Democracy for the Middle East
October 20, 2002Islam is Racism
Conclusion: In the absence of a major deprogramming effort on the scale of what the US undertook in post war Germany, American attempts to turn a centuries old culture of racism and predation into a benign and democratic next door neighbor are doomed to failure.
Rereading the Joan Peters book, From Time Immemorial, reminds me of two things - that there is already a Palestinian state, and that there is a remarkable if rarely observed similarity between Israel's struggle for freedom and the African-American struggle against racism in America.
Dubbed a "historical event" by Barbara Tuchman when it was first published by HarperCollins in 1984, this well researched work on the Middle East* conflict is even more relevant in the wake of September 11th. Peters leads the reader to the conclusion that the chief bariiers to widespread freedom and prosperity in the Middle East today are the policies, maps and intellectual canons of the region's erstwhile caretaker and architect, Great Britain. Not only did Britain's policies weaken the democratic forces in the region, but her intellectual canons - chief among them that the Arabs had been in Palestine "from time immemorial" - were used to justify an almost total roll-back of the League of Nations mandate to create a "homeland" in Palestine for the Jews.**
In what can only be described as a betrayal of the League's trust, Britain colluded with its war-time Arab allies to limit the numbers of Jews allowed to return home and ban the ones that got through from settling on the eastern 75% of the territory the League had set aside for them. Eastern Palestine was unilaterally annexed instead to Arabian Prince Abdullah for eventual "attachment" to the Hijaz (today's Saudi Arabia), and the area once understood to be the future location of the Jewish homeland became Jew-free "Transjordan." Those who wonder why there is a need today for either Transjordan or a second Arab Palestinian state - - should. At the same time that Britain created 'Transjordan', they installed another Arabian prince on the throne of Iraq. Prime Minister Anthony Eden's infamous aside sums up the British attitude:
Besides appropriating 75% of the Mandate, the British also corrupted its administrative records. Records that should have helped secure the safety and rights of the interminably persecuted Judean minority, were used instead to disinherit them. According to Ms. Peters' painstaking research, it was under the complicit nose of the British Mandate that Arabs from Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere began streaming into the new Jewish homeland, drawn there by the return of the industrious Judean exiles. Since the British didn't keep a tally of Arab arrivals but only Judean ones, their records told a false story of comparatively overwhelming Jewish immigration numbers. The lopsided records were then used to justify sealing off the Jewish homeland to further Jewish immigration and to support the gross misrepresentation that Arabs had been living in Palestine "from time immemorial." Moreover, these records were used to inaccurately, and one might say absurdly, recast the Jews as strangers in their own land, "occupiers" no less of that which rightfully "belonged" to the Arabs (now dubbed "Palestinians.") To this day, this false canon informs and energizes Europe's terrible and one suspects willful misreading of the situation. Ms. Peters carefully documents the continuous Jewish presence in Palestine from the time they arrived there (over 1500 years before the birth of Muhammad) up through the Mandate era. She demonstrates that the Arabs were just one among numerous ethnic, religious and national groups that resided on and passed-through the long-desolate land, and documents the very limited nature of land "ownership" as it existed in the wake of the Ottoman collapse.
So what is the problem here if it isn't the Jews, who apparently had every right to settle in their ancient and long-resided upon homeland ? If one is to rely on the work of Ms. Peters, Princeton's Bernard Lewis, and the recent, Arab-authored, UN report on the state of development in the Arab Middle East, the problem is Arab-Islamic decline, humiliation and racism, and it would not be too great a leap to compare today's Arabs to the impoverished descendants of the slave-owning, plantation masters of the American south.
