Not Peace but a Sword: The Great Chasm Between Christianity and Islam (15 page)

In the case of Islam, however, justice is equated with positive Islamic law, underscoring a vision of the good that is markedly different from that of the Church. These differences can be found at the very heart of Islam’s moral framework, particularly in Islam’s directives regarding how Muslims should treat non-Muslims.

Stealing from unbelievers? Fine

The Qur’an’s punishment for theft is draconian: “And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from God; God is All-mighty, All-wise” (5:38).

But the Qur’an also contains instructions for the distribution of the spoils of war: “Know that, whatever booty you take, the fifth of it is God’s, and the Messenger’s, and the near kinsman’s, and the orphans’, and for the needy, and the traveler, if you believe in God and that We sent down upon Our servant on the day of salvation, the day the two hosts encountered; and God is powerful over everything” (8:41). This “booty” comes from warfare against unbelievers.

At one point, Muhammad signs a treaty with the Quraysh, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, which many of his followers saw as a defeat for the Muslims. To mollify them, Muhammad presented them with a Qur’anic revelation promising future victories and much booty: “When God was well pleased with the believers when they were swearing fealty to thee under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down the Shechina upon them, and rewarded them with a nigh victory and many spoils to take; and God is ever All-mighty, All-wise. God has promised you many spoils to take; these He has hastened to you, and has restrained the hands of men from you, and that it may be a sign to the believers, and to guide you on a straight path” (48:18-20).

In Islam, the spoils are an essential component of warfare. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad once wrote to a conquered Jewish tribe, the Banu Janbah, in great detail about the spoils that he and the victorious Muslims were owed: “Verily, for the Apostle of Allah will be the booty which you receive on making peace (with some party) and every slave you get, as well as animals and other objects, except that which the Apostle of Allah or his envoy remits. Verily, it is binding on you to pay one-fourth of the yield of your date-palms, and one-fourth of your game from the rivers, and one-fourth of what your women spin.”
¹²²

In addition to the spoils of war, Islamic law mandates the plunder of the conquered and subjugated infidels (
dhimmis
) as well, in the form of a poll tax or tribute (
jizya
) that non-Muslims must pay: “Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden—such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book—until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled” (9:29).

In that spirit, Muhammad is recorded as once having written to a Christian ruler:

I will not fight against you unless I write to you in advance. So, join the fold of Islam or pay the
jizyah
. Obey Allah and His Apostle and the messengers of His Apostle, honor them and dress them in nice clothes. . . . Provide Zayd with good clothes. If my messengers will be pleased with you, I shall also be pleased with you. . . . Pay three
wasaq
of barley to Harmalah.
¹²³

The
jizya
was so important to the early Muslims that the caliph Umar (d. 644) once told his people, “I advise you to fulfill Allah’s
dhimma
(financial obligation made with the
dhimmi
) as it is the
dhimma
of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e., the taxes from the
dhimmi
.)”
¹²⁴

Many Muslims still regard it in the same way today. The last Islamic empire, the Ottoman Empire, abolished the
dhimma
and the
jizya
in 1856, when as “the sick man of Europe” it could no longer withstand Western pressure to do so. However, the subjugation of the People of the Book and their payment of this tax to the believers remain part of Islamic law as all eight of the schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach it.

Consequently, calls to re-impose the
jizya
, or attempts to do so, periodically reappear among Muslims. In March 2007, Muslim gangs knocked on doors in Christian neighborhoods in Baghdad, demanding payment of the
jizya
.
¹²⁵
In December 2011, Yassir Al-Burhami, a leader of the Salafists, an Egyptian movement of rigorist Muslims, reiterated some of the classic Islamic laws regarding the
dhimmis
: “Appointing infidels to positions of authority over Muslims is prohibited. Allah said: ‘Never will Allah grant the infidels a way [to triumph] over the Believers’” (Qur’an 4:141). He also declared that the Muslims of Egypt should begin again to collect the jizya from the Christians:

Can the Christians of Egypt be compared to the Jews of Al-Medina? The case of the Jews of Al-Medina is one example of the relations between the Muslims and the infidels. The Muslims can implement any form of conduct used by the Prophet Muhammad. When the Prophet Muhammad was still in Mecca, he dealt with the infidels in a certain way, and when the Muslims are weak, they should deal with the infidels this way. “Refrain from action, pray, and pay the zakkat.”

In many infidel countries, such as occupied Palestine, we instruct Muslims to do just that. We are not telling the Muslims in Gaza to launch rockets every day, which would lead to the destruction of the entire country. We tell them to adhere to the truce.

When the Prophet Muhammad first arrived in Al-Medina, he signed a treaty with the Jews without forcing them to pay the
jizya
poll tax. This was necessary at the time, but when they breached the treaty, he fought them, and eventually, he imposed the
jizya
upon the People of the Book.

