RUTHFULLY YOURS

Abderrahmane Dahmane, former diversity adviser of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, points to a green star during a news conference in front of the Grande Mosque of Paris March 29, 2011.

Dahmane, former national secretary of the UMP, was sacked from his post at the Elysee Palace on 11 March after severely criticizing the debate, calling it a “plague for Muslims” and accusing Mr. Cope of being “neo -Nazi”.

“The green star is a sign that Muslims in France have decided to wear in order to request the cancellation of the debate on Islam and an end of the islamophobia of the UMP and Mr. Cope (John Francis)”.

I imagine the irony is lost on Mr. Dahmane: what he thinks is a Nazi badge of shame imposed upon Jews to distinguish them from everyone else actually originated with the Muslims themselves. Muslims were the first to maintain Jews as dhimmis by requiring them to wear the degrading symbol of their less than second class status.

The Jewish Encyclopedia provides some sources for the yellow Jewish star:

The idea of such a discrimination seems to have been derived from Islam, in which the dress of the Jews was distinguished by a different color from that of the true believer as early as the Pact of Omar (640), by which Jews were ordered to wear a yellow seam on their upper garments (D’Ohsson, “Histoire des Mogols,” 1854, iii. 274). This was a distinct anticipation of the Badge. In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered to wear bells on their garments and a wooden calf to remind them of the golden one (S. Lane-Poole, “History of Egypt,” 1901, vi. 126). Later on, in 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans (ib. pp. 300, 301).

Wikipedia gives an overview of how non-Muslims were forced to wear distinctive clothes:

In the early Islamic period, non-Muslims were required to wear distinctive marks in public, such as metal seals fixed around their necks. Tattooing and branding of slaves and captives were widespread in the ancient world. However, Islam, like Judaism, forbids permanent skin markings.[3] Likewise, they were not allowed to wear colors associated with Islam, particularly green.[4] The practice of physically branding Jews and Christians appears to have been begun in early medieval Baghdad and was considered highly degrading.[5 Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry Into Conflict and Prejudice, by Bernard Lewis, p.131 ]

According to Bernard Lewis, Christians and Jews were forced to wear special emblems on their clothes. The yellow badge was first introduced by a caliph in Baghdad in the 9th century, and spread to the West in medieval times. Even in public baths, non-Muslims wore medallions suspended from cords around their necks so no one would mistake them for Muslims. Belts, headgear, shoes, armbands and/or cloth patches were also used. Under Shi’a rules, they were not even allowed to use the same baths [6 The Jews of Islam, p. 25-26], Princeton University Press, Jun 1, 1987, pp. 25-26] In 1005 the Jews of Egypt were ordered to wear bells on their garments.[7 Jewish Encyclopedia]

Apart from Jews, Hindus living under Islamic rule in India were often forced to wear yellow badges as well. During the reign of Akbar the Great, his general Husain Khan ‘Tukriya’ forcibly made Hindus wear discriminatory yellow badges[8] on their shoulders or sleeves.[9]

So now we come full circle, with Muslims comparing their “mistreatment” at the hands of the French with the degredation they themselves forced upon Jews and other non-Muslims for centuries.