The genetic racism towards Jews is an unalterable composition within Islamic society. Mr. Gilbert's opus, which I have reviewed already [here and here] makes this clear. In my opinion any society or culture which is so riven by hate and extremist racism can never 'grow up' and assume the status of civilisation. But what do I know. I am just an Infidel pig [or donkey, monkey, or sperm drop, depending on the Koranic verse you want to choose], who needs to be humiliated, punished or killed [depending on the Koranic verse you want to choose]. Mr. Gilbert's book is an intimate look based on source material and historical facts on how Jews survived in the Moslem world these past 14 centuries. It makes unpleasant reading.

The only quibble I have with this work is that Mr. Gilbert does not deign to offer the numbers of Jews killed, converted or enslaved by Islam. I will. The number is between 70 to 100 million. This roughly translates into between 5 and 7 million a century, or roughly 50.000 to 70.000 a year. This number is not fantastic nor is it 'extreme'. Given Islam's treatment of Jews, the forcible conversions across former Jewish and Christian territory, and the annual, endless Jihad against the Unbelievers which emanated from centers of Moslem power from Spain to Baghdad, 50.000 dead or converted Jews per annum is entirely plausible.

In the other reviews I mention some of the pogroms and dislocations suffered by Jews in the first 1000 or so years of Islamic rule. The last 3 or 4 centuries have also been brutal to the Jews. Post World War II there were 900.000 Jews in the Near East and North Africa who were displaced by Arabs and Moslem fanatics after Israel was created. The UN and Western agencies did nothing to help these people. They did of course set up UNHRWA camps for the 300.000 displaced Arabs, renamed in the 1960s into 'Palestinians'. 1.5 million people now live in these festering refugee camps full of Islamic hate, bile and terrorist recruiting. The 900.000 Jews are assimilated into Israeli or other Western societies. This perfidy and blindness of Western states and the UN is immoral and self-defeating. The Jews get on with life. The Arabs and Moslems get on with hate and war.

The terror by Moslems against Jews has been never-ending during the past 4 centuries. Mr. Gilbert lists some of these events:

-Jews having their synagogues, marketplaces and businesses repeatedly plundered across North Africa with examples listed from 1720 to 1820 [pp. 95-99]

-Jews in Meshed Persia in 1839 were attacked and forcibly converted to Islam. Those who refused were slaughtered. Many 'converts' fled the city and went to northern Persia where they re-embraced Judaism.

-French consul Chateaubriand wrote in 1806 that local Jews were the objects of utter contempt by Moslems, 'they let themselves be crushed by blows'.

-Social 'laws' militated againt the Jews. They had to wear special markings, in some cases they could not wear shoes, they could not walk down the same side of the street as Muslim, their synagogues had to be 'hidden', and in some market places throughout the Moslem world they could not touch the food since Unbelievers are 'unclean'.

-British consul Young in Jerusalem wrote in the mid 19^th century, that the Moslem in Israel or Palestine, treated the Jew like a dog, 'What the Jew has to endure, at all hands is not to be told...Like the miserable dog without an owner, his is kicked by one because he crosses his path, and cuffed by another because he cries out....he thinks it better to endure than to live in expectation of his complaint being revenged...'

-Jews made up half the population of Jerusalem in 1848 yet they were regularly beaten, robbed, humiliated and sur-taxed [p. 107].

-By 1860 Jews were the majority in Jerusalem in part driven by emigration from places like Yemen, where Jews were systematically forced out of the country, usually with their goods and property stolen by Moslems.

-Around 1890 in Persia, Jews were given a list of 'Dhimmitude' rules to follow punishable if contravened by either death or exile [with all of Jewish property reverting to the state of course]. The list included inter-alia; Jews were forbidden to wear matching shoes, they had to wear a red patch on their chest; all entrances to Jewish houses must be very low; if a Muslim insults a Jew the Jew must bow his head and be quiet; Jews must not consume good fruit; men can only wear a cheap blue cotton fabric......[22 rules in total]. Under Western military and economic pressure, this edict was rescinded by the Shah.

-Kharaj or production taxes [extra taxes made at the whim of the local ruler] were common. In Central Asia, in Daghestan, Jews in the 19^th century were subjected to such taxes, having to give their local Moslem superiors a certain quantity of their agricultural output, wood, shoes, salt and other products.

-In the 18^th and 19^th centuries Jews in many cities could not afford the Jiyza or poll-tax. Moslem authorities would impress Jews into the army in return for payment, forcibly convert others, or allows mobs to ransack Jewish quarters. This practice only ended under the aegis of Western military power, an example being in Libya in 1903 when the Jews in Tripoli could not afford the Jiyza but were protected by Italian military power from Moslem depredations.

-Moslem mobs in the city of Shiraz Persia plundered the Jewish quarter in 1910, killing many Jews and pilfering houses and businesses. Almost 6.000 Jews were attacked and lost everything. This was one pogrom out of many during the early 20^th century.

-Moslem mobs in Fez Morocco in 1912, attacked the Jewish section of the city and killed more than 60 Jews and decimated Jewish houses and businesses. Ten thousand Jews were left homeless.

These are just some examples. Many, many more can be offered. The impression is clear. Jews can be tolerated by the Moslem community at large if they obey Moslem rule. Period. Once the Jew begins to be 'too big', 'rich', or 'opulent in dress and social standing' he will be reduced by either the Moslem mob, or the local Moslem ruler to subservient status. As long as the Jew is a dog and scuttles along with his head down and provides the Moslems with tax revenues and products and services he can be tolerated. If the Jew dares to rise above this station of Dhimmitude he must be brought down low.

Mr. Gilbert does show that individual Moslems might not be anti-semitic. He lists examples of bravery enacted by individual Moslems in defending Jews against the might of the state, or the blood lust of the Moslem mob. But he also lists examples where Moslem neighbors of Jews, once friendly with their Jewish co-habitants, engage in the senseless attacks, rapes, slaughters and birgandage against their former friends. These examples are legion. I don't know why or how a neighbour of a Jew could so easily and evilly turn against a former 'friend', but the 'root cause' is obvious. Such actions are based on the Koran, the culture and the genetic animus that Moslems have against the Jew. The Jew was Mohammed's great enemy. This is a fact. The Jew today is still Islam's most vaunted and despised 'Other'. This too is a fact. In this regard the sad history of Jews in Moslem lands is all too obvious. They are, and they were, to be pillaged, taxed, humiliated and if necessary killed. That in summary is the story of the Jews during 14 centuries in Moslem lands. Such a history just highlights the utter misery and poverty of Islam and Islamic theology.