Everything about Persecution Of Muslims totally explained
Persecution of
Muslims refers to the
religious persecution inflicted upon
Muslims. Persecution may refer to beating, torture, confiscation or destruction of property. 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
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.
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. And if free Muslims were attacked, slaves who converted were subjected 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. This persecution ultimately provoked the
hijra.
Christian persecution of Muslims
Persecution of Muslims during the Crusades
First Crusade was launched in 1095 by
Pope Urban II with the stated effort to regain control of the sacred city of
Jerusalem and the
Holy Land from the
Muslims who had captured them from the
Byzantines in 638 and partly in response to the
Investiture Controversy which was the most significant
conflict between secular and religious powers in
medieval Europe. It began as a dispute between the
Holy Roman Emperor and the
Gregorian Papacy and gave rise to the political concept of
Christendom as a union of all peoples and sovereigns under the direction of the pope; as both sides tried to marshal public opinion in their favor, people became personally engaged in a dramatic religious controversy.
On
May 7,
1099 the crusaders reached
Jerusalem, which had been recaptured from the Seljuks by the
Fatimids of Egypt only a year before. 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..." 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'd been there you'd 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."
Persecution of Muslims in South Europe
Muslim populations didn't survive the reconquests of
Christendom in
Sicily due to either expulsions, murder or
forced conversions.
In the Iberian Peninsula
During the centuries of
Reconquista (711-1492), the Christian North of the
Iberian Peninsula and the Southern Muslim-ruled
Al Andalus battled internally and against each other. It ended with the Christian domination of the Peninsula.
Depending on the local capitulations, local Muslims were allowed to remain (
Mudéjars) with some restrictions and some assimilated into the Christian population. After the
conquest of Granada, all the Spanish Muslims were under Christian rule. The new acquired population spoke Arabic and the campaigns to convert them were unsuccessful. Legislation was gradually introduced to remove Islam, Arabic language and Arabic-style dressing. Muslims were forced to convert by the
Spanish Inquisition. They were known as
Moriscos and considered
New Christians. Some kept practising their Islamic faith in secrecy. Between 1609 and 1614 the Moriscos were expelled from Spain.
Russian Empire
The period from the
conquest of Kazan in 1552 to the ascension of
Catherine the Great in 1762, was marked by systematic repression of Muslims through policies of exclusion and discrimination as well as the destruction of Muslim culture by elimination of outward manifestations of Islam such as
mosques. While total expulsion as in other Christian nations such as
Spain,
Portugal and
Sicily wasn't feasible to achieve a homogenous
Russian Orthodox population, other policies such as land grants and the promotion of migration by other Russian and non-Muslim populations into Muslim lands displaced many Muslims making them minorities in places such as some parts of the South Ural region to other parts such as the
Ottoman Turkey, and almost annihilating the
Circassians. In the 16th century this led to an uprising against the
Tsar Feodor by the Tatar aristocracy and their subsequent expulsion. The trend of
Russification has continued at different paces in the rest of Tsarist and
Soviet periods, so that today there are more Tatars living outside the
Republic of Tatarstan than inside it.
Mongol persecution of Muslims
Following the brutal
Mongol invasion of Central Asia under
Hulagu Khan and after the
Battle of Baghdad (1258), the
Mongol Empire's rule extended across most Muslim lands in Asia. The
Abbasid caliphate was destroyed and
Islamic civilization, especially
Mesopotamia, suffered much devastation and was replaced by
Buddhism as the official religion of the land. It must be remembered that despite Islam's decline at the hands of the Mongol invaders, their actions shouldn't qualify as persecution rooted in religious hatred or intolerance. The Mongol destruction of Muslim lands should be seen rather as military tactics employed for the purpose of conquest through psychological warfare. The seventh ruler of the Ilkhanate dynasty
Mahmud Ghazan converted to Islam and thus began the gradual trend of the decline of Buddhism in the region and a renaissance of Islam.
Persecution of Muslims in the modern West
Persecution of Muslims in Europe
Ziauddin Sardar writes in
The New Statesman that Islamophobia is a widespread European phenomenon, so widespread that he asks whether Muslims will be victims of the next
pogroms. He writes that each country has its extremes, citing
Jean-Marie Le Pen in France;
Pim Fortuyn, who was assassinated, in Holland; and Philippe Van der Sande of
Vlaams Blok, a
Flemish nationalist party founded in Belgium.
Filip Dewinter, the leader of the nationalist Flemish "
Vlaams Belang" has said that his party is "Islamophobic." He said: "Yes, we're afraid of Islam. The Islamisation of Europe is a frightening thing."
