Dhimmitude Dominates
by Jerry Gordon (February 2010)
The Third Choice- Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom
by Mark Durie
Deror Books, 2010, 288 pgs.
W noted:
It is this civilization which is called dhimmitude. It is characterized by the different strategies developed by each dhimmi group to survive as non-Muslim entity in their Islamized countries. Dhimmitude is not exclusively concerned with Muslim history and civilization. Rather it investigates the history of those non-Muslim peoples conquered and colonized by jihad.
Dhimmitude encompasses the relationship of Muslims and non-Muslims at the theological, social, political and economical levels. It also incorporates the relationship between the numerous ethno-religious dhimmi groups and the type of mentality that they have developed out of their particular historical condition which lasted for centuries, even in some Muslim countries, till today.
Dhimmitude is an entire integrated system, based on Islamic theology. It cannot be judged from the circumstantial position of any one community, at a given time and in a given place. Dhimmitude must be appraised according to its laws and customs, irrespectively of circumstances and political contingencies.
Bat Ye’or’s pioneering publication of Robert Spencer
The Third Choice should be considered an important and timely complement to Bat Ye’or’s, The Dhimmi. (View essay by him on the impossibility of Islamic reformation:
Durie goes on to note the devastating impact of the jizya on dhimmis:
He notes this from the Koranic commentary of Ibn Kathir:
Allah said,
, if they do not choose to embrace Islam, , in defeat and subservience,
disgraced, humiliated and belittled.
Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated. (p. 142)
Armenians for equal treatment – the ultimate rejection of the dhimma – which triggered their wholesale destruction by Muslims under the Ottomans. In this case also, the massacre was especially directed at the men. Another jihad feature was the often-reported offer of conversion to Islam as a means of escaping death. Many women and girls were abducted into the homes of Muslims. (pp 159-160) Drive-by shooters sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt, killing at least seven people at they streamed out of church after midnight Mass, officials said Thursday. Muslim societies under considerable external pressure, or as the result of European military occupation. the occurrence of religious persecution under dhimmitude, the reimplementation of Sharia in the Muslim ummah, the rise of racism and blasphemy charges against non-believers, the Stockholm Syndrome of some middle eastern clergy and threatened minorities, the objections to historic views that the dhimma “worked well’, the appeasement by church and political leaders in the West, and, the futility of Muslim inter-religious dialogue. offers, and threats from Islamists, and fight.
The attack took place overnight in Nag Hamadi, about 40 miles from popular tourist sites at the ancient ruins of Luxor. It was in apparent retaliation for the rape of a 12-year-old Muslim girl by a Christian man in November, according to an Interior Ministry statement carried by news agencies.
“I had expected something to happen on Christmas day,” the bishop was quoted as saying. “It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt,” he said.
Neighboring shopkeeper Hajji Liaquat Abdul Ghafoor accused Masih of tearing out pages of the Quran and burning them on July 1, 2009. Denying that he burned any pages of the Quran, Masih told investigators that the papers he burned were a heap of old merchandise records he had gathered while cleaning his store.
Durie notes the insidious concealment of the dhimma under the doctrine of Sharia:
The dhimma myths and spin, which have been concocted to conceal the reality of the dhimmis’ condition, are a phenomenon of the modern era. The reality is that where there have been hard-won improvements to dhimmis’ conditions in recent centuries, these were imposed upon
In the penultimate chapter, The Dhimma’s Return (see his updated version published in this edition of the NER) Durie chronicles a range of topics:
At the conclusion of The Third Choice, Durie quotes
There are undoubtedly some Islamic states which treat non-Muslim citizens in ways which can only be described as oppressive …
It is of the utmost importance that Muslim jurists should consider whether such treatment of non-Muslims is in accordance with the Shari’ah or contrary to it. More generally, does the Shari’ah allow Muslims to live peaceably with non-Muslims in ‘one world’ or must they regard it as dar al-harb? To have an answer to these questions may be a matter of urgency in a few years time. (p 225).
Durie notes:
These prophetic words of Watt, written in the last decade of the twentieth century, speak a warning message which urgently needs to be attended to, and not only by Muslim jurists. The dhimma and its conditions are returning as an integral part of the global Islamic resurgence, which aims to revive the Sharia. How will the world respond? (p. 225)
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