Very interesting quote from the book, Our Jerusalem: An American Family in the Holy City 1881-1949, by Bertha Spafford Vester, 1950. This woman grew up in Jerusalem and has some shocking things to say about the cruelty of Muslims toward Christian women.

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One afternoon in Petra I saw a Bedouin woman and a child with a smaller boy on a donkey standing watching me from a distance. She called out to me, "Ana minkum, Ana minkum [I belong to you, or, I am one of you]." I beckoned her to come where I was. She told me she was a Christian from Asia Minor, who, during World War I, was kidnaped and married to a Mohammedan. Her husband was unkind to her, and finally she had run away with her two sons. She was heading for one of the Christian villages in Trans-Jordan, where she hoped to get protection.

I was not in any position to help, except with a little money, and I have often wondered what happened to that poor woman in that deserted city. I hope she found refuge among the Christian Trans-Jordan population.

Such cases as hers had been cared for at Aleppo by Miss Kerin Yappe, financed by the League of Nations. For years Miss Yappe had been repatriating Christian girls who had been kidnaped by Moslem Turks and Arabs and put into their harems, but when I visited Aleppo in the 1920s the League of Nations had decided to discontinue the work, as many years had passed since the kidnapings, and the advanced age of the offspring of these marriages caused complications. Miss Yappe took me on an interesting visit to the numerous industries she was conducting to support these women. She told me that the Armenian and Assyrian men married them without imputing any blame or disgrace to their lives, because they had been forcibly taken, and at great risk had returned. She told me that she had found homes for about ten thousand such women.

As we stood saying good-by on Miss Yappe's doorstep a woman with a child about ten or eleven years old dropped at her feet and tried to kiss them. The woman, who was dressed like a Bedouin, was shaken with sobs. She said she had traveled for more than a month on foot to get to Aleppo and to Miss Yappe, which, to her, meant salvation.

Miss Yappe was in a quandry, because the Committee of the League of Nations connected with this problem had decided to shut down this special repatriation work. The poor woman in question was not sent back to a repugnant life, but I believe she was among the last to be rescued.

(Page 300-301)

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So that claim that Christians were treated well under Muslim rule is a total lie. More evidence of Christians being mistreated will be presented in future postings.