Editing Bat Ye'or

{{Short description|British essayist and conspiracy theorist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Gisèle Littman
|image= Bat Ye'or in 2014.png
|caption= Littman in 2014
|birth_name  = Gisèle Orebi
|other_names   = Bat Ye'or ({{langx|he|בת יאור}})
|birth_date  = {{Birth year and age|1933}}
|birth_place = [[Zamalek]], [[Cairo]], [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]]
|occupation  = Writer, author
|nationality = British, Swiss
|signature=
|alma_mater  = [[University College London]]<br />[[University of Geneva]]
|genre=
|spouse =  {{marriage|[[David Littman (activist)|David Littman]]|1959|2012|end=died}}
|children = 3
|known_for = ''[[Dhimmitude]]''<br>[[Eurabia conspiracy theory]]
}}
'''Gisèle Littman''' ({{nee|'''Orebi'''}}; born 1933), better known by her [[pen name]] '''Bat Ye'or''' ({{langx|he|בת יאור}}, ''Daughter of the Nile''), is an Egyptian-born, British-Swiss<ref name="carr"/><ref name="jpost">{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/features/one-on-one-a-dhimmi-view-of-europe|title=One on One: A 'dhimmi' view of Europe|first=Ruthie Blum|last=Leibowitz|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=9 July 2008|accessdate=4 November 2024}}</ref> author and historian,<ref name="carr"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/religionreport/full-transcript--bat-yeor/3433612|title=Program: Full Transcript : Bat Ye'or|first=Stephen|last=Crittenden|work=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date=23 November 2004|accessdate=4 November 2024}}</ref> known for her promulgation of the [[Eurabia conspiracy theory]]. She claims that [[Islam]], and its perceived [[anti-Americanism]], [[anti-Christian sentiment]] and [[antisemitism]] hold sway over European culture and politics.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.meforum.org/eurabia-europes-future|title=Eurabia - Europe’s Future?|author=Bat Ye'or|date=7 February 2005|accessdate=4 November 2024}}</ref>

Ye'or has also written about the history of Christian and Jewish [[Minority religion|religious minorities]] living under Islamic governments, as part of which Ye'or has popularised the term ''[[dhimmitude]]'' to define the treatment of religious minorities in such contexts.<ref name=Griffiths>{{cite journal|author=Sidney H. Griffith|date=November 1998|title=The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, Seventh-Twentieth Century (review)|journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]]|volume=30|issue=4|pages=619–21|doi=10.1017/S0020743800052831|jstor=164368|s2cid=162396249 }}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Bat Ye'or was born into a middle-class [[Jews|Jewish]] family<ref name="jpost"/> in [[Cairo]], [[Kingdom of Egypt]] in 1933. Her father was Italian and had fled Italy during [[Mussolini]]'s rule, and her mother was from France.<ref name="André">{{cite news |last=André |first=Darmon |title= Interview with Bat Ye'or |work= Israel Magazine |date= July 2007 |quote=I was born in Egypt, in Cairo, into a family of the Jewish bourgeoisie, of an Italian father and a French mother. My grandfather, to whom Egyptian nationality was accorded by exception, was crowned Bey by the Ottoman sultan. My father decided to renounce Italian nationality as a result of Mussolini's racist laws, but when Nasser came to power, my mother's goods were confiscated because she was French and my father's because he was Jewish. We were forced to stay home, we were chased out of public places and at that moment we decided to flee Egypt. Many fled secretly from fear of being imprisoned. We were forced, like all Egyptian Jews, to sign papers according to which we renounced all our goods, our passport and our nationality, for those who had it, since the Jews had been for the most part Ottoman subjects and not Egyptian. The Jews promised in writing not to demand anything of the Egyptian State. The only right we had was to take one suitcase, which was searched and thrown to the ground and 20 Egyptian pounds that were taken from us anyway by the customs officials, not to mention the insults and acts of terror in front of my parents, both of whom were invalids.}}</ref> She and her parents fled Egypt in 1957 after the [[Suez Crisis]] of 1956,<ref name=Gilbert>{{cite book |title=A History of the Twentieth Century: 1952–1999 |last= Gilbert |first= Martin |author-link= Martin Gilbert |year=1997 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |isbn= 9780688100667 |page=142 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5sohAQAAIAAJ&q=Gisele |access-date=3 August 2012 |quote= Most of those who went elsewhere did so as 'stateless refugees, among them Gisele Orebi (later Gisele Littman), who was to become the acknowledged expert on the plight of Jews and Christians in Muslim lands, and their vigorous champion: her book ''The Dhimmi. Jews and Christians under Islam'', written under the pen name Bat Ye'or, brought the issue of continuing discrimination to a wide public.}}</ref> arriving in London as [[statelessness|stateless refugees]].<ref name="André"/>

