Robert Spencer dismantles J.D. Hall’s misleading claims on Tucker Carlson that the Ottomans were ‘very kind’ to Christians, exposing instead the historical reality of institutionalized Islamic subjugation, humiliating dhimmitude, and the complete absence of equality for Christians under Sharia.
In a recent episode of The Tucker Carlson Show, J.D. Hall claimed that the Ottomans were “very kind” to Christians, didn’t tax churches, and even rebuilt the Church of the Holy Sepulchre multiple times.
The clear implication was that Islamic rule historically treated Christians better than modern Israel does.
Robert Spencer, one of the West’s leading experts on Islam and author of The History of Jihad, joined RAIR Foundation to challenge this narrative. He argued that Hall’s portrayal contained serious omissions and distortions.
According to Spencer, Islamic law has never allowed equality between Muslims and non-Muslims. Instead, it institutionalizes second-class status for Christians and Jews through the dhimmi system, the jizya tax, and a range of humiliating restrictions designed to reinforce their subordination.
No Equality Under Islamic Law – Ever
Spencer cut to the core of the issue: Under Sharia, Christians and Jews (People of the Book) are dhimmis. Tolerated but subordinate. They pay the jizya poll tax, explicitly mandated in Quran 9:29, and must do so “with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
This isn’t a mere administrative fee. Islamic legal tradition elaborated humiliating rituals: spitting in the face, slapping the back of the neck, forcing non-Muslims to the narrowest side of the road, distinctive clothing, bans on riding horses, restrictions on building or repairing churches, and prohibitions on holding authority over Muslims.“It has never existed,” Spencer emphasized, “and I would venture to suggest that it never will exist, because Islamic law forbids it.”
Watch Robert Spencer’s expert refutation below:
Hall’s focus on churches not being directly taxed ignores the reality that every individual Christian paid the jizya. The system was designed to remind non-Muslims of their inferior status.
Jahiliyyah: Erasing Pre-Islamic Civilization
Hall’s narrative also glossed over the central Islamic concept of Jahiliyyah, the “Time of Ignorance” before Muhammad. This worldview views everything that existed before Islam as worthless or idolatrous. As a result, pre-Islamic Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu history in Muslim-ruled lands is often treated with contempt rather than preserved or respected.
Spencer pointed to the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan as a clear example. The statues were deliberately blown up not just as acts of destruction, but as a statement of Islamic supremacy over pre-Islamic “idolatry.” He noted the same pattern in Saudi Arabia, which once contained Christian and Jewish communities but now has zero churches — in line with Muhammad’s reported deathbed command to cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of non-Muslims.
“You don’t have the kind of respect that we see in Europe for the pre-Christian past,” Spencer observed. Instead, pre-Islamic ruins are frequently viewed as divine judgment on defeated civilizations.
Ottoman Reality: Conquest, Subjugation, and Erasure
The Ottoman millet system, often portrayed today as a model of tolerance, was in reality a system of structured subordination. Christians lived as second-class subjects who paid special taxes, faced legal restrictions, and were subject to periodic violence.
Over the centuries, thousands of churches across Ottoman territories were destroyed or converted into mosques. The most famous example is the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, once the greatest cathedral in Christendom and now a mosque.
Hall also misrepresented the Ottoman repairs to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. While the Ottomans did carry out some repairs in later centuries, these were largely pragmatic moves by a weakening empire seeking to maintain Christian loyalty. They were not acts of benevolence. Earlier Muslim rulers had already destroyed the church, most notably the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim, who leveled it in 1009.
As Spencer pointed out, selectively highlighting minor repairs while ignoring this broader pattern of destruction and conversion is “surpassingly dishonest.” The Ottoman legacy also includes large-scale massacres of Christian populations, most notably the Armenian Genocide, as well as ongoing jihadist violence against Christians in places like Nigeria today.
The Real Contrast: Israel vs. Gaza and the Muslim World
Spencer pointed to the glaring modern difference Hall ignored. In Israel, Christians and Muslims enjoy full legal equality, can practice freely, and the Christian population has grown. In Gaza under Hamas and across much of the Muslim world, Christians face persecution, church attacks, and steep demographic decline.
Nigeria sees near-daily jihad massacres of Christians. Pakistan’s Christians are often relegated to menial “sweeper” jobs. This is the consistent pattern.“If it’s a choice, I’d rather have somebody spitting in my direction,” Spencer said of occasional rude incidents in Israel. “It’s terrible… but the idea that this is some widespread practice… it’s fantasy.”
Why This Matters
The Tucker/Hall segment isn’t harmless historical discussion. It whitewashes 1,400 years of Islamic conquest, dhimmitude, and supremacism while framing Israel as the real problem for Christians.