Following their defeat in war and loss of land and position, white Southerners responded to their humiliation by hatefully persecuting their former African slaves. The Islamic empire was similalry defeated in war and humiliated through colonization... Like Southerners, Islamists were provoked at the site of their former subservients (dhimmis) walking free. Poor white southerns and blacks stagnated together through many generations of post-Civil War poverty. But the situation was arguably more humiliating for Islamists. For just as the Arabs were finding themselves to be inept at governing the nation states imposed upon them by the Europeans, their former Judean dhimmis were succeeding in Israel. In a reversal of over a thousand years of history, the Arab-Islamist that had once looked to the lowly Judean for confirmation of his religious and racial superiority now found that in almost every measure of societal achievement, the Jews were running away with the ball game. Lurking deep in the collective consciousness of Islam was also knowledge that prior to Muhammad, the Jews dominated the economic life of the Hijaz ("Arabia.") This is why the mere existence of Israel is a deal breaker for the Arab-Islamists and why anything other than her destruction amounts to a non-starter in any "peace" negotiations. Those looking for the source of Arab-Islamic hatred towards the Jews need look no further than frustrated Islamic triumphalism, and fear.
Trying to ally with, assuage, or pander to a declining group possessing a violent entitlement to superiority will get the Bush administration no further than it got those who indulged the Ku Klux Klan. The lynchings of African-Americans continued unabated until the Klan was finally hounded out of existence by federal and state prosecutors. Legislation was enacted that vouchsafed the basic civil rights of blacks, and the South underwent a process of modernization. Racist Islam must also be defeated.
Newcomers to the subject of Islamic-Judaic relations might well ask when the enslavement of the Jews took place, and whether the status of the dhimmi was equivalent to that of a slave. While there are differences among scholars about the levels of deprivation imposed on dhimmis in different Arab subcultures, Joan Peters carefully documents the extent to which the gross and systematic subjugation of Jews was endemic to Islam from its birth. Explicitly prescribed by Muhammad the subservient status of Jews (founders of Medina in the first century AD) was codified into law by his successor Caliph Omar and rigorously practiced by Arab-Islamic societies for the next millennium. Peters quotes historian Alfred Guillaume:
Peters' descriptions of Judean life in Yemen, Iraq and Morocco is heartbreaking and DFME will excerpt her documentation of this phenomenon and discoveries about Islam's indigenous anti-Judaism in future postings. Suffice to say that Muhammad's impact on the once thriving Jews of the Middle East was crushing. Here is one of the many passages about the Jews in his Koran:
Did Islamic attitudes toward their Jewish dhimmis soften over the next thousand years? Here Peters quotes Charles de Foucauld, a French intelligence officer who wrote about Jewish life under Arab rule in nineteenth century Morocco:
In the absence of a major deprogramming effort on the scale of what the US undertook in post war Germany, American attempts to turn a centuries old culture of racism and predation into a benign and democratic next door neighbor are doomed to failure.
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* The extent to which From Time Immemorial continues to roil the pro-Arab/Edward Said camp of academic scholars can be seen on the book's Amazon page where one of their number has posted an attack. To learn more about this recently discredited group (to which Bernard Lewis obviously doesn't belong) read Martin Kramer's Ivory Towers on Sand. Jack Kemp praises the Peters book in this recent article. John Derbyshire is reminded of it just two days after the attacks of September 11.
** The name Palestine was the invention of the Roman conquerors of Judea, who not only exiled its rebellious Judean inhabitants but through this name change, hoped to to eliminate all traces of their prior existence. It is no small irony, that the name has been taken up by the local Arabs transients as indicative of their own prior existence on the land and their rightful ownership of it.)
Home . Posted by Editor at October 20, 2002 03:51 PM . DFME's new internet address is www.dfme.org
Comments on this post:
I need some help. I am doing a research paper for a sociology class on the middle eastern viewpoints on African/Blacks. Anyone who could help me find some somewhat unbiast info on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: Jen at February 4, 2003 01:31 AM
It is quite interesting that the Israeli Occupation is drawn in parallel with the African American struggle. Some salient differences that I immediately find rather difficult to resolve:
- The Africans were initially brought to America against their will. Fundamentally, that changes their predicament. Jews are immigrating through free will, and enjoy special priveliges in Israel. Through settlment activity they are actually forcibly displacing native residents who have lived there for more than a few generations. If an American parallel has to be drawn, wouldn't the European Colonization of the native American population be more apt?
