At least 29 people have been killed in a blast inside the Coptic Church of Marjeres in the Egyptian city of Tanta. A second blast later at a church in Alexandria killed 18 more.
Islam orders the good treatment of dhimmi (non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic State) and prescribes severe punishment for those who harm them.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:
«إنه من كان على يهوديته أو نصرانيته فإنه لا يفتن عنها»
“Whoever is adamant upon Judaism or Christianity will not be tormented for it.” (Abu Ubayd, Kitab al-Amwal)
«مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا مُعَاهَدًا لَمْ يَرَحْ رَائِحَةَ الْجَنَّةِ، وَإِنَّ رِيحَهَا يُوجَدُ مِنْ مَسِيرَةِ أَرْبَعِينَ عَامًا»
“Whoever killed a Mu’ahid (people with whom the State has treaties) shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise though its fragrance can be smelt at a distance of forty years (of traveling).” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6914)
Some may question whether the Copts in Egypt today are still considered dhimmi. Sheikh Dr. Muhammad Khayr Haykal answers this question in his book ‘Al-Jihad wa’l Qital fi as-Siyasa ash-Shar’iyya’:
“Therefore, the non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic lands today are the sons of those who contracted the Dhimmah with the Imaam of the Muslims or his deputy. As long as the contract of Dhimmah is permanent then this dictates that those sons today in the age where the Islamic State is not present and the Imaam of the Muslims is absent, still enjoy the status of the Ahlu-dh-Dhimmah and the Ahkaam (rulings) related to the Ahlu-dh-Dhimmah are the same as what they were with their forefathers in the time when the Islamic State and the Imaam of the Muslims were present.”
If we look to the history of the Copts in Egypt when they lived under the Khilafah we can see these Sharia rules being implemented in practice. While there were times during the Khilafah when dhimmi did suffer some persecution at the hands of tyrant rulers we cannot generalise and paint the entire 1300-year history as one of persecuting non-Muslims. The fact that Coptic Christians and their places of worship exist today is proof enough that the Khilafah did not adopt a policy of religious cleansing like Europe did.
Thomas Arnold elaborates on this point:
“But of any organised attempt to force the acceptance of Islam on the non-Muslim population, or of any systematic persecution intended to stamp out the Christian religion, we hear nothing. Had the Caliphs chosen to adopt either course of action, they might have swept away Christianity as easily as Ferdinand and Isabella drove Islam out of Spain, or Louis XIV made Protestantism penal in France, or the Jews were kept out of England for 350 years.” [Thomas W. Arnold, ‘The Preaching of Islam,’ p. 72]
Peace will only return to the Middle East for all people Muslim and non-Muslim when the colonialist powers and their ideologies are expelled and replaced with a unified Islamic State implementing sharia.
Abdul-Kareem Newell
They are not even paying Jizia anymore (fundamental critical condition of Dhimma) so what are the evidences from Quran/Sunna to prove that the Dhimma is permanent or eternal and that the current Christians are still under Dhimma despite the lack of an imam who implementing it?
PART 2: What are the violations that make the Ahlu-dh-Dhimmah invalidate the ‘Ahd (covenant) in a collective manner, and what are the repercussions of this?
http://www.khilafah.com/part-2-what-are-the-violations-that-make-the-ahlu-dh-dhimmah-invalidate-the-ahd-covenant-in-a-collective-manner-and-what-are-the-repercussions-of-this/
PART 3: What is the ruling of the Ahlu-dh-Dhimmah in our present time?
http://www.khilafah.com/part-3-what-is-the-ruling-of-the-ahlu-dh-dhimmah-in-our-present-time/
In Al-Muhadh’dhab: “If the Dhimmi refrains from the commitment of the Jizyah or if he abstains from commitment to the Ahkaam of the Muslims his ‘Ahd is invalidated because the ‘Aqd (contract) of the Dhimmah is not contracted except by it and does not remain without it.”……..And Abu Haneefah said: The ‘Ahd is not invalidated (breached) except in abstaining from the Imaam upon the basis that he is unable to take the Jizyah from them.” (Al-Mughni, Ibn Qudaamah 608/10)
In order to have any contract it is necessary for at least 2 parties to be involved, e.g. Marriage contract requires both husband and wife and if one of them dies then the contract is invalid. Today the Christians are alive but the state that used to protected them has died. It’s quite obvious from the evidence presented in that article that Jizia is contracted between the Dzimmis and the is1amiс SТАТЕ (and not individual leaders like Са1iрнs) so the Dzimma contract is eternal only until the end of the is1amiс state, e.g. until 3rd March 1924. So after this the contract no longer applies because of the “death” of one of the parties of the contract, i.e. The is1амiс State. And also they have stopped paying Jizia which is the critical condition of the contract. From the evidence I quoted in the paragraph above, Since they don’t pay Jizia anymore and not committed to the Ahkaam of mus1ims anymore then they are not considered as Muahed or Dzimmy at all and they have no protection at all.
I am not trying to justify their murders here, what I am saying is that they are not Dzimmy or Muahed at all without the mus1im state or Jizia, and real Shar’i reason why we should not kill or attack them is the same reason why Hizb-Таhreer does not resort to violence or armed force, i.e, we are still living in an age like the Mecca phase of Resulullah’s (PBUH) prophetic career so we should not use violence or attacks unless we get the “Nussrаh” of political state power.
You are welcome to your ijtihad on the issue but the strongest opinion that the author has adopted is from Sheikh Haykal who lays out his detailed ijtihad in the article below. The Sheikh also addresses the quote from Al-Muhadh’dhab under the section of what invalidates the dhimmah. This is a separate discussion to whether the dhimmah contract is in place today or not.
PART 3: What is the ruling of the Ahlu-dh-Dhimmah in our present time?
http://www.khilafah.com/part-3-what-is-the-ruling-of-the-ahlu-dh-dhimmah-in-our-present-time/