I would site my 2 main sources as Bat Ye'or and Robert Spencer. I am sure that poor Bat Ye'or, who is recognized as a world renowned authority on dhimmitude and islamic history, who has been asked to speak on the subject by governments all over the world, who was asked by the UN to address the subject and who fled her native Egypt after seeing its decline as it fell more and more under islamic influence, who has spent years and years of her life pouring over historical documents and researching carefully the validity of said documents and who DOES speak, read and write fluent arabic would be absolutely crushed to find out that she knows NOTHING of islamic history and dhimmitude according to the author of this thread, because her views are completely opposite.
I do have some good news however, Mr Robert Spencer, who is also recognized as an authority on islamic history, has a masters degree in religious study and has been studying islamic theology, law, and history in depth since 1980, so for more than a quarter of a century, has published 7 books on the subject, 2 of which are still on the NY times best seller list, hundreds of articles and is in demand as a lecturer on the subject of islam and islamic history and jihad.....would be more than willing to debate you on this subject, either via email or on his forum, jihadwatch.org, where he regularly posts (he has had some interesting debates with muslim apologists, people who do not believe that islam is evil and muslims which he posts for comment)....he is obviously far more equip to debate since none of us on this forum seem to know what we are talking about, goodness, Ive wasted 6 years reading and researching myself! I would be interested to see his reply to the life of Jews under dhimmitude. Perhaps I will myself copy this thread over and see what he has to say on the subject, Im rather curious...Yacov, do i need special permission to seek Mr. Spencers educated opinion on this subject, I think it would be great to have an opinion from someone like Mr Spencer?
Muck, I ALWAYS love your posts, you are always right on!