- The combined military might of the Arab world (portrayed here as the slave-owners of the south) cannot even hope to match Israel's military. In fact, it seems something of a paradox to call the dominant force in a region, the victim of discrimination.
- There was a UN summit not long ago, where the international consensus was that Israeli policies constituted racial discrimination. Surely, some regard must be put into opinion the international community? Isn't settlement activity racist?
- Is it so unimaginable that the Arab hate of Israel is caused by images of Palestinean men, women and children being killed? I mean, are the authors SERIOUSLY suggesting that that does not play any role in the Arab hate?
I just wonder whether the people incharge of this site are avowedly anti-islamic? It has always struck me as morbidly fascinating that as a nation of people who underwent the most brutal discrimination, and ethnic hate program, so many Zionists propogate hatred for another people (Muslims). Perhaps, it is simply the nature of man: A sort of Law of Conservation of Hate. Perhaps, just covert agendas. Who knows?
There is undoubtedly hate of Israelis in the Arab / Muslim world: some of it is unreasonable, even Anti-Semetic. But the authors are guilty of bias and racism in the same vein. In the interest of truth, I would request the site editors to adopt a more 'middle path'. Arab, like you, are humans too.
Posted by: Yaser at April 8, 2003 02:09 PM
We'll leave a point by point response to Yaser's interesting comments for someone else. But with regard to his suggestion that the site propagates hatred, we'd like to reassure him that this is neither the objective or sentiment around here. DFME was launched in the wake of the September 11th attacks to help focus attention on the totalitarian regimes of the Middle East that threaten our democratic and religiously tolerant way of life, and to bring a sense of urgency to the task of confronting them. Our only agenda is to foster freedom and prosperity for the people of this great region - all of them, regardless of their race or religion. For that reason, we would be very disappointed if Yaser didn't continue to participate in this forum for open and respectful discussion. We may disagree with many of his views but we welcome his measured tone, his analytic bent, and his devotion to the truth of our shared humanity. We apologize if his feelings have been hurt by the strong positions expressed here.
Posted by: Editor at April 8, 2003 06:00 PM
Hello fellow peoples. I'm also a student and need an information source for an essay on racism in the middle east. Sounds easy, im not having such easy times finding things to assist my research. Mostly all I'm getting are newsrails and CNN reports. There's also a lot of Sept. 11 stuff too.
A lil' help please, Thanks!
Posted by: Chris at April 10, 2003 07:58 PM
Chris - The closest analogue to Western racism in the MidEast is the subjegation of Jews. Here are some links:
http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_history_dhimmitude.php
http://www.jimena-justice.org/bibliography/bibliography.htm
There's more where these came from under 'links' on the DFME home page.
Good luck!
Editor
Posted by: Editor at April 11, 2003 09:34 AM
Books of African/Blacks and the Middle East - The first book should be the Torah, Roman, Greek, Turkish, Persian, Pre-Islamic Poetry, Arabic, Syrian and Indian texts. The Rig Veda, all Arabic Scholars, government documents, Islamic Law texts and so forth. The Koran, Talmud and so forth.
Posted by: Ron at April 22, 2003 12:14 AM
Well!!! Amazing is the word I would use for the article. I can't believe that there are people in this "informed" world who really think like this and believe this stuff.
First I would really not like the name of Muhammad(PbUH) dragged into this and also misrepresentation of the words of Koran. The Prophet of Islam abolished slavery he did not support it. It was disliked by Islam. For the very essence of Islam and its foundations assert the equality of humanity. It was Islam which commanded the Pagan Arabs to treat their workers as equal to themselves and to abolish slavery.
As for militarism, Arabs emerged as a military power after accepting Islam, but I must tell u here that when Islam spread it was not due to the power of sword. Testimony to this fact is that there were no Armies that went into and conquered Malaysia and Indonesia both have Muslim Majorities.