In 1958, she attended the [[UCL Institute of Archaeology]] and moved to Switzerland in 1960 to continue her studies at the [[University of Geneva]],<ref name=Interview55>{{cite news |author= Whitehead. John W. |title= Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis An interview with Bat Ye'or |publisher=[[Rutherford Institute]] |date=9 June 2005 |url= https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/oldspeak/eurabia_the_euro_arab_axis_an_interview_with_bat_yeor |access-date=3 August 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130303211911/https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/oldspeak/eurabia_the_euro_arab_axis_an_interview_with_bat_yeor |archive-date=3 March 2013 |url-status= live}}</ref> but never finished her master's degree<ref name=WP1>{{cite news |author=Duin, J.a |title=State of 'dhimmitude' seen as threat to Christians, Jews |newspaper=[[The Washington Times]] |date=30 October 2002 |url= http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20021030-10490720.htm |access-date=3 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20021101213724/http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20021030-10490720.htm |archive-date=1 November 2002}}</ref><ref name=MorgEur/> and has never held an academic position.<ref>{{cite web|author= Byrnes, Sholto |title= History rewritten |publisher=[[The National (Abu Dhabi)|The National]] |date=28 October 2011 |url= http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/history-rewritten |access-date=26 August 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120422183450/http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/history-rewritten |archive-date=22 April 2012 |url-status= live}}</ref>

She was married to the British historian and activist [[David Littman (activist)|David Littman]] from September 1959 until his death in May 2012. Many of her publications and works were in collaboration with Littman. Her British citizenship dates from her marriage.<ref name=WP1/> They moved to Switzerland in 1960, where she has lived since,<ref name="jpost"/> and together had three children.<ref name="cv">{{cite web|url=http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_bycv.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070602161529/http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_bycv.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 June 2007|title=Bat Ye'or: Curriculum Vitae|date=2 June 2007}}</ref>

She has provided briefings to the [[United Nations]] and the [[United States Congress]] and has given talks at major universities such as [[Georgetown University|Georgetown]], [[Brown University|Brown]], [[Yale University|Yale]], [[Brandeis University|Brandeis]], and [[Columbia University|Columbia]].<ref name=WP1/><ref>{{cite news |author= Poller, Nidra |author-link= Nidra Poller |title=The Brave New World of Eurabia |newspaper=[[The New York Sun]] |date=7 February 2005 |url= http://www.nysun.com/foreign/brave-new-world-of-eurabia/8812/ |access-date=3 August 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120927225106/http://www.nysun.com/foreign/brave-new-world-of-eurabia/8812/ |archive-date=27 September 2012 |url-status= live}}</ref>

==Dhimmitude==
{{Main|Dhimmitude}}
Ye'or is credited with popularising the neologism ''[[dhimmitude]]'', which she discusses in detail in ''[[Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide]]''. Shahram Akbarzadeh and Joshua M. Roose suggest she equates it with servitude.<ref>''Muslims, multiculturalism and the question of the silent majority'', S. Akbarzadeh, J.M. Roose, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2011, Taylor & Francis.</ref> Ye'or initially credited assassinated Lebanese president-elect and [[Kataeb Party|Phalangist]] militia leader [[Bachir Gemayel]] with coining the term.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam|author=Bat Ye'or|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=doeTXF9axosC&pg=PA28|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|year=1996|page=28|isbn=9780838636886|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624003708/https://books.google.com/books?id=doeTXF9axosC&pg=PA28|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Later she said that she invented it herself and inspired him to use it through a friend.<ref>"I founded the word dhimmitude and I discussed it with my Lebanese friends [...] My friend spoke about this word to Bashir Gemayel who used it in his last speech before his assassination." in [http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/98500/sec_id/98500 An Egyptian Jew in Exile: An Interview with Bat Ye'or] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007203401/http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/98500/sec_id/98500|date=7 October 2011}}[http://www.dhimmitude.org/eurabia/An-egyptian-jew-in-exile.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309074203/http://www.dhimmitude.org/eurabia/An-egyptian-jew-in-exile.pdf|date=9 March 2016}}, newenglishreview.org, October 2011</ref> The term itself is derived from "[[dhimmi]]", the adjectival form of the word ''dhimma'', which means "protection" in Arabic<ref>Hans Wehr, J M. Cowan. A dictionary of modern written Arabic. Third Edition. Ithaca, N.Y.: Spoken Language Services. p. 312.</ref> and refers to the historical notion of an "indefinitely renewed contract through which the Muslim community accords hospitality and protection to members of other revealed religions, on condition of their acknowledging the domination of Islam".<ref>Cl. Cahen. Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Dhimma", Vol. 2, p. 227.</ref>

