Modern apologists for Islam have often sought to describe jiziyah as 'protection tax'. But protection from whom — Muslims themselves? It is actually meant for allowing the unyielding dhimmis to live in Islamic states under sufferance and humiliation for rejecting "the Religion of Truth". It was an expression of their subjugated and lowly status to Muslims. Payment of jiziyah must accompany the intended humiliation ― i.e., " pay the tribute readily, being brought low" ― of the dhimmi as prescribed by famous Islamic scholars. Imam al-Ghazzali, the greatest Sufi master and considered the second-greatest Muslim next to Prophet Muhammad, prescribes the following protocol for payment of jiziyah by dhimmis: "…the Jews, Christians and the Majians must pay the jiziyah… On offering up the jiziyah, the dhimmi must hang his head while the official takes hold of his beard and hits (the dhimmi) on the protuberant bone beneath his ear" [Bostom AG (2005), Legacy of Jihad, p199]. Ibn Warraq quotes famous Islamic commentator al-Zamakhshari's (1075–1144CE) interpretation of Quran 9:29 as follows: "The Jizyah shall be taken from them with belittlement and humiliation. He (Dhimmi) shall come in person, walking not riding. When he pays, he shall stand, while the tax-collector sits. The collector shall seize him by the scruff of the neck, shake him and say: 'Pay the Jizyah!' and when he pays it, he shall be slapped on the nape of his neck " [Ibn Warraq (1995), Why I am Not a Muslim, p228-229].
Muslims contribute only the meager Zakat, which is fixed at 2.5% of excess produce of the year, to the treasury of ideal Islamic states. This concept of charity was borrowed by Muhammad from the existing tradition of the Jews of Medina. The Zakat fund was to be used only for religious purposes, such as building mosques, propagation of Islam, paying the voluntary Jihadists etc. ― not for funding secular activities. Payment of the meager Zakat is also voluntary and there is no report of its systematic collection during Muhammad's tenure in the Medina caliphate. Only Muslims were allowed to be paid from the state fund, coming mainly from taxes extracted from dhimmi subjects, and from the khams, plundered from non-Muslims. Egyptian documents, dating between 80-100 years of the Islamic calendar, show that no Muslim but only non-Muslims paid taxes to the state [Triton AS (1970), Caliphs and Their Non-Muslim Subjects, p198]. Similarly, Prof Habibullah writes of the first 100 years of Islamic rule after the founding of Muslim Sultanate in India in 1206 that "the Muslim was merely a tax receiver and took little direct part in the production and increase of the country's agricultural wealth" [Habibullah, ABM (1976), The Foundation of Muslims Rule in India, p316].
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - The Obnoxious American
Well, I wouldn't expect much truth from an Osama Bin Laden video tape. From blaming the US for his jihad (which is really more self serving than anything else - he started this to unseat the Saudi Royal Family), to the glorification of suicide murder, OBL is hardly a source of truth in the media.
But one other point should be made here. Even with all of the taxes that exist in westernized countries, and even if we added in the additional taxes that might exist in the US should Democrats win in 2008, we are still WAYYYYY better off than if we lived in any one of the tyrannical, closed societies that make up the middle east (except for Israel) - dhimmi or muslim.
Thank god I was lucky enough to be born in the USA!
2 - Mooja
Alamgir Hussain, Thanks for the article. Sheds more light on what we are being forced to deal with.
Religion can be a very dangerous weapon when wielded by fanatics.
3 - moonraven
OA:
Please be advised that one of the reasons I do consulting work every year for universities in the Gulf is because salaries and benefits are not taxed there.
Welcome to The World Outside The Bronx.
4 - Alamgir Hussain
"Sheds more light on what we are being forced to deal with."
'Knowledge is power' said that Enlightenment-age liberals of the West. Knowledge must be processed objectively and thoughtfully too, to make a sense of what it means for now and further ahead.
5 - RJ
Great post.
To some, this will be viewed as merely a recitation of old battles and historical declarations, or some cherry-picked verses from the Koran.
But in truth, this is how our enemy thinks, and this is what these lunatics believe. We ignore them at our own peril.
6 - RJ
Europe, by the way, is screwed.
Read this.
"Workers" from Africa and Asia is nothing more than code for Muslims who will come to Europe, live off the welfare state, and refuse to assimilate.
Christian Europeans are not reproducing. Their current rate is barely over one child per couple. Meanwhile, Muslim immigrants to Europe have three or four (or more) children per couple. And like their parents, these children do not intend to assimilate, and do not feel any loyalty to their country of birth (or the EU, for that matter). Their allegiance is to Islam.
A dying Christian population, coupled with an growing Muslim population and expanded Muslim immigration, means that in a couple of generations, Europe will no longer be a Christian (or even secular) continent.
(Please read this book if you think I'm exaggerating.)
So, the leftist Europeans who mock and belittle the USA for being "too religious" today, because of our fervent and outspoken Christians, will likely be the cowering and subservient dhimmis of tomorrow, when much of Europe falls under sharia law somewhere around 2050.
Of course, if you live in Europe and publicly oppose and speak out against this trend, you are likely to wind up in prison for a "hate crime" due to modern Europe's distaste for freedom of speech whereas it pertains to politically-incorrect commentary.
In light of all this, a few million illegal Mexicans crossing the border in Arizona seems almost quaint... :-/
7 - REMF
"But in truth, this is how our enemy thinks, and this is what these lunatics believe. We ignore them at our own peril."
Yes, agreed. The best way to deal with them is to enlist and volunteer to face them in combat, putting our words into action.
8 - REMF
"So, the leftist Europeans..."
