Atlas Shrugs

Sunday Night Conversation with Mark Durie: Author, The Third Choice: Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom

The Third Choice: Islam, dhimmitude and freedom

One of the most profound and least-understood manifestations of rejection in human history is the Islamic institution of the dhimma, the theologically-driven political, social, and legal system, imposed by Islamic y non-Muslims as an alternative to Islam (i.e. conversion) or the sword (i.e. death or captivity). The dhimma is the ‘third choice’ offered to non-Muslims under jihad conditions, and those who have accepted it are known as dhimmis. Their condition, dhimmitude, forms the subject of this book, which describes the challenge posed by Islam’s treatment of non-Muslims, exposes the spiritual roots of this challenge, and offers a solution.

Join me tonight at 8 pm Eastern time for a rare treat. I will be sitting down with Mark Durie, author of  The Third Choice: Islam, dhimmitude and freedom, the most incisive, stunning book I have read on dhimmitude and Islamic supremacism in some years. I could not put it down.

Tune in here. Call in (347) 996-3944 

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In the classical Islamic ideology of conquest, the first choice offered to non-Muslims was conversion to Islam; the second choice was the sword; and the third was surrender. Mark Durie's innovative book exposes the history and ideology of surrender - the 'Third Choice' - which has determined the lived reality of non-Muslims - known as 'dhimmis' - living under Muslim rule. Durie grounds his analysis of the dhimmi condition in the teachings of Islam and the life of Muhammad. His ground-breaking analyses show how the ideology of the terms of surrender, known as a 'dhimma' pact, determines life for non-Muslims under Islamic dominance.  The worldview of dhimmitude, he argues, offers indispensable keys for understanding current trends in global politics, including the widening impact of sharia revival, deterioration of human rights in Islamic societies, jihad terrorism, recurring patterns of Western appeasement, and the increasingly fraught relationship between migrant Muslim communities in the West and their host societies.

About the Cover: A depiction of the annual collection – known as devshirme – of Christian children. In a system of human tribute, boys were enslaved from the dhimmi communities of the Ottoman Empire, and either sold or converted to Islam and trained to serve as janissaries in the sultan’s army. A minority also became administrators.
In this scene, set somewhere in the Balkans, selected Christian boys, clothed in their new uniforms, stand ready for travel under the watchful eye of a guard, as functionaries count funds and write up lists of names. To one side, a mother and her priest remonstrate with a janissary officer, once a devshirme boy himself; at the back a distressed woman stands with arms wide as a girl clings to her dress; and at the lower right a father stands ready to hand over his son, as an older man looks on with compassion. (From the Süleymanname, a sixteenth century illustrated history of Süleyman the Magnificent, preserved in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul.)

In The Third Choice Mark Durie examines the most crucial challenges of this new century. In clear language, free from political correctness, and backed by an impressive scholarly knowledge, he unfolds step-by-step the basic foundations of Islam and exposes their inner correlations with jihad and dhimmitude, two theological and legal Islamic institutions that shape traditional Muslim behaviour toward non-Muslims. --Bat Ye'or

• The reader is provided with unique resources to evaluate conflicting claims about Islam and the history of Muslim-Christian relations. There are authoritative explanations of key subjects, including:

- the role of women
- female circumcision
- punishment in Islamic law
- 'lawful deception' (taqiyya)
- the meaning of jihad and militancy
- the teaching and moral example of Muhammad
- the message of the Koran
- immigration and the condition of Muslim minorities in Western nations
- attitudes to Jews and Christians

• Although other authors have discussed these topics, The Third Choice explains them from first principles, and sets the information in the context of competing world views and global concerns. It is jam-packed with new information and illustrations which help the reader understand unfamiliar material.

• The Third Choice gives a completely fresh analysis of the conditions under which Christians and others must live after conquest by Islam. This is based on extensive primary research into Islamic theology, jurisprudence and history, and goes well beyond previous studies. At the heart of this analysis is the explanation of the classical system of taxation imposed by Islam on non-Muslims and its continuing theological, political and psychological implications.

• This explanation forms the basis for an explanation of Islam's political and religious policy for non-Muslims, which is based on the principle that non-Muslims living under Islamic rule are obligated to display gratitude to Islam.

• The book debunks the myth that in the past Muslim societies were models of interfaith tolerance and harmony.

• The Third Choice explains how Islam’s discriminatory treatment of non-Muslims exerts a hidden influence upon contemporary global politics, through world-wide Islamic revival, and why scholars and others can falsely deny the reality of this legacy and its continuing influence.

• The book explains how and why non-Muslim leaders can collaborate in complying with the supremacist demands of Sharia law, and why western societies seem to be capitulating to Islam’s demands (the ‘dhimmitude of the west’).

