Posts Tagged 'jizya'
ISIS profits from Christians' jizya
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is partially funding itself from taxes on Christians in Raqqa, the center of ISIS's control in Syria. The jizya is a centuries old tax imposed by Islam against Christians and Jews in accordance with the plain text of the Koran. The jizya is dangerous not only because it discriminates against non-Muslims, but because it is often used in modern days as a revenue source by Islamic terrorist groups.
Those in the West who support religious freedom and equal protection under the law, and those who claim that we should "follow the money" when any nefarious activities are observed, have an obligation to speak out against the jizya anytime and anywhere it appears.
…It was previously thought by many that the entire Christian population of Raqqa had fled the city or had been killed by ISIS after it ousted Syrian troops in January 2014. Yet, several families remain in the city after paying a jizya (tax) and signing a dhimma (sharia social contract) that prevents them being killed by the radical Islamists.
"There are a couple of families left in Raqqa. I was surprised," says Nuri Kino, founder and president of A Demand For Action, a group advocating the protection of ethnoreligious minorities such as Assyrians and Yazidis in the Middle East.
"I spoke to a Syriac man who only left Raqqa about six weeks ago. He turned up at an association in Germany. It turns out that some families actually are in Raqqa, paying jizya and are being protected by their former neighbors, Sunni Muslim neighbors, as long as they follow the Sharia laws."
Muslims who lived in the city prior to ISIS's arrival are protecting the Christians—who have been the subject of some ISIS propaganda releases in the city; for example, having the Quran read to them—from death at the hands of the radical Islamists.
"They have a document that they have with them wherever they go, that says they are protected by the Sharia, by the court, that they have been to the court, that they are paying jizya and that they also have some kind of sponsor or protector."
The jizya and the dhimma allows minorities protection from a brutal death as dictated by the group's radical strand of Islamic law. The group has implemented it in other areas of Syria, such as the Christian town of Al-Qaryatayn. The ultra-conservative group considers ancient religious minorities, such as Syriac Catholics, Assyrians and Yazidis, to be kafir (disbelievers) and infidels.
Such rules in the social contract include prayers being forbidden in public, prayers at home not being loud enough so that others can hear them, the outlawing of renovations to churches, not showing religious symbols and the outlawing of the ringing of church bells…
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Islamic State of Iraq, jizya, Syria | Leave a Comment »
ISIS demands jizya from Swedes
Not so long ago, demands for jizya—a tax required by the Koran against non-Muslims—occurred in countries like Pakistan and Syria. Now it's happening in Sweden. It's good to hear that law enforcement is taking it "very seriously." Hopefully that means there will be arrests, trials, and convictions of the perpetrators soon.
From RaymondIbrahim.com on Dec. 13:
According to a new report published yesterday, December 12, by RT Arabic, the "Swedish government is in a state of panic after dozens of its citizens received threatening letters signed by ISIS and offering them three choices, either conversion to Islam, payment of jizya, or decapitation."
The letters warned their recipients that they had three days to decide.
Written in the Swedish language, the letters appeared yesterday on dozens of homes in different cities at the same time. Police are reportedly taking the threat "very seriously." Among other regions, letters appeared in the cities of Ronneba, Sigtuna, Vstroes and the capital Stockholm.
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Islamic State of Iraq, jizya, Sweden | Leave a Comment »
Add jizya to Boko Haram's catalog of crimes
Boko Haram has killed 20 villagers in northern Nigeria for their inability to pay jizya, the traditional Islamic tax on non-Muslims, as demanded by the terrorist group (h/t El Grillo).
Boko Haram has previously relied on bank robberies and raids on army depots to fund and arm their activities. Demanding jizya may suggest a shift in Boko Haram's revenue collection tactics or increased territorial control.
Prior evidence of Boko Haram interest in jizya has been somewhat limited and recent. One of the Christian girls abducted by Boko Haram said her captors raped her with the justification of "sex as jizya." Another source alleged that the jizya was the basis for the kidnapping of the 230 girls in the first place, saying that the girls' failure to pay the tax justified their sale as wives or slaves in order to compensate Boko Haram.
