Jizya is back in the news, driving Muslims to murder.
According to reports, jihadist groups are actively imposing jizya (monetary exploitation via Koran 9:29) on Christians in Africa and elsewhere.
Numerous examples come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Islamic State has been presenting Christians with — and slaughtering them if they refuse —submission: “If the Christians of Africa want to feel safe,” IS has announced, “our true Islam provides them the freedom to choose between three options, Islam, jizya paid humiliated and subdued, or death and displacement.”
IS has claimed thousands of Christian lives over the years.
In one instance, after announcing 𝕏the massacre of “21 Christians … praise be to Allah,” IS added, “Let the Christians of Africa know there is no security for you except by Islam or jizya.”
In an editorial titled “Jihad in Congo,” IS wrote:
To the Christians, their institutions, and their community organizations [that] search for long-term solutions that will rid them of a life surrounded by death in every direction we give them the good news that the only solution is for them is to convert to Islam or to pay the jizyah and remain submissive. Otherwise, the invasions will continue against them, as will the killings, burning their homes and shops, and seizing their money.
The same “good news” has reached other regions of Africa. In Mali’s Sahel region, an al-Qaeda affiliate has stipulated that Christians over 18 must pay 25,000 CFA francs monthly or suffer the consequences.
In Pakistan’s tribal border areas, other jihadist groups have forced Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs to pay jizya where state authority is weak.
In Mozambique, jihadists attacked a passenger bus, slaughtered the driver, and left the following note:
We declare war on all Christians in the world for three things: either to be a Muslim or pay Jizya. If you haven’t pay Jizya it’s a war until final earth, Qiyama. [In other words, war to the ends of the earth until Resurrection Day.] To Muslims we announce peace to all the world. Let’s work together to defend the religion of Allah together. If you [Christians] refuse [to convert to Islam] then you will pay Jizya and if you refuse to pay Jizya you will be killed.
The Islamic State and other jihadist organizations are not alone in calling for jizya from Christian “infidels.” In 2002, Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, discussing the Muslim prophet’s prediction that Islam will eventually conquer Rome, said, “We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians . . . will yet pay us the jizya, in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.”
And in a video, Sheik ‘Issam Amira appears giving a sermon in Al Aqsa Mosque where he laments that too many Muslims think jihad is only for defense against aggressors, when in fact Muslims are also obligated to wage offensive jihad against non-Muslims:
When you face your pagan enemy, call them—either to Islam, jizya, or seek Allah’s help and fight them. Even if they do not fight [or initiate hostilities], fight them!... Fight them! When? When they fight you? No, when they refuse to convert to Islam or refuse to pay jizya…. Whether they like it or not, we will subjugate them to Allah’s authority.
In short, if the Islamic State is enforcing jizya on “infidels,” demands for its return are on the increase all around the Muslim world. Put differently, if Abu Shadi, an Egyptian Salfi leader, once declared that Egypt’s Christians “must either convert to Islam, pay jizya, or prepare for war,” Dr. Amani Tawfiq, a female professor at Egypt’s Mansoura University, once said that “If Egypt wants to slowly but surely get out of its economic situation and address poverty in the country, the jizya has to be imposed on the Copts.”
So what, exactly, is jizya?
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