"Who Is Crueler to Christians—Israelis or Muslims" by Raymond Ibrahim

 

Who’s Crueler to Christians—Israelis or Muslims? In an earlier Substack, we debunked some of the claims JD Hall made on a recent episode of Tucker Carlson. We did not, however, address his grand claim—that Muslims have been historically “kinder” to Christians than Israel. It is to that comparison we now turn. But first, a quick recap for context. JD Hall had said that "The Muslim rulers didn’t tax churches during the Ottoman period. They were very kind to Christians. As a matter of fact, they took care of our holy sites. Islamic authorities rebuild the church of the Sepulchre three different times over the centuries. By the standards of the Islamic doctrine of tawriya, all of JD’s statements are as true as they are misleading and disingenuous: Muslims didn’t tax churches, but that’s because they taxed Christians, often severely, for the very right to exist in an Islamic state. Any Christian unable to pay the Koran-mandated jizya tax had to convert to Islam or be executed or enslaved. As for the claim that Muslims “took care of our holy sites”—reality paints a different picture. It was Muslims who repeatedly attacked and destroyed “our holy sites”—namely, tens of thousands of churches over the centuries. As for the claim that “Islamic authorities rebuilt the Church of the Sepulchre,” it was also the Islamic authorities who desecrated it over the centuries, completely destroying it in 1009. What subsequent caliphs did is allow Christians to rebuild it—but only on condition that Christians pay for and see to the rebuilding themselves—and the sources make abundantly clear that this too was not a reflection of altruism but of avarice: because countless European pilgrims wished to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and because the Islamic authorities charged them top dollar for the privilege, the church was a major source of income for the caliphates. Moreover, every time the church was severely attacked, European Christians threatened to invade—and sometimes did, for example in the context of the crusades and the Crimean war. Thus making money and preventing an invasion—pragmatism, not “kindness”—is why Muslims allowed Christians to rebuild the Holy Sepulchre. FULL ARTICLE AT: https://raymondibrahim.substack.com/p/who-is-crueler-to-christiansisraelis?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=6873559&post_id=207229970&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1v9n4o&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email