Gazan Christians have faith in their relations with Hamas

[bemildred]

Just stirring the pot, here.

GAZA CITY: Hundreds of Muslims pressed their way down the narrow street that leads to the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Perfilios in Gaza City, as the Islamic world raged over the cartoons of Prophet Mohammad. Father Artemios Dimitriades, 28, a priest from Greece who has spent more than half his life in the Holy Land, went down with his bishop to meet them.

But he had no fear that the church would be stoned or set on fire, not only because the crowds included a large group of Christians who were offended by the caricatures but also because one of the Muslims was carrying a framed copy of the Covenant of Omar, a document little known outside Christian and Islamic circles in the Holy Land.

The Al-Uhda al-Omariyya was signed in 683 by the Muslim conqueror of Jerusalem, Caliph Omar bin al-Khattab, in which he promised the city's patriarch, Sophronios, to protect the lives, property, churches and worship of Christians.

It guaranteed that they would "not be coerced in their religion."

Daily Star

[Wordie]

1. Gee...for some reason this thread's been neglected.

(I guess cognitive dissonance is not a pleasant experience.)

Ok...now that's out of my system...

This was a fascinating article, bemildred. I hadn't ever heard of the Al-Uhda al-Omariyya (called the Covenant of Omar). It's amazing that it's been honored for more than 13 centuries, and according to a person quoted in the article is seen as having the force of law.

I also thought this following part, about Hamas' relationship with the Christians, was very interesting. These are comments by Hosam al-Taweel, an independent Christian who won a seat on the Palestinian Legislative Council in the recent elections:

"Hamas knows that Palestinian society contains many different shapes, ideas and political colors, and knows also that if it were to try to force the whole of society to act against their beliefs and against their will, it will lose in the long run," he said.

As Christians, "we are sharing the same problems, the same suffering from the occupation, the high rate of unemployment, the bad economic situation.

..."We are living in a united society; there is no kind of division, or any kind of discrimination" by Muslims.

Today, the Palestinian Basic Law, or Constitution, reflects that. It stipulates that "freedom of belief and performance of religious rituals are guaranteed they violate public order or public morals."

This has me intrigued and I'd like to learn more about the Covenant of Omar.

[TomClash]

2. It's been neglected because it concerns Christians

and Muslims being tolerant toward them. That doesn't play well in this forum.

[Igel]

3. Nothing that you probably didn't know under some other name.

http://www.mideastweb.org/covenantofomar.htm seems to sum it up fairly neutrally.

If you look up the print literature on it, be forewarned. Older sources, and Muslim sources, will agree in singing the praise of the Pact of Umar. Newer non-Muslim scholars will say that the assumptions of the Muslim scholars and older Westerners have no foundation in fact, and cite lots of evidence to justify their points of view.

I tend to side with the newer, non-Muslim scholars. Historically, Turkicists have been beholden to the Turkish government for access to archives, money, and research opportunities; Russianists and Sovietologists tended to be sympathetic to the objects of their research. They low-balled all the negatives for Turkey and the USSR, and simply pointed out possible bias on the part of those "exaggerating" the problems as though that justified dismissing their evidence. However, minority and more recent viewpoints for each tended to be less beholden to the Turkish or the USSR government, and were much more accurate; the facts frequently justified their their 'bias', not the other way 'round.

Older Western Arabists and Muslims typically present a treatment of the Pact very sympathetic to the traditional Muslim viewpoint for, plausibly, the same kinds of reasons Russianists and Turkicists had for how they treated their respective subjects.

[bemildred]

4. I would not put too much weight on the covenant of Omar.

Nevertheless, it is true that Palestinians have long been a diverse lot, and that as imperial rulers go, the Muslims have been a tolerant lot, within the parameters dictated by their religion, much better than the Crusaders say, who killed with greed and abandon in taking back the Holy Land for Christ. And I do find it interesting that Father Artemios feels safe, especially in the present perverse circumstances which would tend towards violence and unreason, I would think.