In Germany, the state of
Baden-Württemberg requires citizenship applicants from the member states of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference to answer questions about their attitudes on
homosexuality and
domestic violence.
Dress code has become a flashpoint. France, which has a strong secular tradition separating church and state, was accused of Islamophobia when girls who wore muslim headscarfs were expelled from school under a new law. In January 2006, the Dutch parliament voted in favour of a proposal to ban the
burqa in public, which led to similar accusations.
Sardar argues that Europe is "post-colonial, but ambivalent." Minorities are regarded as acceptable as an underclass of menial workers, but if they want to be upwardly mobile, as Sardar says young Muslims do, the prejudice rises to the surface.
Wolfram Richter, professor of economics at
Dortmund University of Technology, told Sardar: "I am afraid we've not learned from our history. My main fear is that what we did to Jews we may now do to Muslims. The next holocaust would be against Muslims."
The report highlighted the regularity with which ordinary Muslims became targets of abusive and sometimes violent retaliatory attacks after 9/11. Despite localized differences within each member nation, the recurrence of attacks on recognizable and visible traits of Islam and Muslims was the report's most significant finding. The attacks took the form of verbal abuse; blaming all Muslims for terrorist attacks; women having their
hijab torn from their heads; male and female Muslims being spat at; children being called "Usama"; and random assaults, which left victims hospitalized, and on one occasion, left a victim paralyzed.
Persecution of Muslims in Myanmar
Myanmar has a Buddhist majority. The Muslim minority in Myanmar mostly consists of the
Rohingya people and the descendants of Muslim immigrants from
Bangladesh,
India, and
China (the ancestors of
Chinese Muslims in Myanmar came from the
Yunnan province), as well as descendants of earlier
Arab and
Persian settlers.
Indian Muslims were brought to Burma by the British to aid them in clerical work and business. After independence, many Muslims retained their previous positions and achieved prominence in business and politics.When General
Ne Win swept to power on a wave of nationalism in 1962, the status of Muslims changed for the worse. Muslims were expelled from the army and were rapidly marginalized.
Muslims are stereotyped in the society as "cattle killers" (referring to the cattle sacrifice festival of
Eid Al Adha in Islam). The generic
racist slur of "Kala" (black) used against perceived "foreigners" has especially negative connotations when referring to Burmese Muslims. The more pious Muslim communities which segregate themselves from the Buddhist majority face greater difficulties than those Muslims who integrate more at the cost of not observing Islamic personal laws.
Muslims in Myanmar are affected by the actions of
Islamic Fundamentalists in other countries. Violence in
Indonesia perpetrated by
Islamists is used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslim minorities in Burma. The anti-Buddhist actions of the
Taliban in Afghanistan (the destruction of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan) was also used as a pretext to commit violence against Muslims in Myanmar by Buddhist mobs.
Human Rights Watch reports that there was mounting tension between the Buddhist and Muslim communities in Taungoo for weeks before it erupted into violence in the middle of May 2001. Buddhist monks demanded that the Hantha Mosque in Taungoo be destroyed in "retaliation" for the destruction of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan. Mobs of Buddhists, led by Monks, vandalized Muslim owned businesses and property and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities. This was followed by retaliation by Muslims against Buddhists. Human Rights Watch also alleges that Burmese military intelligence agents disguised as monks, led the mobs.
The dictatorial government, which operates a pervasive internal security apparatus, generally infiltrates or monitors the meetings and activities of virtually all organizations, including religious organizations.Religious freedom for Muslims is reduced.Monitoring and control of Islam undermines the free exchange of thoughts and ideas associated with religious activities.
It is widely feared that persecution of Muslims in Myanmar could foment
Islamic fundamentalism in the country. Many Muslims have joined armed resistance groups that are fighting for greater freedom in Myanmar, but are not
Islamic fundamentalists as such.
Persecution of Muslims in India
There were widespread riots during the
Partition of India in
1947, with attacks on Muslim minorities by Hindu and Sikh mobs.
In
1992, members of the
Vishva Hindu Parishad and the
Bajrang Dal destroyed the 430 year old
Babri Mosque in
Ayodhya, on the basis of their assertion that the mosque was built over the birthplace of the Hindu deity
Rama and a Hindu temple existed at the site before the erection of the Mosque. The demolition was followed by
anti-Muslim riots in Mumbai allegedly perpetrated by the nativist
Shiv Sena party.
