Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Coulson Center on John Stone Street. In recent days, a handful of public figures and popular podcasters have made a claim that Islamic regimes have been historically, quote, very kind to Christians. Those who make this claim are either willfully ignorant or they're advancing an agenda, because the historical record on this fact is certainly not ambiguous. For example, the claim that relations between Islam and the Christian world were peaceful for 500 years until the First Crusade is just plain false. Muhammad died in 632.
By 732, Islam had already taken the Holy Land in North Africa from the Christian Byzantine Empire. It had also conquered Spain and advanced into France a few hundred miles from Paris. After taking additional land in southern France and establishing bases in the Alps, Moslems then launched raids into Germany. They sacked the outskirts of Rome, they took control of Sicily. In ten seventy one they defeated the Byzantines and took control of most of modern Turkey.
Twenty-four years later, the Byzantine emperor asked the Pope for help. That's what led to the First Crusade. Christians in these conquered territories were treated as demis, second-class citizens, who were required to pay the jizya, a special tax and sign of submission that was often accompanied by ritual humiliations. Failure to pay the tax could result in death or enslavement or the destruction of the local church building. No public displays of Christianity were allowed, including the ringing of church bells or even praying aloud in one's own home if it was within earshot of a Muslim.
No new churches could be built. No old churches could be repaired without permission, and that was rarely given. Criticism of Islam and evangelizing Muslims was strictly forbidden. In court, a Christian's testimony was worth less than a Muslim's. Christians could not have authority over a Muslim or have a house taller than the house of a Muslim.
They could not bear arms or ride a horse. At times, they were even forced to wear distinctive clothing. Another claim that's made is that Muslim rulers protected Christian holy sites and repaired them when they were damaged. Again, nothing could be farther from the truth. Typically, important Christian holy sites were converted to mosques to show the victory of Islam.
The most prominent example, of course, is Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the largest church in Christendom for over a thousand years. When the city fell to the Turks, it and other churches were desecrated and converted into mosques. An exception was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, perhaps because it was such a major pilgrimage site and it generated so much revenue for the Caliph.
However, in the year 1009, Caliph al-Hakim destroyed it. It lay in ruins for decades until his successor allowed the Byzantines to rebuild it, likely again to collect the pilgrimage. Pilgrimage revenues. 800 years later, the church was severely damaged by fire. Local Christians blame Muslims, but the official story is that it was caused by a candle or an oil lamp.
The Ottomans did allow it to be repaired, but only using Christian funds that were donated from overseas. They did not pay for the repair. In the Ottoman Empire, which some claim was kind to Christians, boys were taken from Christian homes to be raised as janissaries, Muslim slave soldiers who were taught to despise their Christian families. Girls were often taken as slaves into harems, and violence often broke out against Christian communities in Ottoman territories. The very worst violence was the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides of the early 20th century, in which somewhere between a million and a half and two and a half million people were killed by the Ottoman government.
The same violence, of course, against Christians at the hands of Muslims continues today with abductions, forced marriages, murders, arson of churches, and oppression of Christians in places like Pakistan, in Egypt, and even increasingly in Europe. There's a prohibition against churches in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, and of course the ongoing slaughter of Christians by Islamists in Nigeria, not to mention elsewhere in Africa.
So no, Islam has not been kind to Christians, not even close. The only reason that many make this claim is to make the occasional anti-Christian acts by Israelis look worse than it is. But there's really no comparison here. Christians in Israel have many more rights and more freedoms than in any Muslim country. including in all of history.
To claim otherwise is simply to ignore reality. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download podcasts.
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