UNDERSTANDING HOW JIHAD LEADS TO DHIMMITUDE
INTRODUCTION:
This research will examine Jihad (Holy War) and Dhimmitude (A condition of being enslaved) and how affected the people of the east.
It’s like the story of the frog in the pot. If you put a frog in a pot that contains lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat so the frog is unaware of the rise in temperature, the frog will eventually die because he is slowly being cooked.
This same process /principle applies to western countries in reference to Jihad and Dhimmitude. Islam slowly is spreading in the west bringing along these processes/principles with them. They will soon take over if we don’t open our eyes. We will be their dinner like the frog.
RESEARCH QUESTION:
How does Jihad lead to Dhimmitude and how does it affect the people involved?
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:
These follow-up questions will be answered in the following sections of Jihad and Dhimmitude that affects people involved.
1. What is Jihad?
2. What is Dhimmitude?
3. What is the positive effect of the people involved? LIFE/SURVIVAL
4. What is the negative effect of the people involved? DEATH/DESTRUCTION
5. Can these movements be stopped? NO, IT’S STILL GOING ON TODAY
6. Will there ever be peace in these movements? NO/NEVER
What is the history of Jihad?
According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his book: ISLAM – Religion, History and Civilization –
(p.34), jihad actually means “exertion in the path of God, and in its outward aspect it is meant
to be defensive and not aggressive.” He is saying that jihad means to sustain an effort to save
one’s religion or their homeland from being conquered. Now the inward jihad has to do with
according to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “to battle the negative tendencies within the soul.” This
feeling will not allow us to be the best we can be as getting close to God which is meant for us.
The great jihad is, “to battle against your passionate souls (nafs).”
According to John Bowker in his book: WHAT MUSLIMS BELIEVE –(p.73), jihad means
“striving” in this case to spread Islam”. They don’t have to use the sword. They are to live the
life and share the Qur’an with others. In a way, they are like missionaries but for Islam. They
just want to change the world. They just want one state, one religion and one umma (religious
community).
He also explains that there are different ways “to strive in the cause of God” (p.78). You can tell
people what Islam is all about. You can show them through your riches, like giving alms to the
orphans or helping out with your finances by giving money to Afghanistan or others who are
fighting the West. According to John Bowker, “A Muslim is in a state of jihad all the time, but
the lesser jihad is the warfare outside. “ (p.79).
John Bowker gives two examples of when jihad is necessary. One in Lebanon where people
pick up food from the streets to feed their children. The nobility and dignity as human beings
had to be defended (p.80). Another example he gave was in Afghanistan where a superpower
tried to take over and replace their government. They had the right to defend themselves (p.81).
When Allah gave victory to Muhammad and Abu Bakr, they did not abuse their superior
position. They did not touch the children, women, sick, etc. and they did not cut down the
palms or other fruit trees or destroyed their homes (p.82).
John Bowker believes diplomacy should be used first but if that doesn’t work the Muslim has
the right to perform jihad in their mind because they are righting a wrong (p.82).
According to Patrick Sookhdeo in his book, GLOBAL JIHAD: The Future in the Face of Militant
Islam, he list several forms of jihad and I will list a few. There was, The Development of the Classical Theory of Jihad (p.98).
The classical Islam stated that jihad is the God-given method to expand Islam’s political
dominion. It was used as an instrument for the universalization of religion and for the
establishment of an imperial world state. Once a year according to the classical manual of the
Hanafi School of law, the Hedaya which states that “jihad is to be fought against infidels even if
they are not the aggressors, the caliph was required to lead an army in jihad against
unbelievers/infidels.
There was also, according to Patrick Sookhdeo, the Shafi’s manual, Reliance of the Traveller
which give the caliph permission for jihad on Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians if after he
invited them to enter Islam in faith and practice, they refuse or when invited to enter the social
order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax and they refused. Everybody else just had to
become Muslim or suffer the consequences.
According to Patrick Sookhdeo there were stages in the original development of jihad and that
depended on the strength of the Muslims (pp. 99-100).
1. Non-Confrontation: This was a verbal argument. There was no force used because the Islamic community was weak in Mecca.
2. Defensive Fighting: when Muhammad went to Median, fighting was allowed but only against attackers. Muslims were getting stronger.
3. Initiating Attacks Allowed: Since the strength of the community was getting even stronger the Muslims were allowed to take the offensive against polytheists but they could not fight them at the Mosque (Q 2:191). They could fight only at certain times and places.
