Are You A Civilised Dhimmi?
Comment at end
11th December, 2007
CIVILISATION V DHIMMITUDE
Today someone sent me this link to a YouTube video.
This was first broadcast on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) and was uploaded to YouTube on 21st February, 2006. Its leading participant is a female Arab-American psychologist, who says she is a secular ex-Muslim. She doesn’t have much good to say about her former religion. Well, actually NOTHING good. I have to say I am still an undecided on this kind of blanket condemnation of any religion, though there is much in what this lady says.
This video has received almost two million hits in the last 20 months or so. The website that is linked to the video BanIslam - clearly states its aim:
‘The purpose of this site is to expose all the evils of Islam, as a dangerous cult, and leftist governments, that have unknowingly empowered islamofascists through democracy, notwithstanding the fact muslims HATE democracy and are going to replace it with sharia laws once in power. Contrary to Muslim rhetoric that claims Islam means peace, the truth is that the word Islam does not mean peace, but “Submission”‘
He also has a bit of a moan about YouTube:
‘YouTube Pisses Me Off
It has become obvious to me that YouTube deliberately rejects videos for alleged TOS violation whenever they mock Islam. They don’t seem to have a problem with islamic hate propaganda though and terrorists thrive on their system. But a video I attempted to upload today was abruptly rejected before it even got converted.If YT fell prey to Dhimmitude then it can safely be renamed MeccaTube, and carry the following modifed company logo.’
MY THOUGHTS ON THIS
He has a point here, and it’s one I made in an earlier post. Try it yourself. Just go to YouTube and in the search box, put in the word “jihad”. The very first video that comes up, if it’s still the same as few weeks ago, has hundreds of thousands of hits and includes footage of a western hostage about to be killed. And that’s just the FIRST one. There are many, many more like that.
(Guess what?! Just checked and I have a feeling they’ve tidied things up! The video I mention DID NOT appear at the start of my search for “jihad”. It may be there somewhere amongst the rest of them, but I can’t be bothered checking.)
‘Oh no!’, I hear the liberal intelligentsia voices shriek. ‘Censorship! The greatest evil EVER perpetrated against mankind!’
Now where was I?
When I visited the YouTube video earlier I was not expecting to use this video at all, as I have a typically British high tolerance level, and abhor scare-mongering. But there is something compelling about watching this woman’s rational argument, especially from someone who was a Muslim. Inside Islam was evidently NOT a comfortable place for this well-educated and lucid woman to be.
Running rings around her male counterpart added to her authority and credibility. And the best he could challenge her with was “are you a heretic?”
An accusation she easily dismissed, saying more or less that since she recognises no religion she is not being disloyal to any.
But perhaps the words that leapt out at me were in reference to “civilisation”. It reminded me of Tony Blair’s last speech to conference, in 2006, when he said as regards the battle against fundamentalist terrorism:
“But this is not a conventional war.
It can’t be won by force alone.
It’s not a clash of civilisations.
It’s about civilisation, about the ideas that shape it.”
You may not be impressed by the apparent intellectual level of some of the comments at the YouTube site, if you go there. They seem to be treating it more as a social networking hangout rather than as somewhere to think and/or learn. But that aside, and I’d guess the average age of commenters is about 17, the video is well worth a look.
WHAT IS “DHIMMITUDE”
I’ve seen the British referred to as ‘Dhimmis’ recently on several American sites. Couldn’t really work myself up to checking what it meant - life is too short to google everything - and contrary to what some might think I am not spending my time looking for reasons to HATE anyone.
Anyway, for your further considered edification, I’ve checked it out on Wikipedia:
This article is about a neologism. For the Islamic legal concept, see Dhimmi.
Dhimmitude is a neologism, imported from the French language, and derived from the Arabic language word dhimmi. Dhimmi (also zimmi, Arabic ذمي, often translated as “protected”) is a legal status of a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia — Islamic law. The word dhimmi is an adjective (but used like a noun in English). It is derived from the noun dhimma, which means “pact of liability”, and denotes the legal relationship between non-Muslim subjects and the Islamic state. “Dhimmitude” adds the productive suffix “-tude”(as in “attitude” or “servitude”) to the adjective dhimmi, thus creating a new noun with a meaning (arguably) distinct from dhimma. Depending on the author, the term has several distinct, but related meanings. Its scope may be historical only, contemporary only, or both. It may encompass the whole system of dhimma, look only at its subjects (dhimmis), or even apply it outside of any established system of dhimma.
This article is about dhimmi in the context of Islamic law.
For the neologism, see dhimmitude.
A dhimmi (Arabic: ذمي, collectively: أهل الذمة, ahl al-dhimma, the people of the dhimma or pact of protection, Ottoman Turkish zimmi) was a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. The term connotes an obligation of the state to protect the individual, including the individual’s life, property, and freedom of religion and worship, and exclude them from the payment of zakat only paid by Muslims; in exchange for “subservience and loyalty to the Muslim order”, and a poll tax known as the jizya.
This status was originally only made available to non-Muslims who were People of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians), but was later extended to include Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Mandeans, and, in some areas, Hindus and Buddhists. Dhimmi had more rights than other non-Muslim religious subjects, but fewer legal and social rights than Muslims. This status applied to millions of people living from the Atlantic Ocean to India from the 7th century until modern times. Over time, many dhimmis converted to Islam. Most conversions were voluntary and happened for a number of different reasons but forced conversion played a role in some later periods of Islamic history, mostly in the 12th century under the Almohad dynasty of North Africa and al-Andalus as well as in Persia where Shi’a Islam is dominant.
SO, HAVE YOU DECIDED? ARE YOU A DHIMMI?
Well, according to not a few Americans, we in Britain already inhabit a Muslim Sharia state in which we (as Dhimmis), are permitted some freedoms, including freedom of religion. How realistic this particular freedom would actually be in a Sharia state is questionable. From my understanding if a caliphate replaced our democracy, those of us still standing would be offered the option of being “saved” from the folly of clinging to our own non-Muslim religious choices.Convert or die?We are not quite a Muslim state; but there is obviously some argument to be made about direction.So while the present Home Secretary struggles to persuade parliament (Tories as well as Labour MPs - the Liberals have had it on common sense, anyway) that 42 days detention for questioning IS necessary, I have another question.
At the risk of regurgitating oft-used phrases - are we sleep-walking?
MEANING OF ‘CALIPHATE’ A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khālifah), is the Islamic form of government representing the political unity and leadership of the Muslim world. The head of state (Caliph) has a position based on the notion of a successor to Muhammad’s political authority; according to Sunnis ideally elected by the people or their representatives, and according to the Shia an Imam desended in a line from the Ahl ul-Bayt. From the time of Muhammad until 1924, successive caliphates were held by various dynasties, including the Umayyads, Abbasids, and finally Ottomans.
The caliphate is the only form of governance that has full approval in traditional Islamic theology, and “is the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries.”
Tags: Terrorism, dhimmi, dhimmitude, youtube, islam, muslim, rligion, jews, christians, christianity, judaism
