Taliban’s Terror-Jizya On Sikhs

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Tuesday May 12, 2009 18:09 by Ram Puniyani

The article below shows that the Talibans terrorisation of Sikhs is not justified by the Quran.

The Taliban’s capturing of Swat valley and other parts of Pakistan are accompanied by the news of their atrocities in the region, which not only include the brutal killings of innocent citizens, mostly Muslims, on the ground of their belonging to different sub-sect of Islam, but also there has been imposition of Jizya, on non Muslims, Sikhs. While many Muslims have been killed and abducted many on various flimsy grounds, many a Sikhs have fled from the area. The failure to pay the full Jizya has caused Sikhs dear, while some of them have been kidnapped and others’ households-properties have been confiscated. Taliban’s logic is that they are imposing this as per the tenets of Islam.

What is the place of Jizya in Islam and is it relevant today? There is a mention of Jizya in Koran, the tax levied on non Muslims, in the conquered territories. Interestingly there was no such tax in Medina where Prophet lived for long years. The logic of Jizya on non Muslims in the conquered areas was that the non Muslims are to be exempted from military services, they are under the protection of the rule of Muslims, so this tax. It was a negotiable tax to be paid at the end of the year; it was levied only on the earning population in exchange for state protection.

The article is here. http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani110509.htm