Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #425604 in Books
• Published on: 1985-04
• Original language: Hebrew
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 444 pages

Customer Reviews

A superb analysis of the lifestyle of dhimmis under Islam
Why do Arabs attack Zionism? In this book, Bat Ye'or gives a surprisingly simple answer. I think she's absolutely nailed the cause of the problem:

"It is well known that the successful revolt of the colonized frequently traumatizes the colonizer. Vengefulness and hatred express the distress of the oppressor confronted by his victim's rebellion. An equality of rights with the inferior party humiliates the dominating group which, deprived of its superiority, seeks compensation in phantasms. Such reactions have been exhaustively analyzed in books dealing with the phenomenon of racism."

The author shows these attitudes in action, as various Arabs complain that the presence of Jews in Israel defiles the land, or that the land is all Arab, with Jews being mere "dhimmis." The liberation of the Jews is sometimes considered a crime against Nature, as we see Egyptian President Nasser call it "the greatest international crime that has been committed in the entire history of mankind."

The terms applied by Arab racists to Jewish dhimmis who sought freedom are now applied to Israel itself: insolent, arrogant, and needing punishment.

I think this book is one of the best at explaining why Arabs and Jews are at odds in the Middle East. And why they'll continue to be at odds until Arabs renounce such racism and until international applause for this racism quiets down.

Bat Ye'or explains the problems of being a dhimmi. A dhimmi lacks rights and is thus dependent on the good will of, um, real people. A dhimmi has no history; actually a dhimmi has no right to have a history, and real people write any history they please regarding dhimmis. And the author shows that although Zionism is more an Oriental phenomenon than a European one, the refusal to acknowledge Zionist history tends to lead to claims that Zionism is exclusively a European movement. In addition, she implies that the refusal of many Arabs to refer to Israel or to allow it to be on Arab maps is another symptom of the tendency to refuse dhimmis the right to a historical existence.

The author contrasts the outrage of many antizionist Arabs with the relative silence of some genuine victims: Jews who were expelled from Arab nations. She attributes some of this to a tendency of dhimmis, with their history of having been exploited, servile, and silent, to think in terms of gratitude and toleration rather than in terms of rights.

In this book, Bat Ye'or does a superb job of explaining the dhimmi condition. And I think we all ought to heed her warning that those who forget history are indeed condemned to repeat it.

Asesome book
The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam is required reading for any American.

The author writes, in detail, in a marvelously researched manner. The mistake that many people make is that Islam is only anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. For from it. Islam is anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Protestant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Buddhist, anti just about everything.

Even if there was no Israel, or the US was not an ally of Israel, radical Islam would still despise the USA.

When Islam despises you, your live is in danger.

This is a horrifying book. What is most horrifying is that it is non-fiction.

Disturbing Account Of Religious/Racial Prejudice
This is a disturbing book which reveals what is described as a socially acceptable Islamic conduct against peoples who were classed as "inferior".

For the most part the book describes these peoples as Jews and Christians who were classed as "dhimmi". "Dhimmitude" being further elaborated as the religious, cultural, and political fate of non-Muslims living under Islamic rule, usually when their lands have been subject to Islamic conquest.

Where the politicisation/allegations of racial prejudice, segregation, apartheid and indeed genocide have become quite common-place in the Middle East against the Jewish state, a book such as this is very timely in showing another side to the story. A book that reveals the painful, disturbing policy of prejudice, racial hatred and segregation of countless people who the book describes were classed as "inferior"on the basis of their religion alone.

Many examples are referred to in this study and many issues are discussed. The book draws a number of distinctions drawn and prejudices applied upon Jews and Christians who refused to accept and bow to Islam. Just by way of a single example, page 56 of this study deals with the "Invalidity of the Dhimmi's Oath".

With legal cases being dealt with under Quranic law, every case involving a Muslim and a dhimmi received a "peculiar" treatment in that a dhimmi was forbidden to give evidence against a Muslim. The Dhimmi's oath being deemed unacceptable in an Islamic court, which made it virtually impossible for any Muslim opponent to be condemned. To further any defence, the book describes that the dhimmi would be obliged to "purchase" Muslim witnesses, often at great expense.

This refusal of Muslim religious courts to accept such testimony of the dhimmi being based on hadiths which maintained that the infidels were of a "perverse and mendacious character because they deliberately persisted in denying the superiority of Islam". The same law preventing any Muslim from being put to death on account of an infidel.

This principle alone is further elaborated in this book with the example of the frequent accusations directed at Jews and Christians of having "blasphemed" the Prophet or Islam, an offence punishable by death. In such a case, the dhimmi was clearly in no position to contradict the testimony of a Muslim making the accusation and could therefore only save his life by conversion to Islam. (Although some exceptions have been recorded, this was the abiding principle nearly always adhered to.)

This is a classic study of this subject and it is not a "light" read, but a subject which demands attention. Thank you.