Byzantine Catholic Culture - Christian Flight from the Middle East

The purpose of this essay is to advise our readers of the causes of the Christian exodus from the Middle East. We shall not discuss absolute numbers and percentages, for they are covered in other Web sites and books referred to herein. Rather, we want to review the social and political environment of Muslim societies in which Christians constitute vanishing minorities in lands where their presence precedes the invasion of Islam and where the Gospel of Christ was preached to them two thousand years ago. The ancient communities of Christ's followers are now under unrelenting pressure to abandon the lands where they have been for 20 centuries.

We invite our readers to imagine living in a social and political environment as members of a religious minority, Christians, where the dominant majority, Muslims, are told by their "holy book" that they are the noblest of creatures and the former are the vilest of animals, where the majority constitutes the only portion of society which counts whereas those of the minority are outside of and subordinate to that society, where the official state religion is that of the majority and the religion of the minority is scorned if not actively persecuted, where the legal system by its very language prefers the majority and discriminates against the minority, where the news media promote the interests of the majority and ignore or defame the people of the minority, where opportunity in education, employment and business are tilted toward the majority and away from the minority, where in times of political and economic misfortune those of the majority feel free to attack, plunder and kill those of the minority out of hatred and revenge, where the clergy of the majority preaches hatred for the minority and issues religious decrees urging its followers to wage war against the minority, where the men of the majority regard the women of the minority as shameless and frequently molest them, where the important decisions in society are based on the religion of the majority, on ethnicity, tribe, clan and family rather than on merit, and where ignorance, superstition, corruption, abuse & denigration of women, oppression, and persecution of religious & ethnic minorities are the norms, not the exceptions, then you will understand the predicament of Christians in Muslim societies and wonder no longer why they seek to escape by emigrating.

Increasingly in recent decades Catholic and Orthodox parishes in North America and elsewhere have experienced the influx of Christians from the Middle East. The movement of Christians from the lands of their ancestors evangelized by the Apostles is perplexing and painful to American Christians, for it is in that part of the world where our faith had its genesis. Eastern Christians, Catholic and Orthodox, cannot separate their religion from the places of its formative years. The first 600 years of the Christian era saw the growth of the Christian Churches, the gathering of the books of the New Testament into the canon of the Bible, and the early ecumenical councils which clarified the doctrines of the Trinity and the dual nature of Christ. In those years many of our saintly heroes, whom we venerate today, appeared like the Three Holy Hierarchs, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, & St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Anthony the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria and many others.

In the 7th century a new religion stormed out of Arabia, the religion of Muhammad called Islam. Muhammad taught a new monotheistic doctrine in opposition to the polytheism of Arabia, asserting that his incorporated the best of Judaism and Christianity and replaced both, that his was the complete and last revelation of his deity, Allah, and that he was his deity's last messenger. [2] Within a century of his death his followers, called Muslims, carried his religion by fire and sword into the Christian world of the Middle East, overwhelming the Christian populations [3] and carrying Islam eastward to the borders of China and westward across North Africa and into Spain and southern France. Everywhere the Christian populations capitulated to the armed hordes of Islam. In dealing with the captive populations the Muslim overlords were guided by the experience of Muhammad in subduing the pagan, Christian and Jewish tribes of Arabia. These experiences were incorporated into Muhammad's book, the Quran. Pagans were commanded to convert to Islam. If they refused they were killed and enslaved and their property seized. If the submitted without resistance, they were spared. Christians and Jews [4], however, were regarded as "peoples of the Book" and treated differently. If they surrendered without resistance, their lives and property were spared conditional on acknowledgment of their inferiority to Muslims and the superiority of Muslims and further on payment of the humiliation tax called "jizya". See further explanation of jizya in footnote 8 of http://www.byzantines.net/epiphany/islam.htm This arrangement or understanding is called "dhimma" and the subjugated peoples of the Book are called "dhimmi". See Quran Surah IX, 29. The legal, social and cultural condition of the subjugated dhimmi in Muslim societies is called "dhimmitude". Theoretically the dhimmi were to be allowed free practice of their religion, but in reality that notion evolved into mere sufferance under whatever other limitations the local rulers might impose. For the first centuries after Muslim conquest the Christian populations were the majorities under their Muslim masters. Over time these majorities dwindled to minorities through forced conversions and expulsions.