The
Sangh Parivar family of organisations, has allegedly been involved in encouraging negative
stereotyping of Muslims, and in the
2002 Gujarat violence they were allegedly responsible for encouraging attacks against Muslims.. Subsequent riots led to the death of 754 Muslims. Another major incident was at Naroda Patia, where a Hindu mob, massacred more than 100 Muslims. In another incident at Best Bakery, in the city of Baroda, a family of 12 was massacred and burnt. The Gujarat riots officially led to the death of 1044 people, 754 Muslims and 290 Hindus.
Human Rights Watch puts the death toll at higher figures, with 2000 deaths, mostly Muslim, but with attacks against Hindus by Muslim mobs as well.
Recently Hindu mobs have attacked Muslim villages after claims were made that cows had been slaughtered for the festivities of
eid. In 2005, this caused the destruction of 40 homes and 3 deaths. A police investigation revealed that no cow had been slaughtered in the village.
Persecution of minority/sectarian Muslim groups by other Muslim groups
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 doctrine in 832, igniting the
Mihna(ordeal) a struggle over the application of Greek logical proof of the Qu'ran; people who wouldn't accept 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
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 have attacked its adherents. In modern times, notable examples include the bombing campaigns by the Sunni
Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Shia
Tehrik-e-Jafria, two small extremist groups, against Shia or Sunni mosques in
Pakistan, the persecution of
Hazara under the
Taliban, and the bloody attacks linked with
Zarqawi and his followers against Shia in Iraq.
Persecution of Ahmadiyyas
The
Ahmadiyya regard themselves as Muslims, but are seen by many other Muslims as non-Muslims and "heretics". Armed groups, led by the umbrella organization
Khatme Nabuwat ("Finality of Prophethood"), have launched violent attacks against their mosques in
Bangladesh
.
They committed massacres against them which resulted in 2,000 Ahmadiyya deaths in Pakistani Punjab. Eventually, martial law had to be established and Governor general Ghulam Mohamed dismissed the federal cabinet. This anti-Ahmadiyya movement led Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to declare that the Ahmadiyyas were "non-Muslims".
In
1984, the Government of
Pakistan, under General
Zia-ul-Haq, passed
Ordinance XX, which banned proselytizing by Ahmadis and also banned Ahmadis from referring to themselves as
Muslims. According to this ordinance, any Ahmadi who refers to oneself as a Muslim by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, directly or indirectly, or makes the call for prayer as other Muslims do, is punishable by imprisonment of up to 3 years. Because of these difficulties,
Mirza Tahir Ahmad migrated to
London, UK.
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 remote and more mountainous parts of
Syria. The ruling
Ba'ath party is dominated by Alawis (
President Bashar al-Assad is Alawi himself) and they've sought fatwas from Shiite clergy in
Lebanon declaring that they are, in fact, Muslims.
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've killed large numbers of Muslims; the GIA, for example, proudly boasted of having committed the
Bentalha massacre.
Persecution of Ajlaf and Arzal Muslims in South Asia
Despite
Islam's egalitarian tenets, units of social stratification, termed as "castes" by many, have developed among Muslims in some parts of South Asia. Various theories have been put forward regarding the development of castes among Indian muslims. Some sources state that the castes among Muslims developed as the result of close contact with Hindu culture and Hindu converts to Islam, while others feel that these developed based on claims of descent from the prophet Mohamed.
Sections of the ulema (scholars of Islamic jurisprudence) have declared the religious legitimacy of the caste system with the help of the concept of kafa'a. A classic example of scholarly literature supporting the Muslim caste system is the
Fatawa-i Jahandari, written by the fourteenth century Turkish scholar, Ziauddin Barani, a member of the court of
Muhammad bin Tughlaq, of the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Barani was known for his intensely casteist views, and he regarded the Ashraf Muslims as racially superior to the Ajlaf Muslims. He divided the Muslims into grades and sub-grades. In his scheme, all high positions and privileges were to be a monopoly of the high born Turks, not the Indian Muslims. Even in his interpretation of the Koranic verse "Indeed, the pious amongst you're most honored by Allah", he considered piety to be associated with noble birth.His most significant contribution in the fatwa was his analysis of the castes with respect to Islam. His assertion was that castes would be mandated through state laws or "Zawabi" which would carry precedence over
Sharia law whenever they were in conflict. Barani had a clear disdain for the Ajlaf and strongly recommended that they be denied education, lest they usurp the Ashraf masters. He sought appropriate religious sanction to that effect.
In addition to the Ashraf/Ajlaf divide, there's also the
Arzal caste among Muslims, whose members were regarded by anti-Caste activists like Babasaheb
Ambedkar as the equivalent of untouchables. The term "Arzal" stands for "degraded" and the Arzal castes are further subdivided into Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugta, Mehtar etc.
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