4. Unconditional Command to Fight all Unbelievers everywhere and at any time: They were now ordered/commanded to perform jihad against all unbelievers at all times and places.
5. Permission to attack Jews and Christians: Now a verse was given allowing Muslims to attack Jews and Christians.
According to Patrick Sookhdeo (p.65), in the Qur’an jihad consisted of a struggle to make
Islamic rule triumph over everything else. A Muslim had to devote his time, property, health
and life in this battle of jihad for Islam. If you are a Muslim that strived with all your might, you
will achieve salvation Q 9:20.
Ibn Khaldum (1332-1406), The Muqaddima [Patrick Sookhdeo p.78]
The North African philosopher-historian Ibn Khaldum defined jihad as:
“A religious duty, because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission and
(the obligation to) covert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or force”
{Ibn Khaldum, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction To History, translated
Franz Rosenthal, Vol. 1 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958)} p:473 (154)
Jihad is to preserve pluralism and variety? [Patrick Shookhdeo: p. 361]
Sheikh ‘Abd al-Hamid al-Ansari, dean of the faculty of shari’a at Qatar University has a liberal
view or the word jihad which is exactly opposite the classical Islamic doctrine of jihad which
deals with the spread of Islamic power.
His writing in the London-based Arabic daily, Al-Hayatt states:
“Jihad, in its real meaning, is a means of preserving the right of pluralism and
variety and guaranteeing freedom of choice for all because diversity is considered
a natural and universal truth…” [‘Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, “Landmarks in Rational
and Constructive Dialogue with the ‘Other’”, Al-Hayat (London) 31 May 2002.
Extracts in English translation in MEMRI Special Dispatch Series No. 386, 5 June
2002 (951)]
Muslims expected the end of the world to take place soon so the jihad in the earlier days was
fueled by the feeling of apocalyptical urgency. Remember, Muhammad was to the Muslims the
last prophet, the “Seal of the prophets” and he was sent right before The Day of Judgment to
warn humanity, (273) [Patrick Sookhdeo 128]. [David Cook, Understanding Jihad (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2005), pp.22-25]
According to Jacques Ellul in Bat Ye’or’s The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From
Jihad to Dhimmitude, a choice had to be made between jihad and dhimmitude. These two
complementary institutions affected the people lives. Islam’s victories were due to the military
quality of its army and the high statesmanship of its leaders. Jihad was religious obligation that
formed part of the duties the Muslim believer had to fulfill. Jihad helped Islam to expand. It
was a normal part of their lives. Whatever laws the people were living under was replaced by
the shari’a.
Jihad affected the economic portion of the Muslim society. They are the ones who benefited
not the conquered peoples. Because of jihad, Islamization absorbed the conquered people’s
culture through massacres, slavery, etc. The people had to convert or pay the consequences.
According to Bat Ye’or in her book, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad
to Dhimmitude, jihad was a permanent war. Peace wasn’t part of the equation but there were
truces related to political situation (muhadana). They were to be no more than ten years and
the imam could denounce them whenever he pleased.
Jihad can be done peacefully too by proselytism, propaganda and corruption winning the
hearts of the people (ta’lif al-qulub). Bat Ye’or states that one of the factors of military
strategy of jihad includes “the purchase of hearts”, and corruption was the crucial factor in the
decline of the conquered peoples. This lead to pressure on the people with a fear of threats of
reprisals if they didn’t obey.
Bat Ye’or states that jihad is a precept of Divine institution. The Malikis [one of the four schools
of Muslim jurisprudence] believed it was preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy
before having invited the peoples to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy
attacks first. They could either convert or pay toll tax or war will be declared upon them. Jihad
was necessary to maintain the conquered according to the conquerors.
What is the history of DHIMMITUDE?
Dhimmitude goes hand in hand with jihad and that is the way it is understood. You can’t have
one without the other in the Muslim world. It originates from that ideology. The infidels who
submitted without fighting to the Islamic armies, were safe and granted a pledge of security.
These infidels are now protected from the laws of jihad which would cause them their death,
slavery, ransom or deportation by their enemies. The only way for them to achieve this peace
and security is to submit to the Islamic way. They now had the protection status through the
Islamization of conquered lands.
Dhimmitude had certain rules that had to be followed.
The vanquished non-Muslims peoples were now protected. They had security for not only their
life but also their possessions. They also had religious rights to a certain extent. Two conditions
provided these rights: the payment of a poll tax known as jizya and the submissions to the
provision of Islamic law.