To understand the role of the dhimmi in Muslim controlled societies, one must first examine the world view of the Muslims envisioned by Islam's foundation documents, namely the Quran, the Hadith or traditions, and the Sheria or law code. Muslims view the entire world as the possession of Allah and his surrogates on earth, the Muslims. This world domination by Islam is called "khilafah" and it remains the goal of Islam. Jihad or "holy war" is the means by which the infidels are conquered and the goal of khilafah is achieved. All humanity must submit to Islam as the natural order of the universe. The exception, mentioned above, allowed to Christians and Jews, was and remains, as stated, mere sufferance, not an acceptable alternative. Muslims divide humanity into two kinds - believers or Muslims called by the Quran "the best of nations raised up to rule over all others" Surah III, 110, and "kufr" or infidels defined by the Quran as "the vilest of animals" Surah VIII, 55. Christians and Jews, while not pagans, remain infidels, "may Allah destroy them" Surah IX 30. See LONDON BOMBINGS at: http://www.islamreview.com/articles/hatredinislam.shtml

The world is divided by Muslims into the House of Islam where Muslims prevail and the House of War where infidels prevail. Between the two abodes of mankind perpetual war called jihad reigns as the natural condition or relationship. All Muslims are called to jihad as a moral mandate to subdue the House of War and establish the universal rule of Islam, khilafah. All Muslim society everywhere is contained in the "umma", the universal brotherhood of Muslims. In the early centuries following Muhammad the umma was led by the "khalif", the Commander of the Faithful, as the successor of Muhammad, in whom all matters of religion and state were combined. Islam, then as now, sees no distinction between the religion and the state.

Islam has no notion of inalienable natural or human rights such as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, Islam does not acknowledge civil rights, i. e. rights which inure to people by virtue of their membership in a political state. The only rights possessed by Muslims and dhimmi are religious rights recognized in the Quran and codified in the Sheria. In this scheme of things, the despised dhimmi fare badly, for they are excluded from the umma and remain subordinated to it in law as well as in practice. Muslims are even forbidden to befriend dhimmi Surah V, 51. By rough analogy the status of dhimmi may be likened to that of the Negroes in the South during the worst days of Jim Crow. [6]

Seen in the above context and supported by 14 centuries of practice, the Muslims are trapped in a "closed circle" of their own making which denies them the opportunity to regard and deal with infidels in any manner except that which is contemplated by their religion and culture. Because the mandates of the Quran represent the complete, final, eternal, literal and unalterable revelation of their deity, the Muslims are frozen in the Bedouin mentality of the 7th century and unprepared to deal with dhimmi or other infidels according to the universal human rights standards of the present. As stated by the author, Bat Ye'or, in her book, referenced below, entitled THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM:

Although the above standards apply generally to the relationships between the umma and the dhimmi in all times and places, the practical application in many Muslim states has yielded to outside influences and political realities. Accordingly the practical applications have been modified resulting in a variety of situations in which Muslim states have deviated from the norm, allowing in some cases more benign treatment of dhimmi. In some states like Baathist Iraq, Baathist Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco the governments eschew the overt persecution of Christians, although the Jews were run off decades ago. Other states like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Sudan apply the full vigor of Quranic discrimination.

The exodus of Christians from the Middle East is varied and complex. In the 19th century the European powers began to intervene increasingly in the affairs of Muslim countries, pressing the rulers to grant relief to the dhimmi from the worst of their burdens. In addition, European Churches moved in to establish schools, printing presses and mutual aid societies to aid the Christians thereby exposing them to new ideas. Those who went abroad to study seldom returned. Awareness of greater economic opportunities and notions of liberty gave Christians in Muslim countries a growing appreciation that conditions elsewhere were better than those which they knew so well. Political turmoil and periodic rampages by Muslims against Christians motivated interest in emigration. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the emigration of Christians to the Americas began in earnest.

