Ahmad Al-Mahalawi Quotes

He is a Greek Orthodox Christian, and he correctly observes that the Islamic world was considerably more tolerant than the Christian until the 18th century when Islam had become less tolerant in the Middle East while the Christians were modernizing and going through a cultural and intellectual enlightenment and societal modernization while the Muslims, became less tolerant than they were in earlier years leading to the modern situation.

His protest was focused on Middle East policies which he believed did not value the lives of Muslims as highly as Christians and Jews. The irony of this protest is that United States policy claims to value all life equally as do virtually all industrialized democracies. Omeish however is unusual among world Islamic leaders and politicians in that he values Christian and Jewish life as much as Muslim. Most, typically value Muslims almost exclusively and many advocate the killing of Christians and Jews.

This quotation is an excellent summary of view of most fundamentalist Muslims’ current views towards Christians and Jews. In the Koran, the Prophet made exceptions about required conversions to Islam for Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (the pre Islamic Iranian religion). However, although they were to be allowed to maintain their religion. They had to pay a special tax called “Jizya” described in the quotation. Islam interpreted these words of the Prophet very differently in different places and times. Jews and Christians were not only treated very well in Islamic Spain and in Ottoman Turkey when Turkey was the seat of Islamic religion and power in the world, but they achieved some of the most important positions of power in the Empire and in the professions: law, military, teaching, philosophy, science and medicine. However, in other times and places, non Muslims were not allowed to worship in public or hold any position of influence or power and certainly never teach Muslims. So Jews and Christians in this world view will be tolerated but they must exist under a Muslim theocracy. That is the view that most of the ultra fundamentalist Muslims have today, which of course sets up a serious conflict potential.

Toleration is a relative term. The Muslim Moors made Christians (and Jews) pay a special tax. At times they were forced to wear special clothing so that they could be readily identified. And they could not build churches larger or taller than the smallest mosque in the community. At times, their occupations were restricted but at other times Christians and Jews were appointed to the highest positions like Vizier. The Inquisition, in contrast, forced all Muslims (and Jews) to leave the country without any of their property or money or be tortured and killed—usually by burning at the stake unless of course that they converted to Christianity.

The Koran is even more discriminatory regarding Jewish & Christian clerics: {584380}.

See {586039} for a quotation that goes further and seeks to punish and humiliate the non believers. This sura is often used by those wishing to illustrate the intolerance of Islam—especially of other religions. They fail to put this into the context of the Old Testament which proscribed death for heretics or the history of Christianity regarding the murder of nonbelievers. The difference is however, that a very small proportion of Jews or Christians today believe in following Biblical instructions in this respect while the proportion of Muslims who believe in the literal interpretation of scripture on these points is much larger. However there are Islamic modernists and moderates throughout the world who reject this notion of warring on all other religions and there is a struggle going on within Islam itself.

This was a document prepared by the Caliph and presented to Christians in Syria to sign if they wanted peace and to be free from assault in Islamic lands. For centuries thereafter these, and variations of them, were conditions imposed on Christians and Jews in Islam lands. Some of these can be recognized as variants of conditions that American and other coalition troops were required to adhere to in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. By today’s standards this was highly discriminatory and a gross imposition on a minority. However at the time, this was one of the more liberal doctrines. Jews and Christians otherwise could live in Muslim lands, practice their religion, work there, live where they would, acquire property, practice professions, and even achieve high office. Jews and Christians rose to the highest ranks of Islamic government administrators including Prime Ministries. Their persons were safe from assault and derisions all provided they followed the Pact of Umar or its current version. In contrast Jewish and Muslim minorities in Christian nations were treated much more harshly. They could practice only a few occupation, were constantly under physical attack, were forced to live in ghettos, had their property seized, and in many cases were tortured and killed.

This sura has unfortunately been used by some Serbians and other Christians to justify ethnic cleansing against Muslims.

Locke wrote the Charter of South Carolina in which any 7 people could assemble and form a church including:

This sura has been in great controversy throughout the Muslim Empires. In part it separates many of the Arab cultures from the Ottomans. The latter had an organized meritocracy whereby Jews, Christians and other “heathens” of exceptional talent were sought out for advisory and leadership positions. In part this was justified as requiring that the Caliph and the Sultans had the power of life and death over their key appointees, hence they had to be slaves and other suras prohibited Muslims holding other Muslims in slavery. Even in modern times some Muslim countries have had key non-Islamic appointees and others would not. In historical practice, the Ottoman Empire utilized far more Christians and Jews that those societies involved Muslims until relatively recent historical times.

In some countries political candidates run on religious platforms to convert the part of the population that is not of their religion and turn the nation into a theocracy.

The Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were allowed to maintain their own religion and live as 2nd class citizens and pay a special tax, but ALL other religions were to be forced to convert.

This quotation which appears absurd on the surface given Iran’s terrible record with religious minorities provides insight to Islamic orthodox thought. For the orthodox Muslim, Sharia—Koranic Law—is the basis of the society. God defines the rights of people and their obligations. Whatever rights are provided by Sharia, Khomeini and some others wished to provide them equally to religious minorities also. However, those rights do not include the right to criticize the Islamic law or the leaders who implement it. That would be heresy if done by a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. A Christian church may not erect a public cross or ring bells on Sunday. That is prohibited by the Koran and is imposed on all. Bahai religious adherents are tracked down in the Islamic Republic and are often executed. ‘What about their rights?’ they ask. The answer is that the Bahai were Muslims who have become “backsliders” and heretics, and under Sharia, they must be executed for heresy; they are deemed to be heretical Muslims and not members of a minority religion.

Historically, when Christian Europe was torturing and butchering people over differences of religious opinion, Islam was for the time, in most places, a model of tolerance. Suhrawardy died before Islam degenerated into an intolerance that almost rivaled in brutality that of the Christians centuries ago. And while his statement about the invention and initiation of brutal intolerance is correct, he would be shocked at the behavior of 21st century Iran, Pakistan and some other Islamic nations who from a traditional Islamic perspective had degenerated.

In one of the historical ironies of the 12th century, a Christian sect preferred the rule of the Muslims than their Christian brethren—on the grounds of religious tolerance. It illustrates the changes that take place over time. By the 21st century, it was the Christians who were thought of as tolerant and the Muslims as the opposite.

It is this verse that for some Muslims justifies terrorism against non-Muslims. See {584354} for a specific example. There are similar provisions in the Old Testament which a few extremely conservative Jews and Christians have used to advocate for blasphemy being a capital crime. Note that if an unbeliever repents and becomes a Muslim, he should be spared.

Ethnic cleansing was a basic component of early Islam. The contemporary seeming hysteria over American troops in Arab nations, has in addition to the usual problems of soldiers from another land this background. The same is true about the presence of Israel. From some points of view, the presence of Christians and Jew in the Middle East is wrong per se because it undermines the work and intention of the Prophet.

The Prince had given $20 million to American Universities to establish Islamic Studies programs however. The Muslim religion requires believers to proselytize and spread the faith, while Saudi and Islamic law prohibits any other faith from being public or promoted. It is illegal, for example, to even bring a Christian Bible into the Kingdom. During the Gulf War, American soldiers defending Saudi Arabia were not allowed to bring in their religious texts unless they were Muslims.