User:CltFn/Bat Ye'or

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Bat Ye'or at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC

Bat Ye'or (Hebrew: בת יאור) (meaning "daughter of the Nile" in Hebrew; a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi [2]) is a British historian specializing in the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, Islam, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under the dominion of Islam.

She is the author of eight books, including Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis (2005), Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide (2001), The Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude (1996), and The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam (1985).

She has provided briefings to the U.S. Congress and has given talks at major universities such as Georgetown, Brown, Yale, Brandeis, and Columbia.

1 Early life
2 Research
3 "Eurabia"
4 Public appearances
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 Articles and interviews
8 Documentaries
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] Early life

Bat Ye'or was born in Cairo, Egypt, but her citizenship was revoked in 1955 as part of Egypt's retribution against its Jewish residents following Israel's Operation Suzannah.[3] She and her parents left Egypt in 1957, arriving in London as stateless refugees. Beginning in 1958 she attended the Institute of Archeology at the University of London and in 1959 became a British citizen by marriage. She moved to Switzerland in 1960 to continue her studies at the University of Geneva ^[1] She describes how her life experience influenced her research interests:

I had witnessed the destruction, in a few short years, of a vibrant Jewish community living in Egypt for over 2,600 years and which had existed from the time of Jeremiah the Prophet. I saw the disintegration and flight of families, dispossessed and humiliated, the destruction of their synagogues, the bombing of the Jewish quarters and the terrorizing of a peaceful population. I have personally experienced the hardships of exile, the misery of statelessness − and I wanted to get to the root cause of all this. I wanted to understand why the Jews from Arab countries, nearly a million, had shared my experience.

She is married to British historian David Littman, with whom she frequently collaborates. [4]

[edit] Research

Her first book, The Jews in Egypt, was published in 1971 along with a study on Egyptian Coptic Christians, under the Arabic pseudonym Yahudiya Masriya, meaning Egyptian Jewish woman. Since then, Bat Ye'or focused predominantly on the history of non-Muslims under Islamic rule. She is known for employing the neologism dhimmitude, which she discusses in detail in Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide. She credits assassinated Lebanese president-elect and Phalangist militia leader Bachir Gemayel with coining the term.

Ye'or regards dhimmitude as the "specific social condition that resulted from jihad,"[5] and as the "state of fear and insecurity" of "infidels" who are required to "accept a condition of humiliation."[6] She believes that "the dhimmi condition can only be understood in the context of Jihad,"[7] and studies the relationship between the theological tenets of Islam and the sufferings of the Christians and Jews who, in different geographical areas and periods of history, have lived in Islamic majority areas.[8] The cause of jihad, she argues, "was fomented around the 8th century by Muslim theologians after the death of Muhammad and led to the conquest of large swathes of three continents over the course of a long history."[9]. She says:

Dhimmitude is the direct consequence of jihad. It embodie[s] all the Islamic laws and customs applied over a millennium on the vanquished population, Jews and Christians, living in the countries conquered by jihad and therefore Islamized. [We can observe a] return of the jihad ideology since the 1960s, and of some dhimmitude practices in Muslim countries applying the sharia [Islamic] law, or inspired by it. I stress[] the incompatibility between the concept of tolerance as expressed by the jihad-dhimmitude ideology, and the concept of human rights based on the equality of all human beings and the inalienability of their rights. [10]

Jacques Ellul attempts to summarize her views in the foreword to The Decline (see below), saying that Ye'or focuses on "jihad and dhimmitude ... as ... two complementary institutions... [T]here are many interpretations [of jihad]. At times, the main emphasis is placed on the spiritual nature of this 'struggle'. Indeed, it would merely [refer to] the struggle that the believer has to wage against his own evil inclinations.... [T]his interpretation ... in no way covers the whole scope of jihad. At other times, one prefers to veil the facts and put them in parentheses. [E]xpansion [of Islam] ... happened through war!" [11] Though Ye'or acknowledges that it is not the case that all Muslims subscribe to so-called "militant jihad theories of society", she claims that the role of the sharia in the "1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam" demonstrates that "a perpetual war against those infidels who refuse to submit" is still an "operative paradigm" in Islamic countries. [12]

Bat Ye'or has focused on the rapid transformation of Eastern Christian lands into Islamic territories, concluding that corruption and division among Christians contributed [13] and may even have afforded Islam certain models of legal control of subjugated populations; she suggests that Yugoslavia is an example of the long-term scars of dhimmitude,[14] where Christians were under that status for centuries.

