Father and
3-month-old
infant,
Hadas
Eleven-year-old
Jewish son,
Yoav
The family
has given
permission
to show
these
photographs
so that
civilized
men
understand
what the
Jews face
from their
Islamic
enemies.
This is
the first
time
the
people of
Israel have
done this.
The world
ignores the
Jewish dead,
what choice
did they
have?
From
reports:
On
Friday
night at
10:30 pm
the
terrorists
entered
the
house
through
the
living
room
picture
window.
They did
not
notice
the
6-year-old
boy
sleeping
on the
couch
and
continued
on to
the
bedroom
where
they
slashed
the
throats
of the
father
and
newborn
baby
who were
sleeping
there.
The
mother
came out
of the
bathroom
and was
stabbed
on its
threshold.
The
evidence
shows
that she
tried to
fight
the
terrorists.
They
then
slashed
the
throat
of the
11-year
old-son
who was
reading
in bed.
They did
not
notice
the
2-year
old
asleep
in his
bed, but
murdered
the
3-year
old with
two
stabs to
his
heart.
After
that,
they
locked
the
door,
exited
through
the
window
and
escaped.
The
12-year-old
daughter
returned
home at
00:30
and
found
the door
locked.
She
asked a
neighbor,
Rabbi
Yaakov
Cohen,
of the
Itamar
Yeshiva,
to help
her. He
brought
a weapon
with him
once he
noticed
tracks
and mud
near the
house.
The two
woke up
the
6-year
old
sleeping
in the
living
room by
calling
through
the
window
and when
he
opened
the
door,
the
Rabbi
returned
to his
home.
When she
entered
the
bedrooms,
the
young
daughter
saw the
horrific
bloodsoaked
scene
and ran
out of
the
house
screaming.
The
neighbor
ran back
and
fired
several
shots in
the air
to alert
security
personnel.
Within a
short
time,
large
police
and IDF
forces
arrived
and
began
intensive
searches
to see
if the
terrorists
were
still in
the
community.
At 03:30
a.m.,
military
trackers
discovered
footprints
leading
to the
Arab
village
of
Avrata.
Images
from
Gaza.
A Palestinian man offers sweets to a woman in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on March 12, 2011 to celebrate an attack which killed five Israelis (Getty Images)
A
Palestinian
man
distributes
sweets
in the
streets
of the
southern
Gaza
Strip
town of
Rafah on
March
12, 2011
to
celebrate
an
attack
which
killed
five
Israelis
(Getty
Images)
The
Koran on
the Jews
“Strongest
among
men in
enmity
to the
believers
wilt
thou
find the
Jews…”
(5:82).
“Curses
were
pronounced
on those
among
the
Children
of
Israel
who
rejected
Faith,
by the
tongue
of David
and of
Jesus
the son
of Mary:
because
they
disobeyed
and
persisted
in
excesses.”
(5:78).
“Is it
ever so
that
when
they
make a
covenant
a party
of them
set it
aside?
The
truth
is, most
of them
believe
not. And
when
there
came to
them a
messenger
from
Allah
[Muhammad],
confirming
what was
with
them
[the
Torah],
a party
of the
people
of the
Book
threw
away the
Book of
Allah
behind
their
backs,
as if
(it had
been
something)
they did
not
know!”
(2:100-101).
“The
People
of the
Book
know
well
that
that is
the
truth
from
their
Lord.
Nor is
Allah
unmindful
of what
they do”
(2:143-144).
“Fight
those
who
believe
not in
Allah
nor the
Last
Day, nor
hold
that
forbidden
which
hath
been
forbidden
by Allah
and His
Messenger,
nor
acknowledge
the
religion
of
Truth,
(even if
they
are) of
the
People
of the
Book,
until
they pay
the
Jizya
with
willing
submission,
and feel
themselves
subdued”
(9:29).
“And
the Jews
say:
Ezra is
the son
of
Allah,
and the
Christians
say: The
Messiah
is the
son of
Allah.
That is
their
saying
with
their
mouths.
They
imitate
the
saying
of those
who
disbelieved
of old.
Allah
(Himself)
fighteth
against
them.
How
perverse
are
they!”
(9:30)
The
Jews
killed
their
prophets
(2:61;
2:87;
2:91;
3:21;
3:112;
3:181;
3:183;
4:155;
5:70),
and
boast
“we
killed
the
Messiah,
Jesus
the son
of Mary”
(4:157).
