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Persecution of Muslims

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Conflicts between Muslims and non-Muslims made the persecution of both Muslims and non-Muslims a recurring phenomenon during the history of Islam. Persecution may refer to unwarranted arrest, imprisonment, beating, torture, or execution. It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, or incitement to hate Muslims. Persecution can extend beyond those who perceive themselves as Muslims to include those who are perceived by others as Muslims, or to Muslims which are considered by fellow Muslims as non-Muslims.

Pagan Arab persecution of Muslims

Main article: Persecution of Muslims by the Meccans

In the early days of Islam at Mecca, the new Muslims were often subjected to abuse and persecution. Some were killed, such as Sumayyah bint Khabbab, the seventh convert to Islam, who was tortured first by Abu Jahl.[1] Muhammad was protected somewhat by the influence of his family, but even he was subjected to such abuse; while he was praying near the Kaaba, Abu Lahab threw the entrails of a sacrificed camel over him, and Abu Lahab's wife Umm Jamil would regularly dump filth outside his door[2]. And if free Muslims were attacked, slaves who converted were subject to far worse. The master of the Ethiopian Bilal ibn Rabah (who would become the first muezzin) would take him out into the desert in the boiling heat of midday and place a heavy rock on his chest, demanding that he forswear his religion and pray to the polytheists' gods and goddesses, until Abu Bakr bought him and freed him.[3] This persecution ultimately provoked the hijra.

Muslim persecution of Muslims

See takfir, Ahmadiyya, Shia, Kharijite, Mu'tazili, Alawites, Druze.

Persecution of and by Mutazilites

In medieval Iraq, the Mu'tazili theological movement was made a state doctine in 832, igniting the Mihna(ordeal) a struggle over the application of Greek logical proofs to the Qu'ran; people who would not assent to Mu'tazili claims that the Qur'an was created rather than eternal were sometimes persecuted. The most famous victims of the Mihna were Ahmad Ibn Hanbal who was imprisoned and tortured, and the judge Ahmad Ibn Nasr al-Khuza'i who was crucified.

However, it lost official support soon afterwards. This coincided with the loss of the scientific edge of the islamic world and the rise to prominence of a more dogmatic approach to islam, of which Al-Ghazali was a staunch defender. Sunni and shi'a Islam became the mainstream schools of islam. As a consequence, the tables turned and most scholars and scientists like Ibn Rushd and Avicenna with Mutazilite views were the victims of persecution themselves in the centuries to follow.

Sunni-Shi'a conflicts and persecutions

There are questions about the orthodoxy of the more extreme Shi'a groups among many Sunni thinkers. At various times many Shi'a groups have faced persecution.

While the dominant strand in modern Sunni dogma regards Shiism as a valid madhhab, following Al Azhar, some Sunnis both now and in the past have regarded it as beyond the pale, and attacked its adherents. Some Shia have likewise resorted to violence against Sunnis. In modern times, notable examples include the bombing campaigns by the Sunni Sipah-e-Sahaba and Shia Tehrik-e-Jafria, two small extremist groups, against Shia or Sunni mosques in Pakistan, the persecution of Hazara under the Taleban, and the bloody attacks linked with Zarqawi and his followers against Shia in Iraq.

Persecution of Ahmadiyyas

The Ahmadiyya see themselves as Muslim, but are seen by many other Muslims as non-Muslim. Armed groups, led by the umbrella organization Khatme Nabuwat ("Finality of Prophethood"), have launched violent attacks against their mosques in Bangladesh.

Alawites

The Alawites are a secretive group that seems to believe in the divine nature of Ali. They have been persecuted in the past and survive in the remoter and more mountainous parts of Syria. The ruling Ba'ath party is dominated by Alawi and have sought fatwas from Shiite clergy in Lebanon that they are, in fact, Muslims.

Druze

The Druze, likewise, are highly secretive and there is little reliable information on what they believe. It is often claimed they believe in reincarnation. They too have been deemed to be non-Muslims by various other, usually Sunni, Muslims and they too survive in the more remote and mountainous parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel.

Persecution by Takfiris

Certain small groups - the Kharijites of early medieval times, and Takfir wal Hijra and the GIA today - follow takfirist doctrines, regarding almost all other Muslims as infidels whose blood may legitimately be shed. As a result, they have killed large numbers of Muslims; the GIA, for example, proudly boasted of having committed the Bentalha massacre.

