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A Culture of Clashes
In 70 AD the Romans were confronted by two strange monotheistic faiths.
One,
Judaism, was regionally located and troubling to the stability of the
Eastern
Empire. The other, Christianity, was a curious new faith, growing rapidly
and
vexing the official propagation of the emperor cult. Still, Christianity
was
little more than an irritant. The Jewish problem was a political issue:
It
involved land. The defeat of the Jewish revolt by Vespasian propelled
him to
the imperial purple. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed. Jews were
geographically removed and dispersed throughout the Roman world. After
312 AD
Constantine ascended to emperor and Christianity ascended to the status
of
official religion of the Roman Empire. Jews remained dispersed.
Rome collapsed but Christianity and Judaism continued. A reconfigured
Western
order began to emerge. In the Levant, Islam exploded out of the deserts
of
Arabia, sweeping much of the former Roman East under its sway -- by jihad.
The vanquished were disposed of in accord with Koranic injunctions.
Populations outside of cities were killed and enslaved. Subject urban
peoples
behind strong walls could sometimes negotiate a treaty of protection (dhimma).
The dhimma conferred on the subject the status of dhimmis (tributaries).
Indeed, this spotty tolerance of Islam contrasted with the more strident
view
of older Arabic practices. The new Muslim lands needed the dhimmis for
revenue. Special oppressive taxes levied on non-Muslims paid for the Islamic
bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Medieval Europe was unfriendly to heterodox
Christianity and non-Christians found their lot worsening.
In 1096 one of the first European pogroms is reported, interestingly,
from
the Rhineland. Earlier more isolated incidents are documented. This hardening
of attitudes was not purely Christian. In 1003 al-Hakim, the ruler of
Egypt
and Palestine began persecuting Christians in his dominions. By 1009,
al-
Hakim ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem. Christian revenge vented not against Muslims, although the
Crusades soon followed, but against Jews in Europe. As tolerance waxed
in
established Islam, a culture of Western intolerance grew.
Christian logic held Jews accountable for Christ’s crucifixion.
Hatred of
Jews distended into a Medieval Christian fetish. Some Jews migrated to
more
tolerant Muslim lands. (Semitic was a term coined in 18th century Germany
designating a language grouping. It gave rise to the use of Semite to
describe the Jewish race, descendants of the Old Testament Shem, and thus
to
anti-Semitism.) Yet with recent centuries of westernization, Islam has
imported what Europe exported: anti-Semitism. The virulence of some of
the
invective hurled against Israel, territorial questions aside, was learned,
sadly, from Western Christianity.
Coda:
What is played out in the modern streets of the Holy Lands is a collision
of
monotheisms. Jews and Muslims clash, and in their midst are territorially
displaced Christians, following a faith not recognized as a state religion
by
any of the parties.
James Clark
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(c) 2002 Millennium Relief & Development Services, vol. 2 no. 8
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