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I much appreciated the publication in BOOKS & CULTUREof Michael Cromartie's interview with me ["The Myth of Islamic Tolerance," September/October]. As I have a very pronounced French accent when speaking English, this would account for problems in the transcription of the interview. I would like to correct three errors.

First, there is a distinction between the avaniasor awarid, which are forms of ransom money, extorted illegally from the dhimmis (Jews and Christians) and their community leaders; and the jizya (poll tax), which has a Qur'anic origin (9:29). If the jizya was not paid, then the laws of jihad resumed, and the dhimmi's life and property—sometimes that of the community—were forfeited. This distinction is explained in my book, The Decline of Eastern Christianity.

Second, the dhimmis' clothes, from head to foot, had to be different from that of Muslims—in texture, shape, and in color. The "enormous collars" mentioned in the interview are a misinterpretation.

Finally, as to the profound intellectual and spiritual ferment in the Islamic world today, I referred to it "In Algeria[not Nigeria], in Egypt, in France, everywhere."

Bat Ye'or
Switzerland

In her interview with Michael Cromartie, Bat Ye'or stated that a "myth of Islamic tolerance" has grown up in the twentieth century, which claims that Islamic regimes have historically tolerated Christians and Jews within their lands. The true history of Islamic persecution of dhimmis has been suppressed, she says, because of political and theological considerations: colonial authorities did not want "to antagonize Muslim countries," and Christians there, seeking to integrate themselves into Muslim society, blamed poor Christian-Muslim relations on the Jews. As a result, "We Jews and Christians bear some of the responsibility for the fate of our persecuted fellow believers. We have swept the real history of dhimmitude under the carpet."

Several things about this interview require a response. First, the assertion that Bat Ye'or's work represents a needed "revisionist" response to a twentieth-century "myth of Islamic tolerance" that allegedly prevails in literature on the history of the Islamic world is exaggerated. A search of the general histories of the Middle East on my shelf found little evidence of a "myth of Islamic tolerance" there. These histories present a more complicated story, usually noting that Islamic law protected Christians and Jews as "people of the Book," and favorably comparing that to the low status of Jews in Europe or in the Byzantine Empire. They also note, however, that this Islamic tolerance did not mean that Christians and Jews were the equal of Muslims, and list the several disabilities and humiliations usually required of Christians and Jews in Islamic lands: payment of the poll tax, discrimination in dress, inability to build new churches and synagogues, etc . …

Second, it would come as a surprise to me if many readers of BOOKS & CULTUREwere aware of or shared a commitment to a "myth of Islamic tolerance." If anything, Euro-American evangelical Christians share a common ignorance of intuitive prejudice against Muslims, the religion of Islam, and Islamic states, whether past or present.

Third, although Bat Ye'or is aware that today "there are many Muslim countries, and we have to be wary of sweeping generalizations," the interview made very few references to concrete times and places, leaving the reader rather with the impression that "Islam," an undifferentiated political and historical force, has oppressed Christians and Jews. Islam is a religion whose theological texts are open to analysis on the subject. But there are and have been numerous states and empires ruled by Muslims and Islamic regimes whose attitudes and practices with regard to non-Muslim minority (and sometimes majority) populations they ruled differed from time to time and from place to place.

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