Jizya, though not officially collected by governments of the modern Islamic world, is known to fund terrorist groups including the Taliban, Abu Sayyaf, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. The success of such measures and relative indifference of the West toward such illegal taxation may have emboldened Boko Haram to embrace the jizya concept.
The imposition of jizya against non-Muslims is mandated by the Qur'an (9:29), and according to the Hadith Sahih Muslim, the penalty for failure to either convert to Islam or pay the tax is to be attacked.
Posted in Columns, essays, & opinion | Tagged Boko Haram, jizya, Nigeria, terrorist financing | 1 Comment »
How jizya funds terror groups
The traditional Islamic tax on non-Muslims, jizya, which is imposed by various terrorist and militant groups across the Islamic world today, is frequently viewed singularly as a problem of religious persecution.
While the maltreatment of non-Muslim minorities is indeed a serious problem, what's often overlooked is how jizya serves as a revenue generator for terrorist groups. It's time to look at some of the basics of this problem:
Who benefits from jizya?
Abu Sayyaf Group
Al Qaeda in Iraq (ISIS)
What do they spend jizya on?
Paying wages to fighters and operatives
Buying weapons, equipment, and supplies. (For example, the Assyrian International News Agency reported that one jizya collector "demanded 10,000 Egyptian pounds so that he could buy weapons." Another observer recently wrote that the imposition of jizya in Iraq is because "ISIL needs money to buy arms off the black market.")
Planning and carrying out terrorist attacks
Where does this happen?
Officially, jizya was collected by the Caliphate for twelve centuries from the time of Muhammad at least until the Tanzimat decree of the Ottoman Empire in 1856, and existed in a more limited form under alternate names into the 1900s. Jizya has experienced a revival over the last two decades, during which time it has been collected mostly by non-state actors, but sometimes with government approval right up to the present day.
In addition to being a terrorist income source, jizya is mandated by the Qur'an and serves as an inducement to non-Muslims to convert to Islam.
Jizya can no longer be written off or ignored by count-terror analysts solely as an indicator of religious persecution. It must be viewed as a threat and risk to security because its collection in modern times primarily benefits terrorists.
Posted in Columns, essays, & opinion | Tagged jizya, terrorist financing | 8 Comments »
Muslim Brotherhood fills coffers with jizya from 80 Coptic families
Muslim Brotherhood gangsters have demanded from 3,000 to 15,000 USD apiece from 80 Coptic Christian households in Malawi, Egypt, according to a recent broadcast on CTV. The report doesn't specify how the Muslim Brotherhood is using the money it has collected, but typically such funds are used to pay Muslim Brotherhood operatives and to buy weapons.
Raymond Ibrahim has the details on the Brotherhood's latest enterprise:
The Kidnapping and Plundering of Christian Copts
By Raymond Ibrahim on November 2, 2013
The kidnapping and plundering of Egypt's Christian Copts continues unabated.
As recently revealed on CTV, in a village called Maghlaga, in the district of Malawi—where Muslim Brotherhood supporters earlier ransacked and plundered a museum housing Egyptian antiquities—a Muslim gang leader known as "Saddam" has been going to every one of the approximately 80 Coptic households in the village demanding jizya/extortion money from them.
One inhabitant of the village confirmed that Muslim Brotherhood members are behind Saddam, specifically informing him how much money each household can be squeezed of, so that most households are paying anywhere from 20,000-100,000 Egyptian pounds (from 3-15 thousand U.S. dollars).
Yasser, the village resident reporting, said that Saddam told the Copts that "Everyone is going to pay and whoever doesn't pay we'll take his son, his wife—we'll violate the people to the utmost extreme."
During the live news show it was further revealed that in the region of Shubrat al-Khaima, another young Coptic child was kidnapped, with demands that his parents pay 250,000 EP (nearly 40,000 USD). After the father complied and met them alone with the money in a secret place, the kidnappers took the money, beat the father severely, and still kept his child.
Such hate for Egypt's Christians is hardly unprecedented. Earlier another Muslim man kidnapped a 6-year-old Christian boy and, after the family paid the ransom, still killed the child and threw his body in his sewer.
See prior Money Jihad coverage of how the Muslim Brotherhood finances itself through the traditional Islamic jizya tax here, here, and here.
