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Sous le joug du Croissant: juifs en terre d'Islam by Moise Rahmani
(Editions Institut Sepharade Europeen, 2004)18 Euros. To order see
www.sefarad.org
The 19th century Hungarian traveller Armin Vambery sets the tone for the
prolific Moise Rahmani's latest work on the Jews under Islam:"I know of
no one more wretched, powerless and pitiful on God's earth than the
'yehudi' in these countries".
Rahmani's ancestor in Persia was burned alive for having accidentally
bumped into a Mullah in the rain. He himself fled Egypt in the 1950s. He
incorporates painful personal recollections, without a hint of
bitterness, into his potted country-by-country history of the Jewish
experience.
The reader is in for a few surprises. For all their tolerant secularism,
the Turks levied a tax on Jews and Christians during World War II.
Pakistan once had 2,500 Bnei Israel living in Karachi. Malaysia never
had a Jewish community but President Mahatir's recent anti-Semitic
pronouncements have earned his country an entry all to itself.
The preface by Lucien-Samir Oulhabib, a Berber, points out that
religious pluralism under Islam permitted the non-Muslim minorities
autonomy but also enforced legal segregation. True freedom of religion
has never been permitted as conversion from Islam is apostasy punishable
by death. Yet Arabs have been happy to take credit for the achievements
of Berbers, Persians, Jews and myriad indigenous peoples of the Middle
East.
To be sure, there were good times - but the Jews were always at the
tender mercies of their rulers. The Jews flourished under the 20th
century western protectorates which abolished their inferior 'dhimmi'
status.
Now that Arab propaganda has cast Israel as a colonial usurper, written
the Sephardi Jews out of history or portrayed them as allies of western
colonial powers, setting the record straight is more important than
ever. In his foreword exploding the myth of peaceful coexistence Yves
Kamami (of Sons and Daughters of Jewish Refugees from so-called Arab
Countries) argues that Sephardim themselves have been complicit in
dwelling on a rose-tinted view of the past, while blotting out
unpleasant memories.
Concluding with a run-down of modern Arab anti-Semitic propaganda myths
and anti-Jewish Koranic verses, Moise Rahmani's book is a useful
reference work for any advocate of the case for the Jews from Arab
countries who reads French, and a valuable contribution to keeping the
memory of the Jewish presence in Muslim lands alive.
Lyn Julius |