Usage of the term "dhimmitude" has increased in recent years: some scholars have used it both by itself [15] and in association with Bat Ye'or's work, e.g. in undergraduate courses relating to the relationship Muslims have had historically with other peoples. [16]

Other issues Bat Ye'or has written on include:

The existence or lack thereof of pluralism in Islamic culture, with a focus on Eastern Europe [17]
Violations of human rights in Islamic cultures [18]
The theological rules that govern jihad [19]
How Muslims interpret the history of the dhimmi peoples [20]
How the Muslim interpretation of religious scripture influences Islamic interpretation of history and modern-day events [21]
The "dialog of civilizations" and the "negation of the other" [22]

Ye'or's books have been noted for their detailed references to primary sources and original documents from the time periods she treats ^[2]

[edit] "Eurabia"

In Bat Ye'or's most recent book, 2005's Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, she explores the history of the relationship between the European Union (previously the European Economic Community) and the Arab states, beginning in the 1970s, and traces what she sees as connections between radical Arabs and Muslims, on the one hand, and fascists and Nazis, on the other hand, in the origins and growing influence, as she sees it, of Islam over European culture and politics.[23] She herself can take some credit for the term "Eurabia" in this context; though the term was first used as a title of a journal initiated in the mid-1970s by the European Committee for Coordination of Friendship Associations with the Arab world, she popularized it as a term for Arab/Islamic influence over Europe. She explains the term's origins in the book:

Eurabia is a geo-political reality envisaged in 1973 through a system of informal alliances between, on the one hand, the nine countries of the European Community (EC) which, enlarged, became the European Union (EU) in 1992 and on the other hand, the Mediterranean Arab countries. The alliances and agreements were elaborated at the top political level of each EC country with the representative of the European Commission, and their Arab homologues with the Arab League's delegate. This system was synchronised under the roof of an association called the Euro-Arab Dialogue (EAD) created in July 1974 in Paris. A working body composed of committees and always presided jointly by a European and an Arab delegate planned the agendas, and organized and monitored the application of the decisions.

[edit] Public appearances

Testimony before governing bodies:

(1997) "Past is Prologue: The Challenge of Islamism Today. An Historical Overview of the Persecutions of Christians under Islam". Congressional Testimony at United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Hearing on Religious Persecution in the Middle East. (Congressional Records Testimony on May 1, 1997)[24]
(1997) Similar testimony delivered to a U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) Briefing on Capitol Hill (April 29, 1997)
(2001) A Culture of Hate: Analysis to the Association of World Education [25]
(2002) "Human Rights and the Concept of Jihad". Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) Briefing on Capitol Hill (February 8, 2002)[26]

She has appeared on U.S. television station C-SPAN.

[edit] References

^ John W. Whitehead, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, An interview with Bat Ye'or, The Rutherford Institute, 06/09/05
^ Robert Spencer described Bat Ye’or on C-SPAN as "Her books are highly recommended and are full – most of them are almost half primary source documents so that one can see the veracity of what she is saying from very ancient texts. And so this is something that she has opened up that the Middle East studies establishment was afraid or indifferent or unwilling to look at. And she has opened up this study which is a very important field of study particularly in light of the ongoing Islamization (ph) of the societies of Europe nowadays" [1]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] On-line bibliography

Bibliography of Bat Ye'or

[edit] Books

Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, 2005, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0-8386-4077-X.
Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide, 2001, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0-8386-3942-9; ISBN 0-8386-3943-7. (with David Littman, translated by Miriam Kochan)
The Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude;seventh-twentieth century, 1996, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0-8386-3678-0; ISBN 0-8386-3688-8 (paperback).
The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam, 1985, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0-8386-3233-5; ISBN 0-8386-3262-9 (paperback). (with David Maisel, Paul Fenton and David Littman; foreword by Jacques Ellul)
Les Juifs en Egypte (Geneva: Editions de l'Avenir, 1971)(in French, title translates as "The Jews in Egypt")

[edit] Book chapters

"The Dhimmi Factor in the Exodus of Jews from Arab Countries" in Malka Hillel Shulewitz (ed.), The Forgotten Millions. The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands, London/New York: Cassell, 1999; Continuum, 2000 (pp. 33-51)
"A Christian Minority. The Copts in Egypt" in Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. A World Survey. 4 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976