Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians

by Raymond Ibrahim

  In short, as “houses of infidelity,” where Christians were accused of engaging in idolatry (“worshipping” crucifixes, icons, and so forth) and polytheism (associating Jesus with God), that is, shirk—one of the most reprehensible crimes in Islam—churches in those lands conquered by Islam were either to be destroyed or transformed into mosques; those in territories peacefully annexed were to be left to crumble. Needless to say, the question of building new churches on Muslim lands—whether conquered by force or surrendered peacefully—was, and doctrinally speaking still is, out of the question. In practice, however, especially during the colonial era, churches were repaired and even built in the Islamic world.

  The issue of churches in Islam has been important enough to warrant the publication of numerous fatwas, treatises, and even whole books on the topic. One of the most comprehensive modern treatises, nearly sixty pages long, is entitled, in translation, The Ruling on Building Churches and Other Idolatrous Places of Worship in Muslim Lands, by Sheikh Ismail bin Muhammad al-Ansari (d. 1996).3 Published around 1979, it was deemed authoritative enough to receive high praise from Saudi Arabia’s former Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most authoritative Islamic scholars. In his foreword to the treatise, the late Grand Mufti explained,After reading this treatise from beginning to end, I have found it to be very valuable [he later adds that he has ordered its further publication and dissemination far and wide]. In it, the author documents all mention concerning churches, monasteries, and other places of idolatrous worship as found in the prophetic hadith and other books and the words of the ulema of the four schools of law. . . . Without a doubt, the subject of this treatise is very important—especially in this era, when interaction between infidels and Muslims has increased, including Christian activities to build churches in some of the Muslim countries, and especially in the Arabian Peninsula.

  The ulema—Allah have mercy on them—have agreed that it is forbidden to build churches in Islamic lands; that it is obligatory to demolish them if they are built; and that building them in the Arabian Peninsula, including the Hijaz, Gulf Countries, and Yemen, is the greatest sin and offense. For the Prophet, followed by his Companions, ordered the expulsion of all Jews, Christians, and idolaters from the Arabian Peninsula, and forbade other religions from being practiced.

  It is worth noting that this policy has not changed. In March 2012, the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, declared that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches” in the Arabian Peninsula, basing his decree on the Muslim prophet’s deathbed wish that the Peninsula tolerate no other religion than Islam.4

  The treatise offers example after example from Islam’s usul al-fiqh or “roots of jurisprudence,” including the hadith and the rulings of the four schools of Sunni law justifying the ban on churches and the command to destroy them whenever and wherever they are built in Muslim lands. These include such unequivocal statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad as, “Do not build a church in Islam and do not repair what falls apart,” and “Let there not be two qiblas in one land”5 (interpreted to mean that non-Muslim places of worship are prohibited from contending with Islam).

  Another, more recent, Arabic fatwa—in translation, Building Churches in Muslim Lands, written by Sheikh Nasir bin Muhammad al-Ahmed and published in 2008—after listing the usual anti-church quotations from the Prophet, his companions, and other important early Muslim figures, concludes with a personal note to the reader: “So as you can see, the ulema of the Muslims, and their jurists—both past and present—are all agreed that it is forbidden to build new churches in Islamic lands.”6

  While The Conditions of Omar is believed to be the earliest primary source for the rulings on churches, almost every subsequent treatise on the topic relies on two of Islam’s giants, Taqi al-Din Ahmed ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) and his student—an eventual master in his own right—Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350). More than any others, these two men—Islamic counterparts to the Greek philosopher Socrates and his student Plato—are credited with elaborating and codifying all rules concerning subjugated Christians and their churches, which they refer to in their voluminous writings as “worse than bars and brothels” and “houses of torment and fire.”7 Any Muslim interested in knowing what Islam’s rules for Christians are must consult these twin pillars.

  Ibn Qayyim is especially famous for his multivolume Rulings Concerning Dhimmis. In it he confirms that it is “obligatory” to destroy or convert into a mosque “every church” both old and new that exists on lands that were taken by Muslims through force, for they “breed corruption.” Even if Muslims are not sure whether one of “these things [churches] is old [pre-conquest] or new, it is better to err on the side of caution, treat it as new, and demolish it.”8

  Likewise, Ibn Taymiyya confirms that “the ulema of the Muslims from all four schools of law—Hanafi, Shafi‘i, Maliki, Hanbali, and others, including al-Thawri, al-Layth, all the way back to the companions and the followers [of Muhammad]—are all agreed that if the imam destroys every church in lands taken by force, such as Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria... this would not be deemed unjust of him,” adding that, if Christians resist, “they forfeit their covenant, their lives, and their possessions.” Elsewhere he writes, “Wherever Muslims live and have mosques, it is impermissible for any sign of infidelity to be present, churches or otherwise.”9

  As for any Muslim who may disagree with these rulings, Ibn Taymiyya—whom Wahabbis and Salafis all but venerate—has a stern warning: “Whoever thinks churches are houses of Allah, and that Allah is worshipped inside them, or that what Jews and Christians do is worship of Allah and obedience to his prophet, or whoever likes them or agrees to them, or helps them to open them [churches] and establish their religions, thinking that this is a form of being near or obedient [to Allah], is an apostate infidel.”

