As a non-Muslim in a Muslim land, the “dhimmi”, or second-class citizen is restricted in many ways. Behavior, manner of dress, worshipping, business and other regulations are all designed to make sure the dhimmi understands and knows their place among the “religion of peace”.
The Pact of Umar, a peace accord between the caliph Umar and the Christians of Syria was the first definitive ruling on the status of non-Muslims in a Muslim land. As Christians were to be the dominate group in the Middle East for decades after the death of Muhammad and the conquest of lands by Muslims, it was important to lay the ground rules for the interaction between the two groups.
It was the intention of the caliph Umar to make it easy for non-Muslims to be identified, controlled and subjugated, thus the pact between Muslims and Christians. Today, the pact of Umar is the guidebook for how Muslims are to treat non-believers in every aspect.
Here is the complete pact, with my comments inserted in bold where appropriate.
The Pact of Umar
In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate. This is a letter to the servant of God Umar [ibn al-Khattab], Commander of the Faithful, from the Christians of such-and-such a city. When you came against us, we asked you for safe-conduct (aman) for ourselves, our descendants, our property, and the people of our community, and we undertook the following obligations toward you:
We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.
Saudi Arabia is the best example of this aspect of the pact, as they do not allow new churches to be built, or old ones renovated.
We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days.
Not the other way around, though.
We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy, nor bide him from the Muslims.
We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children.
Yet in places like
We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.
Again, another example of a one-way Islamic street.
We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit.
We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas.
The dhimmi must be identifiable as a dhimmi.
We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our- persons.
No way for the dhimmi to protect themselves or their families, making it easier for Muslims to abuse the dhimmi.
We shall not engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals.
We shall not sell fermented drinks.
No alcohol. If it is banned by Islam it is forbidden to all.
We shall clip the fronts of our heads.
The dhimmi must have short hair.
We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall bind the zunar round our waists.
All non-Muslims must wear a belt and wear the same style clothes. These are Identifying marks like the Nazi yellow star or pink triangle.
We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims. We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly. We shall not raise our voices when following our dead. We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.
Keep a low profile and you might survive another day.
We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.
We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims.
Nothing taller than a Muslim home or mosque.
(When I brought the letter to Umar, may God be pleased with him, he added, "We shall not strike a Muslim.")
We accept these conditions for ourselves and for the people of our community, and in return we receive safe-conduct.
If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.
Umar ibn al-Khittab replied: Sign what they ask, but add two clauses and impose them in addition to those which they have undertaken. They are: "They shall not buy anyone made prisoner by the Muslims," and "Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact."
from Al-Turtushi, Siraj al-Muluk, pp. 229-230.
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As one can plainly see, the pact of Umar was intended to keep as virtual slaves those who defied the word of Allah and believed in something other than Islam. This pact was extended to Jews a while later and today, many Muslim enclaves such as Paris, London, Malmo in Sweden, Amsterdam, even parts of New York City are upholding this pact and treating those non-Muslims who still dare to live within Muslim neighborhoods as dhimmis.
There is a growing trend within Western countries that have close to 5% Muslim population for more rights under sharia, more Islamic control and less infidel presence. Slowly the words of caliph Umar are insinuating themselves within Western culture, creating more conflict, friction and uneasiness. As the Muslim population grows, so will the demand for more concessions to Muslim sensibilities. As Islam makes more inroads the call for change into a more Muslim-tolerant society will get louder and more strident. If there is to be a way to beat the ever-increasing creep of dhimmi status into Western culture, it should come from within Islam. Infidels, or kuffir as we are called in Arabic can no more affect the directional change of Islam than can we empty Niagra Falls with a Dixie cup.
The pact of Umar resonates today within Islam as it places restrictions on anything which will show Islam to be equal to any other belief system. By being the good and faithful dhimmi, we acquiesce to the pact and thus legitimize it as something to be held in esteem by Muslims. Islam does not need us to be this way, but it does make it easier for Muslims to subjugate and then destroy that which is seen as evil and against Allah.
Many scholars within Islam today maintain that the pact of Umar is valid and applicable to all who dismiss the Qur’an and Muhammad as a way to gain control. This is true, and can be seen in places as
I prefer to fight.
Source: Medieval Source Book (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html)
5 comments:
Yeah - Islam is as intolerant as Judaism, in which it was based.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/11/implications-of-the-%E2%80%9Cchosen-people%E2%80%9D-myth/
The difference is that Islam at least tried to be universal - it is in principle open to everyone, whereas Judaism is for the chosen few. For all its faults, it was an advance on its competitor at the time.
Imagine if you guys criticised Judaism as bitterly as you attack Islam, calling, for example, for the Hillel house on the U of Oregon campus to be closed down as a promoter of hate, racism, ethnic cleansing and religious sectarianism. You'd be run out of town on a rail. So take the cowardly, easy way of bashing Islam.
