HOW ISLAM CONSOLIDATED ITS POWER
AND SPREAD ITS MESSAGE
PART 2 OF 4
ISIS and radical Islam are the main issues in our world but Westerners know so little about Islam. I encourage everyone to read my book, Radical Islam’s War Against Israel, Christianity and the West. For those who are interested, I am available to teach on “ISIS, the Islamic Caliphate and the End Times.” This is really, really important. So please call our office to discuss your interest.
To help you understand how Islam established itself as a regional power and threat to the West, I am posting a blog of four articles entitled, “How Islam Consolidated its Power and Spread its Message.” The information presented focuses on the four leaders who succeeded Mohammed. This article is about Omar ibn al-Khattab.
Omar ibn al-Khattab (634-644)
Abu Bakr was succeeded by Omar ibn al-Khattab. With the power base consolidated and secured in Arabia, Omar was able to devote his rule to expanding Islam outside of Arabia. What the apostle Paul was to Jesus, Omar was to Mohammed. He was the apostle and evangelist of Islam. And like the apostle Paul, Omar was incredibly successful in spreading Islam.
With the help of Khalid ibn al-Walid, Omar used the “Sword of A-l-l-ah” to rapidly conquer the lands of the Middle East. There was nothing peaceful about it. It is a fact that no nation has ever peacefully embraced Islam. This “religion of peace” has always conquered and subjugated people with the sword. Under Omar’s direction, the tribes of Arabia united under the banner of Islam.
Then suddenly and without warning, Omar and his army of blood thirsty ruthless marauding followers violently burst out of Arabia and devastated and conquered the surrounding Christian and Jewish communities. One after another, and in rapid succession, Omar conquered Syria in 632, Iraq in 636, Egypt in 639, and Persia in 642. Most importantly, and tragically, Omar conquered Jerusalem in 635. He entered Jerusalem in 638 and declared the Temple Mount to be an Islamic holy site. He built a wooden Mosque at the present location of the Dome of the Rock and dedicated the place of Solomon’s Temple to A-l-l-a-h.
Historian George Grant in his book, Blood of the Moon: Understanding the Historic Struggle between Islam and Western Civilization (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville) describes Omar as follows: “A stern giant of a man with a long dark beard and a full, brooding countenance. He wore coarse, frayed garments and always carried a whip in his right hand in order to enforce righteous humility among his men. He had little appreciation for the accomplishments of Byzantine and was single-minded in his desire to bring the empire to its knees.”
“Omar entered Jerusalem riding upon a white camel. He was dressed in worn filthy robes, and the army that followed him was rough and unkempt. But its discipline was perfect. Omar rode straight to the sight of the Temple of Solomon … He was shocked at the filth and rubble that lay strewn about the Temple Mount. Because the holy sight had been neglected he made the Christian Patriarch grovel in the muck. Afterward Omar set about clearing the sight. He then built a wooden mosque on the Temple Mount.”
His conquests present Omar with a dilemma. Under his predecessor, Islam was limited to Arabia. But now Omar had conquered a vast territory which has been the land of Jews and Christians. What was he to do with these Jews and Christians?
Omar decreed that Jews and Christians were inferior to Muslims because Islam had superseded and conquered Judaism and Christianity. His determined that Jews and Christians living under Islam would be considered “dhimmis” which is a word for non-Muslims living under Muslim rule.
Omar decreed that the “dhimmis” did not have to convert to Islam and were to be treated with mercy as long as they followed rules he established for a conquered people living under Islamic rule. These rules were such that under the most benevolent Muslim leader, Jews and Christians were constantly harassed and humiliated while under the intolerant leaders, they feared for their lives.
Here is the Omar Charter that provided the manner in which Jews were to live under Islam. There were similar rules for Christians. This is still the guiding policy for Islam and would be the way Christians and Jews would be treated in an Islamic America.
The Omar Charter
- Jews were forbidden to touch the Koran.
- Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing.
- Jews were required to wear a yellow piece of cloth as a badge (blue for Christians).
- Jews were not allowed to perform their religious practices in public.
- Jews were not allowed to own a horse which was a sign of a nobleman.
- Jews were required to bury their dead without grieving in public.
- Jews were required to pay special taxes.
- Jews were not allowed to defend themselves against a Moslem.
- Jews were not allowed to testify against a Moslem.
- Jews were forbidden to build new synagogues.
- The houses and tombs of Jews were not allowed to be higher than those of the Moslems.
- The graves of Jews had to be level so that anyone could walk over them.
In ten short years, Omar had established an Islamic empire throughout North Africa and the Middle East reaching into Asia. He established an Islamic social order of semi-slavery for the “infidel” Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule. By taxing the conquered people, he brought great wealth to Islam. Omar was assassinated at the Mosque in Medina and died on November 23, 644. He also was buried beside Mohammed.
George Grant gives us the incredible significance of Omar. He writes, “Before his death in A. D. 644, Omar had spread the domination of Islam from the Euphrates to North Africa. He had conquered all of Iraq, brought Persia to the brink of collapse, controlled the southern Mediterranean coastline, and put Christendom on the defensive at every turn. In addition, he left his successors a tumultuous momentum that gave them expansive new conquests in Spain, Sicily, Crete and Italy.”
Throughout the centuries, Jews and Christians living under Islamic rule suffered persecution and humiliation, the intensity of which was determined by the character of the particular Moslem ruler. Even under relevantly tolerant rule, Jews and Christians struggled to survive and lived in constant fear for their lives. Not much has changed.
In modern times, when Jordan illegally occupied East Jerusalem from 1948-1967, all Jewish residents were expelled and barred from the Western Wall. The Jewish quarter, including all fifty-eight synagogues, was destroyed or desecrated. This was done under the rule of King Hussein, the most moderate of Arab rulers.