  While apologists for Islam dismiss the words of scholars like Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim as pertaining to only one school of Islamic jurisprudence (namely, the Hanbali), the fact is that all four schools of Islamic law are agreed that new churches cannot be built and old ones allowed to exist cannot be repaired; there is unanimity on this point. Hostility to churches is not based on a particular “Salafi” point of view—even if the Salafis are the most vociferous in expressing it. For example, in an eighteenth-century fatwa the Maliki jurist Sheikh al-Adawi declares,The decisions made by our ulema state that they [Christians] will not be permitted to build new churches in Muslim countries, and that, if they build them, it is an obligation to demolish them. As for the reconstruction of those which have been destroyed, this is not possible in any manner; it would even be preferable not to allow these buildings to be repaired.10

  In any case, it is precisely the Hanbali school of thought, the one that venerates Ibn Taymiyya and al-Qayyim, that is becoming ubiquitous, thanks to Saudi wealth and influence. (Later we will delve into the effects of the widespread dissemination of Saudi literature and educational materials across Muslim populations.) Suffice it to say, “Salafis,” or “radicals,” are growing in number and influence around the world

  ISLAMIC HOSTILITY FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN HISTORY

  When it comes to churches, Islamic history is a testimony to Islamic doctrine. Under Muslim rule, from the seventh century to the present, tens if not hundreds of thousands of churches once spread across thousands of miles of formerly Christian lands have been attacked, plundered, ransacked, and destroyed or converted into mosques. Such a large number is consistent with the fact that, at the time of the Muslim conquests, half of the world’s entire Christian population lived in those lands that were invaded and subjugated by Islam.11

  According to one medieval Muslim historian, over the two-year course of a particularly ruthless Christian persecution campaign, some 30,000 churches were burned or pillaged in Egypt and Syria alone. 12 In another notable church attack during Abbasid rule, in the year 936, “the Muslims in Jer
usalem made a rising and burnt down the Church of the Resurrection [believed to be built atop the tomb of Christ] which they plundered, and destroyed all they could of it.”13 Nearly a century later, Hakim bi-Amr Allah (caliph 996–1021) ordered that the already ravaged Church of the Resurrection be torn down “to its very foundations, apart from what could not be destroyed or pulled up, and they also destroyed the Golgotha and the Church of Saint Constantine and all that they contained, as well as all the sacred gravestones. They even tried to dig up the graves and wipe out all traces of their existence.”14

  In 924, “the Muslims of Damascus burnt down the church of Miriam [Mary] in that city; and plundered the furniture and vessels that were of very great value; they also plundered the convent of women adjoining it. . . .”15 “Marwan II (caliph 744–50) pillaged and destroyed many churches and monasteries in Egypt. Mahdi (caliph 775–85) and Harun al-Rashid (caliph 786–809), in strict accordance with Sharia law, ordered the destruction of all churches in the empire that had been built after the Islamic conquest,”16 including the church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem, the church of St. Mark in Egypt, and the church of St. George in Lydda.

  The 1453 conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans and the subsequent attack on and defilement of the Hagia Sophia and its transformation into a mosque is perhaps the most memorable triumph of Islam over the Christian Church. But hundreds of years earlier, after the Battle of Manzikert (1076), the Seljuk Turks, originally converted to Islam as slaves, were already making Christian life under Islamic rule a terror. In fact, it is in this context that the Crusades—which have been so thoroughly distorted by modern academics to demonize Christianity and portray Muslims as victims—were called. 17 In the words of Urban II (pope 1088–1099), calling for the First Crusade:From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears, namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians [in fact, Muslim Turks] . . . has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire; it has led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel tortures; it has either entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness.... What shall I say of the abominable rape of the women? To speak of it is worse than to be silent.... On whom therefore is the labor of avenging these wrongs and of recovering this territory incumbent, if not upon you? You, upon whom above other nations God has conferred remarkable glory in arms, great courage, bodily activity, and strength. . . .18

  A PARADIGMATIC EXAMPLE: THE COPTIC CHURCH OF EGYPT

  Tracing the fate of churches across the thousands of square miles of formerly Christian lands conquered by Islam is well beyond the purview of this book. Because of the strong Christian presence there, Egypt is ideally suited to illustrate Christian persecution and dhimmi status under Islam, both past and present.