We muslims are not Anti-jewish. Unlike others religions of the world, Islam recognizes the Prophethood of Jesus Christ and Moses (May God bless them). We as a community take their names with respect and honour them the way we honour our Prophet Muhammad(PbUH). The Bible and Torah are both Holy Books to us although we think they are tampered with. We just believe that our religion is the culmination of the religion of Abraham (May God bless him), the Father Figure of all Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We accept all to our religion and when they accept a single God Allah and the Messenger(PbUH) we give them the status of being a brother muslim with no bias against creed, religion, race or colour. So please don't blindly discuss Islam, there is a lot that world has to learn about it.
As far as Arab Nationalism is concerned and anti-jewish sentiment is concerned it is as unislamic as blind hate and alcoholism is. For our Prophet(PbUH) preached his religion amongst the Jews and won converts from amongst them. We intend to preach to the world peace, love, equality and brotherhood that what Islam is and that's what the Prophet of Islam (PbUH) did. Islam means submission to the will of One God and recognise that all humanity whether Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Muslim has been created by Him and Him alone.
As for what the Morrocan ways were well jews have probably seen worse treatment in Europe. I don't defend the Moroccans, what they did was unislamic. All men are free and equal as far as Islam is concerned. I rest my case...
Posted by: Hammad at May 15, 2003 06:12 AM
Islam and Racism?
I am deeply offended by people who claim Islam to be racist!
Racism is primarily a Western product used to suppress the colonial subjects and the slave trade.
Islam may need reform and modernistic approach. However, not racist. By the way, one should not try to bring reform and democracy in the Muslim through bombs and military oppression!
yours,
Atilla
Posted by: Atilla A. Iftikhar at July 15, 2003 05:58 PM
Thank you for your comment, Atilla. We are sorry if we hurt your feelings. If you learn to tolerate different religious viewpoints and leave your neighbors and minorities in peace, you will regain the respect of the world. Until then, you cannot blame people for defending themsleves against religious genocide and totalitarianism.
We obviously find a great deal of analytical value in comparing the Islamic institution of dhimmitude to western-style racism. We suggest you watch the excerpts of Islamic television that we've posted on the DFME site (left column under "Best of Islam") and see if you do not detect a marked similarity between the references to non-Islamic people and the race-based propaganda of the Old Europeans (Goebbels, Le Pen et al.) and American White Supremacists.
But here's something that IS actually worth being offended by - the evil that is being done in the name of Islam. We are glad that you have chosen to speak out in support of your religion at DFME. You are always welcome here. We respect your opinions and look forward to your correcting our inadvertant misrepresentations. But when was the last time that you spoke out in similar fashion against the Wahabis that have hijacked Islam and used it to attack others? As they usurp power in the world's mosques and madrases, the silence from Muslims is deafening.
Posted by: Editor at July 16, 2003 02:26 PM
Claiming that Islam is racist is comical; no particular race is a precursor to being revered and loved by God. God judges men on their Faith and their deeds, not on their race or their wealth etc. no other criteria is important to God, except piety/ wickedness and good deeds/ sinful deeds. Anyone who says that Islam is a religion that preaches anti-Semitism or any other forms of racism, purposely disregards the tenants of this Religion.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) succintly and lucidly stated in his last sermon that "no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab, and a non-Arab has no superiority over an Arab." If you want to go into the field of pragmatism, look at Malcolm X's attitude before and after he visited Mecca for Haij. He went from a "demogague" and a "white-devil slanderer" to a man who later condemned his own calls to racial divison. Here is Malcolm X's experience..
Malcolm X wrote:
Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.
"I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.
"There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.
"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.
----------------------
As a matter of fact, if any religion should be coined a racist, xenophobic one it is Judahism. Go and read certain sections of the Talmud which chastises the Genitals as being inferior to "dogs" and so forth. Grosteque teachings that are openly expressed in its teachings... why have you not put this book under the microscope yet?
Posted by: George at October 4, 2003 12:54 AM
How do Muslims punish racism?
What are the Islamic laws about racism?
Posted by: sam harris at November 12, 2003 07:03 AM
Dear Editor,
thank you for your reply of 16-07-2003.