Yeah, those leftist Europeans are far worse than the chickenhawk Americans.
9 - Dr Dreadful
RJ, I love how in a single comment you link to both the London Daily Mail and Mark Steyn - two sources which between them have about as much credibility as a nun in a nudist colony.
10 - STM
Lol. The Daily Mail ... that great journal of record.
Mark Steyn, though ... he at least writes nicely and can be entertaining. And a lot - not all, though RJ - is pretty close to the mark.
11 - Clavos
Doc,
Gotta go wit' da soifuh dewd on Steyn.
He (Steyn, not SS), does soar into the hyperbolesphere regularly, but he aims pretty well much of the time. (Come to think of it, that does fit SS as well.)
Which reminds me, Stan; were you covering the McCann case in Portugal?
12 - Alessandro
They say Islam and Arabs write in poetic prose - this article is no different. Good stuff.
That said, would Americans really be enticed by a tax incentive to join such a repulsive group? Seems extraordinary to me.
13 - handyguy
I find this article laughable and the fact that commenters are taking it seriously even more laughable.
To the extent that anything OBL says is actually newsworthy, the news is that he seems to have been converted to Marxism [if one takes the words in the video literally], and that this seems to have offended some of his Islamist listeners.
I guess that's kind of funny, too. No one else reading this article seems to have their sense of humor switched on.
14 - Alamgir Hussain
"To the extent that anything OBL says is actually newsworthy, the news is that he seems to have been converted to Marxism"
There are not so many idiots around to think that OBL has converted to Marxism. He is evidently clear, however, where his support lies particularly among Western people. That's a tactical move indeed -- but nobody is under any illusion that the Marxists (Lefts, socialists etc -- except probably themselves) will have their head first chopped by OBL before anyone else.
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Almagir,
This is a good read - and provides clear reason why I'll die before allowing some damned Arab to take over my home - whether he is backed by the Jerusalem traitor, Olmert and his goons, the Europeans piss ants who will invade to try to impose an Arab state, or Americans who will be sent here to do the same. I may die shooting a gun, but I will take some of my enemy with me.
Note that all the people who get screwed in the article are Jews - so much for Moslem "hospitality."
When compared to what Christians did to Jews, Moslems treated Jews decently. And that is the point. Christians always were rapacious genocidal bastards, and under that thin patina of "civilization" they wear so artfully now, they still are.
Moslems are content to treat Jews like dogs.
16 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"Thank god I was lucky enough to be born in the USA!"
What a fool you are. I'd warn you of what is coming your way under the Stars and Stripes - but you would dismiss what I have to say. You're no different than all the Polish Jews who laughed at Ze'ev Jabotinsky when he begged them to leave Europe for Eretz Yisrael in 1933-34. The vast majority of them are nothing but bone dust under the feet of the Europeans who happily killed them off.
There are over 100 detention camps in the United States guarded by men in black uniforms and helmets. They weren't built for Mexican illegals; they weren't built to hold Moslems. If it interests you, look it up.
17 - moonraven
Pure drivel.
Blogcritics has really been scraping the bottom of the barrel lately.
18 - Nancy
Ruvy, detention camps for who? Are you trying to claim there are nazi detention camps holding jews scattered around the US? That's even larger bollocks (as STM says) than believing that 9/11 was an inside job. Where are they? Why hasn't the MSM cottoned on & made hay out of it, or the JDL, who are not slow to go on the offensive about anything they find offensive.
If you'd postulated they were run by the CIA or NSA as detention camps for anti-Bush people, I might believe you, things being the way they are these days.
19 - moonraven
And what about those neonazis recently arrested--not in Idaho, but in ISRAEL?
20 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"Ruvy, detention camps for who? Are you trying to claim there are nazi detention camps holding jews scattered around the US?
If you'd postulated they were run by the CIA or NSA as detention camps for anti-Bush people, I might believe you, things being the way they are these days."
I'll let my Jewish friend, the author of this article, look it up for himself. To my knowledge, Jews are not being held in detention camps - yet.
As for opponents of the régime, yes these camps will be used to hold them. You're still posting, so obviously, you haven't been disappeared yet. But, unless my sources are altogether wrong, that's a definite possibility....
And Marthe, Mexico may not be far enough for you to run if these bastards really pull the mailed fist out of the velvet glove they are wearing now.
Heh! You may have to come here!
21 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Sorry, Almagir. I should have said the author of comment #1 on this article....
22 - MAOZ
#15: "When compared to what Christians did to Jews, Moslems treated Jews decently.
Depends somewhat on where/when you're talking about. A little over 300 years ago, the Muslim rulership in Yemen imposed on the Jews of Yemen a form of internal exile. It was enforced under conditions so severe that, within the space of about one year, three-fourths of all the Jews in Yemen died. Three-fourths. In one year. Even Hitler y"sh would've envied a "record" like that.
In some locations, e.g. San'a, only one Jew in ten survived the Gerush Mauza'.
23 - Nancy
Nobody has been very nice to them, except the far eastern cultures such as China, where the multiplicity of religions - the nature of which seldom insisted on exclusivity anyway - pretty much ensured that on the whole, the Chinese didn't care what sort of worship the Jews followed, as long as they obeyed the local laws & paid their taxes. I find it ironic in the extreme that it's the two religions that claim moral superiority that have always treated others worse than dirt, not to mention frequently cannibalizing their own from time to time.
24 - moonraven
Ruvy,
I do not RN from conflict or confrontation.
Ever.
Much less from fascist fuckheads.
You should have figured that out by now.
25 - moonraven
RUN, sorry about the typos.
Someday I will find an Internet cafe that has LIGHTS in it.