• This book is unique in its integration of findings from religion, sociology, politics and human rights research. Without any concessions to political correctness, and yet displaying a profound compassion for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, it encompasses a vast sweep of history and contemporary developments, offering a comprehensive narrative of Islam's past influence, and current claims.

• The Third Choice uniquely equips readers to makes sense of global and local developments, and empowers them to respond positively to the challenge of Islam without fear, prejudice or hatred. It is intended to produce spiritual and moral resilience, strengthening and equipping readers to withstand Islam's claims on an informed basis.

UPDATE: Dr. Durie's first book discusses Revelation? Do we worship the same God?

Age of Obama: Arab League/OIC Demands Bigger UN Role in Israel/Islamic War Process

How is it possible that the Arab/Muslim world can demand a bigger role in the Israel/Islamic war for those who aligned with Hitler in the extermination of the Jews?

It is inconceivable that such a thing could be considered. Only in an Obama world would the Muslim world demand the UN (driven by the OIC) be given a bigger role in what can only be described as this century's "final solution", the extermination of the Jews. 

Bat Ye'or said this after Obama's speech in Cairo to the ummah:

The question it raises is how much the West is ready to forgo truth and its basic principles in its supplication for obtaining peace with Islam. Clearly, the full Islamization of the West is the quickest way to obtain it. Obama’s political program in connection with the Alliance of Civilizations conforms to an OIC strategy that has already been accepted by the EU. In history, this policy has a name: the dhimmitude syndrome.

The UN is a vassal for the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

A UN-sponsored group called the Alliance of Civilizations, created last year to find ways to bridge the growing divide between Muslim and Western societies, released a first report Monday that says the conflict over Israel and the Palestinian territories is the central driver in global tensions. (here)

The objective of the OIC is described this way by Bat Ye'or: The Islamic Conference, which is  a group that brings together 57 Muslim countries, has decided to bring into the international forefront and into the Western world, this rule of Dhimmitude that imposed the respect of Islam by non-Muslims. This is what we see now, and they have decided too, that the Muslims who are integrated in non-Muslim countries are a part of the universal Ummah, and that their rights to be respected must be applied.

This is not about "Palestinians" , a contrived narrative created out of whole cloth by Yaser Arafat. This is about the annihilation of Israel. The Jews aren't responsible for the misery of the Arab world. They are. Sharia law is. Islam is responsible for its misery.

Where is the American Jewish diaspora? Are they once again shoving their collective heads up their asses like they did during the holocaust? They elected the muhammadan in the White House; it is up to them to help clean up their toxic mess. They better shout from the rooftops and stand against this outrage. If they don't, they deserve what this President has in store for them.

If the Muslims have a seat at the mediating table of the Islamic war against the Jews, then so should I.

Arab League Wants Bigger UN Role in Middle East - Yasmine Saleh
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told Reuters Tuesday that the UN must play a bigger role in trying to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the U.S. should not be the only mediator. "There should be a change in the direction of the peace process, by having a mediator who understands the needs of the two parties, and not one party," he said. "The United Nations role, which was marginalized at a certain stage with regard to the Arab-Israeli struggle, should be brought back," he added. (Reuters)

UN's 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Compares Gaza to World War II, Calls for World Boycott of Israel

UN Watch Calls on UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon to Remove Richard Falk

Geneva, December 31, 2009 — UN Watch, the Geneva-based watchdog organization, today called on UN chief Ban Ki-Moon to remove Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council's permanent investigator of alleged Israeli violations, for breaching his mandate when he called this week for a world boycott of Israel and compared Israelis to Nazis. The full letter follows below.

_________________________________

His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary-General
The United Nations
New York, NY 10017

December 31, 2009

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

UN Watch is alarmed by the odious statements made this week by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, including his thinly-veiled comparison of the Jewish state to Nazi Germany, and his call for a world economic boycott of Israel. Mr. Falk is also a major proponent of the conspiracy theory that the United States government was behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We urge you to act immediately to see that Mr. Falk is removed from his post.

As reported by the UN News Center on December 29, 2009, Mr. Falk openly defended the Hamas tunnels into Gaza that smuggle rockets, explosives, and machine guns for use against Israeli civilians, which he said were for “food and material relief.”

Mr. Falk perversely justified these tunnels as “an expression of the desperation created in Gaza as a result of [Israel’s] blockade,” which, he said, is “something that no people since the end of World War II have experienced.”

Sunday Night Conversation with Wafa Sultan on Atlas Radio

Yes, this weekend on my new Sunday night feature "Sunday night conversation with Atlas". In the Atlas sphere, Friday night music, Saturday night cinema, and now straight talk on Sunday.

