Taking satire seriously
Here is an exchange of letters in response to one of my recent blogs: A modest proposal (25/5/10)
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Dear Mr. Cohen
One of your recent emails reached me, and I beg to differ.
You seem not to be aware that Jews lived under Muslims in the Middle Eat and in Spain, and mostly peacefully, for centuries. Moreover, the three largest Jewish cities in the world during the Middle Ages were in Alexandria (Egypt), Salonika (Greece), and Constantinople (Turkey), all of them within the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
If Muslims do want to get rid of all Jews, as you claim, then you should tell us how Jews lived for centuries amidst Muslims, and peacefully for the most part. And if you don’t believe me, read Bernard Lewis and other historians of Jews under Muslim rule.
As for raising the threat of another Holocaust, that’s exactly what can happen in the nuclear age when we collect 6 million Jews in one place. You seem to be arguing against a Jewish state because it could end up wiping out all the world’s Jews, which would rival the Holocaust in its tragedy.
You may be trying to be funny, but some of your readers may take you seriously.
Shalom,
Yale Richmond
(author and expert on inter-communal relations)
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Here is my reply:
Dear Yale:
I value feedback, even if it's critical and I hope to initiate discussion.
First, let me say that the title was derived from the famous Jonathan Swift essay of the same name about the dire situation in Ireland in the 18th century in which he suggested that to avoid the famine the Irish should eat their children. This was obviously meant to be satirical, as was my poor attempt (explaining everything does reduce the effect).
Of course, I am very well aware of the Jews living in Muslim lands, I was friendly with Maurice Roumani who many years ago was head of the World Organization of Jews from Arab Lands, who wrote a pamphlet on their history. Further, I have read several books by Bernard Lewis, including "What went wrong: the clash between Islam and modernity in the Middle East," as well as others. For an excellent source I recommend "The legacy of Jihad: Islamic holy war and the fate of non-Muslims," edited by Andrew Bostom. I am also familiar with the situation of Jews in Spain, since I had a former Spanish student and visited him in Madrid and met there an expert on the Sephardim. I recommend "The Jews of Spain: a history of the Sephardi experience" by Jane Gerber (I own copies of all of these books).
The reason Jews were allowed to live among Muslims is that after the Muslim conquests of the 7-8th centuries, and a great deal of bloodletting and massacres, the Arabs realized that they were a tiny minority and could not run the huge Empire they had conquered alone. Thus, the Caliph Omar promulgated laws in he 9th century that "the peoples of the books," namely Jews and Christians, could be given a special status of "dhimmi" (protected people) that allowed them to live among Muslims and participate in the governance of the Muslim Empire (of course this was not allowed to pagans and other infidels). However, it is a fact that at the start of the Muslim conquests it is estimated that there were ca. 5 million Jews in the region, while at the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 there were barely 1 million Jews in the whole of the Muslim lands. So instead of a large increase in population over several hundred years, there was a large decrease. This was accomplished by intermittent massacres, like the pogroms in Russia, and mainly by economic means, for example Jews had to pay special taxes (jizya) and pay for every birth. There was a period of excellent inter-group relations in Spain, particularly under the Caliphate of Granada, called the "golden age", but this lasted barely 100 years (ca 1100-1200). There were widespread massacres of Jews in Spain in 1391, 1492 and in Portugal in 1505. So your assumption that Jews lived peacefully "for the most part" under Muslim rule does not stand up to historical analysis.
Of course, I am not arguing against a Jewish State! I am of course against another Holocaust, whether by nuclear bomb or the good old fashioned methods of simply killing Jews by hand. Yesterday there was an incident on a Tel Aviv bus where an Arab man suddenly jumped up and shouted in Arabic "kill all the Jews." he was wearing a heavy coat, but nothing happened, so they think his suicide belt failed to detonate. He ran from the bus and has not yet been apprehended. If you think the Arabs would not carry out massacres of Jews, remember the massacres in Palestine of 1921, 1929 (Hebron), 1936 and so on. And read the books "The dream Palace of the Arabs" by Fouad Ajami and "The Islamist" by Ed Husayn, I think you will find them revealing.
Let me end by saying that satire is deadly serious!
