obsequious criticism of the rational tools of historical knowledge, created by earlier European Orientalists and historians The recent resurgence of classical jihad-war ideology has had ugly consequences for Christians in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, this genocidal ideology has been responsible, in large measure, for such atrocities as the massacre and enslavement of thousands of Sudanese Christians, in addition to repeated pogroms targeting Coptic Christians in Egypt. Bat Ye'or's work is a clarion call for the entire Western Christian hierarchy to acknowledge candidly the plight of Middle Eastern Christian minorities, while lobbying aggressively for protection of their basic human rights. She argues convincingly that continued silence will allow the Islamic Middle East, already Judenrein, to become Christianrein as well. Following the cataclysmic events of September 11, 2001 there has been a tendency to recall nebulous "Golden Ages" of idyllic multireligious societies, invented so effectively that today one feels defenseless and disoriented, when brought face-to-face with the conflicts from another age, deliberately erased from history. Bat Ye'or's seminal, courageous scholarship compels us to forego this whitewashing and opt instead for a shared, candid reflection on the past to unite us in a joint effort for peace and mutual respect. The history of dhimmitude, so long repressed by our collective cowardice, is unfolding around us, before our very eyes. It is claiming victims in Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, the Sudan, Nigeria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and elsewhere. It even forms part of our daily lives, now governed by anti-terrorist measures in the United States and Europe, and it wreaks havoc among the Muslim elites, responsible for having concealed it. Banished from memory, the forbidden history of dhimmitude is casting its dark shadow over the world's future. Dhimmitude must be discussed in academia, the media, and elsewhere, without apologetics. This frank discussion will allow Muslim intellectuals to rethink their whole relationship with the People of the Bible - and non-Muslims in general, without renouncing their faith, and uniting all peoples in the fight against tyrannical oppression and dehumanization. Absent such genuine interfaith dialogue, I fear the 21st century will become a bloodbath.
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