Ye'or describes dhimmitude as the "specific social condition that resulted from [[jihad]]," and as the "state of fear and insecurity" of "infidels" who are required to "accept a condition of humiliation."<ref name=Duin>{{cite news|title=Islam's 'idealistic version of itself' not quite the reality|first=Julia|last=Duin|url=http://members.tripod.com/joe_matalski/Pages/idealistc.htm|newspaper=[[The Washington Times]]|date=30 October 2002|access-date=3 August 2012}}</ref> She believes that "the dhimmi condition can only be understood in the context of Jihad," and studies the relationship between the theological tenets of Islam and the hardships of Christians and Jews under Islamic rule in different times and places.<ref>{{cite speech|title=Dhimmitude Past and Present : An Invented or Real History?|first=Bat|last=Ye'or|event=C.V. Starr Foundation Lectureship|location=[[Brown University]]|date=10 October 2002|url=http://www.dhimmitude.org/archive/by_lecture_10oct2002.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030207011828/http://www.dhimmitude.org/archive/by_lecture_10oct2002.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 February 2003|access-date=3 August 2012}}</ref> The cause of jihad, she argues, "was fomented around the 8th century by Muslim theologians after the death of Muhammad and led to the conquest of large swathes of three continents over the course of a long history."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://my.brandeis.edu/news/item?news_item_id=100520&show_release_date=1|title=Americans should educate themselves about jihad's "culture of hate," says WSRC speaker|first=Donna|last=Desrochers|date=28 February 2002|publisher=[[Brandeis University]]|access-date=3 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212054614/http://my.brandeis.edu/news/item?news_item_id=100520&show_release_date=1|archive-date=12 February 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

Bat Ye'or acknowledges that not all Muslims subscribe to so-called "militant jihad theories of society," while arguing that the role of sharia in the 1990 [[Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam]] demonstrates that what she calls a perpetual war against those who won't submit to Islam is still an "operative paradigm" in Islamic countries.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jihad and Human Rights Today |author=Bat Ye'or |url=http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-yeor070102.asp |newspaper=[[The National Review]] |date=1 July 2002 |access-date=3 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130830093513/http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-yeor070102.asp |archive-date=30 August 2013}}</ref>

===Reception===
According to journalist [[Adi Schwartz]] from ''[[Haaretz]]'', the fact that she is not an academic and has never taught at any university, but has worked as an independent researcher, has, along with her opinions, made her a controversial figure. He quotes professor [[Robert S. Wistrich]], head of the [[Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism]], who notes:{{blockquote|Up until the 1980s, she was not accepted at all. In academic circles they scorned her publications. Only when [[Bernard Lewis]] published the book 'Jews of Islam' with quotations from Bat Ye'or did they begin to pay any attention to her. A real change toward her emerged in the 1990s, and especially in recent years.<ref>Adi Schwartz from Haaretz.com [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=728863 'The protocols of the elders of Brussels'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430230408/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=728863 |date=30 April 2009 }} "Bat Ye'or's opinions have made her a controversial figure, as has the fact that she is not an academic and has never taught at any university. She conducts her research independently. Since the 1970s, Bat Ye'or, who is now 71, has published about 10 books, most of which deal with the life of the Christian and Jewish minorities in Muslim countries. "</ref>}}
Lewis on another occasion, called the notion of Jewish ''"dhimmi"-tude'', i.e., of their "subservience and persecution and ill treatment" under Islamic rule, a "myth", which, just as the myth "of a golden age of equality, of mutual respect and cooperation", "contain[s] significant elements of truth," with the "historic truth" being "in its usual place, somewhere in the middle between the extremes."<ref name=Lewis>Bernard Lewis, [https://theamericanscholar.org/the-new-anti-semitism 'The New Anti-Semitism'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208140302/https://theamericanscholar.org/the-new-anti-semitism/ |date=8 December 2015 }}, ''The American Scholar Journal''&nbsp;– Volume 75 No. 1 Winter 2006 pp. 25–36.</ref>

