ISIS In New Video To Christians In Qaryatayn, Syria: Pay Jizya – Or You Will Be Executed And Your Wives Enslaved

Excerpts with a comment of Cornelis Hulsman

 

On October 3, 2015, the information office of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Damascus Province posted a five-minute video titled "[Fight Those Who Do Not Believe In Allah] Until They Give The Jizya Willingly While They Are Humbled" (from Koran 9:29).

 

An ISIS member then explains the group's treatment of the city's Christians following its takeover. He says that some Christians were taken captive, while others fled to "Diyar Al-Kuffr [the abodes of disbelief] and places controlled by Bashar the Nusairi [Alawite]."

 

The ISIS member says that the Christians who had been taken captive and remained in the city had four options:

1) the men could be killed and the women and children could be enslaved.

2) they could be exchanged for prisoners, money, or booty.

3) they could be pardoned, provided they leave the caliphate.

4) they could sign the dhimma contract and pay the jizya.

 

In the end, he says, "the caliph of Muslims [Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi] displayed kindness and generosity [to the Christians] and agreed to receive their jizya tax and allow them to live under caliphate rule as part of the dhimma contract." He adds that "the leader of the Muslims" had agreed to give the Christians who fled the city an opportunity to sign the dhimma contract and to return within a month to their homes and fields.

 

"To conclude, this is a message to all the Christians in the East and West, and to America, the defender of the cross: Convert to Islam, and no harm will befall you. But if you refuse, you will have to pay the jizya tax. As our Sheikh Al-'Adnani said: The payment of the jizya is a thousand times less than the Christian investment in the futile war against the Islamic State."

 

Cornelis Hulsman: This war is not a “Christian investment.” Western nations, including the US, are deeply secularized and do not abide by Christian values. It is true that many Christians favor a war against the Islamic State but they are mostly also fully unaware of the historical injustices that have been carried out against Muslims such as then Christian nations France and Britain breaking up the Ottoman Empire and dividing this among themselves in spheres of influences. The demand to pay the jizya refers to standard Islamic practice until the Ottoman Empire abolished this in 1856. Muslim states in the 20th century did not use the jizya for their Christian subjects until the Islamic State decided to reintroduce this tax. In this context Christians who remained in Qaryatayn are heros since, despite strong Christian sentiments against the Islamic State and widespread fear for the dhimmi status, they decided to stay in the area under very difficult circumstances. Only with this resilience Christian heritage in the region can be maintained. It should be obvious: I am not in favor of Christian migration from Muslim countries. It is ultimately the responsibility of individual Christians whether they migrate or not but I do hope that Christian communities will remain in countries where Christianity was born. See also my comment here: http://www.arabwestreport.info/en/isis-issues-dhimma-contract-christians...

 

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <b> <br>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.