The second massive emigration began after World War II with the influx of Jewish refugees into the British Mandate of Palestine. The concomitant conflict between Palestinians and Jews created instability and inured to the harm of the Christian communities. The Palestinian and other Middle Eastern Christians and their Churches sided largely with the Muslims in opposing Jewish presence in the Middle East. With the restoration of the people of Israel to the land of Israel in the State of Israel the conflicts grew. Rejecting the United Nations' partition of the Mandate into Jewish and Muslim parts and as a result of the four wars initiated and lost by the Palestinians and their Arab allies against Israel, the condition of the Christians became increasingly bad. The Israelis regard Arab Christians as untrustworthy and the Muslims continue to treat them as despised infidels. Consequently the movement of Christians from the region of the former Mandate to the West accelerates. Elsewhere in the Muslim world where there are no Jews or Israelis the same is happening. The growth and increasing intolerance of militant Islam, the continuing discrimination against them as despised dhimmi, economic opportunity elsewhere and the universal longing of people to be free, prompt Christians to leave the lands of their ancestors and to seek a better life in freedom elsewhere. As their sons go abroad for education, their families in an ever widening circle of kin and friends follow which is emptying out the Christian communities of the Middle East.

THE FINAL SOLUTION

The final solution to the Christian presence in the Middle East is rapidly approaching. Within a generation or two, the Christians will have followed the Jews in fleeing the bitter oppression of the islamofascist social and political order of the Middle East. Increasingly non-native Christians will take over the custody of the major shrines and churches. In the lands evangelized by the Apostles the church bells will go silent and from their towers will sound the demonic wail of the muezzin summoning Muhammad's followers to their prostrations.

Rather than repeat what is already available about absolute numbers and percentages of Christians emigrating, we direct our readers to two Web sites with such information. They are "Disappearing Christians in the Middle East " at: http://www.danielpipes.org/pf.php?id=1050 and "The Oppression of Middle Eastern Churches" at: http://www.foigm.org/IMG/phares.htm For English translations of inflammatory anti-infidel agitation & propaganda emanating daily from mosque & media in the Middle East, see the Web site of the Middle East Research Institute at: http://www.memri.org See also our page entitled Islam & the Church at: http://www.byzantines.net/epiphany/islam.htm and the books referenced below in footnote [8]

COMMENTS

Muhammad is the author and founder of Islam. His book, the Quran, as expanded in the traditions (Hadith) and codified in the legal code (Sharia) provides a complete system for the governance of Muslims and for the subjugation, exploitation, and persecution of infidels. The Muhammadan cosmology starts first with the division of the world into two domains, the Dar al Islam (House of Islam), where Muslims prevail, and the Dar al Harb (House of War) where the infidels prevail while they are being attacked, subdued, killed, enslaved, and/or reduced to "dhimma" or "protected" status in the case of Jews and Christians, the so-called "people of the book", who are called "dhimmi". Dhimma is intended as a temporary state during which the dhimmi are eventually converted and/or expelled from the House of Islam. The ultimate goal, today as fourteen centuries ago, remains the same, namely all of mankind under the dominion of Muhammad's god and its followers. His cosmology is marked next with the division of mankind into two sorts - Muslims, "the best of nations raised up for the benefit of men" (Surah 3: 110) and non-believers or infidels, "the vilest of animals" (Surah 8: 55). Given this perspective of the world and its inhabitants, the fate of our Christian brethren in the Middle East and elsewhere in Islam follows its ordained course - oblivion which from the Muslims' viewpoint is the natural order of the universe and the ultimate good. We recommend to our readers the book, THE TRUTH ABOUT MUHAMMAD by Robert Spencer.

APPENDIX

HAMAS AND THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANS IN GAZA AND THE WEST BANK

In January 2006 the ISLAMIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT OF PALESTINE (HAMAS) [10] won the elections in the Palestinian territories unexpectedly yet overwhelmingly, as a result of which, HAMAS is now in a position to form the new government of the territories. Thus it has moved from a dissident terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel to the dominant or government party. Its leadership and ideology can now direct future developments impacting all in the region. Already the politicians, pundits and academicians are telling us that HAMAS' elevation to power will lead inevitable to the tempering or moderation of its extremist doctrines in quest of accommodation with the so-called international community. We suspect that is wishful thinking. HAMAS did not enter the political arena to change its agenda, but to implement it better. How, then, orthodox Christians may inquire, will the new order impact the Christians remaining in the territories?

