Christians in the Muslim World.

 

A Review of Justus Weiner's  Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society,

 

A  book review by Raphael Israeli

 

The plight of Christians (and Jews) in Muslim lands, which has historically fed upon the ancient dhimmi status that was imposed upon the 'People of the Book' in Muslim-conquered lands, has been vastly documented in recent years. Prominent among the contributions that describe the fate of Christian (and Jewish) minorities in the Muslim world have been Bat Ye'or's masterly narratives of this sad history in her monumental books: The Dhimmis, The Decline of Eastern Christianities Under Islam and Islam and Dhimmitude. Weiner, however, treats us to a novel situation in his monograph about the Christians in Palestinian society. Palestinian Christians as such and Palestine itself have no independent history as a distinct entity and therefore could not have heretofore conceived any attitude or adopted any policy with regard to its Christian minorities the way other Muslim nation-states have done. The most strident case in point are the Copts of Egypt, the original people who inherited the Pharaonic tradition and created and sustained Hellenic culture until they were taken over by the invading Muslim Arabs. There, in addition to the fact that they became a minority of 10-12% in their own land, they are ruled by a modern Muslim state which has attempted to follow some coherent policy towards its Copts, in a country where Muslim Brothers have often defied government fiat and given free expression to their hatred towards their Christian neighbors.

 

Palestinians are different in the sense that though they have never acceded to independence, they have cultivated in their midst a tiny Christian minority which has very often stood in the forefront of Palestinian nationalism, and at times has gained favor with the Muslim populace by championing the Palestinian cause. Their alternative option was much more restricting and unpleasant: When they realized that they could not contend with the mounting waves of Muslim fundamentalism in the past two decades, many elected to emigrate to Western and Latin American countries. Thus, historically Christian cities like Bethlehem and Ramallah (as with Nazareth in Israel) have turned Muslim, with the crushing new Muslim majority signaling to the Christians that they are no longer the masters of their own towns of birth. This in turn renders the remaining Christians more nationalistic (see, for example, the cases of Hanan Ashrawi in Ramallah, the Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah in Jerusalem and Azmi Bishara in Nazareth). So, the fewer Christians in the emerging Palestinian entity, the less acute the problem should become. But that is not necessarily so, because for Muslim fundamentalists like the Hamas, their 'success' in 'cleansing' their society from its Christian presence augurs the end of the 'Crusader' rule of Muslim lands earmarked to become part of the revived Caliphate. This only boosts their aspiration to squeeze the Christians (and the Jews, if that were possible) from the domain or 'House' of Islam.

 

Another issue looms on the horizon if one wishes to speak, as Weiner does, about human rights of Palestinian Christians. An international human rights lawyer, the author has been documenting case studies of Islamic oppression against Palestinian Christians over a period of eight years, developing a telling note of empathy for their hopeless plight given the direction of Palestinian 'self-rule.' He has published a number of separate articles based on this body of research in legal and human rights journals, with the intent to shed light upon the egregious and widespread human rights violations against the remnant of Christians in the territories. Yet the entire notion is somewhat laughable, because there are no human rights in any Muslim country, much less in an entity that is dominated by chaos like the Palestinian territories. Human rights? Where did human rights ever exist for anyone in Muslim societies, much less among the Palestinians, who are still ruled by tribal, clan and family ties and obligations, where the concept of 'honor' – personal and collective – dominates the scene and conditions societal behavior? Then why should one expect them to grant human rights to Christians? The error recurrent in the West, as the monograph under review serves to remind us, is to take up Western yardsticks to measure conduct in non-Western societies, in this case the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim one. Human rights as defined by the United Nations are not recognized by Muslim nations, who have made it repeatedly clear that this issue, like many others in international affairs, is culture-bound, and therefore they reject lock, stock and barrel the whole notion that they should adhere to those un-Islamic principles. Certainly, Hanan Ashrawi and her like are quick to pour accusations on Israel and the West for not respecting Palestinian, Arab and Muslim 'rights,' but within their own societies they seldom invoke human rights to reprimand the tyrannical, oppressive and dictatorial regimes that rule them. They have simply never known anything else.

 

Therefore, while Weiner's well-written and clear dissertation about the oppression of Christians within Palestinian society is well-documented and reads fluently, it is trying to tackle the issue in unrealistic terms. It is akin to a referee trained in presiding over the graceful game of basketball trying to umpire the violent American contact sport of football – the gentle language of the one does not yield itself to the other. Weiner has come to the conclusion that political motives often supervene human rights standards in Palestinian society. This fact, however, cannot obscure the reality that this 'violation' is unalterable anymore than in other Arab-Muslim countries. For what is violation for the author and the rest of us, is the standard for Muslim countries. Exactly as you do not point out a particular spot on an extremely filthy cloth, or search for a particular bad habit in a world-class mafia criminal, so it is vain to look for human rights violations in a society that does not even understand what they are. Prerequisites for human rights are democracy, tolerance and freedom, which do not exist in that or any other Arab-Muslim society the way we understand them. What is occurring in Palestinian society is a tragedy no matter what the standard applied, as Weiner would concur. His monograph, therefore, does serve notice yet again that the 'statehood' Western nations seek to forge for the Palestinians is an incurable brute in the making.

 

The reviewer, Raphael Israeli, is a Professor of Islamic, Middle Eastern and Chinese history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and author of 15 books and some 80 scholarly articles in those fields.

 

Weiner's entire monograph, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society, can be accessed in pdf format at http://www.jcpa.org/christian-persecution.htm.