Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Dhimma: Difference between revisions

"Dhimmitude" as a noun comes from the French language, where it was first used by Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel to describe the subservient state of Christians under Muslim rule, a state he swore he would not let Lebanon return to (at a time when Lebanon was more or less ruled by its Christian minority) <ref> Bat Ye'or, "Terres arabes: terres de 'dhimmitude'", in La Cultura Sefardita, vol. 1, La Rassegna mensile di Israel 44, no. 1-4, 3rd series (1983): 94-102</ref>. It was most widely spread, though, by the works of British-Egyptian scholar Bat Ye'or, writing originally in French. According to Ye'or, dhimmitude is the continuation of [[Jihad]], the subjection of a non-Muslim people to the political rule of Islam. In dhimmitude, the conquered people are humiliated and forced to pay for the very right to live through the [[jizya]]. The subjects of the dhimma or "protection" are the dhimmis, whose lives and religions are tolerated, though the dhimmis themselves are subject to numerous personal restrictions that reduce them to the state of 2nd class citizens, while their religion is neutered of any possible threat it could pose to Islam. The scholars are quite clear, in agreement with the Qur'an, that the dhimmis must feel themselves humiliated and subdued, never equals to Muslims. Ye'or also users "dhimmitude" to mean the mood or propensity to surrender or cooperate with the conquerors amongst the non-Muslim people in the face of militant Islamic expansion. According to the scholars, it ought to apply to all non-Muslims living under Muslim rule at all times and should be the only choice given to all infidel people in the world besides conversion to Islam or death. As such dhimmitude can be seen as an extension of the warlike state of the Islamic polity towards its conquered subjects, a never ending jihad to wipe [[kufr]] and [[shirk]] from the face of the earth. Although ISIS did attempt to bring back the dhimma in Iraq, this proved short-lived as their caliphate. Outside of extremists like ISIS, debate continues to take place in the Islamic scholarly world over the place of jizya and other dhimmi laws in modern Islamic societies. Although most of the injunctions against dhimmis, such as that they always give way to Muslims on the street, that their testimony in criminal court not be entered as evidence against a Muslims, that they wear special clothing, have not been enforced in most Islamic countries for decades (in most of the Middle East this came to an complete end with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the first World War), Islamic scholars to this day do continue their calls for re-instatement of the dhimma upon non-Muslims as part if a continuation of Jihad.