We admit that we are neither clairvoyant nor prophetic, yet an analysis of the HAMAS CHARTER of 1988 (hereinafter called "Charter") leads us to the conclusion that the HAMAS victory bodes ill for the Christians of the territories. Most of our readers have never heard of the Charter, let alone read it, and therefore we hasten to direct their attention to the Web site where it may be downloaded and printed. See http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

First and foremost the Charter is a religious document with profound political implications, there being in Islam no distinction between religion and politics. The preamble of the Charter begins by declaring that Muslims:

Proceeding from the statement of belief in the dichotomy of mankind, the Preamble declares further:

Article One states that the Movement's program is Islam. From it, it draws its ideas, ways of thinking and understanding of the universe [cosmology], life and man. It resorts to it for judgment in all its conduct, and is inspired by it for guidance of its steps,

These words are utter dissimulation [11] intended to deceive infidels into believing that Muslim rule over Palestine including Israel will not inure to the harm of Christians and Jews. Aside from being a boldface lie, it is contradicted by the Quran, the Hadith and the Sharia plus 14 centuries of Islamic history.

Article Seventeen limits women's role in society to the bearing and raising of children and to housekeeping.

Article Twenty-two blames the Jews and their money for creating, funding and controlling the world media, news agencies, press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations and stirring up revolutions everywhere including the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution etc and funding secret societies such as the Freemasons, the Rotary Club, the Lions, etc for the purpose of promoting Zionism.

Article Thirty-one repeats the same dissimulations about Christians and Jews as contained in Article Eleven and described in footnote 2.

Thanks for the warning, guys! In short, you're telling us to do it your way or we're dead meat - just like in the preceding 14 centuries!

Article Thirty-two engages in the same old Jew-baiting paranoia derived from the Nazi propaganda machine of the 30ies and 40ies:

CONCLUSION AND COMMENTARY

The Quran defines Muslims as "the best of nations raised up to instruct all others" and unbelievers including Christians and Jews as "the vilest of animals". Moreover the Quran assigns to Christians and Jews the despised status of dhimmi subordinate to the umma in law and practice. In Islam there is no equality between Muslim and infidel. And the Charter makes it clear beyond quibbling that the Quran is its constitution. Why then should we accept HAMAS for anything less than what we read in its Charter? There is nothing in the Charter, the dissimulations of Articles Eleven and Thirty-two notwithstanding, which would induce us to believe that HAMAS seeks anything other than to impose on Palestinian society the full rigors of the islamofascist social and political order structured on Islamic principles set forth in the Quran , as amplified in the Hadith, and codified in the Sharia which allow no accommodation for non-Muslims except for the subordinated status of jizya-paying dhimmi, the despised and inferior caste reserved for those who reject Muhammad's deity. This is fully contemplated in Surah 9: 29 and subsumed into the Charter. In addition, the Charter commits the new HAMAS government of the territories to the same failed policies in place since 1948 which have achieved nothing but the further alienation and degradation of Palestinians. Over the past 58 years the Palestinians have mastered the perverse art of marching backwards. Their leaders have learned nothing. Their ideology is fixed in the 7th century Bedouin mentality of the Hijaz and remains permanently entrapped in the reactionary doctrines of Muhammad. As for the unhappy Christians remaining in that benighted land their future lot has been foreordained - emigration at earliest opportunity.

THE PALESTINIAN PARADOX

There are few issues in current affairs as perplexing to Westerners as the unending conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinians. Following World War I, the League of Nations allocated the territory of the former Ottoman Empire west of the Jordan River known as Palestine as a mandate to the British government which pledged to administer the territory until such time as the inhabitants might prove themselves fit for self-rule. When the British government announced in 1947 that it would withdraw its troops and administrative personnel, the United Nations, successor to the League of Nations, drafted a plan for partitioning the mandate between those areas occupied primarily by Arabs and those occupied by Jews. The plan of partition allocated the better portion including all of Jerusalem to the Arabs, the latter subject to conditions of internationalization whereby Christians and Jews would have access to the Holy City. The Jews were granted what was left of the mandate west of the Jordan River. See Map 1 below. The Jews accepted their portion and created the state of Israel subsequently recognized by all of the major powers. The Palestinian Arabs and their Arab neighbors rejected the plan and invaded Israel. They were defeated. Three more wars (1956, 1967 and 1973) and two intifadas later, wherein the Palestinians and their allies were defeated, failed to convince the Arabs that, in the real world, the victors, not the vanquished, dictate the terms of peace. Accordingly the Palestinians and some of their Arab neighbors have continued hostilities against Israel in a vain effort to change the outcome of the struggle.

