The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5
=> Dhimmi
| Dhimmi |
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Posted by
pancho
(Guest)
- Sunday, January 20 2008, 23:14:32 (CET) from 12.199.144.42 - mail.shpl.org  Non-Profit Organizations -  Linux -  MozillaWebsite: Website title: |
In reading again the effects of the Protestant Reformation in England during the 17th century and the steps leading to it…the abuse of Protestants by Catholics and then the abuse of Catholics by Protestants…the denial of rights by one group to the other, the executions, false accusations, purges, public humiliations, confiscations, massacres, fines etc, I can’t help but think of our complaints against Islam for making Christian minorities “second class citizens”. And I note that, once again, it was among Christians that the worst abuses existed…and that directed at their fellow-Christians, not heathens or pagans. It’s like a brother being harsher with his own brother than with the man living down the street who is no relation. On the one hand you wouldn’t expect it, but then it sort of makes sense too because our strongest feelings are reserved for those closest to us...except Islam more closely approximated the call to universal brotherly love than Christianity did. Desperate to make England solidly Protestant, all sorts of frightful things were done to Catholics. They were fined, imprisoned, denied the right to worship even in their homes, their priests were hanged, no Catholic could attend university or rise in any profession, they couldn’t join crafts guilds so they were denied high paying jobs, any Protestant marrying a Catholic lost their inheritance and the list goes on and on, down to not being able to own a horse worth more than a minimal amount and being pelted with stones and filth on the streets with no recourse in law…plus which crimes against them were never punished. It seems it was from their own treatment of fellow-Christians that the Christians dreamed up their accusations against Islam and its supposed harsh treatment of Christians. At the very time these things were being done in “Christian” countries, imbued with the “love of Jesus”…in Ottoman lands, where that “devil” was supreme, Christians and Jews were allowed to live and be ruled by their own leaders…and Christians and Jews served in high offices while enjoying many privileges unheard of in Christendom…which merely killed or expelled all non-Christians and called that “peace”…but there was no toleration shown for Christians who merely asked to worship Jesus in a slightly different manner…what was the big deal? It took almost 300 years for Christians to realize that their insistence that the people of any kingdom had to be of one and only one “true” religion for there to be peace and obedience in the land was not only wrong but was making for perpetual war of neighbor against neighbor and father against daughter….something the Turks knew enough to avoid altogether from the moment they began their rule. While Islam also thought itself the true religion, it forbade forced conversions, persecution for religious differences and intolerance…as much as is within human nature to do so when possessed of unshakable convictions. Even the pagan Romans were less intolerant of Christians til they became Christians themselves…and undoubtedly any Muslim who converted to Christianity would see his descendants turn morbidly intolerant, once Christianity took root in his bloodline. Wullah this religion breeds intolerance like an infection as a way of maintaining itself for the self-righteous convictions it encourages make its followers blind to human compassion and tolerance for opposing or contrary points of view(look no further than our forums). This intolerance of theirs goes so far as to define people as enemies simply for refusing to be “saved” by them, whereas Islam merely believes that people are mistaken in denying Muhammad and will eventually come round, if they’re treated decently…and part of treating them with respect is to NOT enforce Sharia law among them for that would place them under the leadership of a religion not their own. Far from being a sign of “second-class” citizenship, the protected status of Dhimmi was meant to RESPECT and PRESERVE differences of religion…whereas in Christian nations any deviation from the accepted religion meant a total loss of all rights and privileges. I’ve no doubt that in Protestant lands, the Catholic minority would have liked nothing better than to live as “second-class” Dhimmis among the Ottomans…same for Protestant minorities in Catholic lands. You have to stay up late at night and work very hard, as our nationalists do, to slander Islam in any way that can’t be applied a hundred times worse to Christianity. --------------------- |
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