Lesson 1: Land, Religious State, Coexistence of Religions, and Non-Muslim Taxation
The first
successor or Caliph to Mohammed was one of his fathers-in-law, Abu Bakr
(632-634). Upon Mohammed’s death,
inhabitants of Medina and Mecca contended with one another about who had
control over succession. When Abu Bakr
was approved by all, he was given authority over both the new religion and
civil matters. Thus, from the very
beginning, Islam has known no separation between government and religion, a
fact manifestly evident in the practice of Sharia (Islamic) Law. (The combination of religious and civil law
was also a feature of the Mosaic Law.)
Those advocating
‘peaceful coexistence’ of Islam and other religions do not comprehend
this. If any other religion is permitted
in Islamic territory under Sharia Law, it is only permitted as a subjugated
religion. In Sharia Law, dhimmi status is a ‘protected’ status
given to non-Muslims in a Muslim state.
Originally given to ‘people of the book’—Jews, Christians, and Sabians—it
has at times been extended to certain other religious groups as well. People given this status are under protection
for their lives, property, and practice of religion, and they, in turn, owe
loyalty to the Islamic state. Thus, they
are required to pay a poll tax (jizya)
not required of adherents to Islam.
When Hamas
insists that Palestine must be a single state under control of Muslim Palestinians,
they are rejecting any Israeli state (not just a Zionist state) of any size in
the region. Israel is a secular state in
which one will find religious Jews, Muslims, and Christians, as
well as those with no religious beliefs.
It offers a safe haven in a sadly anti-Semitic world for Jews. The alternative proposal often discussed for
Israel is a two-state solution, one Jewish and one ‘Palestinian’
(Islamic). This alternative typically is
discussed as a political solution to what is, inevitably, equally a religious
matter. The Islamic view is, however,
always religious, and those pretending otherwise are only fooling themselves. Many outside the context have viewed the
matter simply as a political issue, even confusing it with the racial
segregation practiced in Apartheid South
Africa under the Nationalist Party (1948-1996).
Most of the news about the current situation in the Middle East is
presented in political terms by reporters who either do not understand religion
or choose to suppress its role in the situation. This leaves those who only gain their
understanding from Western news agencies seriously under-educated. In ignorance, they assess the situation as an
ethnic and political matter and not the religious matter that it inevitably is,
given the Islamic perspective.
Hamas’s
rejection of a Jewish state anywhere in ‘Palestine’ means the death or
expulsion of the Jews. While Hamas’s
rhetoric at times suggests that this is not the case,[1]
the latest offensive against Jews from Gaza by Hamas was, in fact, a clear case
of genocide. The murder of Jewish
civilians, including babies, does not fit with a claim that only a Palestinian
state and Sharia Law is intended. Thus,
the slogan, ‘From the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean), Palestine will
be free,’ threatens far more than a one state, Islamic rule in the region. It is a religiously motivated embrace of
moral turpitude such that the torture and murder of children is justified.
In this, one
must remember that Hamas is a Muslim, militaristic and governing authority and
not equivalent to Palestinians in the sense of non-Jewish residents of the
region. There are, for example,
Palestinian Christians inside Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and elsewhere. Hamas claims to speak for all Palestinians,
however—a claim that no one should entertain for a moment. This claim is, sadly, played out in Hamas’s
entanglement of itself with the citizenry in Gaza, such as when they locate
military weapons under hospitals, schools, and other civilian places. Far from a liberation movement, Hamas is a
terrorist organisation that causes the death of Israelis and Palestinians. Israel’s entry into Gaza to eradicate this
scourge is not only a defense of Israel but a liberation of the Palestinian
people from Hamas.
(Christian
pacifists will struggle with any situation of war and will reject their
participation in it, but we must recognise that God uses governments at times
to establish justice in an unjust world—cf. Romans 12.18-13.5. To the extent that we find ourselves in some
role in such situations, it will not be in our own use of the sword—to use Paul’s
word—but in other ways that fit being the Church in the world).
Some precedent
for defining the status of non-Muslims in Muslim-controlled territory was
already established in Mohammed’s lifetime.
Perhaps after the Jewish wars against the Romans (AD 66-136), certain Jews,
the Banu Nadir, moved to the Hejaz (the western part of present-day Saudi
Arabia). Mohammed expelled them from
Medina when they were thought to be complicit in opposing him. They relocated to a Jewish region, the
Khaybar, which was 95 miles north of Medina.
This is an oasis where the Jews had lived and farmed for centuries. In AD 628, the Jews were defeated by Mohammed’s
forces. Those who remained in the region
agreed to pay half of their earnings to the Islamic authority. The second Caliph, Umar, finally expelled the
Jews from the region in 642, saying that Mohammed had declared that the Jewish
religion could not coexist with Islam. In this story, we find the questions of taxation on non-Muslims, expulsion from the land, and a rejection of coexistence for the Jews.
Ironically, Hamas supporters in Gaza have continued to keep alive the story of Khaybar as it involves the expulsion of the Jews from land ruled by Muslims. The story is, of course, about Muslim Arabs removing Jews from ancestral lands (outside of Israel)--not about freedom fighters protecting themselves against Jewish newcomers. Confused Westerners need to appreciate that the Islamic narrative is really about Muslim expansion and control anywhere, not about freedom fighters in the least.
From this short
lesson, we can see how claims to the land in Israel/Palestine, the notion of a
religious state, the question of whether Islam can coexist with other religions
and, if so, how, and the fact that non-Muslims are or would be subjugated under
Islamic rule all pertain to the news today.
By not considering such issues, the news of current events presents the
situation in a grossly distorted and very simplistic way. The result of this is expressed, for example,
when some Western college students, in search of ways to signal their own
virtue in a world they do not understand, misread the situation in narrowly
political terms removed from historical and religious context. Thinking themselves to be on the side of
justice, they are rather on the side of jihad, jizya, and genocide.
[1] See my discussion of the 2017 Hamas Covenant. Rollin Grams, ‘A Question Worth Asking Hamas’
(8 October, 2023); https://bibleandmission.blogspot.com/2023/10/is-hamas-religious-organization.html
(accessed 7/11/2023).
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