The recent victory of HAMAS in the Palestinian territories has made the situation worse. HAMAS, consistent with its Charter, has refused to recognize Israel or deal with it as an equal partner and persists in its effort to extinguish Israel. Given the fact that Israel has neither a negotiating partner nor the chance of achieving a rational solution to the conflict through accommodation and negotiations, it is proceeding with a plan to fix the boundaries of Israel unilaterally and to construct a defensive wall to restrain Palestinian aggression. See Map 2 below. This plan, of course, will not result in any permanent resolution of the conflict but might make it more manageable.

We attribute Palestinian and other Arab intransigence to certain inherent features of Islamic doctrine. First, Islam does not conceive of any permanent or long-term resolution of conflict between Muslims and infidels. Between the House of Islam (Dar al Islam) and the House of War (Dar al Harb) war is perpetual until the latter is subdued and rendered subject to Islam. Second, as stated above, Muslims regard themselves as "the best of nations raised up to rule all others" (Surah 3: 110) and infidels as "the vilest of animals" (Surah 8: 55). Thus Muslims treat infidels never as equals but always as inferiors fit only to be subdued, killed, expelled, enslaved, plundered or, in the case of Jews and Christians, subordinated to the umma as an inferior caste of dhimmi (Surah 9: 29). Third, Jews suffer the added indignity of having incurred the wrath of Muhammad by rejecting his cult and thereby earning the pejoratives of "pigs and monkeys" (Surah 7: 166), in short, loathsome beings not even human. The orthodox Christian notion of humans as being created in the "image and likeness of God" and therefore equal in their basic human dignity is completely alien to Islam. Fourth, the territory of Israel having been conquered by Muslims in the 7th century remains Islamic waqf, i. e. designated in perpetual trust for the benefit of Muslims. See footnote 12.

Fifth, in Muhammadan cosmology, the triumph of the House of Islam over the House of War is as certain and absolute as the constancy of the speed of light in a vacuum. Given the certainty of this assurance the men of HAMAS see no need to seek compromise or accommodation with the Jewish presence in the Middle East. Herein lies the Palestinian paradox. On the one hand we note a people, whether scattered abroad in exile in East or West, which are competent to organize their lives well and to prosper better than most Arabs. Yet on the other hand they remain locked in a reactionary religious ideology of the 7th century Hijaz which prevents them from attaining a realistic perspective of their present condition and to exploit the same for their own benefit, clinging instead to the vain expectation that somehow they will prevail over the Israelis, expel them from the land of Israel and create on the ruins of Israel the perfect Palestinian state which has never existed and which has no chance to exist except in the wildest dreams of religious fanatics. [13 & 14]

One can only speculate what the present condition of the Palestinians might be, had they accepted the portion of the British mandate allocated to them by the United Nations. Conceivably there would be today a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem approaching its 60th anniversary. Given that the Palestinians are among the more talented of the Arabs they would likely have created a prosperous state similar to Lebanon. However, in view of the course of events over the past 58 years and the dim realities of today in the Palestinian territories, we ask whether the concept of a Palestinian state, which has never existed historically, is even feasible. Perhaps it would be better for the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors to consider a partial return to the status quo prior to the 1967 war when Gaza was held by Egypt and of the remnants of the West Bank occupied by Jordan as the preferable course to follow for the peace and security of the Palestinians as well as the greater good of all.

Map - Palestine partition 1947
MAP 1

Map - Israel border fence
MAP 2

FOOTNOTES

1) Hagia Sophia is the Mother Church of Eastern Christians, idealized to appear as it might have been before its desecration by the Muslim Turks. The life-giving cross has been restored to the dome and the four minarets have been removed. Today it is neither temple nor mosque, but a museum. Our Mother Church will be a metaphor of the Churches of the Middle East, should current trends of emigration continue.

2) The Quran. When one reads the Quran for the first time, one is surprised to discover that Muhammad's deity bears scant resemblance to the Christians' God. Rather, it appears like an ancient Semitic war god elevated by Muhammad above all others whose worship his followers seek to impose on mankind by force. One chapter of the Quran, Surah VIII, entitled "The Spoils of War", is devoted to the plundering, killing and enslavement of vanquished infidels and the apportionment of their property among the followers of Muhammad.