British historian [[Martin Gilbert]] in his book ''A History of the Twentieth Century'' has called her "the acknowledged expert on the plight of Jews and Christians in Muslim lands" who "brought the issue of [their] continuing discrimination to a wide public."<ref>Sir Martin Gilbert, ''A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume III: 1952–1999'', p. 127: "Most of those who went elsewhere did so as 'stateless refugees, among them Gisele Orebi (later Gisele Litrman), who was to become the acknowledged expert on the plight of Jews and Christians in Muslim lands, and their vigorous champion: her book ''The Dhimmi''. Jews and Christians under Islam, written under the pen name Bat Ye'or, brought the issue of continuing discrimination to a wide public."</ref>

[[Hans Jansen]], Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at [[Utrecht University]] and [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]] for [[Geert Wilders]]' [[Party for Freedom]], wrote in ''[[Middle East Quarterly]]'' that "In 1985, Bat Ye'or offered Islamic studies a surprise with her book, ''The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam'', a convincing demonstration that the notion of a traditional, lenient, liberal, and tolerant Muslim treatment of the Jewish and Christian minorities is more myth than reality."<ref>{{cite journal|date=1 March 2005|title=Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis|url=http://www.meforum.org/article/1288|journal=[[Middle East Quarterly]]|author=Johannes J.G. Jansen|access-date=6 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019232725/http://www.meforum.org/article/1288|archive-date=19 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Mark R. Cohen]] said that Bat Ye'or "has made famous" the term ''dhimmitude,'' which he says is "misleading". He states that "[w]e may choose to employ" it keeping in mind that it "connotes protection (its meaning in Arabic) and that it guaranteed communal autonomy, relatively free practice of religion, and equal economic opportunities, as much as it signified inferior legal status."<ref name=cohen1>{{cite book|title=Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel: The Ambivalences of Rejection, Antagonism, Tolerance and Cooperation|last=Cohen|first=Mark R.|publisher=[[Sussex]] Academic Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1845195274|pages=33–36|chapter=Modern Myths of Muslim Anti-Semitism|author-link=Mark R. Cohen|editor=Ma'oz, Moshe}}</ref><ref name=cohen2>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_AR3BksrUcC&pg=PA31|title=Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel: The Ambivalences of Rejection, Antagonism, Tolerance and Cooperation|last=Ma'oz|first=Moshe|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84519-527-4|access-date=27 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329054704/https://books.google.com/books?id=W_AR3BksrUcC&pg=PA31|archive-date=29 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Michael Sells]], John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature at the [[University of Chicago]], argued that "by obscuring the existence of pre-Christian and other old, non-Christian communities in Europe as well as the reason for their disappearance in other areas of Europe, Bat Ye'or constructs an invidious comparison between the allegedly humane Europe of Christian and Enlightenment values and the ever-present persecution within Islam. Whenever the possibility is raised of actually comparing circumstances of non-Christians in Europe to non-Muslims under [[Islamic governance]] in a careful, thoughtful manner, Bat Ye'or forecloses such comparison."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n_zcNMoTYgkC&q=Bat+Ye%27or|title=The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy|last1=Qureshi|first1=Emran|last2=Sells|first2=Michael Anthony|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|year=2003|isbn=9780231126663|location=New York|page=364|author-link2=Michael Sells|access-date=4 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101100427/http://books.google.com/books?id=n_zcNMoTYgkC&q=Bat+Ye%27or#v=snippet&q=Bat%20Ye'or&f=false|archive-date=1 January 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a review of ''The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude'', the American historian Robert Brenton Betts commented that the book dealt with Judaism at least as much as with Christianity, that the title was misleading and the central premise flawed. He said: "The general tone of the book is strident and anti-Muslim. This is coupled with selective scholarship designed to pick out the worst examples of anti-Christian behavior by Muslim governments, usually in time of war and threats to their own destruction (as in the case of the deplorable [[Armenian genocide]] of 1915). Add to this the attempt to demonize the so-called Islamic threat to Western civilization and the end-product is generally unedifying and frequently irritating."<ref>{{cite journal|date=September 1997|title=The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude (review)|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19995282.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106074935/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-19995282.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-11-06|journal=[[Middle East Policy]]|volume=5|issue=3|pages=200–203|doi=10.1111/j.1475-4967.1997.tb00274.x|author=Robert Brenton Betts|access-date=4 August 2012|url-access=subscription}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