“Allah
hath
heard
the
taunt of
those
who say:
‘Truly,
Allah is
indigent
and we
are
rich!’
We shall
certainly
record
their
word and
(their
act) of
slaying
the
prophets
in
defiance
of
right,
and We
shall
say:
‘Taste
ye the
penalty
of the
Scorching
Fire!’”
(3:181)
“Why do
not the
rabbis
and the
doctors
of Law
forbid
them
from
their
(habit
of)
uttering
sinful
words
and
eating
things
forbidden?
Evil
indeed
are
their
works.”
(5:63)
“The
Jews
say:
‘Allah’s
hand is
tied
up.’ Be
their
hands
tied up
and be
they
accursed
for the
(blasphemy)
they
utter.
Nay,
both His
hands
are
widely
outstretched:
He
giveth
and
spendeth
(of His
bounty)
as He
pleaseth.
But the
revelation
that
cometh
to thee
from
Allah
increaseth
in most
of them
their
obstinate
rebellion
and
blasphemy.
Amongst
them we
have
placed
enmity
and
hatred
till the
Day of
Judgment.
Every
time
they
kindle
the fire
of war,
Allah
doth
extinguish
it; but
they
(ever)
strive
to do
mischief
on
earth.
And
Allah
loveth
not
those
who do
mischief”
(5:64).
The
Jews
“strive
to do
mischief
on
earth” –
that is,
fasaad,
for
which
the
punishment
is
specified
in 5:33:
“they
will be
killed
or
crucified,
or have
their
hands
and feet
on
alternate
sides
cut off,
or will
be
expelled
out of
the
land.”
“Ye are
the best
of
peoples,
evolved
for
mankind,
enjoining
what is
right,
forbidding
what is
wrong,
and
believing
in
Allah.
If only
the
People
of the
Book had
faith,
it were
best for
them:
among
them are
some who
have
faith,
but most
of them
are
perverted
transgressors.
They
will do
you no
harm,
barring
a
trifling
annoyance;
if they
come out
to fight
you,
they
will
show you
their
backs,
and no
help
shall
they
get.
Shame is
pitched
over
them
(like a
tent)
wherever
they are
found,
except
when
under a
covenant
(of
protection)
from
Allah
and from
men;
they
draw on
themselves
wrath
from
Allah,
and
pitched
over
them is
(the
tent of)
destitution.
This
because
they
rejected
the
Signs of
Allah,
and slew
the
prophets
in
defiance
of
right;
this
because
they
rebelled
and
transgressed
beyond
bounds.”
(3:110-112)
“And
because
of their
breaking
their
covenant,
We have
cursed
them and
made
hard
their
hearts.
They
change
words
from
their
context
and
forget a
part of
that
whereof
they
were
admonished.
Thou
wilt not
cease to
discover
treachery
from all
save a
few of
them.
But bear
with
them and
pardon
them.
Lo!
Allah
loveth
the
kindly
(5:13).
“Among
the
People
of the
Book are
some
who, if
entrusted
with a
hoard of
gold,
will
(readily)
pay it
back;
others,
who, if
entrusted
with a
single
silver
coin,
will not
repay it
unless
thou
constantly
stoodest
demanding,
because,
they
say,
‘there
is no
call on
us (to
keep
faith)
with
these
ignorant
(Pagans).’
but they
tell a
lie
against
Allah,
and
(well)
they
know
it.”
(3:75)
“O
Messenger!
let not
those
grieve
thee,
who race
each
other
into
unbelief:
(whether
it be)
among
those
who say
‘We
believe’
with
their
lips but
whose
hearts
have no
faith;
or it be
among
the Jews
-- men
who will
listen
to any
lie --
will
listen
even to
others
who have
never so
much as
come to
thee.
They
change
the
words
from
their
(right)
times
and
places:
they
say, ‘If
ye are
given
this,
take it,
but if
not,
beware!’
If any
one’s
trial is
intended
by
Allah,
thou
hast no
authority
in the
least
for him
against
Allah.
For such
- it is
not
Allah’s
will to
purify
their
hearts.
For them
there is
disgrace
in this
world,
and in
the
Hereafter
a heavy
punishment.”
(5:41)
“There
is a
party of
them who
distort
the
Scripture
with
their
tongues,
that ye
may
think
that
what
they say
is from
the
Scripture,
when it
is not
from the
Scripture.
And they
say: It
is from
Allah,
when it
is not
from
Allah;
and they
speak a
lie
concerning
Allah
knowingly”
(3:78).
