The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Issue 74

Issue 74 [@1:16:39]: Serge Trifkovic – “It is not possible for a non-Muslim living in a Muslim society to invoke his civil rights, human rights, that would be independent or separate from the Shariah concept. He is expected to submit to Shariah willingly. And, if he accepts his dhimmitude, the position of a dhimmi, he will be a protected person. A protected person is someone who is in fact a willing sub-ordinate to the Muslim overlords.”

Rebuttal 74: This a purely bogus allegation by Trifkovic which he essentially draws from the book “Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide” by Bat Ye’or. The book is rebutted in a book review – American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21 #3 (Summer), p. 149 by Imad A. Ahmad, Ph.D [pdf]. While refuting dhimmitude altogether, the reviewer in last paragraph writes:

At least the author documents her sources. Thus, anyone seeking to use her allegations as a starting point for a serious study of this subject may go to original sources to determine what actually happened and explore with sound research and a more scholarly attitude whether the persecution was inspired by or in violation of Islamic principles and the spirit of minority protection. Beyond that, this book has little to offer serious scholars of Islam or of world civilizations. It has much to offer propagandists who seek rhetorical ammunition to increase rather than decrease the hatred and strife in the world.

The current statement by Trifkovic and similar allegations by Spencer and others before beget a fundamental question as to whether Quran allows of what they allege? Not too surprisingly the best human document ever drafted and globally accepted is The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by United Nations that is factually a subset of Shariah in Quran as explained in Issue 71 before. If there is an implementation of dhimmi the way this documentary alleges, then assuredly there is no such dhimmi in Quran. Even if Spencer and his likes scrap the bottom of Muslim history to support their wild theories of Islamophobia, those fragments of history need to be judged by the standard outlined by Dr. Ahmad above – whether the persecution was inspired by or in violation of Islamic principles and the spirit of minority protection? If by any fair read, those scraps of evidences are proven true, then they would be in contravention of Quranic edicts of human rights and what Prophet Muhammad stood for and will need foremost criticism by Muslims themselves first.

Before we go on to rebut Trifkovic, we pose a simple statement to him in his own words – “Is it possible for any citizen living in a Western society to invoke his civil rights, human rights, that would be independent or separate from the Constitutional concept? Is he not expected to submit to Constitution willingly? And, if he accepts his citizenship, the position of a citizen, will he not be a protected person? Isn’t such a protected person someone who is in fact a willing sub-ordinate to the Government?” His own answer will rebut his own statement in the Issue above.

The statement above by Trifkovic is broken down into following sub-issues:

Issue 74a: Trifkovic alleges – “It is not possible for a non-Muslim living in a Muslim society to invoke his civil rights, human rights, that would be independent or separate from the Shariah concept…”

Rebuttal 74a: Historically, the term dhimmi aka ‘responsibility’ was used for the religious minority subjects of Muslim states who were under extra protection for their rights. Like any other citizen, they were obligated to pay taxes, which in turn relieved them of the mandatory military service. The rights of dhimmis were no less than the majority Muslims. Rather, it should be emphasized that Muslims had no extra or superior rights as a citizen than a dhimmi. This equality is stated in black and white in the following governmental reforms and decrees of the Ottomans. It is obvious that the implicit dhimmi in history was equal and at par with Muslims and that such a dhimmi could invoke extra accommodation from the government just by being a dhimmi for his language, religion, traditions etc.

Hatt-i Sharif of 1839:

The Hatt-i Sharif of the Gülhane (Imperial Edict of the Rose House) or Tanzimât Fermânı (Imperial Edict of Reorganization) was an 1839 proclamation by Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I that launched the Tanzimât period of reforms and reorganization.

The proclamation was issued at the behest of reformist Grand Vizier Mustafa Reshid Pasha. It promised reforms such as the abolition of tax farming, reform of conscription, and guarantee of rights to all Ottoman citizens regardless of religion or ethnic group.

Some of the most important clauses are as follows:

* In the future, the case of every accused party will be tried publicly, in conformity with our divine law. Until a regular sentence has been pronounced, no one can put another to death, secretly or publicly, by poison or any other form of punishment.
* No one will be permitted to assail the honour of any one, whosoever he may be.
* Every person will enjoy the possession of his property of every nature, and dispose of it with the most perfect liberty, without any one being able to impede him. Thus, for example, the innocent heirs of a criminal will not be deprived of their legal rights, and the property of the criminal will not be confiscated.
* These imperial concessions extend to all our subjects, whatever religion or sect they may belong to; and they will enjoy them without any exception.
* Perfect security is, therefore, granted by us to the inhabitants of the empire, with regard to their life, their honor, and their fortune, as the sacred text of our law [– Shariah] demands.
* With reference to the other points, as they must be regulated the concurrence of enlightened opinions, our Council of Justice (augmented by as many new members as may deemed necessary), to whom will be adjoined, on certain days which we shall appoint our Ministers and the notables of the empire, will meet for the purpose of establishing the fundamental laws on those points relating to the security of life and property, and the imposition of the taxes. Every one in these assemblies will state his ideas freely, and “give his advice freely.”
* The laws relating to the regulations of the military service will be discussed by the Military Council, holding its meetings at the Place of the Seraskier. As soon as a law is decided upon, it will be presented to us, and in order that it may be eternally valid and applicable will confirm it by our sanction, written above it with our imperial hand.
* As these present institutions are solely intended for the regeneration of religion, government, the nation, and the Empire, we to do nothing which may be opposed to them. [Wikipedia]

Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856:

Islâhat Fermânı (Islâhat Hatt-ı Hümâyûnu) (The Imperial Islâhat Firmân, The Imperial Reform Edict, or The Rescript of Reform) was a February 18, 1856 edict of the Ottoman government and part of the Tanzimat reforms. The decree from Sultan Abdülmecid I promised equality in education, government appointments, and administration of justice to all regardless of creed.