Their economic, religious, and social fields were governed by the shari’a law and if they went
against these rules their protection was threatened and death or slavery could be imposed on
them. The Dhimmis suffered many legal disabilities which forced them to felling humiliated,
segregated, and discriminated against by their conqueror. These rules came about in the eight
to ninth centuries by the founders of the four schools of Islamic law. This was the guide line
that set the pattern of the Muslim’s community’s social behavior toward dhimmis.
Being that the Jews and Christians were known as the People of the Book, they shared the
same legal status but other religious groups such as the Zoroastrians were a despised people
and they were treated much harsher.
Dhimmitude was a civilization consisting of customs, legislation, and social behavior. The
Muslim community enacted numerous laws and implemented many principles on the dhimmi
people. It was abolished during the 19th -20th centuries under European pressure and
colonization of Arab countries. [ http://www.dhimmitude.org/ ]
The Status of Non-Muslim Minorities Under Islamic Rule
“Dhimmitude: the Islamic system of governing populations conquered by jihad wars, encompassing all of the demographic, ethnic, and religious aspects of the political system. The word ‘dhimmitude’ as a historical concept, was coined by Bat Y’or in 1983 to describe the legal and social conditions of Jews and Christians subjected to Islamic rule. The word ‘dhimmitude’ comes from dhimmi, and Arabic word meaning ‘protected.’ Dhimmi was the name applied by the Arab-Muslim conquerors to indigenous non-Muslim poplations who surrendered by a treaty (dhimma) to Muslim domination.” [ http://www.dhimmitude.org/ ]
In reading, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, by Bat
Ye’or Forward by Jacques Ellul, she touched upon many areas of dhimmitude and she showed
how jihad and dhimmitude are truly connected. You can’t have one without the other. Non-
Muslims would have to make a choice between the two. If they picked jihad (war) it would
usually meant certain death. If they picked dhimmitude it would lead to them being protected
and continue living life, mind you not the same life as before but at least they would be alive.
As I stated in the jihad section of my research, once they became dhimmi, the law of their
country no longer exist, they have to now live under the Islamic law/shari’a. You have two
worlds, the world of Islam and the world of war. Inside the umma, the only possible existence
for the infidel to be protected is through dhimmitude.
The umma is the Islamic community and they own the territories of the dar al-Islam which is
governed by Islamic law. Non-Muslims (harbis) inhabit the dar al-harb, the lands conquered by
war and Islamic jurisdiction prevails either by war (harb), or by the conversion of the
inhabitants. Jihad was performed so the possession that was considered illegally ursurped by
non-Muslims is restored to the Muslims. The way they took back this land was through burning
villages, taking hostages, pillaging and massacring the people driving them out and allowing the
army possession. Now that land was their land. Once the dar al-harb became the dar al-Islam
the former inhabitants (harbis) became prisoners of war. The imam according to the events of
the conflict could condemn them to massacre, slavery, exile, or he could negotiate with one of
their representatives and grant them a treaty of protection (dhimma). If they accepted the
latter, they were in the status of tributaries (dhimmis). The non-Muslim has to pay tribute and
submit to Islam. This dhimma (protection) prohibited any further acts of pillage, massacre, and
enslavement inherent in the razzias. The dhimma came about as a theological principle to stop
the barbarity of war because war is truly brutal.
Even though the conquered people (dar al-harb) lived in a state of dhimmitude they flourished.
They mastered techniques of civilization: state administration, agriculture, trade, architecture,
and various crafts, etc. Eventually the legal institution would bring together a group of laws
that would slowly take away the rights of the dhimmis and confine them to a cramp condition.
This was done by transferring to the umma all the key positions that the dhimmis had formerly
held.
“The legal status of the dhimmis appears at two levels: one, mobile and enmeshed in history; the other, fixed in legal dogma.”
The dhimmi had to pay a poll tax where in some areas they had to pay individually at a
humiliating public ceremony. As they were paying their poll tax they were struck either on the
head or on the nape of the neck. It was a symbol of the non-Muslims’ humiliation. In other
areas if tribute was not given, the women and children were reduced to slavery.
The dhimmi was excluded from public office. The Qur’an had verses to verify this (3:27, 114-
115; 5:56). The hadith forbade either a Christian or a Jew from exerting authority over a
Muslim.
Dhimmi were not equal in the eyes of Islamic law. “All litigation between a Muslim and a dhimmi was under the jurisdiction of Islamic legislation which did not recognize the validity of the oath of a dhimmi against that of a Muslim.”