Posted in News commentary | Tagged Copt, Egypt, Islamic taxation, jizya, Muslim Brotherhood, terrorist financing | 1 Comment »
Egypt: Islamists levy jizya against Copts
And what do they do with the proceeds? Buy weapons to wage further assaults against non-Muslims, the military, and moderate Muslims. Excerpts from a recent article in The Times of London follow:
"Some Coptic Christian communities are being made to pay bribes as local Islamists exploit the turmoil by seeking to revive a seventh-century tax, called jizya, levied on non-Muslims."
"In Minya, home to one of the largest communities of Coptic Christians, families said that they had had to pay protection money to their Muslim attackers."
"'…A local thug [in Deir Mawas], together with representatives of the two most important Muslim families in the city, came around to the Christian families demanding money or they will burn their buildings,' he said. 'The starting price was 2,000LE (£190), but because I own quite a large shop, I had to pay 5,000LE.' For many this is several months' earnings."
Additionally, Raymond Ibrahim reports:
"…the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters are forcing the roughly 15,000 Christian Copts of Dalga village in south Minya province to pay jizya…"
"'…Some are being expected to pay 200 Egyptian pounds per day, others 500 Egyptian pounds per day'."
"…some 40 Christian families have now fled Dalga…"
And just yesterday, two Coptic Christians in Sahel Selim in Assuit Province were killed for refusing to pay 10,000 Egyptian pounds in jizya to a "Muslim gang." CBN has video:
Posted in News commentary, Video | Tagged Copt, Egypt, Islamic taxation, jizya | 3 Comments »
Syrian fighters funded in part by jizya
Jizya taxation has driven Christian families out of their villages in northern Syrian and into Jordan according to Martin Janssen, a Dutch missionary living in Amman. The Syrian refugees describe the marauders as "bearded strangers"—an indication that Salafist fighters have penetrated into the Syrian countryside.
How the jizya collections have been spent was not discussed, but such revenues are normally used by jihadists to buy more weapons and supplies. Under classical Islamic tax law, money collected from jizya and kharaj taxation is used to provision the army of the caliphate.
Eventually, the jizya demands in northern Syria increased to the point where Christian residents could no longer pay—they eventually fled or were murdered for non-payment, with only three of 30 families from one village reportedly surviving.
From a translation by Dr. Mark Durie of the Religious Freedom Coalition (h/t IvE) on June 1:
…My interlocutors this evening were almost all from northern Syria. They came from Idlib, Aleppo and villages in the countryside between the two cities. Their testimony was unanimous. Many of these villages had a large Christian presence until a few years ago, but now Christians no longer lived there. Jamil, an elderly man, told the following story during which other attendees began to nod violently in agreement. They appeared to have experienced exactly the same things.
Jamil lived in a village near Idlib where 30 Christian families had always lived peacefully alonside some 200 Sunni families. That changed dramatically in the summer of 2012. One Friday trucks appeared in the village with heavily armed and bearded strangers who did not know anyone in the village. They began to drive through the village with a loud speaker broadcasting the message that their village was now part of an Islamic emirate and Muslim women were henceforth to dress in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic Sharia. Christians were given four choices. They could convert to Islam and renounce their "idolatry". If they refused they were allowed to remain on condition that they pay the jizya. This is a special tax that non-Muslims under Islamic law must pay for "protection". For Christians who refused there remained two choices: they could leave behind all their property or they would be slain. The word that was used for the latter in Arabic (dhabaha) refers to the ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals.
After Jamil had finished his story a gloomy silence descended. I asked him how the 30 Christian families in his village had perished since then. He replied that a number of families – including his own family – had initially opted to pay jizya. When the leader of the armed militia in their village, however, noticed that they were able to do this, the amount kept increasing in the following months. Like almost all other Christian families he eventually fled the village. His land and farm were lost. Some Christian families in his village who were unable to escape or pay the jizya converted to Islam. To his knowledge, there were no Christians killed in his village, but he had heard other stories from a neighboring village where only three Christian families survived. They were all murdered in the middle of the night…
Posted in News commentary | Tagged jizya, Jordan, Syria | 3 Comments »