Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (6 page)

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Authors: Raymond Ibrahim

BOOK: Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
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To “become liable to the same treatment you inflict upon the people who resist and cause sedition” simply meant that, if any of the stipulations in the
Conditions
was broken, the Christians would resume their natural status as non-submitting infidels who “resist and cause sedition” against Islam—becoming, once again, free game for killing or enslavement. Other versions of
The Conditions of Omar
add yet more stipulations that Christians conquered by the sword of Islam had to embrace in order to exist as Christians, the infraction of any of which led to the loss of their protected status. Omar himself insisted upon one of these: that Christians never raise their hands against a Muslim, including in self-defense.
The above text makes the position of conquered Christians under Islam painfully clear. It was ratified at a time when Christians still made up the overwhelming majority of the populations of the conquered territories. As the ratio shifted in favor of Muslims over the centuries, Islamic jurists of the first few centuries of Islam built upon the
Conditions
, stipulating that conquered non-Muslim dhimmis had to abide by the following rules in order to be “protected” from—not by—Islam. Many are simple regurgitations of the
Conditions
, while others were reached through analogy to Omar’s original stipulations and Koran 9:29:
Restrictions on expressions of worship:
• Building new churches or repairing old ones was banned.
• Displaying “idolatry” or “paganism” was banned. Thus crucifixes, Bibles and other Christian books, Christian prayers, church singing, bells, cymbals, and Christian funeral processions all were banned from public display.
Restrictions on freedom:
• Proselytizing Muslims was banned.
• Blasphemy—often loosely interpreted as criticism of or offense towards Islam, its prophet, or even Muslims in general—was banned.
• Apostasy was banned—any Muslim who converted to Christianity was subject to the death penalty.
Inferior social status:
• Dhimmis had to adopt a humble demeanor and always respect Muslims.
• Dhimmi testimony was not valid against a Muslim in court.
• Raising one’s hands to a Muslim—even in self-defense—was banned on pain of death.
• Dhimmi blood was not equal to Muslim blood. While killing a Muslim was punished by death, Muslims were not liable to the death penalty for killing dhimmis.
• Preventing a fellow Christian’s conversion to Islam was banned. (Such conversions to Islam were encouraged by the preferential treatment converts would receive, especially vis-à-vis those who remained Christians. The convert to Islam would be granted custody of children, inherit the family’s property, not have to pay jizya, and so forth.)
• Dhimmis could not hold public office, or in any way be in positions of authority over Muslims.
• Intermarriage between Muslims and Christians was banned, except when the man, who has ultimate authority, was Muslim and the woman was Christian—a reminder of the Christians’ “submissive” role—never vice-versa.
• Christians were forbidden to bury their dead anywhere near Muslims, alive or dead.
• Dhimmi homes had to be smaller and lower than Muslim homes.
39
The restrictions above are described in the past tense, as they were established during Islam’s early years. But they apply in the present tense as well—or perhaps we should say
again
—as the Islamic world rediscovers its identity. These debilitations and humiliations, which were inflicted upon the Christians of the Islamic world in the past, are at this moment being inflicted upon the Christians of the Islamic world in the present, as a natural consequence of Muslims returning to the authentic teachings of Islam. Those teachings, as we have seen—and will see more fully—are fundamentally hostile to non-Muslims and their religious worship.
Indeed,
The Conditions of Omar
, far from being merely a historical or theoretical text, is still very much on the minds of Muslims. Compare the above text of the
Conditions
with the following words of Saudi Sheikh Marzouk Salem al-Ghamdi, spoken during a Friday mosque sermon:
If the infidels live among the Muslims, in accordance with the conditions set out by the Prophet—there is nothing wrong with it provided they pay Jizya to the Islamic treasury. Other conditions are . . . that they do not renovate a church or a monastery, do not rebuild ones that were destroyed, that they feed for three days any Muslim who passes by their homes . . . that they rise when a Muslim wishes to sit, that they do not imitate Muslims in dress and speech, nor ride horses, nor own swords, nor arm themselves with any kind of weapon; that they do not sell wine, do not show the cross, do not ring church bells, do not raise their voices during prayer, that they shave their hair in front so as to make them easily identifiable, do not incite anyone against the Muslims, and do not strike a Muslim. . . . If they violate these conditions, they have no protection .
40
 
Such is the continuity of Islam’s hostility to Christianity. The
Conditions
and related Sharia law justify countless attacks on Christians today. As we shall see, churches in Muslim countries are regularly bombed, burned, or simply denied permits to renovate or even to exist. Crosses are burned and Bibles are confiscated. Muslim converts to Christianity are often violently attacked and sometimes executed. Christians accused of committing “blasphemy”—which can mean simply discussing Islam, or even Christianity—are assaulted and killed. Jizya is exacted from Christians once again. Christians are forced to convert to Islam. Christian women and children are abducted and raped. The following pages are witness to hundreds of modern-day examples of Christian persecution that conform perfectly to Koran 9:29,
The Conditions of Omar
, and, in a word, to Sharia—the “way” of Islam.
 
