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Dhimmitude in Practice

by Daniel Pipes
Thu, 29 Dec 2005
updated Tue, 18 Mar 2008

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Wherever Muslims form a plurality of the population, the life of non-Muslims tends to be grim. In some part, this results from the laws of Islam, which disdain and purposefully oppress the non-believer. In reverse chronological order, this entry provides an occasional glimpse into the problems that can arise.

_________

"Philippines' Islamic city proud to be different": Although the Philippines is a majority-Catholic country, the city of Marawi, 385 miles south of Manila, is predominantly Muslim, with Catholics accounting for about 1 percent of the town's 160,000 population. Not only is the Shari‘a implemented in the usual ways (alcohol, pork, gambling, and karaoke clubs forbidden, Muslim women must cover their heads), but also in the denigration of Christianity.

Father Teresito Soganub doesn't look like a Catholic priest and, from the outside, his cathedral doesn't look like a church. In his parish, tucked away in Marawi, the only Islamic city in the Philippines, it's easier that way. "To avoid arguments and to avoid further misunderstandings we just plant the cross deep in our hearts," said the 47-year-old priest, who doesn't wear a crucifix or a clerical collar and sports a beard out of respect for his Muslim neighbors. … his modest Santa Maria Auxiliadora Cathedral, with its corrugated iron roof, has no cross outside to show that it is a Christian church. "People here don't want a large symbol. The residents don't want that."

(March 17, 2008)

"No moving Jewish lips in prayer on Temple Mount, says Dichter": Israel, ironically, occasionally applies the Shari‘a that amounts to dhimmitude. One example would be jailing a person who insults the Islamic prophet, Muhammad (on which, see, "[Hebron Pig Poster Incident:] How Clinton Adheres to the ‘Rushdie Rules,'"). Nadav Shragai explains another rule in Ha'aretz:

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that it accepted the government's position that it was not opposed to individual Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, providing that it was not of a demonstrative nature that could lead to public disorder. High Court rulings in recent years have also been seen to support individual, as opposed to group prayer on the Mount. [Members of Knesset Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad] recently decided to test the State's position on this issue. They informed the police that "they intended to manifest this right" [to non-demonstrative prayer] by first coordinating the best time and place to enter and exit the Temple Mount complex. The two MKs explained that all they intended to do was to pray, without informing the media of their plans, or wearing a talit or tefilin, or bringing a Torah scroll with them.

"It is not possible to arrest a person for ‘conversing with his maker,'" [Public Security Minister Avi] Dichter replied, using the same terminology of the MKs' letter. "However it is possible to carry out an arrest for expressions of outward and demonstrative signs [of prayer]." This interpretation, Dichter continued, "is in line with the rationale that bans Jews from praying at the site, in light of serious concerns that this will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed." It was further explained to the two MKs that from the police's point of view, there is no substantive difference between the prayer of an individual and group prayer, since the threat to public safety is the same. Such act would be considered "altering the status quo at the site."

In short, the Government of Israel is enforcing a regulation banning Jews from praying in any overt manner on the Temple Mount, even just their moving the lips of their mouths. January 2, 2008)

"Government authorities demolished church in Malaysia": A new church built with government authorization, reports Malaysia Today, was deemed an "illegal" structure and demolished on June 4. (June 20, 2007)

"Mahdi Army Orders Christian Women in Baghdad to Veil Themselves": "An undated letter issued by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army to Christians in Baghdad orders Christian women to veil themselves or face grave consequences. The letter … states that the Virgin Mary was not unveiled and so Christian women should not be unveiled. The letter ends with an ominous note that committees have been established to monitor the Christian populace and enforce the decree." (May 30, 2007)

"Muslims Forcing Christian Assyrians in Baghdad Neighborhood to Pay ‘Protection Tax'": The Assyrian International News Agency reports that

Muslims in the Dora neighborhood of Iraq are forcing Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) to pay the jizya. … At least two cases have been reported to a government employee—who wishes to remain anonymous—in which the Christian Assyrian wives were instructed to go to a certain mosque and pay, which they did out of fear. The stated reason for the payment was "we do the fighting and you pay to support."

(March 18, 2007)

"Imposition of Shariah on non-Muslims proposed in Aceh": Since the Shari‘a first took effect in 2005 in Aceh, the intensely Muslim province at the north of Sumatra, it has applied only to Muslims. Now, a bill in the Aceh legislature will impose Islamic law on non-Muslims too. Alyasa Abubakar, a government official, declared: "Based on equality in law, Acehnese people have formally proposed ... to apply the Islamic Shariah Law to all those residing in Aceh, including military, police and non-Muslims." (May 27, 2006)

Death penalty for an Afghan conversion to Christianity: An Afghan Muslim known only as Abdul Rahman, 41, was sentenced to death for having converted out of Islam sixteen years earlier. Only due to a major international outcry, including by the pope, was he deemed mentally incapable and thrown out of the country. (March 29, 2006)

Claiming a corpse in Malaysia: M Moorthy, 36, was a national hero in Malaysia due to his mountaineering exploits, especially his being a member of his country's first expedition to the top of Mount Everest in May 1997. He was also a Hindu, the child of Hindu parents, married to a Hindu wife, who as recently as two months ago was interviewed on television about his preparations for the Hindu festival of Diwali. But he was paralyzed from the waist down due to a 1998 injury and a fall from his wheelchair on Nov. 11 led to his death on Nov. 20. His family, naturally, wanted to give him a Hindu funeral.

At that point, however, an Islamic court sided with Moorthy's former colleagues in the Malaysian Armed Forces who claimed that he had converted to Islam; the court would not even permit the family, non-Muslims, to appear before it to dispute the matter. A dreadful scene then occurred at the mortuary as family members jostled with state Islamic officials and former soldiers for the body. The family lost and applied to the country's Appellate and Special Powers High Court, which ruled that it could not override the Islamic courts in such a matter. Moorthy in the end was buried as a Muslim.

The president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism, Rev. Sri K. Dhammananda said the council was "very disturbed" by what happened and called this development "a crisis for non-Muslims because they can seek no legal remedy." He called for the repeal of a subsection of the Federal Constitution "to make it clear that the Syariah [Shari‘a] Court has no jurisdiction to hear matters involving non-Muslims." (December 29, 2005)

Levying the jizya tax in the Palestinian Authority: Jizya is a tax specified in the Koran (9:29) to be paid by non-Muslim males living in dar al-Islam, that is, under Muslim political rule. In theory, it is what non-Muslims pay extra for the privilege of being protected by the Muslim state, in whose military they may not serve. In fact, beyond the often penurious sums involved, it has a humiliating quality to it, reminding the kafirs that they are second-class subjects for refusing the Islamic truth. The tax was regularly collected through Islamic history, fading out only in the nineteenth century.

But Islamists, in keeping with other retrograde ideas, like reviving slavery, would like to re-impose the jizya. Hamas has long wanted non-Muslims in "Palestine" to pay it and as it approaches the corridors of power, this abstract wish takes on new vitality and importance. "We in Hamas intend to implement this tax someday," says a Bethlehem city council member, Hassan El-Masalmeh. "We say it openly—we welcome everyone to Palestine but only if they agree to live under our rules." (December 23, 2005)

Related Topics: Dhimmitude, Islamic law (Shari‘a)

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