Is Sharia just for Muslims?
Some of our Muslim friends used to tell us that non-Muslims have absolutely nothing to be worried about with respect to sharia because it only applies to Muslims and does not affect non-Muslims.
A quick reading of the Islamic sources however shows us this is blatantly false. The Quran spends a great deal of time attacking and demonising adherents of other faiths. It’s great imperative of Jihad is against adherents of other faiths so definitely non-Muslims have a lot to be worried about.
Muhammad says,
“It has been narrated on the authority of Abdullah b. ‘Umar that the Messenger of Allah said:
I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and they establish prayer, and pay Zakat and if they do it, their blood and property are guaranteed protection on my behalf except when justified by law, and their affairs rest with Allah.”
(Sahih Muslim, Book 1 Hadith 36)
And the Quran says,
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture — [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”
(Surah 9:29)
So non-Muslims are to be fought, based solely on their belief by the way, according to sharia. Not only that, they are to be fought until they pay the Jizya in acknowledgment of their second class status. So the position for non-Muslims in Sharia is humiliation and disgrace as evidenced by payment of the Jizya.
I know our Muslim friends try to explain Jizya in terms of taxation but this does not work for a number of reasons.
First, being a tax paying citizen of a country is a thing of pride. You are contributing to the economy and it is a thing of dignity. The Jizya however is a badge of disgrace (Ibn Kathir’s tafsir on Surah 9:29).
Secondly, tax is paid by all relevant citizens without fear or favour, meaning every citizen of working age. It is a non-discriminatory apparatus. The Jizya on the other hand is paid only by unbelievers (Christians and Jews to be specific) and as such is highly discriminatory.
Third, the Jizya (as almost everything in Islam is) historically has been a tool of oppression for Christians and Jews. It started with Muhammad who took 50% of the farm produce from the Jews of Khaibar,
“Narrated `Abdullah:
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) rented the land of Khaibar to the Jews on the condition that they would work on it and cultivate it and take half of its yield.”
(Sahih Bukhari Book 47 Hadith 16)
The Muslim rulers who oppressed the Coptic Christians in Egypt once remarked we have to squeeze the cows (Christians) till they give not just milk but blood (clumsy paraphrase here). Also, the Muslim overlords made the Berbers sell their children in other to make their Jizya payments. The Ottoman empire with its Devshirme practice took the jizya one step further and made the Christians pay a Jizya in their children whom they would then train in the ways of Jihad to defend the empire.
Finally on this point, the options available to the non-believer (Christians and Jews) are either conversion to Islam, payment of the Jizya or death. Now there is no state or country where the death penalty is imposed for tax evasion.
The point is that the idea that Jizya is similar to taxation is just nonsense. Islamic civilisations like Andalusia and the aforementioned Ottoman empire thrived on the backs of oppressed Christians and Jews paying Jizya and the alternative option if they desired to hang on to their religious belief was death, this is not comparable to tax in anyway.
Captives of the right hand (articles expounding on this concept linked below) are the women of unbelievers i.e. Non-Muslims. These are women who Muslims are allowed to defile since by Islamic jurisprudence once these women are captured their marriages are annulled. So an unbelieving woman in a sharia environment has a lot to worry about.
Conclusive proof of the fact that sharia does in fact affect Non-Muslims is found in the ruling for apostates. Those who leave the religion of Islam and are thus now non-Muslims are to be put to death,
“Ibn ‘Abbas said:
“The Messenger of Allah [SAW] said: ‘Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”
(Sunan An-Nasai Book 37 Hadith 94)
So those Muslims who voluntarily choose to become non-Muslim in a sharia system would have a death sentence hanging over their heads, this looks like something major for Non-Muslims to be worried about.
In conclusion, Islam is obsessed with control and supremacy over what people can say or think or believe. Problem is its sharia has provisions for everybody both Muslims and Non-Muslims and if this is the case, then it is blatantly false to say sharia applies only to non-Muslims.
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