Sidney Griffith, the head of the department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at the [[Catholic University of America]] wrote in a review of ''Decline of Eastern Christianity'' that Ye'or has "raised a topic of vital interest"; adding, however, that the "theoretical inadequacy of the interpretive concepts of jihad and dhimmitude, as they are employed here", and the "want of [[historical method]] in the deployments of the documents which serve as evidence for the conclusions reached in the study" serve as dual barriers. He goes on to say "[quotations] are presented out of context, with no analysis or explanation. One has the impression that in their bulk they are simply meant to undergird the contentions made in the first part of the book", concluding that thus Ye'or has "written a polemical tract, not responsible historical analysis."<ref>Griffith, Sidney H., "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude", ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'', Vol. 30, No. 4. (Nov. 1998), pp. 619–621.</ref>

In a review of ''The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam'', [[City University of New York]] Distinguished Professor of History Chase F. Robinson writes,
{{blockquote|[R]eaders interested in a dispassionate account of confessional relations or a nuanced discussion of the widely diverse experience of Jews and Christians in the ''dar al-Islam'' will need to look elsewhere: [...] this is a work of polemic -- scholarly polemic, but polemic just the same. To list errors of fact would probably fill this entire number of the Bulletin.<ref>Chase F. Robinson. Review of "The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam, from Jihad to Dhimmitude: Seventh-Twentieth Centuries by Bat Ye'or, Miriam Kochan, David Littman". Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. Vol. 31, No. 1 (July 1997), pp. 97-98.</ref>}}

According to the American scholar [[Joel Beinin]], Bat Ye'or exemplifies the "neo-lachrymose" perspective on Egyptian Jewish history. According to Beinin, this perspective has been "consecrated" as "the normative Zionist interpretation of the history of Jews in Egypt."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENfjCk1IZBcC&q=Bat+Ye%27or|title=The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, And The Formation of a Modern Diaspora|last=Beinin|first=Joel|publisher=[[American University in Cairo Press]]|year=2005|isbn=9789774248900|page=15|author-link=Joel Beinin|access-date=4 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101091216/http://books.google.com/books?id=ENfjCk1IZBcC&q=Bat+Ye%27or#v=snippet&q=Bat%20Ye'or&f=false|archive-date=1 January 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Robert Spencer (author)|Robert Spencer]], an American [[islamophobia|anti-Islamic polemicist]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/robert-spencer|title=Robert Spencer|website=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=29 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601140218/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/robert-spencer|archive-date=1 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> described her as "the pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, of the institutionalized discrimination and harassment of non-Muslims under Islamic law". He argued that she had turned this area, which he believed the "Middle East studies establishment" has hitherto been afraid of or indifferent to, into a field of academic study.<ref>Brian Lamb: [http://www.c-span.org/video/?193778-1/qa-robert-spencer Robert Spencer interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109043825/http://www.c-span.org/video/?193778-1%2Fqa-robert-spencer |date=9 November 2014 }} (transcript), C-SPAN, 20 August 2006</ref>

[[Irshad Manji]] describes her as "a scholar who dumps cold water on any dreamy view of how Muslims have historically dealt with the 'other'."<ref>Irshad Manji, ''The Trouble with Islam'', pg. 61</ref>

==Eurabia conspiracy theory==
{{Main|Eurabia conspiracy theory}}
[[File:Bat Ye'or in 2014 b.png|thumb|Bat Ye'or speaking at a [[Christian Solidarity International]] conference in 2014]]
Ye'or's books ''Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis'' (2005) and ''Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate'' (2011) originated the [[Eurabia conspiracy theory]], which alleged a relationship from the 1970s onwards between the [[European Union]] (previously the [[European Economic Community]]) and the [[Arab world|Arab states]].