Some rules were cheered by the Non-Muslims:

* Non-Muslims could become civil servants,
* The possibility to transfer their inheritance cases to Patriarchates,
* The publishing of murder and commerce laws in the languages of the minorities,
* The establishment of higher court (judiciary) and the representation of all congregations with two representatives from each.
* The extending of powers of Patriarchates in administering justice,
* The extending of the right to property to foreigners.

Some rules were not cheered by the Non-Muslims:

* The obligation to do one’s military service
* The reexamination of religious privileges to make them equal (some millets lost privileges relative to others)
* The abolition of arbitrary fees exacted by priests all along from their congregations
* The establishment of salaries (fixed income) to spiritual leaders (priest, patriarch etc.)
* The obligation of spiritual leaders to take the oath of devotion

Issue 74b: Trifkovic – “…He is expected to submit to Shariah willingly. And, if he accepts his dhimmitude, the position of a dhimmi, he will be a protected person. A protected person is someone who is in fact a willing sub-ordinate to the Muslim overlords.”

Rebuttal 74b: A non-Muslim like any other citizen is expected to submit to the laws of the land. There is no dhimmitude or any shade thereof in any interpretation of Quran, which is the source of Shariah.

Trifkovic has repeatedly used the words ‘warlord’ (Issue 20) and ‘overlords’ in his smears, which only expose his racist and xenophobic mind. He will never use these words for his peers, the Serbian genocidal criminals and convicts of Hague that he served. Trifkovic is no student of history, but a racist in the garb of a pseudo-intellectual who just by throwing ink on paper considers himself to be an author. So did Hitler, when he published Mein Kampf in1925, writing: “Today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” Neither was Hitler an intellectual then, nor is Trifkovic now, when they act, write and speak against Jews and Muslims receptively.

Before we accept the term dhimmitude for discussion, we have to ask if it is even a valid term, which it is not but a mere propaganda. The following is an excerpt from FactCheck.org about the said term:

As for “dhimmitude,” it’s a politically charged academic concept, not a tenet of Muslim faith. The term was coined by scholar Bat Ye’or to describe the condition of the “dhimmis,” protected non-Muslims living in Muslim empires starting in the 7th century. Dhimmi populations, Ye’or says, were allowed by their lands’ Muslim conquerors to keep property and practice their faith, as long as they paid a poll tax. It is Ye’or’s assertion that the condition of dhimmitude still persists in countries under shari’a law, and that, furthermore, it is spreading worldwide. In particular, she says, Europeans are accepting a state of dhimmitude and moving toward becoming “Eurabia.” This position is controversial, and Ye’or is not secretive about her political commitments. For instance, she is a vocal supporter of Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who was once banned from the United Kingdom because of his inflammatory anti-Islam views. For the e-mail to present “dhimmitude” as an established Muslim value rather than a scholarly concept from an author with open political commitments is misleading. [“Dhimmitude” and the Muslim Exemption – FactCheck.org]

While trying to invent history and then invent terms to fit their fabricated history, Bet Ye’or, Spencer and Trifkovic seem to have very short and selective memories. Like a color blind, they are deliberately blind to European history and its canonical persecution of Jews for almost two thousand years, from the throne, the church, the administrative structure, officers of the state and ordinary citizen alike, all in the name of the God, the Christ. Before they dwell on their invention of dhimmitude, they need to turn a few pages of history to find the exclusively European term that was matter of public policy and an affirmed state and religious institution, the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews that lasted till 1800s:

In the 1234 Decretals, he [-Pope Greogory IX] invested the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to this, Jews would have to remain in a condition of political servitude and abject humiliation until Judgment Day. The doctrine then found its way into the doctrine of servitus camerae imperialis, or servitude immediately subject to the Emperor’s authority, promulgated by Frederick II. The second-class status of Jews thereby established would last until well into the 19th century. [Wikipedia]

Here, for the first time [in 1236], Frederick II declared the Jews “serfs of our chamber” (servi camerae nostri), thus adopting the concept of perpetual Jewish serfdom (perpetua servitus iudaeorum) from the Church, a doctrine enunciated by Pope Innocent III in 1205 and formally incorporated into canonical law in 1234 by Gregory IX. In the second half of the thirteenth century the leading scholastic philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, formulated this notion of vassalage in the following words: “Since the Jews have fallen into eternal serfdom for their sins, sovereigns have the right to strip them of their possessions, leaving them only with the barest necessities for life.” In the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Innocent passed a number of resolutions whose aim was to isolate and humiliate the Jews. Among these was the obligation of distinctive dress. In practice, this meant wearing a yellow ring or a similar badge on the chest, or the pointed “Jew’s hat.” [German-Jewish History in Modern Times, p. 28]

The dynamics of this anti-Jewish hate in the Christianity was not only based upon their calling them ‘God-killers’ (see Issue 73), but also due to the pagan bend of Christianity. In Christianity, it was against piety to deal with money, hence the ‘dirty’ but rich work of money lending was relegated to Jewish masses. These money lenders would then become a source of capital for both the crown and the church for their vested interests. Leveraging their privileged relationship with the power centers the moneylenders would in turn loan shark with impunity at exuberant usury to the common citizens.

