I write this with another view to understnading, a view that is not necessarily all mine, but belongs to many people who want integration of Muslims in Europe, or North America.
To those on YouTube continually cry about injustice perpetrated by the Muslims, please have a more open mind about Islam and Muslims. Honest questioning and debate is the only road to better understanding. It is a fact, that Muslims are not going anywhere, despite some ppl’s ardent desire that they would “go home”. Many Muslims are in fact “home” in the West or Europe and not going anywhere. Therefore, greater understanding and peaceful coexistence is a better prescription than hate and the desire to dominate or evict Muslims from places that are rightfully theirs.
“The cause is only against the ones who wrong people and tyrannize upon the earth without right. Those will have a painful punishment” (Ch. 42, V: 42, The Qur’an)
To some I might well ask, “What are you bellyaching about”? When people are conquered, that’s what happens, they either put up or shut up. The Christians were too weak to refuse to pay Jizya, or were too afraid to fight in the army of the country which they called home.
It’s a fact even today, that if a traveler to his other country of citizenship is conscripted into the army he has to follow, whether he agrees or not, or most likely face some sort of charge, with grave consequences such as a prison term. If you read your own passport, you might find such a warning. It is so, in the Canadian passport. So you travel at your own risk, in such a situation.
It is true that in Europe, at least some countries still require the men (I don’t know if women are included, too) to serve four years in the army.
As for the taxes such as Jizya, there is also a taxes imposed by Christians on the Muslims. In ancient times, or during the Crusades, the Muslims were required by Frederick in Sicily. He was crowned at age 3, when his father died. He wanted to begin Crusading in Cairo, which was the home of the Muslim ruler at the time.
But the Muslims were now in open rebellion about the taxes they didn’t want to pay, which was going to support the Crusades; instead of fighting at Cairo, he had deal with his own Muslims.
Anyway, from this we see that it is every invading and conquering army, and their ruler, whether King or Sultan, who call the shots. If the common people are ready for bloodshed and refuse to pay taxes, say for religious reasons, it is their own lives and futures which they put on the line, as well as the future of their families and communities. It often happens that the people will rise up against too much harsh treatment, when they feel that things have gotten unbearable, or they are ready for a fight, etc. It happened in India, it happened in Egypt, it happens in the past and in the present, in the future it will also happen. That was the situation for much of history and the history of Muslims living under brutal occupation of the Crusades, and later under the occupation of the British, for example in India, and so on.
If not for such struggles things would have remained at the status quo.
Muslims today in Europe may want to fight for their rights, whatever they believe that means; as some Muslims believe today, Europe has not been successful at integrating its Muslims; for the most part they face a lot of discrimination. Tariq Ramadhan, a kind of expert, and Head of Islamic studies at the University of London believes. You can see him in the Douglas Murray Debates. While Murray may win the debate, which is through a vote; and therefore reflects not only what the speakers have said, but can be somewhat affected by some of the audience members and their remarks as well, which I think happens in one particular debate.
Nonetheless, if Muslims believe that they are not being integrated, then that speaks volumes. It is the same as the situation with blacks in America; until now there is discrimination and racism. The fact is that governments are not able to change how people deal with each other. They can only try to enact laws, force integration with “multiculturalism”: which is failing to produce the desired effects in Europe, and hold referendums, debates, etc. The step to recognize Palestine is a move which may prove to help Muslims better appreciate their position in the political landscape today, or in the future. They have a lot of people power, but so far, not much has happened to raise the level of general Muslims, many who still live in poverty, or are struggling. But it may not be just a problem of Muslims, but the wider problem of economics, and the whole world’s sagging economy. Tariq Ramadhan still speaks with optimism about a quiet revolution, and progress in mutual understanding, that will grow, and prove more fruitful for cooperation and integration of Muslims, and probably other minorities would benefit as well from such an example or grassroots movement perhaps in cities or general European society as time passes and experiences evolve in such a direction.
American author Graham wrote, “Arab historians also praised Roger for his patronage of Muslim philosophers and scientists. The Norman ruler was especially interested in geography, a relatively underdeveloped filed in medieval Europe…the biographical details are slim since Muslim historians considered him a renegade after his move to Christendom. For reasons that may have had a great deal to do with money, al-Idrisi offered his services to Roger…” p.161, How Islam Created the Modern World, 2006)
Graham writes, “Like a Muslim university, women were allowed to study at Salerno and the institution existed somewhat autonomously from the church. The curriculum was the same as in Baghdad…” (p.162, Ibid).
He also generously notes that the Scientific method was a Muslim import, or invention, greatly appreciated by the Christians, at the university of Salerno, which they no sooner adopted. (p. 164, Ibid).
While this book has a nice title, it is not as innocent, or friendly towards Islamic ideology as one might imagine, but I use it here for the sake of argument and it’s historical relevance to this topic, education and women in Islamic society.
One other example in the book, which can highlight the extent of Islamophobia which existed in the past, and which wrongly also, exists in the present, is the Muslim apostate, who became Christian and moved to live in the Christian city, in the fore of developments in Science and medicine of the Christians, after the conquest of Muslims lands, and the borrowing of Arabic medical journals, etc. which helped Christians develop modern medicine (at the time) and greatly influenced medical practice as well as the emergence of women doctors, through schools of medicine based on the Islamic framework of medical science and universities of medicine. The apostates name was???. He continued to live and it seems no Muslim would have attempted to execute him, though probably we can never know if someone of the Muslims had the ability to do so, or not and what would have been the outcome if they had. The fact is that Muslims would not have wanted to kill apostates who emigrated and at any rate were ordinary non-violent citizens of the state, whether Muslim or Christian state. It is to the moral loss of a man who apostatizes, not the problem of the Muslims' general elect, or any individual. Muslims view the few apostates as members of an unfortunate class of people who give up a superior religion and way of life, and an eternity of happiness, for an inferior religion and way of life, and an eternity of misery. There is no need to explain this further, I think. Muslims do not advocate the killings or assassinations of peaceful, though misled individuals, whether apostates or other minorities. (Revising, to add reference)
For these examples and more, I believe that Muslims and a true Islamic government, which acts on the teachings of Qur’an and Sunna, will not be lead astray, nor commit aggression, nor treat anyone with injustice, except if this happened by some fateful mistake. The cultural practices or some wrong policies in Muslim-majority societies and the examples of a few individuals do not constitute the majority of Muslims’ attitudes, beliefs, or practices, nor do they justify Islamophobia, perhaps the single greatest threat to integration of Muslims and peace in the Western and European societies right now.
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