Part 1 of a Series by Mike Scruggs-
In nations governed by Islamic Law (Sharia), non-Muslims
have the status of dhimmis (“protected people”). They are protected from
slaughter or expulsion so long as they remain subservient and pay a special
poll tax, called the Jizya, to their Muslim masters. Under the rules of
dhimmitude the “protected people” must show deference at all times to Muslims
and wear special clothing to distinguish themselves from Muslims. They are
allowed only limited religious freedoms and have no political or civil rights outside
the Sharia, which regulates their mandated status of degradation and
humiliation.
Usually, besides the Jizya, they must also pay a large part of
their income to the Muslim community. Their continued status as dhimmis is
strictly at the pleasure of the dominant Muslim population. They are subject to
have their properties confiscated or their lives forfeited at any time.
Muhammad instituted this practice as a source of Muslim income, which resulted
in the umma (Muslim people) becoming somewhat dependent on the dhimmi class for
various technical skills.
The Armenians are an ethnic group whose original homeland
was the highlands surrounding Mount Ararat (Genesis 8:4). They have been an
identifiable people for at least 4,000 years. The modern Republic of Armenia,
formerly part of the Soviet Union, borders Turkey on the west, the Republic of
Georgia on the north, Azerbaijan on the east, and Iran on the south. The
Kingdom of Armenia, established about 500 BC, also now referred to as Greater
Armenia, encompassed large parts of Eastern Turkey. Armenia was the first
nation to declare itself a Christian nation about 301 AD. Most Armenians belong
to the Armenian Apostolic Church, but about ten percent belong to the Armenian
Catholic Church and about two percent to the Armenian Evangelical Church. There
were once large Armenian populations in Istanbul, Izmir (formerly known as
Smyrna, Revelation 2:8), and other metropolitan areas. Only a remnant now
remain in Turkey.
Near the beginning of the twentieth century, the 4.5
million Armenian and Greek Christians in Ottoman Turkey were of the subjugated
dhimmi class. In Christian Europe and especially Britain, however, such Muslim
practices were being viewed with alarm. Consequently, the Armenians began to
appeal to Britain and other European powers to put pressure on Turkey to relax
the Sharia rules pertaining to non-Muslims. There had been some relaxation late
in the nineteenth century, but the Turks began to resent the Armenian overtures
to European powers and became uncertain of their loyalty to Turkey. They
considered these Armenian pleas for help to have violated their constraints as
protected people under Sharia.
In 1894, fearing increasing unrest, the Ottoman
government persuaded Muslim religious leaders to undertake a major crack-down
on any dissent by Armenian dhimmis regarding their subjugated status. In an
1896 dispatch, Henry Barnham, a British Consulate official, gave his personal
description of events:
“The butchers and tanners, with sleeves tucked up to the
shoulders, armed with clubs and cleavers, cut down the Christians with cries of
‘Allahu akbar!’ (Allah is great!) (and) broke down the doors of their houses
with pickaxes and levers, or scaled the walls with ladders. Then when mid-day
came they knelt down and said their prayers, and then jumped up and resumed the
dreadful work, carrying it on far into the night. Whenever they were unable to
beat down the doors they fired the houses with petroleum…”
One survivor recounted the destruction of two churches in
the town of Severek in December of 1896:
“The mob had plundered the Gregorian (Armenian) church,
desecrated it, murdered all who had sought shelter there, and as a sacrifice
beheaded the sexton on the stone threshold. Now it (the mob) filled our yard.
The blows of an axe crashed in the church doors.”
This survivor described the scene as this mob rushed into
the second church and ripped apart Bibles and hymnbooks, blasphemed the cross
as a sign of victory, and chanted their prayer (“There is no god but Allah, and
Muhammad is His prophet.”) He then related:
“The leader of the mob cried: ‘Believe in Muhammad and
deny your religion.’ No one answered…The leader gave the order to massacre. The
first attack was on our pastor. The blow of an axe decapitated him. His blood spurting
in all directions, spattered the walls and ceiling”
The British Consul intercepted a letter from a Turkish
soldier giving this account to his family:
“My brother, if you want news from here we have killed
1,200 Armenians, all of them food for the dogs…Mother I am safe and sound.
Father, 20 days ago we made war on the Armenian unbelievers. Through Allah’s
grace no harm befell us…May Allah bless you.”
Another intercepted letter, evidently from an Armenian
survivor, described the slaughter of refugees at a church in ancient Edessa.
After breaking down the door, Turkish troops mockingly called for Christ to
prove himself a greater prophet than Muhammad. Then according to the survivor:
“They began killing everyone on the floor of the church
by hand or with pistols. From the altar they gunned down women and children in
the gallery. Finally the Turks gathered bedding and straw, on which they poured
some thirty cans of kerosene and set the church ablaze.”
This 1894-1896 Jihad against Christians in Eastern Turkey
claimed 250,000 lives. Many Armenian women were forced into harems, and many
women and children were sold as slaves. Rape, considered one of the rights of
“booty” in Muslim Jihad, was routine. Some under duress converted to Islam, but
others escaped to the West and reported the massacre. This enormous suffering
inflicted upon Armenian Christians in Turkey was only a shadow of what was to
come. In 1915, the Turkish government would order a far more organized genocide
of Armenian and Greek Christians.
http://www.thetribunepapers.com/2014/01/31/remembering-the-armenian-genocide/
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