  The history, or plight, of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church is well documented. The History of the Patriarchate of the Egyptian Church, for instance, a multivolume chronicle begun under Coptic Bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa in the tenth century, records innumerable massacres and persecutions over the centuries, from destroyed churches to crucified Christians to raped and murdered nuns. However, it can be objected that Christian writers may have been biased against their persecutors. So let us turn to the famous history of Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (1364–1442), the most authoritative Muslim scholar of Egyptian history in the Middle Ages, and no friend to Christians. In his account, things appear relatively quiet during the first century of Islam’s occupation of Egypt (c. 641–741 ), no doubt because of the fact that Christians still numerically overwhelmed their Muslim conquerors. (Because of the numerical superiority of the Christians in the early years after the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Copts frequently and sometimes successfully rebelled against their Islamic overlords.) Indeed, there appears to have been enough leeway that some churches were even being restored, for we read that in 735 “the Bu-Mina church outside Cairo was restored, for which reason a great multitude of Muslims rose against . . . the Emir of Egypt at that time.”19

  By 767, however, “heavier hardships than ever fell upon the Christians, who were obliged to eat the[ir] dead; while their new churches in Egypt were destroyed. The church of Mary anent [next to] that of Abu Senuda in Egypt was also pulled down, as well as that in the ward of Constantine, which the Christians entreated Suliman bin Ali, Emir of Egypt, to spare for fifty thousand dinars; but he would not.”20 By 845, al-Mutawakal ordered Christian churches to be pulled down. In 912, “the great church in Alexandria, known as that of the Resurrection, was burnt down.”21 In 939, “the Muslims made another rising in the city of Askalon, where they demolished the Greek Church of Mary, and plundered what was in it.”22

  Then we come to the era of the aforementioned Caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah who destroyed the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem. His reign was especially devastating for the Christians in Egypt. The extent of the persecution there was described by the Muslim historian al-Maqrizi:And in his [al-Hakim’s] time, hardships such as one never saw befell the Christians.... He then laid his hands on all endowments of the churches and of the monasteries, which he confiscated to the public treasury, and wrote to that effect to all his provinces. He then burnt the wood of a great many crosses, and forbade the Christians to buy men or maid servants; he pulled down the churches that were in the street Rashida, outside the city of Misr [Old Cairo]. He then laid in ruins the churches of al-Maqs outside Cairo, and made over their contents to the people, who plundered them of more goods than can be told. He threw down the convent of al-Qosseir, and gave it to the people to sack.... He then set about demolishing all churches, and made over to the people, as prey and forfeit, all that was in them, and all that was settled on them. They were then all demolished, all their furniture and chattels were plundered, their endowments were forfeited to others, and mosques were built in their place. He allowed the call to prayer from the church of Senuda in Misr; and built a wall around the church of Mo’allaqa [the Hanging Church], in Qasr esh-Sema. Then many people [Muslims] sent up letters to request to be allowed to search the churches and monasteries in provinces of Egypt. But their request was hardly delivered, when a favorable answer was returned to the request; so they took the vessels and chattel of the churches and of the monasteries, and sold them in the market places of Egypt, together with what they found in those churches of gold and silver vessels, and things of the kind; and bartered their endowments. The emir also wrote to the intendants of the provinces to support the Muslims in their destruction of the churches and of monasteries. And the work of demolition in Egypt was so general in the year 1012, that according to statements on which one can rely, as to what was demolished at the end of the year 1014, both in Egypt and in Syria and the provinces thereof, of temples built by the Greeks—it amounted to more than 3,000 churches [the original Arabic says 30,000].23 All the gold and silver vessels in them were plundered, their endowments were forfeited; and those endowments were splendid and bestowed on wonderful edifices.

  Finally, after describing other forms of persecutions against Christians during Hakim’s reign, Maqrizi makes an interesting observation: “Under these circumstances a great many Christians became Muslims.”24 Maqrizi, a pious Muslim, had no great love for Egypt’s Christians, and often made disparaging observations about them in his volumes. His account of their persecution is thus all the more trustworthy.

  Because Hakim’s persecution was so terrible and far-reaching, most modern Western historians are forced to acknowledge it. But all too often they portray it as an aberration, the action of a madman, implying that Christians suffered primarily only under his rule. Yet there is no dearth of Muslim leaders throughout the whole of Islamic history that have persecuted Christians and their churches. If Hakim is remembered as an insane tyrant, consider Caliph Harun al-Ras
hid, who is known in the West as a colorful, fun-loving prankster from the Arabian Nights. Though renowned for decidedly secular pursuits—riotous living, strong drink, and harems of concubines (to the point that a modern-day Kuwaiti women’s rights activist has referred to him as a model justifying the institution of sex-slavery)—Harun al-Rashid was still pious enough “to force Christians to distinguish themselves by dress, to expel them from their positions, and to destroy their churches through the use of fatwas by the imams.”25 Similarly, Saladin (Salah ad-Din), another Muslim ruler who is habitually portrayed in the West as magnanimous and tolerant, commanded “whoever saw that the outside of a church was white, to cover it with black dirt,” as a sign of degradation.26

  Indeed, in 1354, well after the “mad caliph” Hakim was gone, churches were still under attack—and not just by rulers, but by average Muslims, who, according to Maqrizi, “demolished a church anent [next to] the Bridge of Lions, and a church in the street el-Asra in Misr, and the Church of Fahhadin within the precincts of Cairo; also the Convent of Nehya in Djizah, and a church in the neighborhood of Bataq al-Tokruni; they plundered the wealth of the churches they demolished, which was great; and carried away even the woodwork and slabs of alabaster. They rushed upon the churches of Misr and Cairo. . . .”27