If you were close to the caliph, “peoples of the dhimma” (Jews and Chkristians) were able to
recover their property-places of worship, houses, domains, etc. You also had churches and
synagogues not being respected, burned or demolished all because they felt that the infidels
were found guilty of overstepping their rights.
When the dhimmi had religious ceremonies and burials they had to do it in secret. They made
it so that the Muslims graves be distinguished from the dhimmis, so when they wanted to
destroy graves they would know which ones to destroy. This practice is still going on. The
dhimmi condition itself was a religious constraint.
Forced conversions are forbidden according to the Qur’an but these wars (jihad) and the
requirements of Islamic domination over the conquered lands and populations forced the
people to live a life under dhimmituide or die.
Conversion was also forced upon the Jewish and Christian dhimmi when their children were
abducted. Sometimes these children were ransomed, supplied to harems and made as a
contribution to the tribute. In an institutional way they were placed in the devishirme system.
These children were abused, some recruiters took more than one child so they could sell them
back to their parents and if they couldn’t afford to pay they remained slaves. They removed
them from their families hardened by painful experiences. They were turned into fanatics by
the education they received. They turned out to be the cruelest weapons against their own
people and the soldiers that were trusted most because they had nothing to gain and
everything to lose. All was lost for them.
The dhimmi were humiliated a lot. They could not have Muslim servants nor possess arms.
They were not to be consulted as physicians or pharmacists even though some still went to
them. Marriage and sexual relations between dhimmis and Muslim women was not allowed
punishable by death but a Muslim could marry a dhimmi woman. A dhimmi could not ride
upon a noble animal, such as a camel or a horse. If he was outside town he could ride a
donkey. A dhimmi if riding a donkey passed a distinguished Muslim, had to dismount, “for a
Christian must only appear before a Muslim in a humiliating position.” If this step was not
taken the Muslim was authorized to throw the Christian to the ground. In some places the
dhimmis had to walk with lowered eyes when passing to the left-the impure side-of Muslims.
And they were encouraged to push the dhimmi aside. In the presence of a Muslim the dhimmi
had to remain standing in a humble and respectful attitude and when given permission to
speak, spoke in a low voice.
By law the dhimmi were told what to wear and how to cut their hair. They couldn’t go to public
baths and they had to wear small bells to signal their identity in the absence of the proper
clothing to identify them.
Dhimmi would flee one area of persecution to succeed in surviving in another area where the
authority of the ruler was kinder. Geography was important to how you where treated as
dhimmi, mountains offered refuge, but plains, opened to nomadic attacked gave no protection
at all because the enemy came and went as they pleased and no one could stop them.
The Islamization of the conquered land was in two stages: military conflict which was through
jihad and the dhimma which was a type of contract of protection for the non-Muslims. The job
of the dhimmis was to accommodate the armies of the Muslims and provide for their needs.
This act eventually ruined the villagers because they could not supply for themselves.
According to John Bowker in his book What Muslims believe (p. 85), “Islam is the only religion that introduced this idea of the dhimmis [non-Muslims in Muslim countries under Muslim protection] and of the ahl al-kitab [“Peop0le of the Book” – any community that has received the revelation from God as Scripture], so that we are required to treat them with respect.”
In closing jihad and dhimmitude definitely affected the people in the east especially
theologically, taken their religion and places of worship away from them forcing them to covert
or die and psychologically, taking their dignity away from them through humiliation, slavery,
hunger, culture, etc. the list goes on. What is positive about dhimmitude? Life. What is
negative about dhimmitude? Death. Can this movement be stopped? It was abolished during
the 19th -20th centuries under European pressure and colonization of Arab countries. Will there
ever be peace in these movements? No because jihad is forever so some form of dhimmitude
still exist somewhere in this world.
REFERENCES
What Muslims Believe, By: John Bowker, Published 1995, Copyright under Berne Convention
GLOBAL JIHAD: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam, By: Patrick Sookhdeo Foreward by
Professor Richard Holmes, Published by Isaac Publishing, Copyright 2007 Patrick Sookhdeo
The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, By: Bat Ye’or
Foreword by Jacques Ellul, Published Associated University Presses, Copyright 1996 by Bat
Ye’or
ISLAM, Religion, History and Civilization, By: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Published in Our Religions,
edited by Arvind Sharma and published by Harper One, Copyright 2003 by Seeyed Hossein
Nasr.
Al-Yahud: Eternal Islamic Enmity & the Jews, By: Elias Al-Maqdisi & Sam Solomon, Puclished
by: ANM, Copyright 2010 Sam Solomon
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