The term judaize became synonymous with “dealing with money,” first mentioned in this sense in writings by Bernard of Clairvaux [German-Jewish History in Modern Times, p. 32]

Thus, the Church and the State, besides sucking the money out of the masses directly by exuberant taxes, also milked it indirectly via the conduit of exuberant usury of the Jewish money-lenders. At any given period in European history, by natural flow of events, a tipping point of duress for masses will reach, apparently by the loan sharking where the common public would rise against the moneylenders. Opportunistically, then the crown and the church will side with the masses leading to extortion, killing and expulsion of the lenders en-mass. All this frame-up will be played under the garb of a religious duty against ‘God-killers.’ Once the Jews were gotten rid of, so did the monetary obligations of the Church and the State, which would end up as win-win situation for the Christians and total loss for the Jews.

There is an excellent rebuttal to Robert Spencer at loonwatch.com under the title “The Church’s Doctrine of ‘Perpetual Servitude’ was Worse than “Dhimmitude” that focuses on Spencer’s allegation that “The idea that Jews fared better in Islamic lands than in Christian Europe is false.” The rebuttal refutes the alleged “Pact of Umar” and draws from the book “ Under Crescent and Cross” by Mark R. Cohen.

While trying to invent dhimmitude from thin air, the systematic Jewish persecution of nearly two thousand years at the hands of Europe and its Christianity, into perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews is obviously invisible in the scotomatous ‘scholarship’ of Bet Ye’or et al.

22:46. Why do they not travel in the land so that they should have hearts that help them to understand and ears which can help them hear? As a matter of fact (when going astray) it is not the (physical) eyes that are blind but blind are the hearts which lie in the bosoms.[Nooruddin]

This Perpetual Servitude of Jews can be glanced at in highlights on a time-line as outlined by the website ReligiousTolerance.org and reproduced below. Note: the information is significantly drawn from – A Short Review of Troubled History – by Fritz Voll and can be read separately:

Anti-Judaism: 70 TO 1200 CE

Persecution of Jews by Roman Pagans:

* 70: The Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, killed over 1 million Jews, took about 100,000 into slavery and captivity, and scattered many from Palestine to other locations in the Roman Empire.
* Circa 115 -117: Jews in Cyprus, Cyrene, Egypt and parts of Mesopotamia revolted Roman Empire in what is known as the Kitos War. This caused the death of several hundreds of thousands of Romans and Jews. The Roman The Roman Legions eventually crushed the rebellions. [1]
* 132: Bar Kochba led a hopeless three-year revolt against the Roman Empire. Many Jews had accepted him as the Messiah. About a half-million Jews were killed; thousands were sold into slavery or taken into captivity. The rest were exiled from Palestine and scattered throughout the known world, adding to what is now called the “Diaspora.” Judaism was no longer recognized as a legal religion. [2]
* 135: Serious Roman persecution of the Jews began. They were forbidden, upon pain of death, from practicing circumcision, reading the Torah, eating unleavened bread at Passover, etc. A temple dedicated to the Roman pagan god Jupiter was erected on temple mountain in Jerusalem. A temple of Venus was built on Golgotha, just outside the city.
* 200: Roman Emperor Severus forbade religious conversions to Judaism.

Persecution of Jews by Christians:

Initial persecution of Jews was along religious lines. Persecution would cease if the person converted to Christianity.

* 306: The church Synod of Elvira banned marriages, sexual intercourse and community contacts between Christians and Jews. [3,4]
* 315: Constantine published the Edict of Milan which extended religious tolerance to Christians. Jews lost many rights with this edict. They were no longer permitted to live in Jerusalem, or to proselytize.
* 325: The Council of Nicea decided to separate the celebration of Easter from the Jewish Passover. They stated: “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people…We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews…our worship follows a…more convenient course…we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews…How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded.”
* 337: Christian Emperor Constantius created a law which made the marriage of a Jewish man to a Christian punishable by death.
* 339: Converting to Judaism became a criminal offense.
* 343-381: The Laodicean Synod approved Cannon XXXVIII: “It is not lawful [for Christians] to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety.” [5]
* 367 – 376: St. Hilary of Poitiers referred to Jews as a perverse people who God has cursed forever. St. Ephroem refers to synagogues as brothels.
* 379-395: Emperor Theodosius the Great permitted the destruction of synagogues if it served a religious purpose. Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire at this time.
* 380: The bishop of Milan was responsible for the burning of a synagogue; he referred to it as “an act pleasing to God.”
* 415: The Bishop of Alexandria, St. Cyril, expelled the Jews from that Egyptian city.
* 415: St. Augustine wrote “The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus.”
* 418: St. Jerome, who created the Vulgate translation of the Bible wrote of a synagogue: “If you call it a brothel, a den of vice, the Devil’s refuge, Satan’s fortress, a place to deprave the soul, an abyss of every conceivable disaster or whatever you will, you are still saying less than it deserves.”
* 489 – 519: Christian mobs destroyed the synagogues in Antioch, Daphne (near Antioch) and Ravenna.
* 528: Emperor Justinian (527-564) passed the Justinian Code. It prohibited Jews from building synagogues, reading the Bible in Hebrew, assemble in public, celebrate Passover before Easter, and testify against Christians in court. [3]
* 535: The “Synod of Claremont decreed that Jews could not hold public office or have authority over Christians.” [3]
* 538: The 3rd and 4th Councils of Orleans prohibited Jews from appearing in public during the Easter season. Canon XXX decreed that “From the Thursday before Easter for four days, Jews may not appear in the company of Christians.” [5] Marriages between Christians and Jews were prohibited. Christians were prohibited from converting to Judaism. [4]
* 561: The bishop of Uzes expelled Jews from his diocese in France.

