An Ancient Culture Extinguished

Jews in Yemen, who have lived there for generations, have been threatened to leave or die. Many left for Israel years ago, but some did not want to leave their ancestral homes. This happened back in January:

Many of Yemen's Jews fled their homes last weekend after receiving death threats from Islamic militants accusing the country's tiny Jewish community of serving as agents for "global Zionism."

The Jews said they feared for their lives. It was disclosed that they had been forced to pay special taxes that Islam imposes on Jews and Christians in return for protection and security.

About 45 Jews left their village in Sa'ada county in Yemen after Dawoud Yousuf Mousa, one of the heads of the local Jewish community, was warned on Jan.10 that if the Jews don't leave within 10 days they would be exposed to killings, abductions and looting.

Four masked militants approached Mousa and delivered a letter to him warning that the Jewish community had been under Islamic surveillance.

"After accurate surveillance over the Jews residing in Al Haid, it has become clear to us that they were doing things which serve mainly global Zionism, which seeks to corrupt the people and distance them from their principles, their values, their morals, and their religion," the letter stated.

"Islam calls upon us to fight against the disseminators of decay," the letter said. The threats have been attributed to disciples of Shi'ite religious leader Hossein Bader a-Din al-Khouty.

They are now sheltering temporarily in a hotel in a regional city. Latest reports cite clashes between the government and Islamic terrorists. Reuters:

The clashes in Saada were re-ignited in late January after al-Houthi supporters threatened to kill members of a small Jewish community in Saada if they did not leave the country within 10 days.

Violence escalated after parliament on 10 February authorised the government to suppress the rebellion. The consultative Shoura council has also called on the government to settle the sedition in Saada in a way that maintains security and stability.

"By this rebellion, al-Houthi [the grandson], the terrorist, and his group want to enter the country into the kiln of conflicts in the context of a plot that aims to rip the nation apart and serve the interests of foreign parties," Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani, Shoura Council Chairman, said.

Keith Roderick, The American Thinker exposes the double standard demanded by some Muslims in the West, while failing to confront intolerance by Muslim countries in the Middle East:

"Islamophobia," coined as a term to describe prejudice and fear against Muslims and Islam, has gained institutional legitimacy. It is now used to fend off criticism of anything negative arising from Muslims or Islam. Less a psychological state of irrational fear, it creates a pseudo-racial classification for Muslims and Islam that allows criticism of, or opposition to it, to be defined as racist.

Politically, the language of phobia is being used as a battering ram to weaken security measures and strengthen the radical agenda of Islamists who do not hide the fact that they want to transform the United States into an Islamic country governed by shari'a. These Islamists offer a caveat, that is, they want this transformation to be done without terrorism or violence, using only the political process to Islamicize American society.

There is another phenomenon of prejudice which has no such name, but whose effect is ongoing and devastating throughout the Islamic world. The "other' phobia demonizes non-Muslim minorities living in Islamic majority countries. Loathing of the "other" has been embedded into legal and political institutions in Islamic countries.

What was the supposed "crime" of the Yemeni Jews? Selling wine. "Their presence in the country predated the Muslims by centuries." And at the beginning of the 20th century, 20% of the population of the Middle East was Christian. Now it is 2%. Lebanon used to be a majority Christian country. No more.

Christians are being driven out of Bethlehem itself.

This is how an ancient culture is extinguished. Now they are coming after our younger, but still rich and more tolerant one. Dr. Roderick has an excellent suggestion for CAIR---open centers for religious tolerance for their co-religionists in the Middle East.