Islam, historically has been an enemy of diversity
Reader comment on item: Bush's Middle East Hopes
in response to reader comment: Rick

Submitted by Rick (United States), Jan 22, 2008 at 16:48

Islam is an imperialist and totalitarian religion and has always acted as a force to repress diversity. As Mohammed their prophet said, 'there cannot be two religions in Arabia'.

Medina, Arabia is Islam's second holiest city. Jews were once the mainstay population of Medina. When Jews refused to convert to Islam, Mohammed's generals slaughtered them and enslaved the rest including a ten year female sex slave as a wife for Mohammed. Islam ended a Jewish presence in Arabia in the 7th century.

Today, Islam has succeeded in ending a Christian presence in many Arab nations including in the Holy Land where formerly majority Christian cities like Bethelhem now has an emanicated minority Christian presence. Abbas likes to blame that on Israel. However, Abbas cannot explain why the Muslim population has increased during the same time. Amazingly, Israel is the only Middle East country which has seen its Christian population grow since 1948.

The Jewish religion does view the world quite differently from Islam. Jews do not seek to conquer the world. Islam has and still does. Israel, a majority Jewish nation with a sizable Arab population allows Arabs fundamental rights. Most Arab states have already cleansed themselves of their Jewish populations and ever so, passed laws against Jews forbidding them thingd like owning property or conducting business. Even without any Jews in their countries!

Arabs only speak about diversity, when aboard in the West to a Western press and even then if they can constitute a majority in a neighborhood as in parts of Britain or Rottendam, they begin to make demands for institution of sharia law to govern themselves. Jews when a minority in all foreign lands, always adopted the ways of the predominant nation they were in and if it was an open, democratic and free nation they whole heartedly embraced those values.

Muslims are different. Their history is different. Their world view is different. Their understanding of what constitutes 'humanity' is different. Islam does not condemn slavery and has never apologized for a slave trade more brutal and older than the West's slave trade. The word for 'Black" in Arabic is the same word for 'Slave". The only place slavery continues to exist today is in Muslim states like Sudan.

It is true than many of the founders of the state of Israel had European socialist humanitarian backgrounds. However, there was always a Jewish population that never left Israel for 2,000 years. That population also accepted and embraced democracy and tolerance. The Jews thrown out of North African nations, Iraq and Yemen also accepted the concept of tolerance towards others.

Tolerance is not however, a concept acceptable to Muslims as history is proof. Special taxation, inequality before the law, restrictions on everything from what to wear to where to live. I am sure you do not know that the infamous "Yellow Star" of the Nazis was first used by Muslims hundreds of years prior to the 1930s to identity Jews.

Until, people understand this history and stop substituting fantasy and myth for fact, a proper understanding of who the West faces in Arab nations and other Muslim nations across the map will never take.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.