Christian persecution of Muslims

Persecution of Muslims during the Crusades

Main article: Crusade

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to regain control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims. On May 7, 1099 the crusaders reached Jerusalem, which had been recaptured from the Seljuks by the Fatimids of Egypt only the year before. Many Crusaders wept on seeing the city they had journeyed so long to reach. On July 15, the crusaders were able to end the siege by breaking down sections of the walls and entering the city.

Over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning, the crusaders murdered almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem. Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians were all massacred. Although many Muslims sought shelter atop the Temple Mount inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the crusaders spared few lives. According to the anonymous Gesta Francorum, in what some believe to be one of the most valuable contemporary sources of the First Crusade, "...the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles..."[4]. Other accounts of blood flowing up to the bridles of horses are reminiscent of a passage from the Book of Revelation (14:20). Tancred claimed the Temple quarter for himself and offered protection to some of the Muslims there, but he was unable to prevent their deaths at the hands of his fellow crusaders. According to Fulcher of Chartres: "Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared."[5]

Persecution of Muslims in medieval Spain

The Muslim religion was introduced into Spain after the conquest of the Iberian peninsula by invading Muslim armies. Only a few Christian kingdoms survived the initial onslaught, i.e. the Kingdom of Asturia and the Kingdom of Navarre. The Kingdom of Asturia expanded in the course of centuries into modern Spain during the Reconquista. This process ended with the conquest of the last Muslim territory on the Iberian peninsula, the Emirate of Granada by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castilia in 1492. As a consequence, a large Muslim minority lived under non-Muslim administration and the Muslim population was seen as a major threat to the survival of Christian Spain.

The treaty that confirmed Spain's conquest of Granada in 1492 officially guaranteed Granada's Muslims freedom of religion. This promise, however, was rapidly broken; in 1499, Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros ordered the burning of all Arabic manuscripts in Granada except those dealing with medicine, and began a program of forced mass baptisms, resulting in the First Rebellion of the Alpujarras. By 1500 he reported that "There is now no one in the city who is not a Christian, and all the mosques are churches".

In 1567, Philip II renewed an edict banning the practice of Islam, Moorish costumes and customs, and the use of Arabic. This sparked the Second Rebellion of the Alpujarras, which was brutally suppressed by Don John; in its aftermath, some 80,000 Moriscos were forcibly relocated to be dispersed among other parts of Spain. But despite all, many still remained secret Muslims.

On September 11, 1609, the town criers of Valencia announced that the King had ordered the expulsion of all Moriscos in an order signed secretly on April 4 of that year. The first boat left Denia for Oran on October 3. Over the next year, similar orders were issued in the other kingdoms - Aragon, Castile, Andalusia, and Extremadura. Most ended up as exiles in the port cities of the Maghreb, where their families and many aspects of their culture continue to this day. Somewhere between 300,000 and 600,000 Moriscos were deported. Valencia lost a third of its population.

Children were to remain in Spain as their parents were exiled; the edict stipulated that all children under five were to be kept behind and given to priests or Christian families. This policy proved impossible to implement fully, but was still imposed on an estimated 14,000 children. In July 1610, the Church recommended that all remaining Morisco children under seven in Valencia should be given as slaves to Old Christians.

Muslim casualties of the Civil War in Lebanon

The Lebanese Civil War saw a number of massacres of Muslims - and indeed of Christians. Among the earliest were the Karantina Massacre and the Tel al-Zaatar Massacre in 1976, against Palestinian refugees; the later Sabra and Shatila Massacre in 1982, with at least 800 killed, is perhaps the best known. These murders combined sectarian, political, and ideological, and retaliation reasons.