3) Muslims do not regard themselves as conquerors of the lands of the infidels, but their liberators. That is based on the premise that the lands, people and property of all the world belong to Allah and his followers and that they are merely taking possession of what is rightfully theirs. The author, Bat Ye'or, states the case well in her book, ISLAM AND DHIMMITUDE, referenced below, as follows: "The general basic principles according to the Koran are as follows: the pre-eminence of Islam over all other religions [Surah 9: 33]; Islam is the true religion of Allah [Surah 3; 17] and it should reign over all mankind [Surah 34; 27]; the umma forms the party of Allah and is perfect [Surah 3; 6], having been chosen above all peoples on earth it alone is qualified to rule, and thus elected by Allah to guide the world [Surah 35; 37]. The pursuit of jihad, until this goal will be achieved, is an obligation [Surah 8; 40]. The religions of the Bible …are deemed inferior as their followers falsified the true Revelation which their respective prophets conveyed to them - this Revelation considered to be Islam - before Muhammad's arrival. Albeit inferior, these peoples, each a beneficiary of Revelation, have the choice between war or submission to the umma, whereas idolators are forced to convert to Islam or be killed". pp. 40 - 41

4) The Jews, although one of the "peoples of the Book", incurred the wrath of Muhammad for their rejection of his religion. In the Quran Surah V, 60 he referred to them as "apes and swine". The terms "apes and swine" or "descendants of apes and swine" continue to be the preferred anti-Jewish pejoratives in the Muslim world.

5) Dhimmitude is an image by Josef Yinnon and a word fashioned by the author, Bat Ye'or, to describe the bondage, subservience, isolation and abuse of Christians and Jews in Muslim societies, the legal and social restraints under which they live, their culture and attitudes which evolved under their condition, and the expectations of the dominant umma. It refers also to Christian acquiescence to and adoption of the prevailing policy in Muslim states which rejects the existence of Israel and resists American foreign policy in the region in a vain effort to curry favor with the Muslims. For more information about the dhimmi mentality, see: EASTERN CHRISTIANS TORN ASUNDER by Bat Ye'or at: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-batyeor091803.asp

6) One dare not stretch this analogy too far. Whereas the Negroes in America were able to prevail upon the fundamental religio-political concept in American society of the equality of all humans in the civil rights movement and succeed, the dhimmi in Muslim societies are not so favored. In Islam only Muslims are equal; all others are inferior and subordinated to Muslims by Quranic definition.

7) The Lion of Juda. This image shows the Lion of Juda standing guard over the Holy City of Jerusalem roaring defiance at the enemies of Israel. The Lion of Juda represents King David and by extension Jesus Christ as symbol of His victory over Satan. See Rev. 5, 5.

8) We recommend to our readers the following books:
THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM by Bat Ye'or, ISBN: 0838636888
ISLAM AND DHIMMITUDE - WHERE CIVILIZATIONS COLLIDE by Bat Ye'or, ISBN: 0838639437
WHITNESSES FOR CHRIST - ORTHODOX NEOMARTYRS OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD by Nomikos Vaporis, ISBN: 0881411965
THE BODY AND THE BLOOD- THE MIDDLE EAST'S VANISHING CHRISTIANS by Charles Sennott, ISBN: 1586481657
WHO ARE THE CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? by B. J. & J. M. Bailey, ISBN: 0802810209
THE CLOSED CIRCLE - AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ARABS by David Pryce-Jones, ISBN: 0060981032
THE SWORD OF THE PROPHET - THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM by Serge Trifkovic, ISBN: 1928653111
THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM (AND THE CRUSADES) by Robert Spencer, ISBN: 0895260131

THE MYTH OF ISLAMIC TOLERANCE, HOW ISLAMIC LAW TREATS NON-MUSLIMS by Robert Spencer, ISBN: 1591022495
In this book, editor Robert Spencer illustrates from his contributors whom he has assembled that the notion of Islam as a peaceful and tolerant religion is fiction created originally to defame Christianity and is wholly without support in the QURAN, the HADITH, and the SHARIA illustrated by 14 centuries of Islamic history. The political and ideological reality of Islam, past and present, is intrinsically fascistic and discriminatory by its own terms and detrimental to all who reject the cult of Muhammad. We recommend this book to our readers.