The Christians [of Egypt] can be dealt with like the Jews of Al-Medina. This is possible.
¹²⁶

The Coptic Orthodox priest Yohanna Qulta responded to this suggestion with firm resolve: “We will oppose this fiercely, to the point of martyrdom. Returning to the Middle Ages is out of the question. We will not turn to the U.N. or to the Western countries but to Al-Azhar, to Islamic moral values, and to the vast majority of Muslims, who are moderate. Gone are the days of paying the
jizya
, the days of slavery.”
¹²⁷

Despite Fr. Qulta’s confidence in the moderate majority of Muslims, Islamic hardliners have always exploited the texts and teachings of Islam in order to call moderate believers back to a more rigorous observance of their faith. For support they can appeal to the words of the Qur’an and to the example of Muhammad—Muslims who believe in a peaceful pluralistic society cannot.

Meanwhile, there are other forms of collecting the
jizya
, even before an Islamic state is established in any given land. Muslim immigrants in Europe exist on the dole in large numbers, with the active encouragement of Muslim leaders, who tell them that taking money from the infidels is their right, in lieu of the payment of the
jizya
.
¹²⁸

Thus, Islamic morality excuses lying, stealing, and disloyalty to one’s parents (and more), provided such acts are committed against non-Muslims.

Devaluing of non-Muslims

Islamic law forbids a Muslim woman from marrying a non-Muslim man, although a Muslim man may marry a non-Muslim woman (since it is assumed that the woman will enter her husband’s household). Meanwhile, conversion from Islam by either spouse immediately annuls the marriage. This is in accord with the general dichotomy in Islam between Muslims and non-Muslims: The convert from Islam has left the community of “the best nation ever brought forth to men” (Qur’an 3:110) and joined that of “the unbelievers of the People of the Book and the idolaters,” who are “the worst of creatures” (Qur’an 98:6).

This contrast is consistent throughout the entirety of Islamic teaching, in which there is nothing comparable to the Christian call for universal charity. Indeed, with regard to charitable works in particular, Islamic law expressly forbids the
zakat
, the alms that all Muslims are required to give, to be given to non-Muslims.
¹²⁹

The devaluation of the lives of unbelievers doesn’t end there. In fact, Islamic law states that the lives of non-Muslims are literally less valuable than those of Muslims. This comes in the context of blood money, an indemnity that Islamic law allows a person who has killed someone to pay to the family members of his victim, if they are willing to accept it. The amount to be paid depends upon the religion of the victim, with the indemnity for non-Muslims heavily discounted.
¹³⁰

A leading Muslim authority in Iran, Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh, actually defended the idea that a non-Muslim’s life was worth less than that of a Muslim in his critique of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution. . . . Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash. . . . Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. . . . Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed. . . . Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them.
¹³¹

Thou shalt not kill . . . except . . .

Once the unbeliever’s life is devalued, it is not a large jump to considering it lawful to murder them under certain circumstances.

And slay not the soul God has forbidden, except by right. Whosoever is slain unjustly, We have appointed to his next-of-kin authority; but let him not exceed in slaying; he shall be helped (17:33).

Note all the caveats. This is not quite equivalent to “Thou shalt not kill.” Anyone with even the most glancing awareness of Catholic tradition and the Christian tradition in general knows that absolute pacifism has been a minority view. Christians, at least since the time of Constantine, have acknowledged a right to self-defense for individuals and nations, and have distinguished between murder and killing that could, for various reasons, be justified.

Thus, the problem with Qur’an 17:33 is not that it allows for killing under certain circumstances, and that it speaks of those who are “slain unjustly,” which opens up the possibility that others might be slain justly. The problem is the way in which the Qur’an and Islamic law determine the justice of a particular slaying.

One of the most famous verses in the entire Qur’an is known in Islamic tradition as the “Verse of the Sword”: “Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate” (9:5).

The “sacred months” were four months of the pre-Islamic Arab calendar when, by mutual agreement of the otherwise warring Arab tribes, fighting was forbidden. The Muslims are here commanded to fight against the idolaters, which would include Christians, until they “repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms.” These are three of the well-known Five Pillars of Islam: the confession of faith (
shahada
), signifying repentance from one’s previous life of ignorance and alienation from the true faith of Islam; the regular performance of five daily prayers; and almsgiving, required annually from Muslims as a percentage of their income. Thus, this passage is saying that Muslims must fight against those whom Islam considers to be idolaters until they convert to Islam (or, if they are “People of the Book,” submit to dhimmitude).

The most notorious part of this verse, “slay the idolaters wherever you find them,” recurs two other times in the Qur’an. In one passage, Allah gives the Muslims the same instructions, to slay those who have expelled them from their homes and persecuted them: