Koranlore
Chapter 6 Muslim Supremacy and Discrimination: The Covenant of Omar
Muhammad clearly sought to bring everyone in his purview to accept his new religion of Islam, to pay allegiance to him as Allah's prophet to the Arab people, who until his appearance had none to match the prophets of the Jews and Christians, and to be subject to him as the apostle of God. He expected to convert everyone to Islam except for the People of the Book, Jews and Christians, who were given the word of God in their Bible, yet had not heeded God's word. These would be granted minority religious liberty as dhimmis (which translated means "protected" or "guilty" ).
Muhammad wrote in fact a document "concerning the emigrants and the helpers" in which he made a friendly agreement with the Jews and established them in their religion and property and stated reciprocal obligations. In
The Life of Muhammad, a translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah by A. Guillaume, this document is identified by Muhammad as a document between the believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib, and those who followed, joined and labored with them. He regarded them as one community (umma) to the exclusion of all men. (pp. 231f.)Next he outlined the obligations of believers among themselves and their behavior toward Jews. unbelievers and "outsiders." Among these obligations:
Conditions must be fair and equal to all believers, but a believer shall not kill a believer for the sake of an unbeliever. To the Jew who follows Muslims belong help and equality. The believers must avenge the blood of one another shed in the way of God. No non-believer (polytheist or heathen Arab, see footnote, p. 232) shall take the property or person of Quraysh under his protection, nor shall he intervene against a believer. Anyone convicted of killing a believer without good reason is subject to retaliation unless he satisfies the next of kin with bloodwit or blood-money. And believers shall be united against the killer and bound to take action against him. Also a believer may not lawfully help or shelter an evil-doer. If he does, he is faced with the curse and anger of God on the day of resurrection with no repentance or ransom to be received from him. (ibid., p. 232.) The advantage is clearly in favor of the Muslim over the non-Muslim.There are more sundries:
The Jews must contribute to the cost of war if fighting alongside the believers. A stranger under protection shall be "as his host" doing no harm and committing no crime. A woman shall be given protection only with the consent of her family. Quraysh and their helpers shall be given no protection. (Muhammad held a grudge against the Quraysh who opposed his new religion.) (Cf. p232f for the complete conditions of the Muhammad's document. (ibid., pp.232f.)From this document it is clear that Muhammad intended to have a tight community of believers with some tolerance for groups who accepted and paid for his protection, and met the conditions of submission set out by him which ensured Muslim control and domination of everyone in Medina. Following Muhammad's death in 632, Abu Bakr assumed leadership of the Muslim community, followed by Umar
in his ten-year reign as the caliph Omar I from 634 to 644. In Heritage, Civilization and the Jews Abba Eban gives a capsule of the Jewish and Christian perspective under Muslim domination in the seventh century under Omar I, after the Muslim armies defeated the Sasanians and conquered Palestine, Syria and Egypt.Omar I subjugated Jews and Christians as what Eban calls "proteges of Allah" (
dhimmis), to a collection of regulations, restrictions to be precise, requiring that Jews show respect for the supremacy of Muslims, refrain from imitating Muslims, and submit to Muslims by giving up their seats when Muslims wished to sit down and other forms of self-abasement toward Muslims. (ibid., Eban, p. 132.)
By the
eighth century Jews and Christians suffered humiliation through visible identification in the color of clothing they were obliged to wear. By the fourteenth century Jews were forced to wear yellow badges, Christians had to wear blue badges, and the defeated Sasanians, red badges. Non-Muslim women were further humiliated by having to wear shoes that did not match, i.e. red and black, or black and white. (ibid., Eban, p. 132.)[Editor's comment: Could the 1933 Nazi Party's requirement that Jews wear two yellow triangles to shape the star of David have its origin in the Muslim regulation? The Nazis also forced other groups to wear triangle patches of distinctive color, e.g. Roma or Gypsies, brown; Poles, Communists and other politicals, red; homosexuals, pink; Jehovah's Witnesses, lavender; emigrants, blue; antisocials, black; and note this: hardcore criminals,
green! (p. 28, New York Native, June 23, 1986.) Muslims will not be pleased to hear that, because green was associated with the Prophet Muhammad and Islam under the Covenant of Omar! ( A. Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples p.117.)]In A History of the Arab Peoples, Albert Hourani describes Umar's covenant of regulations. Under the compact of protection (the "Pact of 'Umar") Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were not forced to convert to Islam, but they suffered from restrictions
: a special tax; forbidden to wear certain colors (especially green ) and required to wear others (cf. above paragraph); they could not marry Muslim women; their testimony in law courts was not accepted against that of Muslims; their houses of worship could not be ostentatious but kept simple; and they were excluded from positions of power generally with exceptions. i.e. secretaries or financial officers for a Muslim ruler. Such restrictions were an encouragement to convert to Islam. (ibid., A. Hourani, pp.47, 117.)In his book Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam ( and the Crusades), Robert Spencer expands on the Muslim restrictions on Christians under the Covenant of Omar: the Christians pledged not to erect a monastery, church or a sanctuary for a monk, not to restore a place of worship needing restoration, and not use any of them to express hostility against Muslims, according to the Qur'anic commentary of Ibn Kathir. ( op.cit., Spencer, p.49.)
Spencer elaborates on the humiliating regulations mentioned by Abba Eban (see above); e.g. treatment of Muslims who visit churches at any time, or who come as guests, with an offer of meals and lodging for three days. Additional restrictions under the covenant included not carrying arms or selling liquor; required cropping of the front of one's hair, requirement of wearing a wide belt made of cloth (zunnar) around the waist; no erecting crosses outside churches, no ringing church bells loudly, no promoting Christian books in public in Muslim markets and fairways, nor reciting holy books loudly in presence of Muslims! (ibid., Spencer, p. 50f.)
Yes, there is more, but read Spencer's book, pages 49-5l. He notes that all of the above are still part of Sharia law today, which states in a contemporary manual of Islamic law that subject peoples must pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya). Bottom line: If non-Muslims violate terms of Sharia law, they can be killed or sold into slavery at the discretion of the Muslim leader! (Editor's note: Is this "Muslim tolerance"?)
On the matter of tolerance by Islam for non-Muslims, Spencer cites the Charter of Allah: The Platform of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Yes, that Hamas, the terrorist organization dominating Gaza today! The charter states it is possible for the members of the three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism to co-exist in safety and security, under the shadow of Islam! (pp. 51f, op.cit., Spencer.) That from Hamas.
Back to the poll tax, jizya. Spencer cites a founder of al Qaeda, Abdullah Azzam, who discusses the offensive jihad and the jizya in his book Defence of the Muslim Lands: Azzam explains that among the various categories of jihad, offensive jihad is an obligation of the Islam community and has the purpose of maintaining the payment of jizya by non-Muslims to the Muslim leaders. (See note 11, Chapter 4, op.cit., Spencer, for the website which posts Azzam's book, Defence of the Muslim Lands.); also see the Koranlore Reading Reference List). So al Qaeda would have dhimmis, or non-Muslims, Jews, Christians, pay up the poll tax, jizya. [In this editor's opinion, dhimmis could be a nickname for "dim-wits" if they submit to this demand of al Qaeda! And they would deserve it.)]
It is clear that terrorist Islamist groups like Hamas and al Qaeda are bent on perpetuating the original document of Muhammad and the Covenant of Omar and on gaining Muslim supremacy and domination over non-Muslims of all religious denominations worldwide!. The line is drawn in the sand by radical Islamists -- it is back to Muhammad's original three options for all religious groups and individuals who reject his religion of Islam: submission, subjugation with humiliation (including the poll tax, jizya), or -- execution, death! Peace would come at Muhammad's price.
Thus, dear readers, it is up to all non-Muslims to throw down the gauntlet and stand up to the insane radicals and extremists in the Muslim faith. And it is time for those Muslims who claim Islam to be a religion of peace to prove it to the rest of humanity, at least to the communities in which they share life, and to stand up to the Islamic extremists themselves, by educating their young and re-educating and re-training Muslim adults to be non-judgmental toward people of all faiths. How they do that will involve reformation of the Koran and the Traditions of Muhammad to eliminate the offensive nature of jihad and war in the name of Allah; the polemic verses of The Koran that threaten non-believers in Allah with eternal damnation in a burning Hell of fire; and the humiliating laws of Sharia that would make non-Muslims servants and slaves to an arrogant class of religious fanatics.
This editor has found the only way he knows to combat Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious zealots, that is to point up the absurdities of their respective religions, translating examples of the actual "sacred" word into pictorial images that reveal the humor therein. It is hoped that the series of cartoons in KoranloreLite has brought into focus the absurdity of certain religious beliefs of The Koran and the Hadith, such as Muhammad's visions of the "lowest heaven." ( Which phrase begs the question: Is lowest heaven another name for hell, or is hell a part of heaven?) Did Muhammad really think through this conflict of ideas?
*********
Chapter 7 will discuss Allah, God of Islam.