9) Many, if not most Muslims, eschew images of Muhammad, however, those of the Turkish and Persian cultural traditions frequently portray Muhammad alone or with others, veiled or unveiled.

10) PALESTINE is a geographic designation, not a country. As a kingdom or state it never existed, unlike ancient and modern Israel. It was always a province or territory of some other kingdom or state. In 132 - 135 AD the Jewish leader, Bar Kokhba, led a Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation. Following his defeat by Roman Emperor Hadrian, Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jews banished, and the ruins renamed AELIA CAPITOLINA. Hadrian changed the name of Judea to SYRIA PALAESTINA after the Philistines. Over time the region was known simply as PALASTINA. During the rule of the Ottoman Turks it was part of the province of Greater Syria.

11) DISSIMULATION means lying or deception. In Arabic in the context of this page it is called AL TAKIYA. Islam forbids lying or deceit as between Muslims, but where infidels are involved, lying and deception may be freely employed to protect the umma against infidels and to advance the cause of Islam. These words were placed in the Charter for the probably purpose of leading Christians and others to believe that the islamification of the territories and Israel would harm no one. In reality, the Quran Surah 9: 29 says otherwise.

12) ISLAMIC WAQF The term waqf means a charitable trust or foundation, the assets of which consist of land and other property, which are designated in perpetuity for the benefit of the named class of Muslim beneficiaries. Muhammadan cosmology conceives of the entire world, its people, land and assets, as the property of Allah and his followers. Accordingly when Muslims conquer any territory of infidels, they are merely asserting rightful ownership of that which is already theirs. The land is impressed with an Islamic waqf or trust for the benefit of the umma for all time. Thus the property rights of the conquered infidels devolves from legal and equitable ownership to mere possession with a concomitant right to enjoy the usufruct subject to whatever taxes and other burdens on use the umma may impose until such time in the future when the umma may elect to dispossess the infidels completely to meet the needs and conveniences of the former. The property rights of infidels under this arrangement is roughly equivalent in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence to a leasehold terminable at the will of the landlord. The purpose of these constraints is today what it has always been, namely 1) to transfer wealth from infidels to the umma, 2) to pressure the infidels to convert to Islam, or 3) to encourage the infidels' departure from the House of Islam.
As stated above, Islamic waqf is perpetual. Thus if the conquered land is once again recovered by its inhabitants, it still remains Islamic waqf forever even though the Muslims are no longer in control. Lands such as Israel, southeastern Europe, Sicily, Sardinia, Russia and India - all formerly under Muslim dominion - remain subject to Islamic waqf and the Muslims have the moral duty to seek to re-conquer such lands. The doctrine of Islamic waqf is the basis of Islamic neo-imperialism.

13) Even the proposal of Mahmoud Abbas and some Palestinians for a two-state solution based on a return to the boundaries prior to the 1967 war which would mean the return of east Jerusalem to the Palestinians and which would include the so-called right of return of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants to Israel displays the profoundly unrealistic mode of Palestinian thinking that renders serious negotiations impractical. It would be roughly analogous to the Germans, after their defeat in World War II, demanding that their post-war boundaries be established according to what they were prior to World War I.

14) HISTORICAL FICTIONALIZATION In recent decades the promoters of the Palestinian cause have employed a form of historical revision, not to correct historical texts or understanding, but to advance political objectives unrelated to modern historiography. Many political and ideological movements such as Nazi fascism and Soviet Marxism have also rewritten history to further their political objectives. The Palestinians came to the task of rewriting the history of the Middle East in recent decades to denigrate or eliminate from consideration the objective roles played by others in the region now as well as in the past. Palestinian historical fictionalization serves primarily to remove the ancient Jews (Israelites) from the history of the region in an effort to discredit the claims which Jews might assert to the territory of ancient or modern Israel. This, of course, not only challenges the existence of the Israelites in Juda and Israel as detailed in Jewish and Christian Scriptures. but also assails collaterally the legitimacy of Christianity as a Jewish religion with its birthplace in what we call “the Holy Land”. There are several claims made by the Palestinian historical fictionalizers, not necessarily all consistent, a few of which we discuss below.

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