Sincerely
Jack Cohen
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Dear Mr. Cohen
One of your recent emails reached me, and I beg to differ.
You seem not to be aware that Jews lived under Muslims in the Middle Eat and in Spain, and mostly peacefully, for centuries. Moreover, the three largest Jewish cities in the world during the Middle Ages were in Alexandria (Egypt), Salonika (Greece), and Constantinople (Turkey), all of them within the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
If Muslims do want to get rid of all Jews, as you claim, then you should tell us how Jews lived for centuries amidst Muslims, and peacefully for the most part. And if you don’t believe me, read Bernard Lewis and other historians of Jews under Muslim rule.
As for raising the threat of another Holocaust, that’s exactly what can happen in the nuclear age when we collect 6 million Jews in one place. You seem to be arguing against a Jewish state because it could end up wiping out all the world’s Jews, which would rival the Holocaust in its tragedy.
You may be trying to be funny, but some of your readers may take you seriously.
Shalom,
Yale Richmond
(author and expert on inter-communal relations)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my reply:
Dear Yale:
I value feedback, even if it's critical and I hope to initiate discussion.
First, let me say that the title was derived from the famous Jonathan Swift essay of the same name about the dire situation in Ireland in the 18th century in which he suggested that to avoid the famine the Irish should eat their children. This was obviously meant to be satirical, as was my poor attempt (explaining everything does reduce the effect).
Of course, I am very well aware of the Jews living in Muslim lands, I was friendly with Maurice Roumani who many years ago was head of the World Organization of Jews from Arab Lands, who wrote a pamphlet on their history. Further, I have read several books by Bernard Lewis, including "What went wrong: the clash between Islam and modernity in the Middle East," as well as others. For an excellent source I recommend "The legacy of Jihad: Islamic holy war and the fate of non-Muslims," edited by Andrew Bostom. I am also familiar with the situation of Jews in Spain, since I had a former Spanish student and visited him in Madrid and met there an expert on the Sephardim. I recommend "The Jews of Spain: a history of the Sephardi experience" by Jane Gerber (I own copies of all of these books).
The reason Jews were allowed to live among Muslims is that after the Muslim conquests of the 7-8th centuries, and a great deal of bloodletting and massacres, the Arabs realized that they were a tiny minority and could not run the huge Empire they had conquered alone. Thus, the Caliph Omar promulgated laws in he 9th century that "the peoples of the books," namely Jews and Christians, could be given a special status of "dhimmi" (protected people) that allowed them to live among Muslims and participate in the governance of the Muslim Empire (of course this was not allowed to pagans and other infidels). However, it is a fact that at the start of the Muslim conquests it is estimated that there were ca. 5 million Jews in the region, while at the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 there were barely 1 million Jews in the whole of the Muslim lands. So instead of a large increase in population over several hundred years, there was a large decrease. This was accomplished by intermittent massacres, like the pogroms in Russia, and mainly by economic means, for example Jews had to pay special taxes (jizya) and pay for every birth. There was a period of excellent inter-group relations in Spain, particularly under the Caliphate of Granada, called the "golden age", but this lasted barely 100 years (ca 1100-1200). There were widespread massacres of Jews in Spain in 1391, 1492 and in Portugal in 1505. So your assumption that Jews lived peacefully "for the most part" under Muslim rule does not stand up to historical analysis.
Of course, I am not arguing against a Jewish State! I am of course against another Holocaust, whether by nuclear bomb or the good old fashioned methods of simply killing Jews by hand. Yesterday there was an incident on a Tel Aviv bus where an Arab man suddenly jumped up and shouted in Arabic "kill all the Jews." he was wearing a heavy coat, but nothing happened, so they think his suicide belt failed to detonate. He ran from the bus and has not yet been apprehended. If you think the Arabs would not carry out massacres of Jews, remember the massacres in Palestine of 1921, 1929 (Hebron), 1936 and so on. And read the books "The dream Palace of the Arabs" by Fouad Ajami and "The Islamist" by Ed Husayn, I think you will find them revealing.
Let me end by saying that satire is deadly serious!
Sincerely
Jack Cohen
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:57 AM
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