I admit to a lack of modesty or neutrality about this discussion, since I was, as I will explain, the first Westerner to use the neologism in this context.
So claimed Stephen Schwartz yesterday at Tech Central Station. And he very well may be (channeling Al Gore). Anyway, it's a very interesting essay.
But caveat emptor. Schwartz's expositions and historic interpretations, whether under his given name or his adopted Sufi name (Suleyman Ahmad) are often controversial.
And then there was this not-famous-enough quote from a comment he dropped at Little Green Footballs back in 2002:
"Dhimmitude" is not an Islamic institution. It is a hoax cooked up by Islamophobes.
"Islamophobes." I have no idea, but it's possible that Schwartz was the first Westerner to use that neologism in its current context, as well.
Update: Wow, this is suddenly a hot topic. Who knew? Daniel Pipes has weighed in here (written before Schwartz's piece and in some respects contradicting it) and then again on his blog with a survey of several other recent essays.
