Dhimmi, Get Behind Me
by Dexter Van Zile
Copyright 2006 ALPB
Munib Younan, the Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem, sure picked an interesting time to condemn inflammatory cartoons that mock people's religious beliefs. Younan, who has offered, little, if any, condemnation of newspapers in the disputed territories that have published images portraying Israel as a baby-killing and Christ-killing nation, finally found his prophetic voice on this issue when it was Muslim, not Jewish or Christian sensibilities that were offended by the recent publication of cartoons mocking Mohamed in newspapers throughout Europe.
In an article posted at thelutheran.org on Feb. 9, 2006, Bishop Younan warned Westerners to tread lightly when responding to Muslim protesters who have burnt Danish flags or engaged in other violent acts to express their displeasure over the cartoons.
“Are we really losing our civility to such a degree that we are incapable of rational discourse and can only resort to violence and desecration of sacred symbols, prophets, writings and places?" he said, subsequently adding that it is time for Christians and Muslims to “create a code of ethics by which religions and nations should [handle] religious differences.”
Notwithstanding the Bishop's attempt to equate the burning of embassies with the publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed in an offensive manner, Bishop Younan's statements would have more credibility if he had spoken publicly about the persistent demonization of Jews, Israel and the United States in papers throughout the Middle East, oftentimes through the desecration of Christian and Jewish imagery.
One representative – but hardly unique – cartoon, published in Dec. 2001, depicts a Palestinian woman pierced by American and Israeli arrows as she hung from a cross. Jews wearing yarmulkes stand excitedly at the foot of the cross as blood from the woman's chest spurts down on them. Another cartoon depicts a cross in the place of a gun barrel sticking out the turret of an American tank. At the UN’s anti-racism conference that morphed into a festival of Jew-hatred in Durban in 2001, the League of Arab lawyers distributed leaflets equating the Star of David with the Nazi Swastika. These images are only a sample of the flood of anti-Semitic imagery in which the Middle East is awash.
Why has Bishop Younan waited until Muslim sensibilities were injured before speaking out against offending people of faith?
In a word, the Bishop is a dhimmi.
Historically, Jews and Christians who insisted on adhering to their faith and not converting to Islam after the conquest by Muslim rulers during both the Arab and Turkish waves of Islamic expansionism were subject to a “dhimma” or “treaty of protection.” Under this treaty, non-Muslims were allowed to remain Christian or Jew, but only if they paid a poll tax, or jizya, and agreed to live under a series of laws explicitly designed to humiliate them and underscore their status as subject peoples. People who live under these terms are dhimmis.
For example, in some countries, Jews and Christians were historically not allowed to ride horses, wear shoes or turbans and their testimony could not be used to convict a Muslim in a court of law. To be sure, dhimmis were treated better in some countries than others and in some instances they rose to positions of influence (especially in the aftermath of Islamic conquest, when Muslim rulers needed the help of skilled administrators). And yes, Jews under Muslim rule often fared better than they did under Christianity, but one fact is undeniable: In those places where Islam was dominant, Jews and Christians in the Middle East were second class non-citizens who enjoyed no rights, only privileges that could be withdrawn at the whim of the rulers.
(continued on the next post)