===Reception===
The notion of "Eurabia" has been dismissed as a conspiracy theory by academics and other commentators.<ref name= MorgEur /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fekete|first=Liz|title=The Muslim conspiracy theory and the Oslo massacre|journal=Race & Class|volume=53|issue=3|year= 2012 |pages=30–47|doi= 10.1177/0306396811425984|s2cid= 146443283}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Carland|first=Susan|title=Islamophobia, fear of loss of freedom, and the Muslim woman|journal=Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations |volume=22|issue=4|year= 2011|pages=469–73|doi= 10.1080/09596410.2011.606192|s2cid= 145063957}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=David Lagerlöf|author2-link=Jonathan Leman|author2=Jonathan Leman|author3-link=Alexander Bengtsson|author3=Alexander Bengtsson|url= http://expo.se/www/download/research_the_anti_muslim_environment_final.pdf|title=The Anti-Muslim Environment&nbsp;– The ideas, the Profiles and the Concept |publisher=[[Expo (magazine) |Expo Research]]|location=Stockholm|year=2011|access-date=8 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503092912/http://expo.se/www/download/research_the_anti_muslim_environment_final.pdf|archive-date=3 May 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Shooman|first=Yasemin|author2=Spielhaus, Riem|editor= Jocelyne Cesari|encyclopedia= Muslims in the West after 9/11: religion, politics, and law|title=The concept of the Muslim enemy in the public discourse |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6OH3G0VESQsC&pg=PA198 |year=2010|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-77654-7 |pages= 198–228|access-date=16 March 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140830083133/http://books.google.com/books?id=6OH3G0VESQsC&pg=PA198|archive-date=30 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Fekete|first=Liz|title=Enlightened fundamentalism? Immigration, feminism and the Right|journal=Race & Class|volume=48|issue=1|year=2006|pages=1–22|doi= 10.1177/0306396806069519|s2cid= 145578004}}</ref><ref name=Kundnani /><ref name="carr"/> For example, writing in ''[[Race & Class]]'' in 2006, author and freelance journalist Matt Carr states, "In order to accept Ye'or's ridiculous thesis, it is necessary to believe not only in the existence of a concerted Islamic plot to subjugate Europe, involving all Arab governments, whether 'Islamic' or not, but also to credit a secret and unelected parliamentary body with the astounding ability to transform all Europe's major political, economic and cultural institutions into subservient instruments of 'jihad' without any of the continent's press or elected institutions being aware of it."<ref name="carr"/>

Carr argues that Bat Ye'or is the "main inspiration" for many conspiracy theories current on the far-right. Furthermore, Carr notes that "[s]tripped of its Islamic content, the broad contours of Ye'or's preposterous thesis [in ''Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis''] recall the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the first half of the twentieth century and contemporary notions of the '[[Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory|Zionist Occupation Government]]' prevalent in [[far-right politics|far-right circles]] in the US".<ref name="carr">{{cite journal|author=Matt Carr|date=July 2006|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306396806066636|title=You are now entering Eurabia|journal= [[Race & Class]]|volume=48|issue= 1|pages=1–22|doi= 10.1177/0306396806066636|s2cid= 145303405|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He notes further that Bat Ye'or's analysis is driven by a contempt of "Islam's celebrated cultural achievements" and a view of Islam as a "perennially barbaric, parasitic and oppressive religion".

In a ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' interview, referring to ''Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis'' the Jewish British historian [[Martin Gilbert]] stated "I've read Bat Yeor's book. I know her and have a great respect for her sense of anguish…  I'm saying that her book&nbsp;– which is 100 percent accurate&nbsp;– is an alarm call that will ultimately prevent what she's warning about from taking place."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894492801&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |title=One on One with Sir Martin Gilbert: Hindsight and aforethought |author=Ruthie Blum |date=22 February 2007|url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111209073034/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1171894492801&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter |archive-date=9 December 2011}}</ref>

[[Bruce Bawer]], writing in ''[[The Hudson Review]]'' on ''Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis'', wrote that "[n]o book explains the European Muslim situation, in all its complexity, more ably," "[i]t's hard to overstate this book's importance…  Eurabia is eye-opening and required reading for anyone seriously interested in understanding Europe's current predicament and its probable fate."<ref>{{cite web |last=Bawer |first=Bruce |title=Crisis in Europe |work=The Hudson Review |volume=58 |issue=4 |date=Winter 2006 |url= http://www.hudsonreview.com/bawerWi06.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125163625/http://www.hudsonreview.com/bawerWi06.html |archive-date=25 January 2013}}</ref>

According to [[Daniel Pipes]], "Bat Ye'or has traced a nearly secret history of Europe over the past thirty years, convincingly showing how the Euro-Arab Dialogue has blossomed from a minor discussion group into the engine for the continent's Islamization. In delineating this phenomenon, she also provides the intellectual resources with which to resist it.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pipes |first=Daniel |title=Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis |publisher= [[Fairleigh Dickinson University]] |date=January 2005 |url= http://www.fdupress.org/book_descriptions/0838640761.html |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120321115012/http://www.fdupress.org/book_descriptions/0838640761.html |archive-date=21 March 2012}}</ref>

