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In the Name of God بسم الله
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Churches and synagogues in the middle east

Haji 2003

Entry posted by Haji 2003 in Interfaith ·

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A common Islamophobic complaint is that while Muslims may lobby for rights in Western countries, this is hardly reciprocated in the Middle East. Specifically, attention is drawn to Saudi Arabia where the rights of Christians and Jews appear to be the most restricted. 

It's worth, therefore, to consider what the situation was like before the arrival of the house of Saud on the scene and the impact of its installation (helped by Wstern powers) on non-Muslims in the Arabian peninsula. The following extracts are taken from the notes of a European traveller. 

Travels through Arabia and other countries in the East, M. Niebuhr (captain of engineers in the service of the King of Denmark). English translation 1792.

Quote

The most remarkable and the least known of those highland communities is that which the Jews have formed upon the mountains lying to the north east of Medina. That tract of country is known as Khiebar; and the Jews inhabiting it are known in Arabia as the Bani Khiebar. They have independent Sheikhs of their own and are divided into three tribes. p.43

So, there were Jews in Medina in 1792 and they clearly enjoyed autonomy.

Quote

 

The constitution and government of the dominion of Sana

It is no doubt difficult for a traveller to gain any tolerably accurate knowledge of the public revenue of a state in which he spends only a short time. I however had the advantage of consulting upon this head a man who had held employments in which he could not avoid making himself acquainted with the state of the Imam's finances. This was Oraki the Jew surveyor of the buildings who had been the favourite of two successive Imams... By this Jew's calculation, the revenues of Imam El Mahadi Mahomet amounted to 830,000 crowns in a month p87

 

So Jews also had positions of influence.

 

Quote

Of the arts and commerce in Yemen

Much gold and silver work is prepared here; but the workers in these precious metals are all Jews and Banians. All the current coin too is struck by Jews. p93

At Muscat, Europeans pay 5% upon imports; mahometans six and a half and Jews and Banians 7%. p116

The differences in tax rates may offend contemporary sensitivities, but they were clearly no different to the way minorities were treated in many other countries of the time.

What may merit further investigation is whether the Jews (and Christians) in Arabia suffered the pogroms that were periodically inflicted on the Jews of Europe in that period.

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Qa'im
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Wonderful work, thank you for these excerpts.

One point that I like to make is that there are plenty of ancient Christian communities across the Middle East, such as the Copts, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and other Arab Christian communities. However, there are no ancient Muslim communities in Christendom. The Muslims of Spain and Portugal were forced out, and even their converted descendants were kicked out. The Sicilian Muslims were also removed. The Muslim civilization has a far better track record with minorities than Christendom, even in spite of modern secular acceptance of multiculturalism, which is now becoming increasingly less tolerant.

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realizm
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:salam:

One should not forget the role of Israel in emptying arab countries of their jewish populations.

Jews were never expelled from Lebanon, they themselves decided to go live on the otherside of the border, in an enemy state. 

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      postcript
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      The cookie experiment
      All this goes back to the experiments conducted by Walter Mischel in 1970, who offered kids a cookie which they could eat immediately or they could have two if they waited till he came back from an errand. The high delay kids, who waited for the second cookie, did better at school and achieved various other positive life outcomes that the low delay kids did not.
      I’d go on to argue that the process of delaying can change an individual. The kids who are willing to wait for the second cookie will likely prefer the low fat, low sugar offering compared to the tasty version.
      I think this is because when the high delay kids are provided with information about harms and benefits they're better able to make the right choices. As they come across more information these people change what they consider constitutes happiness. This second order effect is important, because it has a qualitative impact not only on lifestyles and employment opportunities of these individuals but also the thought processes of the children of the high delay kids. High delay can be taught and learned.
      So delaying gratification enables the acquisition of quantitatively more happiness, and qualitatively more sustainable happiness.
      Up to this point our discussion has been in terms of purely material gains or losses. You do not have to be a believer in any religion to understand the foregoing argument, there are ample studies involving experiments (often with marshmallows) to back up the idea.
      Religious applications
      The question then, is whether the same principles can be applied in a religious context?
      The theist argument would likely be that religious practice such as prayer, the acquisition of religious knowledge and spiritual experience are all activities that take place at the expense of acquiring immediate material happiness, will likely have a higher pay-off in any after-life.
      However, anyone can understand the cause and effect relationship between, for example, the higher pay-offs associated with education and delayed gratification, because there is ample proof for this. But no one has come back from any after life, so is it the case that all we have to go on is faith?
      I don’t think so.
      One of the ways by which people can improve their self-discipline to improve their ability to delay gratification is to undertake some other task that takes their mind away from whatever gratification they are seeking to delay.
      That’s what the religious activities do. They train us to exercise restraint. They are the wait for the second cookie. If we see prayer and duas etc. as taking time away from the joys of worldly activities, that’s because they are supposed to.
      I also think the second order effects that I talked about regarding the impact of education on gratification also have a parallel with religion.
      Time spent on worship and spiritual activities, I think changes what people consider appropriate sources of gratification. They actually change what we do in this life, we consider whether the ingredients of the cookie are halal or haram.
      The Muslims who avoid weed cookies don’t need to rely on faith to understand the benefits of delayed gratification, they can see it for themselves.
      Notes:
      https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/happiness-in-world/201207/the-power-delaying-gratification
      http://jamesclear.com/delayed-gratification
      http://ww2.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Labour_market_information/Graduate_Market_Trends/Beyond_the_financial_benefits_of_a_degree__Autumn_05_/p!eXeLcmm
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/10246785/Graduate-premium-no-matter-what-you-study.html
       
       
       
    • Haji 2003
      Churches and synagogues in the middle east
      By Haji 2003 in Contemporania
         3
      A common Islamophobic complaint is that while Muslims may lobby for rights in Western countries, this is hardly reciprocated in the Middle East. Specifically, attention is drawn to Saudi Arabia where the rights of Christians and Jews appear to be the most restricted. 
      It's worth, therefore, to consider what the situation was like before the arrival of the house of Saud on the scene and the impact of its installation (helped by Wstern powers) on non-Muslims in the Arabian peninsula. The following extracts are taken from the notes of a European traveller. 
      Travels through Arabia and other countries in the East, M. Niebuhr (captain of engineers in the service of the King of Denmark). English translation 1792.
      So, there were Jews in Medina in 1792 and they clearly enjoyed autonomy.
      So Jews also had positions of influence.
       
      The differences in tax rates may offend contemporary sensitivities, but they were clearly no different to the way minorities were treated in many other countries of the time.
      What may merit further investigation is whether the Jews (and Christians) in Arabia suffered the pogroms that were periodically inflicted on the Jews of Europe in that period.

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