Perspective On Jihad And Persecution

It's always interesting to me to look back at how we've come to a certain point in history. What has made up our path and what might it tell us about where we're going?

I found this rather interesting article from the Church and Israel Forum which gives a historical perspective to the life of the dhimmi or the Jews and Christians under the rule of Islam and looks at how that lifestyle relates to the concepts of jihad and persecution.

On the whole, for the big concepts like oppression, there wasn't much in the way of new stuff. The interest comes in the details - how Muslims oppressed the Jews and Christians. The details of how the dhimmi lived was particularly interesting.

But I think the nicest aspect of this article was that it wasn't trying to justify. The author made it clear that he's looking at things from the point of view of dhimmi people, but at no point does he try to justify any violence against the Muslims. Instead he only looks at how the conditions under which the dhimmi lived affected both sides - to this day.

There are no great revelations in this article, but it is great for learning a little more about the world around us today.