“Then
woe to
those
who
write
the Book
with
their
own
hands,
and then
say:
‘This is
from
Allah,’
to
traffic
with it
for
miserable
price!
Woe to
them for
what
their
hands do
write,
and for
the gain
they
make
thereby.”
(2:79)
“But
because
of their
breach
of their
covenant,
We
cursed
them,
and made
their
hearts
grow
hard;
they
change
the
words
from
their
(right)
places
and
forget a
good
part of
the
message
that was
sent
them,
nor wilt
thou
cease to
find
them-
barring
a few -
ever
bent on
(new)
deceits:
but
forgive
them,
and
overlook
(their
misdeeds):
for
Allah
loveth
those
who are
kind.”
(5:13)
“Many of
the
People
of the
Scripture
long to
make you
disbelievers
after
your
belief,
through
envy on
their
own
account,
after
the
truth
hath
become
manifest
unto
them’”
(2:109).
“And
when
there
comes to
them a
Book
from
Allah,
confirming
what is
with
them,
although
from of
old they
had
prayed
for
victory
against
those
without
Faith,
when
there
comes to
them
that
which
they
(should)
have
recognised,
they
refuse
to
believe
in it
but the
curse of
Allah is
on those
without
Faith. “
(2:89)
“For the
iniquity
of the
Jews We
made
unlawful
for them
certain
(foods)
good and
wholesome
which
had been
lawful
for
them; in
that
they
hindered
many
from
Allah’s
Way;
that
they
took
usury,
though
they
were
forbidden;
and that
they
devoured
men’s
substance
wrongfully;
we have
prepared
for
those
among
them who
reject
faith a
grievous
punishment.”
(4:160-161)
“Thou
wilt
indeed
find
them, of
all
people,
most
greedy
of
life,-even
more
than the
idolaters:
Each one
of them
wishes
He could
be given
a life
of a
thousand
years:
But the
grant of
such
life
will not
save him
from
(due)
punishment.
For
Allah
sees
well all
that
they
do.”
(2:96)
And this
is by no
means
confined
to an
“extremist”
fringe.
The
Koranic
impulse
toward
anti-Semitism
is
evident
in the
attacks
on Jews
emanating
from
Islamic
preachers
and
scholars
worldwide.
Take,
for
example,
“Jews as
Depicted
in the
Qur’an,”
an
article
posted
in 2004
on the
website
Islam
Online.
The
website’s
founders
include
the
prominent
Islamic
theologian
Sheikh
Yusuf
al-Qaradawi,
who is
hailed
as a
moderate
reformist
by
Western
Islamic
apologistsThe
article,
written
by
Sheikh
‘Atiyyah
Saqr,
formerly
of
Al-Azhar
University,
copiously
cites
the
Koran in
depicting
the Jews
as a
gang of
corrupt,
deceitful
cut-throats.
The
Jews, he
says,
“used to
fabricate
things
and
falsely
ascribe
them to
Allah.”
Supporting
this, he
quotes
the
verse
condemning
Jews
for
claiming
Allah’s
hand was
fettered
(5:64)
and
another
asserting
that
some
People
of the
Book say
“we have
no duty
to the
Gentiles”
and in
doing
so,
“speak a
lie
concerning
Allah
knowingly”
(3:75).
He adds
a third
verse in
which
some
Jews,
asked
for
money,
scoff
that
“Allah,
forsooth,
is poor,
and we
are
rich!”
(3:181)
The
Jews,
continues
Saqr,
“love to
listen
to
lies.”
This is
essentially
a
straight
rendering
of the
Koran’s
claim
that the
Jews are
“men who
will
listen
to any
lie”
(5:41).
They
also
spread
them:
“There
is a
party of
them who
distort
the
Scripture
with
their
tongues,
that ye
may
think
that
what
they say
is from
the
Scripture,
when it
is not
from the
Scripture.
And they
say: It
is from
Allah,
when it
is not
from
Allah;
and they
speak a
lie
concerning
Allah
knowingly”
(3:78).
They
dare to
distort
“Divine
Revelation
and
Allah’s
Sacred
Books.
Allah
says in
this
regard:
‘Therefore
woe be
unto
those
who
write
the
Scripture
with
their
hands
and then
say,
‘This is
from
Allah,’
that
they may
purchase
a small
gain
therewith.
Woe unto
them for
that
their
hands
have
written,
and woe
unto
them for
that
they
earn
thereby’”
(2:79).
