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<DIV><B>Muhammad's Sword<BR><BR></B>Uri Avnery <BR>23.9.06<BR><<A
href="http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en"
eudora="autourl">http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en</A>><BR><BR>Since the
days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to<BR>the lions, the relations
between the emperors and the<BR>heads of the church have undergone many
changes.<BR><BR>Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year<BR>306 -
exactly 1700 years ago - encouraged the practice<BR>of Christianity in the
empire, which included<BR>Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into
an<BR>Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In<BR>the West, the
Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of<BR>Pope, demanded that the Emperor
accept his superiority.<BR><BR>The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes
played<BR>a central role in European history and divided the<BR>peoples. It
knew ups and downs. Some Emperors dismissed<BR>or expelled a Pope, some Popes
dismissed or<BR>excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry<BR>IV,
"walked to Canossa", standing for three days<BR>barefoot in the snow in front
of the Pope's castle,<BR>until the Pope deigned to annul his
excommunication.<BR><BR>But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived
in<BR>peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period<BR>today. Between
the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the<BR>present Emperor, George Bush II,
there exists a<BR>wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope,<BR>which
aroused a world-wide storm, went well with Bush's<BR>crusade against
"Islamofascism", in the context of the<BR>"Clash of Civilizations".<BR><BR>IN
HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope<BR>described what he sees
as a huge difference between<BR>Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is
based on<BR>reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic<BR>of
God's actions, Muslims deny that there is any such<BR>logic in the actions of
Allah.<BR><BR>As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray<BR>of
this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities<BR>to understand the logic
of the Pope. But I cannot<BR>overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as
an<BR>Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war
of<BR>civilizations".<BR><BR>In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam,
the Pope<BR>asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers<BR>to
spread their religion by the sword. According to the<BR>Pope, that is
unreasonable, because faith is born of<BR>the soul, not of the body. How can
the sword influence<BR>the soul?<BR><BR>To support his case, the Pope quoted -
of all people -<BR>a Byzantine Emperor, who belonged, of course, to
the<BR>competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th<BR>century, the
Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a<BR>debate he had - or so he said (its
occurrence is in<BR>doubt) - with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In
the<BR>heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to<BR>himself) flung the
following words at his adversary:<BR><BR>"Show me just what Mohammed brought
that was new, and<BR>there you will find things only evil and inhuman,
such<BR>as his command to spread by the sword the faith
he<BR>preached".<BR><BR>These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why
did<BR>the Emperor say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did<BR>the present
Pope quote them?<BR><BR>WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head of
a<BR>dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few<BR>provinces of
the once illustrious empire remained.<BR>These, too, were already under
Turkish threat.<BR><BR>At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had
reached<BR>the banks of the Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria<BR>and the
north of Greece, and had twice defeated<BR>relieving armies sent by Europe to
save the Eastern<BR>Empire. On May 29, 1453, only a few years
after<BR>Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople (the<BR>present Istanbul)
fell to the Turks, putting an end to<BR>the Empire that had lasted for more
than a thousand<BR>years.<BR><BR>During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of
the<BR>capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He<BR>promised to
reunite the church. There is no doubt that<BR>he wrote his religious treatise
in order to incite the<BR>Christian countries against the Turks and convince
them<BR>to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology<BR>was serving
politics.<BR><BR>In this sense, the quote serves exactly the<BR>requirements
of the present Emperor, George Bush II.<BR>He, too, wants to unite the
Christian world against the<BR>mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the
Turks are<BR>again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time<BR>peacefully.
It is well known that the Pope supports the<BR>forces that object to the entry
of Turkey into the<BR>European Union.<BR><BR>IS THERE any truth in Manuel's
argument?<BR><BR>The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a<BR>serious
and renowned theologian, he could not afford to<BR>falsify written texts.
