by Raymond Ibrahim • May 8, 2012 at 3:18 am
Cross-posted from Jihad Watch
Dhimmitude: Fourteen centuries of continuity
One of the classic rules of dhimmitude, recorded in the infamous Pact of Omar—which mandates several debilitations and humiliations for non-Muslims living under Islam (it was first ratified with the conquered Christians of Syria)—commands Christians never to convert Muslims to their religion. If they do so, their blood becomeshalal, or free game.
Some fourteen centuries later, not much has changed. According to Al Ahram, on May 7, “unknown persons” tracked down and abducted the Christian pastor of Our Lady of Assistance Church, in Baalbek, Lebanon—a Hezbollah stronghold. The reason? He baptized a Muslim woman who, after being trapped in her parents’ house, escaped and came to him, wishing to become Christian.
RAYMOND IBRAHIM, a Middle East and Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. A widely published author, best known for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007), he guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Egypt's Christian Copts. Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, CBN, and NPR.