Yitzhak Rabin Quotes


We are committed to free access and free practice, to the members of the other two religions, to the holy shrines in Jerusalem. To the Muslims, to the Christians.


Citations

Rabin, Yitzhak. "Remarks at the Signing of the Washington Declaration." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 July 1994.

Related Quotes

He led an Islamic rebellion against the Quinn Dynasty which ended in his beheading in 1873. Since the Christians were also a minority, he tried to form an alliance with them. Hatred of Christians is not endemic to Islam—politics affect the situation also. His tomb is shown in the graphic.


The re-conquest had just taken place where the Christians defeated the Islamic troops and the King found himself ruling extensive Muslim dominated areas like Toledo as well as large Christian areas. While atypical for a Christian Catholic King, Alfonso VI went out of his way to avoid a crisis with either religious group. He told the Muslims that they could follow Islamic practices and let it be known by statements like this that he had two religions in his kingdom.


This quotation illustrates that a narrow orthodox view of Islam is not the only one in Arab nations. Khaled is not an obscure cleric, but a popular television personality. While his views are considered heresy by many orthodox Muslims, the narrow view is by no means universal. Orthodox Islamists believe that God has commanded that all mankind be Muslims and the ones who are not are either ignorant so need to be “educated”, or evil and therefore should be killed. However, Muhammad ordained that an exception should be made for “Children of the Book”—Jews and Christians who revere the Old Testament. This was at a time when Christians would not allow any other form of worship but Christianity. Christianity, Judaism and most other religions have become tolerant of other religions and allow open alternative worship. Islam which early on led the way to tolerance, has in many countries gone back to the intolerance that existed amongst many Christians at the time of Muhammad.


The place of non-Muslims in an Islamic country, if any, has been a point of great anxiety among Christians, Jews, Bhais, and others. These have been persecuted and expelled from numerous Islamic countries while in others such as modern Turkey there is no problem. This particular cleric is seen as more “modern” and “liberal” than most. Even he has little concept of equality and freedom of religion.


Nigeria was about equally divided into Muslims who dominated the North and Christians and Animists who dominated the South. The former were intent on making Sharia—Islamic Law—the law of the nation and the latter were equally passionate to avoid it. Muslim protests got very violent including murdering innocent civilians; the Christians threatened to retaliate.


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.


Muslims had engaged in violent demonstrations to insist on more Sharia law and the curtailment of behavior that the Muslim Mullahs determined to be contrary to Sharia and Islam. In Nigeria Muslim violence and intimidation had at the time already caused one of the Nigerian states to adopt Sharia instead of civil law. Many Muslims continued the violence in order to spread the adoption of Islamic law. In most counties, there were threats of law enforcement crackdowns to curtail the Muslim violence and attacks on Christians and other religions. In Nigeria however, the Christians under Akinola’s leadership made this not so subtle veiled threat to retaliate. It seems to have worked in the short run although the religious tensions remained very high and no one knew whether or not religious violence or even war would break out.


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.


No other country would not retaliate with outright war if it was daily attacked by missiles, frequently attacked by terrorists, and threatened with extinction by its neighbors. Only Israel because of its military superiority is supposed to ”turn the other cheek”


Islam was not very strong at this point and the followers of Muhammad were relatively few and the Medina area contained Arab Non-Believers, Jews as well as the new Muslims. Muhammad drew up this document and got the non Muslims to agree to it. Not only were Jews able to practice their religion freely (as were the non-Muslim Arabs) but there was not tax on the non Muslims that was imposed later when the Muslims were much stronger relative to others. Also, which surprises many Jews and Muslims alike, the Community – the Ulma – the People included the Jews and Arab Non Believers. Today it is only the Muslims.


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.


Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
  • Born: March 1, 1922
  • Died: November 4, 1995
  • Nationality: Israeli
  • Profession: Military Officer

Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995.