Modern Western persecution of Muslims

Discrimination and persecution in the former Yugoslavia

See History of Bosnia and Herzegovina#19th and 20th century, ethnic cleansing

Employment bias in the United Kingdom

A BBC survey taken in the summer of 2004 found that employment applicants with Muslim names were far less likely to be called for an interview than applicants whose names did not appear to be Muslim. This study was taken by using fictitious applications to jobs using candidate descriptions that were similar in qualification and education, but under different names. The survey found that while a quarter of 'nonmuslim applicants' were invited to an interview, only 9% of the applications with Muslim names were responded to with invitations. [6]

Persecution of Muslims in the United States and Increased discrimination of Muslims following September 11

A sharp increase of hate crimes against Muslims have been recorded and investigated since the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in the United States. Some have characterized these and such attacks as a battle between the Islamic World and the West (see also Samuel Huntington.) Within the United States, this resulted in a sharp increase in hate crimes against Muslims and people of Middle Eastern appearance. Sikhs too have been subject to violent attacks, largely as a result of their appearance which attackers have mistaken as being Arab.

Attacks against Muslims in the United States are not unprecedented, and have gone on long before the September 11th attacks. According to Human Rights Watch, hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs in the US have gone on for the past twenty years, often in response to events in the Middle East. [7] In 1963 Malcolm X discussed the mainstream representation of Islam and concluded that; "Whites speak of Muslims almost synonymously with violence. Whenever Muslims are mentioned by them, violence is brought up; but it's not connected with any other group. This is a sort of a propaganda tactic, or, what I would call psychological warfare, to, in some way, make the image of the Muslims in this country be a violent image rather than a religious image".[1] As of February 2003, over 414 hate crimes against Muslims or people considered to resemble Muslims have been filed and investigated by the FBI. [8] The US government has responses to these events with "mixed messages". President George Bush responded by repeatedly condemning acts against Muslims and Arabs, and displayed acts of support by appearing at gatherings and mosques. This condemnation of hate crimes has been echoed by many prominent members of government and law inforcement, mostly in response to the elevated numbers of crimes against Muslims. On the other hand, organizations such as Human Rights Watch view actions such as the detention of over 1200 individuals, all either Muslim, Arab or South Asian, on the grounds that they hold or may hold links to terrorist organizations, as reinforcing the notion that Muslims and Arabs are "potential terrorists or terrorist sympathizers". [9]

Communist persecution of Muslims

Discrimination and persecution in the former Soviet Union and in former East Bloc nations

See Pomak, Bulgaria.

Enver Hoxha conducted a campaign to extinguish all forms of religion in Albania, a majority Muslim country, in 1967, closing all religious buildings and declaring the state atheist. See Communist and post-Communist Albania.

Persecution of Muslims in China

Before the 15th century, Muslims in China were well integrated and respected by the rest of the Chinese population; indeed, the Admiral of the Chinese Treasure Fleet, Zheng He was a devout Muslim. However, with the rise of the Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911 CE), the Manchus "employed tactics of divide-and- conquer to keep the Muslims, Han, Tibetans, and Mongolians in struggles against one another" ([10]), and were responsible for the anti-Muslim sentiment throughout China.

After the fall of the Manchu Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China by Sun Yat Sen, policies were developed to improve relationships between the Han, Hui (Muslim), Man (Manchu), Meng (Mongol), and the Tsang (Tibetan) people.

During the Cultural Revolution, many Muslims, along with other Chinese, were persecuted. Muslim imams were paraded around with paint splashed on their persons, and 1,600 Muslims were massacred by the People's Liberation Army (the Shadian Incident) in 1975. Even though religious freedom was declared in 1978, there are still many claims of persecution of Muslims by the communist government.

Communal violence in India

On December 6, 1992, a mob of 75,000 Hindus tore down the Babri Mosque. On the same day, Muslim businesses were looted and homes were burnt down, while hundreds of Indian policemen stood by[11].

The Sangh Parivar family of organisations, have allegedly been involved in encouraging negative stereotyping of Muslims, and in the 2002 Gujarat violence they were allegedly responsible for encouraging attacks against Muslims [12]. Another major incident was at Naroda Patia, were a Hindu mob, with the support of police, massacred more than 1000 Muslims, raped girls and women and burned children alive. In many instances pregnent Muslim women had their foetus torn from their womb and burned. In another incidence of Best Bakery, in city of Baroda, a complete family of 15 was massacred and burnt.[citation needed]

Subsequent riots led to the death of 1044, 754 Muslims and 290 Hindus.

Also, Hindu mobs have attacked Muslim villages after Muslims had slaughtered cows. In 2005, this caused the destruction of 40 homes and 3 lives.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ Confronting the Monolith: The Struggle against Islamophobia and Osamaism - Media Monitors - August 07 2006
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