Wafa Sultan sits down with Atlas to discuss her new book, “A God Who Hates," and life in hiding as an apostate in America. Mark your calenders.

I am over the moon that we will be enlightened by this warrior, a leading light in the war we  engaged in. Her warning to the west, to America, must be heeded. Dr. Bostom reviews her work here: Wafa Sultan: Allah’s Apostate Cassandra

A God Who Hates, is a first hand account, a passionate memoir by an outspoken Arabic woman. She grew up in Syria in a culture ruled by a god who hates women. “How can such a culture be anything but barbarous?”, Sultan asks. “It can’t”, she concludes, “because any culture that hates its women can’t love anything else.” She believes that  he god who hates is waging a battle between modernity and barbarism, not a battle between religions. She also knows that it’s a battle radical Islam will lose. Condemned by some and praised by others for speaking out, Sultan wants everyone to understand the danger posed by A God Who Hates.

Sunday at 7pm, only at Atlas. Listen here. Wafa Sultan: Pamela Geller Interviews the author of the God who Hates

Bostom:

The riveting personal narrative of  “A God Who Hates” makes plain that Wafa Sultan’s views have evolved, and she now posits that Islam itself is the bane of the global Muslim community, or “umma.” She argues compellingly that traditional, mainstream conceptions of the God of Islam, Allah, and his Apostle Muhammad, bear ultimate responsibility for the bellicose aggressiveness, intolerance, and misogyny that pervade Muslim societies. Indeed, the book’s central motif characterizes Islam’s Allah as the deceptively fierce ogre in an Arabian parable, raging from his mountaintop perch:

From where he sits, he raves and shrieks, filling people’s hearts with fear by threatening to gobble them up if they leave their homes or do any kind of work at all. The people terrorized by his shrieks, can live only by stealth. Only their survival instinct keeps them going. They steal out like mice in secret to gather enough to keep body and soul together. They live day by day, waiting impatiently for the moment of their death. The fear of this ogre has sapped their intellect and depleted their physical powers, reducing them to despair and hopelessness.

Muhammad, Allah’s Apostle, she notes unapologetically, “…was a warrior rather than a thinker.” Thus, she continues,

He left no moral legacy for his followers to build upon or use as a basis for the societies they founded. Nor did he leave them room outside the boundaries of this law in which they might have exercised their freedoms and perhaps, responding to the demands of time, have invented a moral code of their own. The most important traditions written and handed down about Muhammad concern his raids and what happened in the course of them. All his teachings stem from the realities of the world he lived in and are the indisputable product of it. If you read the biography of the Prophet from beginning to end you will find no trace of any kind of moral authority.

And in response to the query, “Why do they hate us?”—incessantly repeated by naïve, hapless Americans following the 9/11/01 carnage—Wafa Sultan provides these answers:

“Because Muslims hate their women, and any group who hates their women can’t love anyone else.”

People [then] ask, “But why do Muslims hate their women?”

And I reply, “Because their god does.”

Sunday Night Conversation on Atlas Radio: Dave Gaubatz, author of Muslim Mafia

Tonight  at 7pm I am thrilled to sit down with Dave Gaubatz, author of the blockbuster book, Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America by David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry. You can listen live here. Call in at (347) 996-3944.

Listen to Atlas Shrugs on Blog Talk RaHis latest book has ripped the mask off of Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR. Dave is one of our bravest. His people captured the video of the shariah child beatings and sexual abuse at the Al Farooq mosque here. And his attempt to attend the Islamic Society of North America conference in DC -- the Islamists tried to set Gaubatz up (here). 

Myrick: CAIR won't renounce Hamas ideology 'They try and laugh it off all the time, and the media helps them'

Book: "CAIR coached a mosque leader in Western Maryland not to cooperate with an FBI investigation of suspicious activity"

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Here is an excellent recap from Emerson:

Podcast of Ambassador Dore Gold and Pamela Geller Radio Interview

You can listen to the podcast here.

Our radio interview discussing his latest book, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West, was riveting.

If we stay on the path we're on....Get ready for the Ayatollahs to have the bomb.

diplomats waving olive branches and offering promises of aid or threats of sanctions. In The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West,

* Why a nuclear Iran could lead to a "terrorist bomb"
* Why the Arab world, as much as Israel, fears a nuclear Iran
* How Iran takes advant age of Western diplomacy
* The radical theology of the current Iranian regime--and its apocalyptic goals
* Iran's not-so-secret hegemonic aspirations for the Middle East, Islam, and even the rest of the world

Alarming and compelling, The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West, confronts us with the most important foreign policy question of our time: will Iran be allowed to become a nuclear power--and at what cost?