Saqr
also
notes
that in
the
Koran
Allah
says the
Jews
have
broken
“their
covenant,”
and
consequently
he has
“cursed
them and
made
hard
their
hearts”
(5:13).
Indeed,
says
Saqr,
“they
never
keep
their
promises
or
fulfill
their
words” –
to
demonstrate
this, he
quotes
this
Koranic
passage:
“Is it
ever so
that
when ye
make a
covenant
a party
of you
set it
aside?
The
truth
is, most
of them
believe
not.”
(2:100).
The
Jews
also
refuse
to
believe
in
the
prophets
Allah
has
sent
them,
even
Moses,
telling
him:
“O
Moses!
We
will
not
believe
in
thee
till
we
see
Allah
plainly”
(2:55).
They
are
hypocrites
(2:14;
2:44)
who
“grow
arrogant”
before
the
messengers
of
Allah,
refusing
to
believe
in
some
and
killing
others
(2:87).
They
are
so
arrogant
and
haughty
that
they
“claimed
to
be
the
sons
and
of
Allah
and
His
beloved
ones”
– a
fault
they
share
with
the
Christians:
“The
Jews
and
Christians
say:
We
are
sons
of
Allah
and
His
loved
ones”
(5:18).
All
that
represents
damage
the
Jews
do
to
their
own
souls,
but
Saqr
--
and
the
Koran
itself
–
doesn’t
stop
there.
The
Jews
also
wish
“evil
for
people”
and
try
to
“mislead”
them.
“This
is
clear,”
says
Saqr,
“in
the
verse
that
reads:
‘Many
of
the
People
of
the
Scripture
long
to
make
you
disbelievers
after
your
belief,
through
envy
on
their
own
account,
after
the
truth
hath
become
manifest
unto
them’”
(2:109).
They
“feel
pain
to
see
others
in
happiness
and
are
gleeful
when
others
are
afflicted
with
a
calamity,”
as
is
demonstrated,
according
to
Saqr,
by
this
verse:
“If
a
lucky
chance
befall
you,
it
is
evil
unto
them,
and
if
disaster
strike
you
they
rejoice
thereat”
(3:120).
The
Koran,
Saqr
points
out,
accuses
them
of
“taking
usury
when
they
were
forbidden
it,
and
of
their
devouring
people's
wealth
by
false
pretences”
(4:161).
Even
worse,
“it is
easy for
them to
slay
people
and kill
innocents,”
for
“nothing
in the
world is
dear to
their
hearts
than
shedding
blood
and
murdering
human
beings.”
Saqr
grounds
this on
the
Koran’s
assertion
that the
Jews
“slew
the
prophets
wrongfully”
(2:61).
The Jews
are
characterized,
says
Saqr, by
“cowardice.
. . . To
this,
the
Qur’an
refers
when
saying:
‘Ye are
more
awful as
a fear
in their
bosoms
than
Allah.
That is
because
they are
a folk
who
understand
not.
They
will not
fight
against
you in a
body
save in
fortified
villages
or from
behind
walls”
(59:14).
Saqr
also
excoriates
the Jews
for
their
“love
for this
worldly
life” –
as does
the
Koran:
“And
thou
wilt
find
them
greediest
of
mankind
for life
and
(greedier)
than the
idolaters”
(2:96).
Saqr
concludes
on an
optimistic
note,
voicing
hopes
that
some day
Muslims
will be
able to
mete out
punishment
to their
enemies;
“Almighty
Allah
told us
that
He’d
send to
them
people
who’d
pour on
them
rain of
severe
punishment
that
would
last
till the
Day of
Resurrection.
All this
gives us
glad
tidings
of the
coming
victory
of
Muslims
over
them
once
Muslims
stick to
strong
faith
and
belief
in Allah
and
adopt
the
modern
means of
technology.”
One
should
consider
Saqr’s
interpretation
in light
of
Iran’s
feverish
attempts
to
acquire
a
nuclear
bomb,
alongside
the
repeated
vows by
Iranian
president
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad
to wipe
Israel
off the
map. For
Ahmadinejad
and his
ilk,
eliminating
the
Jewish
state is
not just
a
foreign
policy
goal; it
is a
religious
imperative.
Oddly,
Saqr is
silent
about
the
famous
Koranic
passages
in which
Allah
transforms
disobedient
Jews
into
apes and
pigs
(2:63-66;
5:59-60;
7:166).
The
practice
of
calling
the Jews
of today
“apes
and
pigs”
has
become a
staple
of
jihadist
discourse.