As Spencer noted, this fits a broader effort to downplay the jihad threat and redirect conservative anger.
History is clear: Islamic rule never produced equality. It produced subordination, often enforced with violence. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help Christians in the Middle East or the West. It only aids those who want to repeat past patterns.
Tucker Carlson remains highly influential among conservative circles, making it all the more necessary to refute these dangerous narrative attacks on the West and downplay the very real threat of Islam.
Robert Spencer’s work at Jihad Watch remains essential reading for anyone seeking unvarnished truth on these issues.
This article has been cross-posted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.
Patton says
Tucker is an intellectual lightweight. He’s a poser. Bought and paid for by Qatar. No sentient human being should take anything he says seriously. I have a business partner who went to Trinity in Connecticut with Tucker. He was apparently insufferable when young and over the course of time grew to be a full of 💩 middle aged a-hole.
Beans🫘 says
Yea he still is in sufferable. He’s just like demon possessed over Israel and Jews. I am so confused with the right wing right now, I do not see what they see in these Muslims. I don’t see it at all.
What could I be hypocritically missing? They’re stupid, they bring poverty, they’re violent, they are following Satan obviously. Where did this garbage catch hype about them protecting Christians? Biggest load of crap I ever heard.
Spencer must debate Tucker immediately and end this terror
appeasing charade once and for all.
gravenimage says
I have known other intellectual lightweights–nothing I ever respect, but most of them are not spouting apologia *for evil*–but Carlson is now.
He was never that impressive, but he used to be a perfectly decent conservative, if not that deep a thinker. But what he is now is *much worse*.
Beans🫘 says
Gravenimage
Some commenter last week made a key statement, maybe the best comment on this site I’ve ever heard. And it was under our noses, we could feel it, but it never quite hit us u til he posted it. Or was TGusa I believe.
He simply pointed out that Tucker before was exposing Islam non stop, and he was totally aware of their crimes and persecution of Christians. And now, he supports this, the commenter says Tucker is not ignorant of these disturbing facts, but instead buried them under the carpet.
Why would he do this? I believe he is so anti semetic he would ok the murder if Christians, and not talk about it just so he can convert more conservatives to become anti semetic, yet he is so clever with it. There is always a tinge of doubt, of ignorance, of gee whiz….
He drops the crumbs to the worst conspiracies but won’t openly tell them.
Another conservative figure flips to his side every week it seems. And I have to shot out Joe Rogan for platforming Rupert Lowe, and they went very hard and very fair on Islam. Credit where credit is due.
tgusa says
I drives me crazy. Tucker is not now, never has been, a conservative right winger. Carlson’s history, from the Internet. Tucker Carlson is an American conservative political commentator and media personality known for his influential role in right-wing media and his controversial positions on politics and society.
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson was born on May 16, 1969, in San Francisco, California, to Richard Warner Carlson, a media executive, and Lisa McNear Lombardi, an artist. His parents divorced in 1976, and his mother later moved to France, where she died in 2011. Carlson and his brother were raised by their father, who remarried Patricia Swanson, heiress to Swanson Enterprises, who legally adopted Tucker and his brother. Carlson attended elite boarding schools, including St. George’s School, and later pursued journalism and political commentary.
Carlson began his media career in the 1990s, writing for publications such as The Weekly Standard. He briefly worked at CNN as a commentator from 2000 to 2005 and co-hosted the prime-time debate program Crossfire from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he hosted Tucker on MSNBC, establishing his presence in cable news. In 2010, he co-founded the right-wing news website The Daily Caller, serving as its first editor-in-chief until 2020.
Tucker is not a so-called conservative right wing commentator and the fact that the media wants us to believe that tells us everything. Carlson is a Trojan Horse, Trojan Carlson, with a mission to throw a wrench in to the gears of the conservative movement. He is known for his influential role in right-wing media. Yeah sure. Also, I could never take seriously any young buck who wears a polka dot bow tie.
somehistory says
A beautiful tie, Mr. Spencer. It looks like the inside of a music box.
How easily people like carlson tell huge lies. And I always wonder, what does he think lies will gain him?
He claims to be Christian, and yet seems ignorant of the Revelation verse about the “lake of fire” where “liars and those disgusting in their filth” will be tossed on Judgment Day.
hall and people like him, are plainly helping the muzzlims to propagate lies.
muzzlims fear Truth and spend their lives building and telling lies.
muzzlims probably saw the buildings as structures they could turn into barracks and take credit for the great architecture. They did that with many.
I have been spit upon. The spitter considers it a great insult. The mouth is full of germs, yes, but the spitter doesn’t think about the fact that he has a filthy mouth….where the spit is made.
And….Mr. Spencer does speak of the churches being converted to muzzlim barracks for their warfare.