* 612: Jews were not allowed to own land, to be farmers or enter certain trades.
* 613: Very serious persecution began in Spain. Jews were given the options of either leaving Spain or converting to Christianity. Jewish children over 6 years of age were taken from their parents and given a Christian education
* 692: Cannnon II of the Quinisext Council stated: “Let no one in the priestly order nor any layman eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, nor have any familiar intercourse with them, nor summon them in illness, nor receive medicines from them, nor bathe with them; but if anyone shall take in hand to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed, but if a layman, let him be cut off.” [5]
* 694: The 17th Church Council of Toledo, Spain defined Jews as the serfs of the prince. This was based, in part, on the beliefs by Chrysostom, Origen, Jerome, and other Church Fathers that God punished the Jews with perpetual slavery because of their alleged responsibility for the execution of Jesus. [5]
* 722: Leo III outlawed Judaism. Jews were baptized against their will.
* 855: Jews were exiled from Italy.
* 1050: The Synod of Narbonne prohibited Christians from living in the homes of Jews.
* 1078: “Pope Gregory VII decreed that Jews could not hold office or be superiors to Christians.” [6]
* 1078: The Synod of Gerona forced Jews to pay church taxes.
* 1096: The First Crusade was launched in this year. Although the prime goal of the crusades was to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, Jews were a second target. As the soldiers passed through Europe on the way to the Holy Land, large numbers of Jews were challenged: “Christ-killers, embrace the Cross or die!” 12,000 Jews in the Rhine Valley alone were killed in the first Crusade. This behavior continued for 8 additional crusades until the 9th in 1272.
* 1099: The Crusaders forced all of the Jews of Jerusalem into a central synagogue and set it on fire. Those who tried to escape were forced back into the burning building.
* 1121: Jews were exiled from Flanders (now part of present-day Belgium)
* 1130: Some Jews in London allegedly killed a sick man. The Jewish people in the city were required to pay 1 million marks as compensation.
* 1146: The Second Crusade began. A French Monk, Rudolf, called for the destruction of the Jews.
* 1179: Canon 24 of the Third Lateran Council stated: “Jews should be slaves to Christians and at the same time treated kindly due of humanitarian considerations.” Canon 26 stated that “the testimony of Christians against Jews is to be preferred in all causes where they use their own witnesses against Christians.” [7]
* 1180: The French King of France, Philip Augustus, arbitrarily seized all Jewish property and expelled the Jews from the country. There was no legal justification for this action. They were allowed to sell all movable possessions, but their land and houses were stolen by the king.
* 1189: Jews were persecuted in England. The Crown claimed all Jewish possessions. Most of their houses were burned.

References:
For References 1 – 7 see link: http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers1.htm