Although
Saudi
authorities
promised
after
9/11 to
revise
textbooks
that
taught
hatred
against
Jews and
Christians,
as late
as 2006
Saudi
texts
still
referred
to Jews
as
“apes”
and
Christians
as
“swine.”
And in
April
2008 a
British
employment
tribunal
awarded
70,000
pounds
to a
teacher
who had
been
fired
from a
Saudi-funded
Islamic
school
for
exposing
the fact
that the
school
used
textbooks
that
spoke of
“the
repugnant
characteristics
of the
Jews”
and
asserted:
“Those
whom God
has
cursed
and with
whom he
is
angry,
he has
turned
into
monkeys
and
pigs.
They
worship
Satan.”
In March
2004
Sheikh
Ibrahim
Mudayris,
speaking
on
official
Palestinian
Authority
television,
railed
against
“the
Jews
today
taking
revenge
for
their
grandfathers
and
ancestors,
the sons
of apes
and
pigs.”
And
during
the
swine
flu
scare in
May
2009,
Sheikh
Ahmad
'Ali
'Othman,
the
superintendent
of da'wa
[Islamic
proselytizing]
affairs
at the
Egyptian
Ministry
of
Religious
Endowments,
declared,
according
to the
Middle
East
Media
Research
Institute,
that
“all
pigs are
descended
from the
Jews
whom
Allah
transformed
into
apes,
swine
and
worshippers
of
Satan,
and must
therefore
be
slaughtered.”
Othman
based
his
argument
on Koran
5:60,
one of
the
notorious
“apes
and
pigs”
passages
of the
Koran.
An
Egyptian
imam,
Muhammad
Hussein
Ya’qoub,
in
January
2009
delivered
a
televised
sermon
in which
he
insisted
that
Muslim
hatred
of Jews
had
nothing
to do
with
Israel,
and
everything
to do
with the
Koran:
“If the
Jews
left
Palestine
to us,
would we
start
loving
them? Of
course
not. We
will
never
love
them.
Absolutely
not. The
Jews are
infidels
– not
because
I say
so, and
not
because
they are
killing
Muslims,
but
because
Allah
said:
‘The
Jews say
that
Uzair is
the son
of
Allah,
and the
Christians
say that
Christ
is the
son of
Allah.
These
are the
words
from
their
mouths.
They
imitate
the
sayings
of the
disbelievers
before.
May
Allah
fight
them.
How
deluded
they
are.’
[9:30]
It is
Allah
who said
that
they are
infidels.”
He also
quoted
Koran
5:82,
the
verse
that
says
that the
Jews are
the
Muslims’
worst
enemies.
His
peroration:
“As for
you Jews
– the
curse of
Allah
upon
you. The
curse of
Allah
upon
you,
whose
ancestors
were
apes and
pigs….
Allah,
we pray
that you
transform
them
again,
and make
the
Muslims
rejoice
again in
seeing
them as
apes and
pigs.
You pigs
of the
earth!
You pigs
of the
earth!
You kill
the
Muslims
with
that
cold pig
[blood]
of
yours.”
Saqr,
for his
part,
asserted
that
because
Jews
“revolted
against
the
Divine
ordinances
… they
found no
warm
reception
in all
countries
where
they
tried to
reside.
Rather,
they
would
either
be
driven
out or
live in
isolation.”
Moreover,
“Almighty
Allah
told us
that
He’d
send to
them
people
who’d
pour on
them
rain of
severe
punishment
that
would
last
till the
Day of
Resurrection.”
Those
people
would
be, by
Saqr’s
own
account
and that
of other
Islamic
clerics,
the
Muslims.
Harry de Quetteville, “Christians still ‘swine’ and Jews ‘apes’ in Saudi schools,” Telegraph, June 25, 2006.
Alexandra Frean, “Teacher accuses Islamic school of racism,” The Times, April 15, 2008.
“PA Supervised Sermon:Jews the sons of apes and pigs,” IMRA, March 15, 2004.
“Egyptian Religious Endowments Ministry Official: The Pigs Living Today Are Descended from Jews – And Must Be Slaughtered,” Middle East Media Research Institute Special Dispatch No. 2359, May 15, 2009.
“Egyptian Cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub: The Jews Are the Enemies of Muslims Regardless of the Occupation of Palestine,” MEMRITV Clip No. 2042, January 17, 2009.
