The Pact of Umar and King John of England and the Jews - Research Paper Example

The Pact of Umar and King John of England and the Jews Protecting the rights of political minorities is always of critical importance for a government. It is the responsibility of a government to take every step to ensure protection of minority’s rights. In this paper, we will compare the rights of political minorities laid out in The Pact of Umar and King John of England and the Jews. We will examine both documents in detail in order to know the similarities and the differences that exist between these documents. Both documents, The Pact of Umar and King John of England and the Jews, relate to the rights of minorities in the Muslim dominated and Christian dominated areas. The Pact of Umar is the peace accord, which Caliph Umar offered to the Syrian Christians in order to provide them with some guidelines to live under Muslim rule. “The Pact of Umar is supposed to have been the peace accord offered by the Caliph Umar to the Christians of Syria, a "pact" which formed the patter of later interaction”1. On the other hand, King John of England and the Jews is a document of living guidelines between Jews and Christians supervised by the King John of England. The thesis statement for this paper is that although Muslims and Christians protected the rights of minorities in their respective areas, but the freedom and autonomy provided by the Muslims to non-Muslims was a little restrictive in nature and bounded by certain conditions. In The Pact of Umar, Muslims announced protection for the rights and lives of minorities. “It is a document that regulates the behavior of Christians and Jews in Muslim lands”2. A mutual agreement took place between Muslims and non-Muslims in which there were specific conditions, which non-Muslims had to fulfill in order to benefit from the protection of Muslims. Although Muslims took steps to promote a peaceful relationship between them and non-Muslims, but there was an element of restrictions on the non-Muslims, which is not evident in the agreement that took place between Christians and Jews. For example, the conditions like prohibition of selling fermented drinks, restriction of constructing overtopping houses, leaving the seats for the Muslims, and restriction on manifesting the religion publicly were not very easy to be fulfilled by the non-Muslims. The condition of leaving the seats for the Muslims upon their arrival reflected the element of discrimination up to some extent. On the other hand, the agreement between the King John of England and the Jews mirrored a perfect relationship between Christians and minorities. The agreement did not reflect any form of discrimination against non-Christians. Christians provided freedom and protection to the non-Christians regardless of their race, sex, or religion. All people were given equal rights and no one was forced to do anything against his/her will. The King John of England provided a free and honorable citizenship to all Jews of England. The king also provided a perfect mechanism of dispute resolution between Jews and Christians. The agreement between Caliph Umar and political minorities was a good agreement, which protected the rights of minorities. On the other hand, the King John of England offered much more relaxed freedom to the Jews, which not only provided them with civil and religious rights but also ensured liberty. It is a fact that Muslims had a good control of the political matters of the world, which started from the 7th century and continued for a few centuries. However, Muslims did not abided by the golden rules of control for long. Muslims started becoming materialistic and their focus shifted from strengthening their economies to providing comfort and relief to themselves and their families. Muslims did not pay much attention to protecting civil rights of minorities. Although they abided by the rules of Islam up to some extent, but they did not provide an admirable religious and civil freedom to the minorities and tried to rule the world by force. The limitation on the non-Muslims regarding preaching of their religions in the Pact of Umar is one of the examples of less religious freedom. On the other hand, Christians have a history of providing complete religious freedom to the ethnic minorities. Whenever and wherever Christians have remained in control, we cannot find any signs of snatching the right of religious freedom from the Jews and other minorities. Muslims have a collection of great rules and guidelines in the form of Quran, which is the sacred Holy book of Muslims. Quran focuses the protection of the rights of minorities by providing such guidelines to the Muslims, which are not only applicable but also promote harmony and peaceful relationships between people from different backgrounds. “History reveals that Islam is the only system of belief to offer a just, tolerant and compassionate way of government”3. The Holy book of Christians came before Quran and it was also a collection of golden rules, which Christians used to rule the world. The fact is that Muslims abided by the teachings of Islam in the initial years of their rule but with the passage of time, their considerations started changing which made them deviate from the original teachings of Islam. On the other hands, Christians used to abide by and still follow the teachings of the Bible because of which their control over the world is not only intact but also admirable. We can take example of the King John of England, who provided equal rights and independence to every citizen living in England whether he/she was a Jew or a Christian. Summing it up, protecting the rights of political minorities is always of critical importance for a government. Analyzing the Pact of Umar and King John of England and the Jews, we come to know that although Muslims and Christians protected the rights of minorities, but the freedom and autonomy provided by the Muslims to non-Muslims was a little restrictive in nature and bounded by certain conditions. The study further promotes the researchers to explore the similarities and differences between the history of protection of minorities’ rights by the Muslim and Christian rulers. Bibliography Halsall, Paul. “Medieval Sourcebook: Pact of Umar, 7th Century?.” Fordham.edu, 1996. Accessed November 02, 2011. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.asp. Isseroff, Ami. “The Pact of Umar.” Zionism-Israel.com, January 09, 2010. Accessed November 02, 2011. http://www.zionism-israel.com/hdoc/Pact_of_umar.htm. Yahya, Harun. “Islam Has Brought Peace and Harmony to the Middle East All Through History.” Articlesbase.com, January 15, 2008. Accessed November 02, 2011. http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/islam-has-brought-peace-and-harmony-to-the-middle-east-all-through-history-305348.html. Read More