Anti-Judaism: 1201 to 1800 CE

* 1205: Pope Innocent III wrote to the archbishops of Sens and Paris that “the Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord…As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspire, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ’s death set free…”
* 1215: The Fourth Lateran Council approved canon laws requiring that “Jews and Muslims shall wear a special dress.” They also had to wear a badge in the form of a ring. This was to enable them to be easily distinguished from Christians. This practice later spread to other countries.
* 1227: The Synod of Narbonne required Jews to wear an oval badge. This requirement was reinstalled during the 1930’s by Hitler, who changed the oval badge to a Star of David.
* 1229: The Spanish inquisition starts. Later, in 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorizes the use of torture by the Inquisitors.
* 1236: Pope Gregory ordered that church leaders in England, France, Portugal and Spain confiscate Jewish books on the first Saturday of Lent. [1]
* 1259: A “synod of the archdiocese in Mainz ordered Jews to wear yellow badges.” [1]
* 1261: Duke Henry III of Brabant, Belgium, stated in his will that “Jews…must be expelled from Brabant and totally annihilated so that not a single one remains, except those who are willing to trade, like all other tradesmen, without money-lending and usury.” [2]
* 1267: The Synod of Vienna ordered Jews to wear horned hats. Thomas Aquinas said that Jews should live in perpetual servitude.
* 1290: Jews are exiled from England. About 16,000 left the country.
* 1298: Jews were persecuted in Austria, Bavaria and Franconia. 140 Jewish communities were destroyed; more than 100,000 Jews were killed over a 6 month period.
* 1306: 100,000 Jews are exiled from France. They left with only the clothes on their backs, and food for only one day.
* 1320: 40,000 French shepherds went to Palestine on the Shepherd Crusade. On the way, 140 Jewish communities were destroyed.
* 1321: In Guienne, France, Jews were accused of having incited criminals to poison wells. 5,000 Jews were burned alive, at the stake.
* 1338: The councilors of Freiburg banned the performance of anti-Jewish scenes from the town’s passion play because of the lethal bloody reactions against Jews which followed the performances.[9]
* 1347 +: The Black Death originated in the Far East. China, Mongolia, India, central Asia, and southern Russia have all been suggested as the source. [10] Mongol invaders brought it to Caffa in the Crimea (modern-day Fedodosiya). Defenders from the city later spread the disease throughout many Mediterranean ports. [11] Rats initially carried the Black Death; their fleas spread the disease from the rats to humans. As the plague worsened, the germs spread from human to human. In five years, the death toll had reached 25 million. In England, two centuries passed before its population levels recovered from the plague. People searched for someone to blame. They noted that a smaller percentage of Jews than Christians caught the disease. This was undoubtedly due to the Jewish sanitary and dietary laws, which had been preserved from Old Testament times. Rumors circulated that Satan was protecting the Jews and that they were paying back the Devil by poisoning wells used by Christians. The solution was to torture, murder and burn the Jews. “In Bavaria…12,000 Jews…perished; in the small town of Erfurt…3,000; Rue Brul�e…2,000 Jews; near Tours, an immense trench was dug, filled with blazing wood and in a single day 160 Jews were burned.” [5] In Strausberg 2,000 Jews were burned. In Maintz 6,000 were killed…; in Worms 400…” [3]
* 1354: 12,000 Jews were executed in Toledo.
* 1374: An epidemic of possession broke out in the lower Rhine region of what is now Germany. People were seen “dancing, jumping and [engaging in] wild raving.” This was triggered by enthusiastic revels on St. John’s Day – an Christianized version of an ancient Pagan seasonal day of celebration which was still observed by the populace. The epidemic spread throughout the Rhine and in much of the Netherlands and Germany. Crowds of 500 or more dancers would be overcome together. Exorcisms were tried, but failed. Pilgrimages to the shrine of St. Vitus were tried, but this only seemed to exacerbate the problem. Finally, the rumor spread that God was angry because Christians had been excessively tolerant towards the Jews. God had cursed Europe as He did Saul when he showed mercy towards God’s enemies in the Old Testament. Jews “were plundered, tortured and murdered by tens of thousands.” The epidemic finally burned itself out two centuries later, in the late 16th century. [4]
* 1391 : Jewish persecutions begin in Seville and in 70 other Jewish communities throughout Spain.
* 1394 : Jews were exiled, for the second time, from France.
* 1431 +: The Council of Basel “forbade Jews to go to universities, prohibited them from acting as agents in the conclusion of contracts between Christians, and required that they attend church sermons.” [5]
* 1434: “Jewish men in Augsburg had to sew yellow buttons to their clothes. Across Europe, Jews were forced to wear a long undergarment, an overcoat with a yellow patch, bells and tall pointed yellow hats with a large button on them.” [1]
* 1453 : The Franciscan monk, Capistrano, persuaded the King of Poland to terminate all Jewish civil rights.
* 1478: Spanish Jews had been heavily persecuted from the 14th century. Many had converted to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition was set up by the Church in order to detect insincere conversions. Laws were passed that prohibited the descendants of Jews or Muslims from attending university, joining religious orders, holding public office, or entering any of a long list of professions.
* 1492 : Jews were given the choice of being baptized as Christians or be banished from Spain. 300,000 left Spain penniless. Many migrated to Turkey, where they found tolerance among the Muslims. Others converted to Christianity but often continued to practice Judaism in secret.
* 1497: Jews were banished from Portugal. 20 thousand left the country rather than be baptized as Christians.
* 1516: The Governor of the Republic of Venice decided that Jews would be permitted to live only in one area of the city. It was located in the South Girolamo parish and was called the “Ghetto Novo.” This was the first ghetto in Europe. Hitler made use of the concept in the 1930’s.
* 1523: Martin Luther distributed his essay “That Jesus Was Born a Jew. ” He hoped that large numbers of Jews would convert to Christianity. They didn’t, and he began to write and preach hatred against them. Luther has been condemned in recent years for being extremely antisemitic. The charge has some merit; however he was probably typical of most Christians during his era.
* 1539: A passion play was forbidden in Rome because it prompted violent attacks against the city’s Jewish residents. [9]
* 1540: Jews were exiled from Naples.
* 1543: In his 20’s, Martin Luther, had expected Jews to convert to Christianity in large numbers. Distressed by their reluctance, he developed a hatred for Jews, as expressed in his letters to Rev. Spalatin in 1514, when he was 31 years of age. He wrote:

“I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted….For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for everyone who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.” [6]

In 1543, he wrote “On the Jews and their lies, On Shem Hamphoras” :

“…eject them forever from this country. For, as we have heard, God’s anger with them is so intense that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!…What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?

* First, their synagogues or churches should be set on fire,…
* Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed… They ought to be put under one roof or in a stable, like Gypsies.
* Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught.
* Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more…
* Fifthly, passport and traveling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews…
* Sixthly, they ought to be stopped from usury. All their cash and valuables of silver and gold ought to be taken from them and put aside for safe keeping…
* Seventhly, let the young and strong Jews and Jewesses be given the flail, the axe, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and spindle and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses as in enjoined upon Adam’s children…

To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden – the Jews.” [7]

* 1550: Jews were exiled from Genoa and Venice.
* 1555-JUL-12: A Roman Catholic Papal bull, “Cum nimis absurdum,” required Jews to wear badges, and live in ghettos. They were not allowed to own property outside the ghetto. Living conditions were dreadful: over 3,000 people were forced to live in about 8 acres of land. Women had to wear a yellow veil or scarf; men had to wear a piece of yellow cloth on their hat. [8]
* 1582: Jews were expelled from Holland.
* 1648-9: Chmielnicki Bogdan led an uprising against Polish rule in the Ukraine. The secondary goal of Bogdan and his followers was to exterminate all Jews in the country. The massacre began with the slaughter of about 6,000 Jews in Nemirov. Other major mass murders occurred in Tulchin, Polonnoye, Volhynia, Bar, Lvov, etc. Jewish records estimate that a total of 100,000 Jews were murdered and 300 communities destroyed.

