User talk:Maverick61

Hi Maverick. I write you concerning your posts on Talk:Dhimmi. I haven't taken part in that discussion yet, and I think this message belongs in your page rather than there. I've read what your grandparents went through during the Ottoman rule. Let me start stating that I sympathize with your ancestors' position and my sources of information include very touching material (as Ljudmil Staykov's film 'Time of Violence'). As you may know, many Arabs –either Muslim or Christian- think that the Ottoman Empire lead themselves too to a long era of cultural and national decline. I don't think that this oppression has much to do with the concept of dhimmah, actually I don't think the Ottomans/Turks cared too much about it. The Ottomans did in Bulgaria (as long as in Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia or Greece) all sort of corrupt things that are clearly forbidden by Islam and at the time of your grandparents (I guess that's during or after the Young Turks' regime) Turkish government was rather hostile to religion. I understand nonetheless that Ottomans did use dhimmah as a good excuse to plunder and oppress. On the other hand the idea of Dhimmah has been recently resurrected by those hate-inciting works of rabid Islamophobes F.a.y mentioned. Those works (including many web pages) don't have anything to do with Bulgarians and seem not to be interested in the Ottoman rule at all. They just spread bigotry and racial/religious hatred against Arabs/Muslims, following a completely different agenda. They are not on your same side, and they are quite nasty. Keep off them! :) BTW, you may be interested in the following article, History of early Ottoman Bulgaria. --Filius Rosadis 21:58, 29 September 2006 (UTC)