Session SP35:
History of Persecution of Minorities Under Islamic Rule
February 20, 15:00 - 15:45
Abstract:
Since the advent of Islam in the first part of the seventh century, minority religious groups under Islam's domain have
been subjected to a wide variety of sometimes bewilderingly bizarre discrimination. Be they Christian, Jewish, or
Zoroastrian, minority members could reasonably expect to be subjected to restrictive codes on dress, occupation, education,
and commerce. The Caliph Al-Hakim of Egypt, for example, required Christians to walk around Cairo with three-foot wooden
crosses slung across their necks and Jewish women to wear shoes mismatched by size and color.
On a less innocuous level, the fundamentalist Almohade movement that swept North Africa and Spain about a thousand years
ago forced minorities to convert to Islam at knife-point. While North African Jewish communities managed somehow to eke
out a continued existence until their ultimate emigration to the nascent state of Israel, Christian communities in North
Africa outside Egypt were not nearly so fortunate. They were wiped out under Islam.
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Robert Eisenberg received his BA from Columbia University, MA from Harvard University, & JD from Creighton University. He has
written for Village Voice, Chicago Tribune, Forward and other publications. His book
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