Persecution of Jewish Physicians by the Church:

Medicine in Europe during the Middle Ages found itself restricted by the Christian Church. The church taught that it was irreligious to seek a natural cure from a physician when one could obtain supernatural help from a priest. Some church leaders criticized medical schools because they taught that diseases and disorders came from natural means and not from the evil efforts of Satan.

With medicine in such ill repute among Christians, much of the leadership by the 10th century was provided by Jews and Muslim scholars. Jews were largely responsible for founding the medical Schools at Salerno and Montpellier in the 10th century.

Pope Eugene IV, Nicholas V and Calixtus III forbade Christians from using the services of a Jewish physician. The Trullanean Council in the 8th century; B�ziers Council & Alby Council in the 13th century; Avignon council & Salamanca Council in the 14th century, the Synod of Bamberg in the 15th century; the Council of Avignon in the 16th century, etc. also ordered Christians to not seek healing from Jewish physicians and surgeons. This continued even into the 17th century when the city of Hall in W�rtemberg (in what is now Germany) granted some privileges to a Jewish physician “on account of his admirable experience and skill.” The clergy of Hall complained that “it were better to die with Christ than to be cured by a Jew doctor aided by the devil.”

References:
For References 1 – 11 see link: http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers3.htm

Anti-Semitism: Racially-based persecution of Jews: 1800 to 1946

The conversion from religiously-based to racially-based persecution:

Prior to 1800 CE: Persecution was directed at followers of Judaism because of their religious beliefs; it has been referred to as anti-Judaism. CE, Jews could escape oppression by converting to Christianity, and being baptized. The Christian church taught in past centuries that all Jews (past, present and future) were responsible for Jesus’ death. The Church also believed that some Jews must be allowed to live, because the biblical book of Revelation indicated that they had a role to play in the “end times.” They concluded that it was acceptable to make Jews’ lives quite miserable.

Since about 1800: “…Nationalism became a dominant value in the Western and Arab worlds…antisemitism increasingly focused on the Jews’ peoplehood and nationhood.” [15] Persecution became a form of racism, and has generally been called “anti-Semitism” — a word “created by an antisemite, Wilhelm Marr [in 1879]. Marr’s intention was to replace the German word Judenhass (Jew-hatred) with a term that would make Jew-haters sound less vulgar and even somewhat scientific.” [15] The word, (variously spelled antisemite, anti-Semite and anti-semite). It is not a particularly good choice, because the root word “Semitic” refers to a group of languages, not to a single language or to a race, people or nation. However, it is in near-universal usage.

Antisemitism: Persecution of Jews along racial lines:

Subsequent attacks against Jews tended to be racially motivated. They were perpetrated primarily by the state. The Jewish people were viewed as a separate people or race.
* 1806: A French Jesuit Priest, Abbe Barruel, had written a treatise blaming the Masonic Order for the French Revolution. He later issued a letter alleging that Jews, not the Masons were the guilty party. This triggered a belief in an international Jewish conspiracy in Germany, Poland and some other European countries later in the 19th century.
* 1819: During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many European Jews lobbied their governments for emancipation. They sought citizenship as well as the same rights and treatment as were enjoyed by non-Jews. This appears to have provoked sporadic anti-semites to engage in anti-Jewish violence. The rioters cried “Hep! Hep!.” The origin(s) of this cry are not clear. Jews and their property were attacked first in Wuerzburg, Germany during 1819-AUG. The rioting spread across Germany and eventually reached as far as Denmark and Poland. [17]
* 1840: A rumor spread in Syria that some Jews were responsible for the ritual killing of a Roman Catholic monk and his servant. As a result of horrendous treatment, some local Jews confessed to a crime that they did not commit. This “Damascus Affair” spurred early Zionist writers like Hess to promote the Zionist cause. [17]
* 1846 – 1878: Pope Pius IX restored all of the previous restrictions against the Jews within the Vatican state. All Jews under Papal control were confined to Rome’s ghetto – the last one in Europe until the Nazi era restored the church’s practice. On 2000-SEP-3, Pope John Paul II beatified Pius IX; this is the last step before sainthood. He explained: “Beatifying a son of the church does not celebrate particular historic choices that he has made, but rather points him out for imitation and for veneration for his virtue.”
* 1858: Edgardo Mortara was kidnapped, at the age of six, from his Jewish family by Roman Catholic officials after they found out that a maid had secretly baptized him. He was not returned to his family but was raised a Catholic. He eventually became a priest.
* 1873: The term “antisemitism” is first used in a pamphlet by Wilhelm Marr called “Jewry’s Victory over Teutonism.”
* 1881: Alexander II of Russia was assassinated by radicals. The Jews were blamed. About 200 individual pogroms against the Jews followed. (“Pogrom” is a Russian word meaning “devastation” or “riot.” In Russia, a pogrom was typically a mob riot against Jewish individuals, shops, homes or businesses. They were often supported and even organized by the government.) Thousands of Jews became homeless and impoverished. The few who were charged with offenses generally received very light sentences. [1]
* 1893: “…anti-Semitic parties won sixteen seats in the German Reichstag.” [2]
* 1894: Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an officer on the French general staff, was convicted of treason. The evidence against him consisted of a piece of paper from his wastebasket with another person’s handwriting, and papers forged by antisemitic officers. He received a life sentence on Devil’s Island, off the coast of South America. The French government was aware that a Major Esterhazy was actually guilty. [3] The church, government and army united to suppress the truth. Writer Emile Zola and politician Jean Jaur, fought for justice and human rights. After 10 years, the French government fell and Drefus was declared totally innocent. The Dreyfus Affair was world-wide news for years. It motivated Journalist Theodor Herzl to write a book in 1896: “The Jewish State: A Modern Solution to the Jewish Question.” The book led to the founding of the Zionist movement which fought for a Jewish Homeland. A half century later, the state of Israel was born.
* 1903: At Easter, government agents organized an anti-Jewish pogrom in Kishinev, Moldova, Russia. The local newspaper published a series of inflammatory articles. A Christian child was discovered murdered and a young Christian woman at the Jewish Hospital committed suicide. Jews were blamed for the deaths. Violence ensured. The 5,000 soldiers in the town did nothing. When the smoke cleared, 49 Jews had been killed, 500 were injured; 700 homes looted and destroyed, 600 businesses and shops looted, 2,000 families left homeless. Later, it was discovered that the child had been murdered by its relatives and the suicide was unrelated to the Jews. [4]
* 1905: The Okhrana, the Russian secret police in the reign of Czar Nicholas II, converted an earlier antisemitic novel into a document called the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” [16] It was published privately in 1897. A Russian Orthodox priest, Sergius Nilus, published them publicly in 1905. It was promoted as the record of “secret rabbinical conferences whose aim was to subjugate and exterminate the Christians.” [5] The Protocols were used by the Okhrana in a propaganda campaign that was associated with massacres of the Jews. These were the Czarist Pogroms of 1905.
* 1915: 600,000 Jews were forcibly moved from the western borders of Russia towards the interior. About 100,000 died of exposure or starvation.
* 1917: “In the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the reactionary White Armies made extensive use of the Protocols to incite widespread slaughters of Jews.” [5] Two hundred thousand Jews were murdered in the Ukraine alone.
* 1920: The Protocols reach England and the United States. They are exposed as a forgery, but are widely circulated. Henry Ford sponsored a study of international activities of Jews. This led to a series of antisemitic articles in the Dearborn Independent, which were published in a book, “The International Jew.” The Protocols were sold on Wal-Mart’s online bookstore until they were removed on 2004-SEP-21.
* 1920: The defeat of Germany in World War I and the continuing economic difficulties were blamed in that country on the “Jewish influence.” One antisemitic poster has been preserved from that era. [6] It shows a German, presumably Christian woman, a male Jew with distorted facial features, a coffin and the word “Deutschland” (Germany).

* 1920’s, 1930’s: Hitler had published in Mein Kampf in 1925, writing: “Today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.“ The Protocols are used by the Nazis to whip up public hatred of the Jews in the 1930’s. Widespread pogroms occur in Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Rumania, and the USSR. Radio programs by many conservative American clergy, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, frequently attacked Jews. Reverend Fr. Charles E Coughlin was one of the best known. “In the 1930’s, radio audiences heard him rail against the threat of Jews to America’s economy and defend Hitler’s treatment of Jews as justified in the fight against communism.” (12) Other conservative Christian leaders, such as Frank Norris and John Straton supported the Jews. [7]