PART TWO
 
ISLAM’ S WAR ON CHRISTIAN WORSHIP
 
U
nlike attacks on Christian individuals, which may be motivated by a myriad of factors, the ongoing attacks on Christian worship in the Muslim world are indisputable evidence of the persecution of Christians under Islam. In church, Christians are simply being Christians—peacefully congregating and worshipping their Lord. And yet modern-day Muslim governments try to prevent them from doing so, Muslim mobs attack them, and Muslim jihadis massacre them.
This should be unsurprising. Sharia law is hostile to Christian worship. It puts draconian restrictions on every expression of it, from churches to crosses. In fact, Christian worship was the very first thing
The Conditions of Omar
addressed and suppressed. Conquered Christians had to agree
Not to build a church in our city—nor a monastery, convent, or monk’s cell in the surrounding areas—and not to repair those that fall in ruins or are in Muslim quarters;
 
 
Not to prevent Muslims from lodging in our churches, by day or night, and to keep their doors wide open for [Muslim] passersby and travelers;
 
Not to harbor in them [churches and monasteries] or our homes a spy, nor conceal any deceits from Muslims;
 
Not to clang our cymbals except lightly and from the innermost recesses of our churches;
 
Not to display a cross on them [churches], nor raise our voices during prayer or readings in our churches anywhere near Muslims;
 
Not to produce a cross or [Christian] book in the markets of the Muslims;
 
Not to congregate in the open for Easter or Palm Sunday, nor lift our voices [in lamentation] for our dead nor show our firelights with them in the market places of the Muslims.
1
For a comprehensive understanding of Islam’s hostility to Christian worship, we will first examine Islamic doctrines concerning Christian worship. Next we will consider how these teachings have manifested themselves in practice over the course of centuries. And finally, we will demonstrate the continuity of the Islamic assault on Christian worship by showing how modern-day attacks on churches and religious objects such as crosses mirror the attacks of history—how the patterns of the persecution of Christians under Islam through the centuries are often identical to the patterns of persecution we see in Muslim countries today.
ISLAMIC HOSTILITY FOR THE THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IS OBLIGATORY
 
According to mainstream Islamic law, all churches on lands that Muslims took by force were to be destroyed or converted to mosques. If Sharia law had been followed to the letter, this would have included every church from Spain in the west to India in the east, and from the Balkans in the north to the fringes of the Sahara desert in the south, as these were the demarcation lines of the Islamic conquests. Famous churches annexed by Islam include the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Christendom’s grandest cathedral for nearly one thousand years until it was despoiled after the Ottoman jihadi conquest of Constantinople in 1453—its crosses and icons destroyed and defaced, and the cathedral transformed into a mosque.
2
Churches on lands that were surrendered to Islam without resistance, on the other hand, were permitted to continue to exist as churches, though their survival was subject to several stipulations, mostly stemming from
The Conditions of Omar
excerpted above. And even obedience to those stringent conditions did not always guarantee their survival, as later jurists decreed that even the churches of Christians who surrendered peacefully could be destroyed or transformed into mosques at the discretion of the local governor, especially if it was deemed to be in the interest of Muslims.
In short, as “houses of infidelity,” where Christians were accused of engaging in idolatry (“worshipping” crucifixes, icons, and so forth) and polytheism (associating Jesus with God), that is,
shirk
—one of the most reprehensible crimes in Islam—churches in those lands conquered by Islam were either to be destroyed or transformed into mosques; those in territories peacefully annexed were to be left to crumble. Needless to say, the question of building new churches on Muslim lands—whether conquered by force or surrendered peacefully—was, and doctrinally speaking still is, out of the question. In practice, however, especially during the colonial era, churches were repaired and even built in the Islamic world.
The issue of churches in Islam has been important enough to warrant the publication of numerous fatwas, treatises, and even whole books on the topic. One of the most comprehensive modern treatises, nearly sixty pages long, is entitled, in translation,
The Ruling on Building Churches and Other Idolatrous Places of Worship in Muslim Lands
, by Sheikh Ismail bin Muhammad al-Ansari (d. 1996).
3
Published around 1979, it was deemed authoritative enough to receive high praise from Saudi Arabia’s former Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most authoritative Islamic scholars. In his foreword to the treatise, the late Grand Mufti explained,
After reading this treatise from beginning to end, I have found it to be very valuable [he later adds that he has ordered its further publication and dissemination far and wide]. In it, the author documents all mention concerning churches, monasteries, and other places of idolatrous worship as found in the prophetic hadith and other books and the words of the ulema of the four schools of law. . . . Without a doubt, the subject of this treatise is very important—especially in this era, when interaction between infidels and Muslims has increased, including Christian activities to build churches in some of the Muslim countries, and especially in the Arabian Peninsula.
The ulema—Allah have mercy on them—have agreed that it is forbidden to build churches in Islamic lands; that it is obligatory to demolish them if they are built; and that building them in the Arabian Peninsula, including the Hijaz, Gulf Countries, and Yemen, is the greatest sin and offense. For the Prophet, followed by his Companions, ordered the expulsion of all Jews, Christians, and idolaters from the Arabian Peninsula, and forbade other religions from being practiced.
 

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