No one is "bashing" Islam. Websites such as this one report on the reality of Islam, its rules, regulations, attitudes, customs, and history, and on current events that involve Islam. No one is against any one Muslim. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions do not have jihad as a religious requirement. Islam does. What is concerning is that the only allegiance any true believer of Islam may hold is allegiance to the Qur'an and to Islam, not to the country in which the individual resides. The continuing thrust to have Sharia law implemented in the United States should be of concern to any U.S. citizen. Omar Ahmad, C.A.I.R. lecturer, stated in his address to a Muslim audience in 1998, "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qur'an should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the ONLY accepted religion on earth". Those words should cause concern to anyone who values freedom.
To Jay Knott: Ah another anti-Semite heard from! I happened to look up the website that you mentioned in your post and also managed to do a little internet research on your friends at "DissidentVoice". All of the folks at "Dissident Voice" are pro-Palestine, rabidly anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic. Knowing this I understand that your comments come from a place of anti-Semitic hatred rather than intelligent analysis.
Anonymous: The reason why many of the people who post on Dissident Voice appear to you to be 'rabidly' anti-Israel is because they are leftists. They are critical of Israel for the same reason they were critical of apartheid South Africa. Do you think opponents of white apartheid were guilty of 'anti-white hatred'? Probably not. You want Jews to be judged by different standards from Afrikaaners. Moreover, pro-SA white people didn't have much power in the USA in the media, Congress, the White House, and most of the left. That's why it's not only evil and racist to be an Islamophobe cheerleader for Israel, it's utterly craven.
I just have to laugh at your "outrage". Your comments continue to smack of anti-Semitism, Judeophobia, racism and anti religious bigotry. Do you really think that this is an issue of "white" against "black" or "brown", or Jew against Muslim? You attempt to "re-wire", skew, and reduce valid, educated, logical and cogent commentary into your own very skewed, illogical, racist and ridiculously simplistic conclusions. These boards are about evil, racist and craven attacks committed against people who are not practitioners of Islam. As for apartheid, that was an abomination, just as dhimmitude and Shariah law is an abomination. BOTH systems have much in common. I abhor violence and prejudice where ever it rears its ugly head, I condemn ANYONE or ANY system that attempts to suppress freedom/freedom of speech.
In their own words:
"Jews are an example of human Satans. This is why Jews are the founders of Satan worship and Masonic lodges, and are now trying to take over the entire globe in which the global religion is to be Satanism….In the US there are now thousands of temples where Satan is worshiped. This Satanism has now become the ultimate tool in the hands of Zionists".
"Satanism," Muslims of America Web site
On May 15, 2008 Malik Ali gave two speeches during a week long Muslim Student Union (MSU) event at the University of California, Irvine. The speech was titled "Never Again? Palestinian Holocaust." During one presentation, which was titled "Silence is Consent; Stop the Palestinian Holocaust," Malik Ali claimed that "America has declared war on Islam." He called Al Qaeda "a controlled fire," and claimed that September 11 was manufactured to discredit "the mainstream Islamic resistance." Malik Ali's speech was interrupted with calls of 'God is great' in Arabic when he predicted that "the 21st century will be the century of Islam. And, Uncle Sam and the Zionists know it and they are afraid."
January 2011: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders have warned that they have placed operatives, poised to launch terror attacks, in the U.S., "Our fidaeen [commandos] have penetrated the terrorist America, we will give extremely painful blows to the fanatic America," TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud threatened. "The flames in our hearts will only be lightened when our Fidaaeen [sic] will deliver precise and destructive attacks on the terrorist America, bringing it down to its knees."
The fourth issue of the English-language terrorist magazine Inspire, released online by the media wing of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on January 16, 2011, calls for terrorist attacks in the U.S. and provides instructions on how to destroy buildings.
In 1985 Sa'id Raja i- Khorassani, a permanent delegate to the United Nations from Iran said, "the very concept of human rights was a "Judeo-Christian invention" and inadmissible in Islam.
As historian Victor Davis Hanson has explained, "there really isn't a phenomenon like "Islamphobia - at least no more than there was a "Germanophobia" in hating Hitler or a "Russaphobia" in detesting Stalin. The real danger to thousands of innocents is not the occasional evangelical zealot or uncouth politician spouting off about Islam, but the deliberately orchestrated and very sick anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism that floods the airways, emanating from Iran, Lebanon and Syria...but also from our erstwhile allies in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
The charge of "Islamophobia" is used to intimidate and silence critics of jihad in Islam. Some groups try to brand those who tell the truth about Islam and jihad as purveyors of "hate speech" (sound familiar Mr Knott?). Charges of "Islamophobia" are routinely used to shift attention away from the terrorists".
All in their own words.
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