The hundred years' war of Muhammadan conquests were a great catastrophe for the countries affected. Millions of people were reduced to slavery and dragged from one part of the word to another.
Jews and Arabs, by SD Goitein, p151
-----
632-752. During a hundred and twenty years of wars the Arabs conquer and partly colonize the countries between Spain and Central Asia
Ibid, p231
Let's face it: Jihad is an "occupational" hazard.
Putting aside the Nakba of the Jews who were kicked out of Muslim countries in the mid-20th century, let's not forget the countless Nakbas inflicted on others by the Muslim world from its inception.
In The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims
, Andrew Bostom provides primary and other sources that document Jihad and the consequences non-Muslims faced. In Part 5: Jihad, Seventh through Eleventh Centures, Bostom quotes from the Atlas of Islamic
History, by Harry W. Hazard.Hazard gives a breakdown of Muslim conquests and occupation.
Here are some of the more salient events:
7th Century:
Europe:
- Balkans (Constantinople attacked)
- Daghestan
Mediterranean:
- Sicily (pillaged by Muslims in 652 and 668)
- Crete (occupied briefly by Muslims in 674)
- Rhodes (occupied by Muslims in 672-679)
- Cyprus
Africa:
- Morocco and Algeria
- Tunisia
- East Africa
- Egypt
Asia:
- Arabia
- Syria
- Anatolia
- Mesopotamia
- Persia
- Afghanistan
Don't forget the back and forth over the centuries that followed--not only between Muslims and non-Muslims, but also the constant fighting among the Muslims themselves: something that has continued throughout Muslim history and continues to this day.
Some of the more familiar countries that were attacked, conquered and occupied by Muslims in whole or in part include:
- Spain
- France
- Italy
- The Sahara
So it's not that the Muslim world today is opposed to occupation of other countries--they just don't like the competition--something to keep in mind every time we witness the spectacle of Islamists whining about being victims of the West.
Hat tip: Andrew Bostom
Technorati Tag: Yom HaAtzmaut and Nakba.
wouldn't you say the bible is a story of pure violence and conquests.
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, do you agree that the whining from the Muslim world about occupation is pure hypocrisy?
ReplyDeleteThe Zionist colonial enterprise was always going to upset the Arab world. Especially in this post colonial age.
ReplyDeleteFor Arabs and Palestinians, Jewish nationhood could only have materialised as another form of Western settler-colonialism, and a more extreme and repugnant one than usual in that it did not confine itself to political domination, economic exploitation and more or less racist attitudes to the indigenous population, but sought to drive this population out of its ancestral homeland all together.
The history of this conflict is one of pure Zionist gain verses pure Arab loss
The Western world wants the Arabs to accept a wrong that no Western country would ever accepted for itself.
Its not as if the Palestinian are demanding anything like the full redress that almost all such other colonial subject peoples have demanded-and largely secured.To be sure, that used to be their aim, but since 1988 they,PLO and PNC, have formally renounced what, from both the standpoint of international jurisprudence and established anti-colonial norms, they were entitled to claim as their right: the recovery of their usurped homeland,the return of the refugees and the dismantling of the whole Zionist colonial apparatus of immigration, settlements and political control. It was only their recognition of the Jewish state , and its right to exist on 78% of the territory they considered to be rightfully theirs, which enabled a 'peace process' to get going at all.
Your first paragraph is plagiarized from here--except that it uses spelling changes made here
ReplyDeleteSo tell me, where did you copy the rest from?
The history of this conflict is one of pure Zionist gain verses pure Arab loss
That of course is a complete fabrication--as Karsh points out:
The larger part, still untold in all its detail, is of the astounding social and economic progress made by the Palestinian Arabs under Israeli "oppression." At the inception of the occupation, conditions in the territories were quite dire. Life expectancy was low; malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child mortality were rife; and the level of education was very poor. Prior to the 1967 war, fewer than 60 percent of all male adults had been employed, with unemployment among refugees running as high as 83 percent. Within a brief period after the war, Israeli occupation had led to dramatic improvements in general well-being, placing the population of the territories ahead of most of their Arab neighbors.
...During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world-ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself.
and that is backed up by apublication by The World Bank: Developing the Occupied Territories: An Investment in Peace
You really need to find a better quality source to plagiarized from.
As for the rest--since there has never been a state called Palestine, the term "homeland" is a lie.
Like I said, either read up on the subject or find someone else to copy from.