The Politically Incorrect Guile to Islam and the Crusades)disa llow ed in many case s, itwasofte n enou gh foraMusl im simp ly to
charge that a church was being used to foment "enmity against Muslims"
and then seize it.
The Christia ns' agreement width the caliph Umar continues: "'We will
not prevent any Muslim from resting in our churches whether they come
by day or night. ...Thos e Muslims who comeasguests will enjoy board-
ing and food for three days, "^4 The agreement also mandates a number of
humiliating regulations to make sure that the dhimmis "feel themselves
subdued" in accordance with Qur'an 9:29. The Christians promised:
We wil l not , .. pre ven t any of our fel low s fro m embr aci ng
Islam, if they choose to do so. We will respect Muslims, move
from the places we sitin if they choose to sit in them. We will
not imit ate thei r clot hing , caps , turb ans, sand als, hair style s,
speech, nicknames and title names, or ride on saddles, hang
swords on the shoulders, collect weapons of any kind or carry
these weapons.. „We will notencrypt our stamps in Arabic, or
sell liquor. We will have the front of our hair cut, wear our cus-
tomary clothes wherever we arc, wear belts around our waist,
refra in from erect ing cross es on the outsi de of our chur ches
and demonstrating them and our books in public in Muslim
fai rwa ys and mar ket s. We wil l rio t sou nd th e bel ls in our
church es, except discre etly, or raise our voices while reciti ng
our holy books inside our churches in the presence of Muslims.Alter these and other rules are fully laid out,the agreement concludes:
"These are the conditi ons that we set against oursel ves and follow ers of
our religion in return for safety and protection. If we break any of these
pr om is es th at we se t fo r yo ur be ne fi t ag ai ns t ou rs el ve s, th en ou r
Dhim ma(pro mise of prot ecti on] is brok en and you are allow ed to do
with us what you are allowed of people of defiance and rebellion."'