Discrimination against Jews in North America is widespread. Many universities set limits on the maximum number of Jewish students that they would accept. Harvard accepted all students on the basis of merit until after World War I when the percentage of Jewish students approached 15%. At that time they installed an informal quota system. In 1941, Princeton had fewer than 2% Jews in their student body. Jews were routinely barred from country clubs, prestigious neighborhoods, etc. [8]
* 1933: Hitler took power in Germany. On APR-1, Julius Streicher organized a one-day boycott of all Jewish owned businesses in the country. This was the start of continuous oppression by the Nazis culminating in the Holocaust (a.k.a. Shoah). Jews “were barred from civil service, legal professions and universities, were not allowed to teach in schools and could not be editors of newspapers.” [2] Two years later, Jews were no longer considered citizens.
* 1934: Various laws were enacted in Germany to force Jews out of schools and professions.
* 1935: The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws restricting citizenship to those of “German or related blood.” Jews became stateless.
* 1936: Cardinal Hloud of Poland urged Catholics to boycott Jewish businesses.
* 1938: On NOV-9, the Nazi government in Germany sent storm troopers, the SS and the Hitler Youth on a pogrom that killed 91 Jews, injured hundreds, burned 177 synagogues and looted 7,500 Jewish stores. Broken glass could be seen everywhere; the glass gave this event its name of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. [9]
* 1938: Hitler brought back century-old church law, ordering all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David as identification. A few hundred thousand Jews are allowed to leave Germany after they give all of their assets to the government.
* 1939: The Holocaust, the Shoah — the systematic extermination of Jews in Germany — began. The process only ended in 1945 with the conclusion of World War II and the liberation of the death camps. Approximately 6 million Jews (1.5 million of them children), 400 thousand Roma (Gypsies) and others were slaughtered. Some were killed by death squads; others were slowly killed in trucks with carbon monoxide; others were gassed in large groups in Auschwitz, Dacau, Sobibor, Treblinka and other extermination camps. Officially, the holocaust was described by the Nazis as subjecting Jews “to special treatment” or as a “solution of the Jewish question.” Gold taken from the teeth of the victims was recycled; hair was used in the manufacture of mattresses. In the Buchenwald extermination camp, lampshades were made out of human skin; however, this appears to be an isolated incident. A rumor spread that Jewish corpses were routinely converted into soap. However, the story appears to be false. [10]
* 1940: The Vichy government of France collaborated with Nazi Germany by freezing about 80,000 Jewish bank accounts. During the next four years, they deported about 76,000 Jews to Nazi death camps; only about 2,500 survived. It was only in 1995 that a French president, Jacques Chirac, “was able to admit that the state bore a heavy share of responsibility in the mass round-ups and deportations of Jews, as well as in the property and asset seizures that were carried out with the active help of the Vichy regime.” [11]
* 1941: The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC estimates that 13,000 Jews died on 1941-JUN-19 during a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. It was ordered by the pro-Nazi Romanian regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu. The current government has admitted that this atrocity happened, but most Romanians continue to deny that the Jews were killed on orders from their own government. [12]
* 1941: Polish citizens in Jedwabne in northeastern Poland killed hundreds of Jews, by either beating them to death or burning them alive in a barn. According to the Associated Press: “The role played by Polish citizens was suppressed for nearly six decades until publication of a book by a Polish emigre historian, Jan Tomasz Gross. After release of the book in 2000, the Polish government launched an investigation. ‘The role of the Poles was decisive in conducting the criminal act,’ [prosecutor Radoslaw] Ignatiew, said. The book, ‘Neighbours,’ sparked national soul-searching among Poles, many of whom could not believe that anybody but the Nazis would have committed the atrocity.” [13]
* 1942: The Nazi leaders of Germany, at the Wannsee conference, decided on”the final solution of the Jewish question” which was the attempt to exterminate every Jew in Europe. From JUL-28 to 31, almost 18,000 Russian inhabitants of the Minsk ghetto in what is now Belarus were exterminated. This was in addition to 5,000 to 15,000 who had been massacred in earlier pogroms in that city. This was just one of many such pogroms during World War II. [14]
* 1945: The Shoah (Holocaust) ended as the Allied Forces over-ran the Nazi death camps.
* 1946: Even though World War II ended the year before, antisemitic pogroms continued, particularly in Poland, with the deaths of many Jews.

References:
For references 1 – 17 cited above see link: http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers2.htm

It becomes obvious by the discussion so far that Bet Ye’or, Spencer, Trifkovic and others of the documentary in their vain search for an equivalent of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews, they found none in Quranic doctrine. Be it known to Spencers of our time that Islam will not atone and offers itself to be pinned to the cross for the sins of Christianity for their relentless persecution of not only the Jews and Muslims (in Inquisition), but of women (witch burnings), of non-Christians (Crusades), of slaves (– black skin), of subjects (– global colonies), of apartheid (on majority in South Africa and Palestine). Essentially, the West that Spencers want to redefine has mountainous piles of skeletons beyond words in its psyche and historical closet that it inflicted on everything that came its way that was non-White, non-Male, non-Christian, and lately non-Western. Such are the Lambs of the Lord! Welcome to the Kingdom! Hallelujah!

Of course, the Spencers are left with no choice but to invent ‘dhimmitude‘. Now they lick and cherish this bone in a canine greed and hope that others will too. These pseudo-intellectual inventions will never be able to see the daylight of scholarship, but such hollow bones are sufficiently juicy enough to make their own ilk drool on such delusional morsels.

5:63. Why do not the teachers of divine knowledge and those learned in the Law prohibit them from their blasphemic talk and deeds and their being too much given to eating things forbidden? Evil indeed is their machination.

5:64. And the Jews said, `Allâh’s hand is fettered (from assisting the helpless Muslims).’ Fettered are their own hands (from assisting the enemies of Islam), and they are deprived of blessings of Allâh for what they said. Nay, (the truth of the matter is that) both His hands are wide open (and free). He spends as He pleases. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will most surely increase many of them in inordinate rebellion and in disbelief. And We have kindled enmity and hatred among them [– the Jews and Christians] till the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindle a fire for war, Allâh puts it out, but they strive to create disorder in the land, whereas Allâh does not like the creators of disorder.

References:

Note: [text enclosed in square brackets above is not part of the original quoted sources]

American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 21 #3 (Summer), p. 149 by Imad A. Ahmad, Ph.D [pdf] – Book Review
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights – United Nations Organization
Hatt-i Sharif of 1839 – Wikipedia
Hatt-ı Hümayun of 1856 – Wikipedia
Dhimmitude” and the Muslim Exemption – FactCheck.org
Decretals – Wikipedia
Pope Greogory IX – Wikipedia
Canonical Law – Wikipedia
1234 Decretals – Pope Gregory IX and Judaism – Wikipedia
Thomas Aquinas – Wikipedia
Jew’s Hat – Wikipedia
German-Jewish History in Modern Times (Vol. 1)– Edited by Michael A. Meyers, Google Books
The Church’s Doctrine of ‘Perpetual Servitude’ was Worse than “Dhimmitude” – LoonWatch.com
An overview of the persecution of Jews for the past 2,000 years – ReligiousTolerance.com
A Short Review of Troubled History – Fritz Voll
The Holy Quran – Noourddin