According to historian [[Niall Ferguson]], "future historians will one day regard her coinage of the term 'Eurabia' as prophetic. Those who wish to live in a free society must be eternally vigilant. Bat Ye'or's vigilance is unrivalled."<ref>{{cite news|journal=[[London Review of Books]] |pages=18|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n20/thomas-jones/short-cuts |title=Short Cuts|author=Thomas Jones|date= 2005-10-20|access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805142412/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n20/thomas-jones/short-cuts|archive-date=5 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Jewish British writer [[David Pryce-Jones]] called her a "[[Cassandra]], a brave and far-sighted spirit."<ref name= Pryce-Jones>[[David Pryce-Jones|Pryce-Jones, David]]. "[http://www2.fdu.edu/fdupress/05102806review.html Captive continent] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070926215626/http://www2.fdu.edu/fdupress/05102806review.html |date=26 September 2007 }}", ''National Review'', 9 May 2005</ref>

Ye'or's Eurabia theory gathered additional media attention when it was quoted and praised by the perpetrator of the [[2011 Norway attacks|2011 Norway massacre]] [[Anders Behring Breivik]] in his manifesto released on the day of the attacks.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zia-Ebrahimi |first1=Reza |title=When the Elders of Zion relocated to Eurabia: conspiratorial racialization in antisemitism and Islamophobia |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |volume=52 |issue=4 |date=13 July 2018 |pages=314–37 |doi= 10.1080/0031322X.2018.1493876|s2cid=148601759 |url= https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/when-the-elders-of-zion-relocated-to-eurabia(a7b5707f-eed2-4cf6-9568-a35db586bdf8).html }}</ref> Ye'or expressed regret that Breivik took inspiration from her writings.<ref>"Of course I regret if this man took inspiration from what I wrote or from what other writers wrote," she said Monday in an interview with the Associated Press. […] But she warned that her ideas, and those of fellow authors and leaders on the anti-Muslim right, could continue to have violent repercussions if Mr. Breivik proves influential. "I'm afraid that this is something that other people will imitate." {{cite news|last= Saunders|first=Doug|title= 'Eurabia' opponents scramble for distance from anti-Muslim murderer |work=The Globe and Mail|date=25 July 2011|url= https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/eurabia-opponents-scramble-for-distance-from-anti-muslim-murderer/article588254/ |access-date=24 August 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180409172307/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/eurabia-opponents-scramble-for-distance-from-anti-muslim-murderer/article588254/|archive-date=9 April 2018|url-status= live}}</ref> Breivik has later admitted that he in reality is a neo-Nazi, who only in later years exploited counter-jihad writings.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.nettavisen.no/artikkel/breivik-jeg-leste-hitlers-mein-kampf-da-jeg-var-14-ar/s/12-95-3423203669|title=Breivik: - Jeg leste Hitlers Mein Kampf da jeg var 14 år |date=16 March 2016|work=Nettavisen|language=no}}</ref>

In a ''[[Haaretz]]'' profile, Adi Schwartz likened her book on Eurabia to the [[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]<!--The book's text states that Adi Schwartz called it "Protocols of the Elders of Brussels" ... The text states: "referred to her 2005 Eurabia monograph as “The Protocols of the Elders of Brussels,”" - But Schwartz is comparing it to Protocols of the Elders of Zion, using "Brussels" to compare it to -->.<ref>Singre Bangstad, 'Bat Ye'or and Eurabia,' in Mark Sedgwick (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=UUSCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT278 ''Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy,''] Oxford University Press, 2019 {{isbn|978-0-190-87761-3}} pp. 170–83; p.170. [https://academic.oup.com/book/25370/chapter/192453545 Available from] [[Oxford Academic]]</ref>

"Eurabia: The Euro Arab Axis" has been cited as a probable inspiration for [[Renaud Camus]]'s [[Great Replacement]] conspiracy theory.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://onlysky.media/eiynah/the-great-replacement-how-new-atheists-legitimized-and-spread-a-white-nationalist-conspiracy-theory/|title='The Great Replacement': How New Atheists spread a white nationalist theory|date=29 July 2022|website=OnlySky Media}}</ref>