Therefore, he admitted that the<BR>Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading
of the faith<BR>by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256<BR>(strangely
fallible, for a pope, he meant verse 257)<BR>which says: "There must be no
coercion in matters of<BR>faith".<BR><BR>How can one ignore such an
unequivocal statement? The<BR>Pope simply argues that this commandment was
laid down<BR>by the prophet when he was at the beginning of his<BR>career,
still weak and powerless, but that later on he<BR>ordered the use of the sword
in the service of the<BR>faith. Such an order does not exist in the
Qur'an.<BR>True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his<BR>war
against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and<BR>others - in Arabia, when he
was building his state. But<BR>that was a political act, not a religious
one;<BR>basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading<BR>of the
faith.<BR><BR>Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits."<BR>The
treatment of other religions by Islam must be<BR>judged by a simple test: How
did the Muslim rulers<BR>behave for more than a thousand years, when they
had<BR>the power to "spread the faith by the sword"?<BR><BR>Well, they just
did not.<BR><BR>For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did
the<BR>Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize<BR>them? On the
contrary, Christian Greeks held the<BR>highest positions in the Ottoman
administration. The<BR>Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and
other<BR>European nations lived at one time or another under<BR>Ottoman rule
and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody<BR>compelled them to become Muslims
and all of them<BR>remained devoutly Christian.<BR><BR>True, the Albanians did
convert to Islam, and so did<BR>the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did
this<BR>under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become<BR>favorites of
the government and enjoy the fruits.<BR><BR>In 1099, the Crusaders conquered
Jerusalem and<BR>massacred its Muslim and Jewish
inhabitants<BR>indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At<BR>that
time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine<BR>by the Muslims, Christians
were still the majority in<BR>the country. Throughout this long period, no
effort was<BR>made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion<BR>of the
Crusaders from the country, did the majority of<BR>the inhabitants start to
adopt the Arabic language and<BR>the Muslim faith - and they were the
forefathers of<BR>most of today's Palestinians.<BR><BR>THERE IS no evidence
whatsoever of any attempt to<BR>impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known,
under<BR>Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like<BR>of which
the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until<BR>almost our time. Poets like
Yehuda Halevy wrote in<BR>Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim
Spain,<BR>Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim<BR>Toledo,
Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked<BR>together and translated the
ancient Greek philosophical<BR>and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the
Golden Age.<BR>How would this have been possible, had the Prophet<BR>decreed
the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?<BR><BR>What happened afterwards is
even more telling. When the<BR>Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims,
they<BR>instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and<BR>the Muslims
were presented with a cruel choice: to<BR>become Christians, to be massacred
or to leave. And<BR>where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who
refused<BR>to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were<BR>received
with open arms in the Muslim countries. The<BR>Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews
settled all over the Muslim<BR>world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the
east,<BR>from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the<BR>north to
Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they<BR>persecuted. They knew nothing like
the tortures of the<BR>Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the
pogroms,<BR>the terrible mass- expulsions that took place in almost<BR>all
Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.<BR><BR>WHY? Because Islam expressly
prohibited any persecution<BR>of the "peoples of the book". In Islamic
society, a<BR>special place was reserved for Jews and Christians.<BR>They did
not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost.<BR>They had to pay a special
poll-tax, but were exempted<BR>from military service - a trade-off that was
quite<BR>welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Muslim<BR>rulers frowned
upon any attempt to convert Jews to<BR>Islam even by gentle persuasion -
because it entailed<BR>the loss of taxes.<BR><BR>Every honest Jew who knows
the history of his people<BR>cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to
Islam,<BR>which has protected the Jews for fifty generations,<BR>while the
Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried<BR>many times "by the sword" to
get them to abandon their<BR>faith.<BR><BR>THE STORY about "spreading the
faith by the sword" is<BR>an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in
Europe<BR>during the great wars against the Muslims - the<BR>reconquista of
Spain by the Christians, the Crusades<BR>and the repulsion of the Turks, who
almost conquered<BR>Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too,
honestly<BR>believes in these fables. That means that the leader of<BR>the
Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in<BR>his own right, did not
make the effort to study the<BR>history of other religions.<BR><BR>Why did he
utter these words in public? And why now?<BR><BR>There is no escape from
viewing them against the<BR>background of the new Crusade of Bush and
his<BR>evangelist supporters, with his slogans of<BR>"Islamofascism" and the
"Global War on Terrorism" -<BR>when "terrorism" has become a synonym for
Muslims. For<BR>Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify<BR>the
domination of the world's oil resources. Not for<BR>the first time in history,
a religious robe is spread<BR>to cover the nakedness of economic interests;
not for<BR>the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes
a<BR>Crusade.<BR><BR>The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who
can<BR>foretell the dire consequences?<BR><BR><BR>GUSH SHALOM p.o.b. 3322 Tel
Aviv 61033</DIV>
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