Page 436 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

having to pay taxes, but the People of the Book having to pay
them. All citizens have a responsibility to pay their taxes.

What matters for us on the subject of the jizya is not how it was
applied by Muslim states in the past, but how it appears in the
Qur'an. When we examine the commandment in verse 29 of Surat at-
Tawba, what we see is this:

The people referred to in the verse are "... those of the people
who were given the Book who do not believe in God and the Last
Day and who do not make forbidden what God and His Messen-
ger have made forbidden and do not take as their religion the reli-
gion of Truth," in other words, those people who have emerged
from among the Christian and Jewish communities and do not
believe in God and the Last Day and do not recognize the faith and

the prophets. In other words, they are unbelievers. As we have reit-
erated many times before, everyone is free to believe or not. The
Qur'an forbids any compulsion where the religion is concerned. A
Muslim has an obligation to respect unbelievers the same as every-
one else, and is charged with protecting them in verse 6 of Surat at-
Tawba. According to the Qur'an, an unbeliever's guilt lies in his
being aggressive, his striving against believers and in spreading

strife. It is this feature of the community of unbelievers in question
that is referred to in verse 29 of Surat at-Tawba we are looking at in
this section. According to the verse, these people "... do not make
forbidden what God and His Messenger have made forbidden."
They therefore heed no prohibitions, spread corruption and behave
aggressively.

Let us now think: Muslims and non-Muslims – and even idola-
trous pagans – all live together in peace in a state under Muslim rule
(this is what happened in all city states under our Prophet's (pbuh)
administration; all agreements made by our Prophet (pbuh), includ-

ing the Charter of Medina, are impeccably democratic, bringing

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