==Counter-jihad==
{{Main|Counter-jihad}}
The international [[counter-jihad]] movement developed in the 2000s, influenced by Ye'or's Eurabia thesis.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution|first=Ed|last=Pertwee|year=2020|journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies|volume=43|issue=16 |pages=211–230|doi=10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688|s2cid=218843237 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=MorgEur>{{cite news|url=http://morgenbladet.no/samfunn/2011/eurabiske_vers|title=Eurabiske vers|language=no|trans-title=Eurabian verses|publisher=[[Morgenbladet]]|date=19 August 2011|access-date=27 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024051313/http://morgenbladet.no/samfunn/2011/eurabiske_vers|archive-date=24 October 2012|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Kundnani /> In 2007, she held the keynote speech at the inaugural international counter-jihad conference in Brussels.<ref name="othen"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://libertiesalliance.org/2007/10/20/counter-jihad-brussels-18-19-october-2007/|title=Counter Jihad Brussels: 18-19 October 2007|date=20 October 2007|work=International Civil Liberties Alliance}}</ref> Ye'or also sits on the board of advisors of the [[International Free Press Society]],<ref name=Kundnani>{{cite web|author=Arun Kundnani|title=Blind Spot? Security Narratives and Far-Right Violence in Europe|publisher=[[International Centre for Counter-terrorism]]|url=http://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Kundnani-Blind-Spot-June-2012.pdf|date=June 2012|access-date=23 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710061407/http://www.icct.nl/download/file/ICCT-Kundnani-Blind-Spot-June-2012.pdf|archive-date=10 July 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> identified as a "key organization" of the counter-jihad movement.<ref name="othen">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bq-IDwAAQBAJ|title=Soldiers of a Different God: How the Counter-Jihad Movement Created Mayhem, Murder and the Trump Presidency|first=Christopher|last=Othen|year=2018|publisher=Amberley|isbn=9781445678009|pages=103–104, 118}}</ref>

==Works==
===Books===
* ''Understanding Dhimmitude'', 2013, RVP Press, {{ISBN|978-1-61861-335-6}} (paperback).
* ''Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate'', 16 September 2011, [[Fairleigh Dickinson University]] Press, {{ISBN|1-61147-445-0}}
* ''Verso il Califfato Universale: Come l'Europa è diventata complice dell'espansionismo musulmano'', Lindau, Torino: May 2009. ("Toward the Universal Caliphate: How Europe Became an Accomplice of Muslim Expansionism")
* ''[[Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis]]'', 2005, [[Fairleigh Dickinson University]] Press, {{ISBN|0-8386-4077-X}}
* ''[[Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide]]'', 2001, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, {{ISBN|0-8386-3942-9}}; {{ISBN|0-8386-3943-7}} (with David Littman, translated by Miriam Kochan)
* ''[[Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude|The Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude;seventh-twentieth century]]'', 1996, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, {{ISBN|0-8386-3678-0}}; {{ISBN|0-8386-3688-8}} (paperback).
* ''[[The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam]]'', 1985, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, {{ISBN|0-8386-3233-5}}; {{ISBN|0-8386-3262-9}} (paperback). (with David Maisel, Paul Fenton and David Littman; foreword by [[Jacques Ellul]])
* ''Les Juifs en Egypte'', 1971, Editions de l'Avenir, Geneva (in French, title translates as "The Jews in Egypt")

===Book chapters===
* 17 chapters in Robert Spencer (ed.), ''[[The Myth of Islamic Tolerance|The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims]]'', Prometheus Books, 2005. {{ISBN|1-59102-249-5}}.
* "The Dhimmi Factor in the Exodus of Jews from Arab Countries" in: Malka Hillel Shulewitz (ed.), ''The Forgotten Millions. The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands'', Cassell, London/New York 1999; Continuum, 2001, {{ISBN|0-8264-4764-3}} (pp.&nbsp;33–51).
* "A Christian Minority. The Copts in Egypt" in W. A. Veehoven (ed.), ''Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. A World Survey.'' 4 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976, {{ISBN|90-247-1779-5}}.

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.dhimmi.org/ Dhimmi.org] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20040520051017/http://dhimmitude.org/ Dhimmitude.org], websites maintained by Bat Ye'or
* {{C-SPAN|1013499}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Eurabia]]
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[[Category:Swiss critics of Islam]]
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[[Category:Writers from Cairo]]
[[Category:Writers on the Middle East]]
[[Category:Writers on antisemitism]]