I would like to point out some important issues which I think Muslims and non-Muslims should be perfectly aware of:
1) evil done in the name of nation, race, religion or other ideologies true has remained a problem in the world. However, critics of Muslims undermine or even forget that Muslim minorities have also been severely oppressed. The many examples of oppression in f.eks the Balkans, Caucasus, Hindu-dominated India and the conflict between Israel-Palestine prove that Muslim minorites are too often at the receiving end. Pro-Israel forces should neither forget that Balkan Muslims experiences in the 1990s a "Second Holocaust" in the hands of the Serbs. Chechen civilians have and still are barbarically treated by the Russian Slavic majority, Hindu mobs have also massacres hundreds of Indian Muslims with minimal international outrage. Clearly, there are also cases of the reverse happening, Muslims comitting wrong on non-Muslim minorities. This is sad and highly unfortunate too.
2) extremist forces in the Muslim countries are capable of advancing largely due to undemocratic and oppressive regimes. These regimes (often puppets of big powers) do not recognize that people have legitimate concerns. My hope is that with a peaceful democratization of the Muslim world, extremist groups will inevitably decline. The wahabis you mentioned have also successfully been supported by the US government in Saudi Arabia for many decades.
3) peaceful harmony between jews and Muslims existed for years in the Muslim Eurasian empire of the Ottomans. Since, the Spanish inquisition jews found asylum in the Ottoman lands. Today, this kind of peaceful cooexistence is still possible. However, only with balanced and harmonious policies, not oppression and occupation. After all, Jews, Christians and Muslims share the Abrahamic traditions and the believe in one God.
Lastly, I am observing a trend here in Europe where more and more people consider Israel the root cause of the Middle East problem. Most people also consider the US foreign ME policy unbalanced and destructive. This opinion is shared by many people around the world: Asia, Africa and even in the Americas (Mexico, Canada). The overwhelming majority of the world population can`t be wrong and I hope both the US and Israel will develop policies in harmony with rest of the world.
yours,
Atilla
Posted by: Atilla Iftikhar at December 6, 2003 08:18 AM
Interesting comments from Ron (above) regarding Islam and slavery; "The Prophet of Islam abolished slavery he did not support it. It was disliked by Islam. For the very essence of Islam and its foundations assert the equality of humanity. It was Islam which commanded the Pagan Arabs to treat their workers as equal to themselves and to abolish slavery."
I must point out however, that Mohammed owned several black slaves. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya relies heavily on the prophet's biographies written by great ancient scholars. Therefore, he is regarded by Muslims as an authority, a primary source and a leader among the students of Islamic religion. This scholar tells us in his book, "Zad al-Ma'ad" (part 1, pp. 114-116), the following:
"These are the names of Muhammad's male slaves: Yakan Abu Sharh, Aflah, 'Ubayd, Dhakwan, Tahman, Mirwan, Hunayn, Sanad, Fadala Yamamin, Anjasha al-Hadi, Mad'am, Karkara, Abu Rafi', Thawban, Ab Kabsha, Salih, Rabah, Yara Nubyan, Fadila, Waqid, Mabur, Abu Waqid, Kasam, Abu' Ayb, Abu Muwayhiba, Zayd Ibn Haritha, and also a black slave called Mahran."
Some qoutes from the Hadith on slavery:
What was Mohammed's position on freeing slaves?
In one instance , a man freed a boy slave. When Mohammed heard what happened, he took the boy auctioned, and sold him for 800 derhams to Na-eem Ebn Abdullah Al- Nahham. (Sahih Moslem vol. 7, page 83)
According to Mohammed, the punishment for committing adultery is different between a free man, a free woman and a slave-woman. The man is to be flogged one-hundred stripes and be exiled for one year. The free woman must be stoned to death. But the slave-woman (since she has a monetary value) will not be exiled or killed, she is to be flogged one-hundred stripes. If the violation is repeated, the slave-woman is to be sold on.(Sahih Al Bukhary vol. 8:821 & 822)
Dream on Ron!
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at May 25, 2005 07:53 AM
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