Ugly 312 says
somehistory, beautifully done.
somehistory says
thank you, Richard.
gravenimage says
Yes–I repeatedly see the great Hagia Sophia falsely described as “Islamic architecture”. Just appalling lies.
commonsense says
I confess that I haven’t yet watched the 20 minute video, but I wanted to post this as quickly as possible while I have a few minutes of free time. Do Carson or Hall, I wonder, know anything about the Turkish Devshirme system, which lasted about 300 years in the Balkans, where Christian children were torn from their parents by the Ottomans, forcibly converted to Islam, and turned into Janissaries fighting for the sultan, never to see their homes or parents again? The Christian girls were sent to the harems. Estimates of between 200,000-300,000 Christian children were kidnapped during the Devshirme period, and should be viewed as one of the lesser known atrocities committed against the empire’s Christian population. I hope Robert mentioned this monstrous practice of the Ottoman Empire in his refutation.
bill says
Absolutekly, I was just reading about that two days ago. Carlson just has not read the history and does not want to
40 rounds says
Is Tucker relevant among informed conservatives?
gravenimage says
I doubt it. But I believe that he is still listened to–probably mostly by those who remember him as a pretty mainstream commenter at Fox News.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The JD Hall interview was so incredibly ignorant that any impression I previously had about Tucker knowing anything just went up in smoke
From Robert’s video, touching on the Jahaliya point, I think it interesting that he brings up Mohenjo Daro. In the last few weeks, a section of Pakis have been claiming that heritage as their’s, and the Lahore Heritage society had even attempted to rename a few streets reverting them back to their original Hindu names (something resisted even in India by secularists). There was such a backlash there that that proposal got shelved
Also, about Hall’s claim about what muslims say about “Jesus”, the islamic “Isa” is not remotely similar to Christ. He was someone who was a magician, and when it came to being crucified, it was not him but someone else who was substituted on the cross. JD Hall was half right when he said Christ is not fictional: the islamic version of him, which Hall claimed that the muslims revere, is definitely fictional
The claims about Ottoman repairs of churches are similar to Audrey Truschke’s claims that the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb helped repair a temple in Varanasi. That incident happened when Aurangzeb was in a war w/ his brothers, and one of them had taken refuge there. Aurangzeb wanted the alliance w/ Hindus against him, and so did that for that one occasion. But otherwise, he demolished thousands of temples throughout India during his wars w/ various Hindu states as well as the last Sikh Guru
It would be one thing if the Tucker people were to promote “America-only”. Even if I disagree w/ that, it’s by itself still not anti “America-First”. But once they start supporting muslims/islam, it absolutely is. Tucker, Candace, Posobiec, Bannon, Cernavich, et al have all turned their backs on America by supporting islam, whether it is the islamic regime in Iran or the SJP crowd here in the US
Thankfully, a majority of Republicans are still pro-Israel, but there are enough anti-Israel Republicans to sink the GOP this November
gravenimage says
And the worst thing about the Islamic “Jesus”–“prophet Isa”–is that his main role in Islam is to kill Christians in the last days.
Edward Brennan says
Excellent article.
We must remember, and we must be aware.
Our high trust society has been badly damaged, by our own quislings and Gobshites for Gaza.
We can recover, but we in the West, must ban Islam.
Nothing else can save us.
OLD GUY says
Tucker is a small investment of Qatar. Americas colleges and universities are loaded with millions of dollars from Qatar. That investment in our higher education system buys indoctrination of our students and spreads the propaganda of islam across our country.
Troybeam says
Old Guy, you might want to look into the number of colleges that teach and or have Islamic courses added.
Their are now a number of Islamic colleges thru out the United States, Berkely California has one of the first built for Muslims only, so much for outlawing segregation huh.
gravenimage says
And “Zaytuna College” first set up in a space lent them by a Lutheran Church–more suicidal insanity. When I was at UC Bekeley I lived one block away from this travesty at one point. They have now moved to bigger and fancier digs.
Bexarkat says
It would be very interesting….and very surprising to see if Tucker Carlson has huevos enough to bring Mr. Spencer on his program.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer Destroys Tucker Carlson’s Attempt To Whitewash Islam’s Treatment of Christians (Exclusive Interview)
……………………………………………..
Just disgusting from Tucker Carlson. Thank you, Robert Spencer.
dumbledoresarmy says
Three words, re Mohammedan ‘treatment’ of Christians.
Bulgarians.
Armenians.
Assyrians.
All three groups, all Christians living as minorities in regions that Muslims had invaded, conquered and oppressively occupied, were gleefully mass-murdered (and gang-raped, and subjected to all sorts of torturous horrors) to the tune of Allah-akbar.