John Esposito, “Practice and Theory: A response to ‘Islam and the Challenge of Democracy,’” Boston Review, April/May 2003; “Al-Qaradawi full transcript,” BBC News, July 8, 2004.
‘Atiyyah Saqr, “Jews as Depicted in the Qur’an,” Islam Online, March 23, 2004.
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Society was sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines, with the Arab tribes at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the Berbers who were never recognized as equals, despite their Islamization. Lower on the ladder came the mullawadun and, at the very bottom, the dhimmi Christians and Jews. -- Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis. Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005, page 166
As the dhimmis were forbidden to possess arms, they became totally dependent on the occupying power. In certain rural areas, the servile character of the dhimmi's condition worsened with the passage of time. In 1884 Charles de Foucauld described areas in southern Morocco where the Jews and their families belonged body and soul to their Muslim master and were unable to leave him. Here the condition of serfdom was determined by religion and was passed on from generation to generation: these people were part of the master's inheritance in exactly the same way as his lands and livestock. As late as 1913, the Jews of Dadès in the Greater Atlas of Morocco were serfs, the property of their Muslim master. -- Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985, pages 52-53
It is reported that, in 1033, between five and six thousand Jews were massacred in Fez, and in 1066 about three thousand in Granada. In Yemen the Jews were forced to choose between death and conversion in 1165 and 1678. The Almohad persecutions (1130-1212) in the Maghreb and in Muslim Spain put an end to what remained of the Christian population of North Africa. The Jews, who had been forced to accept Islam, formed a mass of "new converts" who practiced their former religion in secret. The Almohad inquisitors, doubting their sincerity, took away their children and raised them as Muslims. A similar law also existed in Yemen, where every Jewish orphan child had to be converted to Islam. Abrogated by the Turks during their brief occupation of the country after 1872, it was reintroduced by the Imam Yahya in 1922 and confirmed again in 1925....Records concerning Morocco, Algeria and Yemen reveal that during changes of reign and times of instability, the Jewish quarters were regularly pillaged, some of the menfolk massacred, and many women abducted and held for ransom by the soldiery or by tribes from the surrounding regions. Eyewitnesses have described the destruction of the Jewish quarter at Fez in 1912 at the beginning of the French protectorate, and at Sana'a in Yemen as late as 1948, after the assassination of the Imam Yahya. Such ordeals, over the centuries, resulted in many conversions to Islam. Thus a number of Judeo-Berber tribes of the Atlas, and Muslim families in Fez, are known to be descended from Jews who accepted Islam to save their lives in 1165, 1275, 1465, and 1790-92. There are Muslims in Tripolitania and elsewhere who are the descendants of Jews forcibly converted at different periods. The Jews of Tabriz were obliged to convert in 1291 and 1318, and those of Baghdad in 1333 and 1344. -- Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985, page 61
A brief survey will illustrate the traditional condition of dhimmitude in Persia at this period. In 1866, the head of the Hamadan Jewish community was imprisoned, put in chains, and threatened with death. The same year in Balforuch (a province of Hamadan), the disappearance of a young Muslim provoked the forced Islamization of Jews: eighteen were killed and two burned alive. In Hamadan in 1875, a fanatic mullah preached the slaughter of the Jews; one of them, accused of blasphemy, was burned alive by the mob. In Teheran on 16 May 1877, the Jewish quarter was invaded and its inhabitants attacked, while a mullah published a fatwa forcing Jews to wear a distinctive badge.
In Isfahan in 1889 a ritual murder accusation unleashed several days of anti-Jewish violence and threats of extermination. On 10 August 1889 in the same town, Muslims accused Jewish pilgrims of throwing stones, of attacking a kadi, and of profaning a mosque with brandy. The mob immediately broke the hands and legs of some hundred pilgrims and injured all the others. Isfahan Jews were attacked in the streets the next day and had to hide in their homes; two who ventured out were killed. Their corpses were dragged through the streets and dumped in the Jewish quarter when night fell. On the morrow, some women were raped and the kadi signed a petition for the Jews to be exterminated. The shah's son, Prince Zil-Sultan, hastened to protect the victims but the brutality continued. Two months later, on 5 October, a Muslim who had struck a Jew then accused him of the same offense; Jews were immediately beaten up and their quarter plundered. Only the arrival of Prince Zil-Sultan prevented a general massacre. This report also mentions efforts by "Christian priests," Mirza Norollah in particular, to help the Jews, thereby saving a large number and constantly assisting them. -- Bat Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide, Teaneck, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002, p. 125.