(Screen shot of the cover of Newsweek with a useful article by Fareed Zakaria on how to live with Radical Islam. Image Newsweek).
I just got back from a haircut administered by my Tunisian barber Ben up at the corner. I never go to anyone else, because I can trust Ben implicitly, even when he has an edged blade on me. Later on, I intend to have a drink (or two) poured by my favorite bartender in the world, Sammy, who is a debonairly handsome soccer- futball- player from Morocco.
I have been wrestling with all this for a long time, right around thirteen years. I have traveled much of the world and try to respect people in their cultural context, whether they like me or not. My favorite place in the Mid-East is Isreal, for all the logical reasons. One of the most fascinating is Cairo, capital of an ancient kingdom that has three times more history under the Pharos as it does under the Last Prophet of Allah.
But on the whole, I prefer societies that have more individual liberty than those that don’t, and that used to be about the depth of my personal preference.
That has changed dramatically over the last few weeks. In fact, it is one of the reasons that the daily story has become difficult to generate. I don’t want to be talking about this crap, and yet I can think of little that is as significant, and this is not over.
In fact, as Winston once observed, it is not the beginning of the end. Maybe only the end of the beginning.
Yesterday, I was visiting a place where I could not have my cell phone in the early afternoon, and between the time I was last able to check email in the car, and being re-united with my smart phone, there was that fire-fight in Belgium. Two dead at the apartment, a third man taken into custody, automatic weapons recovered, police uniforms and explosives.
There are many more young people- mostly men, but that is no longer an exclusive property of the bombers- who appear willing to conduct acts of mass slaughter in an effort to…well, that is the question, isn’t it? Do they want the West to submit to dhimmitude?
If you are unfamiliar with the term, it is a neologism combining the Arabic noun “Dhimmi” with the productive suffex “tude.” In Arabic, Dhimmi refers to the non-believer subjects of an Islamic State. The term has several distinct, but related meanings depending on the author and their intrinsic cultural bias.
Contextually, the meaning may be historical only, like “Catholic subjects of the Islamic-ruled caliphat e al-Andulus were considered dhimmis, or second class citizens.” There are those who use the word to stir up emotion, or by supporters of Sharia Law, who say that non-believers are free to follow their faiths, since Islam is a religion of tolerance, regardless of the recent evidence of the partisans of Sharia Law.
Christian and Jewish dhimmis enjoyed protection because they are Ahl al-Kitab, “Peoples of the Book” whose faith was founded on Divine revelation. The “Book” was the Bible, a partial and incomplete revelation of God’s word, which was fully disclosed in the Qur’an.
Dhimmis had theoretical and practical rights, such as following their own traditions and laws in religion as well as marriage and divorce. But specifically, they were prohibited from building new churches or synagogues, or making repairs to those already in existence. Public displays like processions or bell ringing were prohibited, as was proselytizing, insulting Muhammad or openly refuting Islam. Any disagreements between dhimmis and Muslims were settled according to Islamic laws.
Nowadays, users of the term are branded Islamophobes. I think you know the etymology of that term.
I am not phobic about anything.
I offer the inability of the United States Government to publicly link “terror” and “Islam” as part of the paralysis inherent in not being willing to acknowledge with whom we are at war, and that has always been a strategic blunder in my experience.
My favorite current news story is something that wouldn’t surprise any Detroiter. Home to the largest Arabic population in North America, the call to prayer is often heard from local mosques. Not a particularly big deal, but I would not get too smug about those “no go” enclaves in France where Sharia is the law, and police are not welcome. Don’t think it has not already started here.
But the famous Duke University, home of the commitment to diversity, announced this week that they were going to allow the Muslim Students Association to chant the call, or adhan, from the Duke Chapel bell tower. The adhan signals the beginning of the weekly prayer service. Jummah prayers have taken place in the basement of Duke Chapel for many years, and is, in my opinion, a legitimate use of University property.
Coming so soon after the Paris shootings, this was apparently too much for a lot of folks in Durham, NC, and the University had to back off.
“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” went the platitudes and then, “…when you do these kind of things you like to think and you hope that it will be seen by others as you see them as enlightened ways to introduce diversity and the celebration of faith tradition, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen the way you would like it.”
The university’s Imam Abdullah Antepli said that his community was disappointed in the school’s reversal. But he had praise for Duke, calling its offerings to the Muslim community “far more comprehensive than many other universities in the entire U.S.”
Duke is determined not to be labeled Islamophobic. In the process, I think they may be trying on dhimmitude to see how it fits.
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303