islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?‘The jizyah lapses on the death and acceptance of Islam… The non-Muslim should bring himselfthe jizyah; if he sends it through his deputy it should not be accepted. At the time of payment,non-Muslim must keep standing, while the chief should keep sitting. The hand of the non-Muslim should be below and that of the chief above it and he should say ‘Make payment ofjizyah, O! non-Muslim…’’ 205When Sultan Alauddin Khilji sought advice from learned scholar Qazi Mughisuddin regarding the collectionof kharaj (land-tax), the Qazi prescribed a similar protocol, adding that ‘‘should the collector choose to spitinto his mouth, he opens it. The purpose of this extreme humility on his part and the collector’s spitting intohis mouth, is to show the extreme subservience incumbent on this class, the glory of Islam and the orthodoxfaith, and the degradation of the false religion (Hinduism).’’ 206 Similarly, Persian scholar Mulla Ahmad wroteto remind liberal and tolerant Sultan Zainul Abedin of Kashmir (1417–67) that ‘‘the main object of levying thejizyah on them is their humiliation… God established jizyah for their dishonor. The object is their humiliationand (the establishment of) the prestige and dignity of the Muslims.’’ 207Popular Sufi master Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624), frustrated by Emperor Akbar’s tolerantand liberal policies toward non-Muslims, which violated Islamic laws, wrote to the emperor’s court: ‘‘Thehonor of Islam lies in insulting the kufr (unbelief) and kafir (unbelievers). One who respects the kafirsdishonors the Muslims… The real purpose of levying the jizyah on them is to humiliate them to such an extentthat they may not be able to dress well and to live in grandeur. They remain terrified and trembling.’’ Similarwere the views of Sufi saint Shah Walliullah (d. 1762) and of many other leading Islamic scholars and Sufimasters throughout the period of Muslim rule in India. 208These measures, meant for the extreme humiliation of dhimmis, were to remind them of their utterlydegraded socio-political status in Muslim states. It should not be difficult to conceive the kind ofpsychological pressure such subjection of the Hindus to utmost humiliation and degradation had created onthem to convert to Islam. To humiliation was added the lure of avoiding the economic burden of payingdiscriminatory extra taxes: jizyah, kharaj and others. The humiliation aside, jizyah was relatively light on thescale of economic burden. The worst burden was the crushing kharaj. During the reign of Sultan AlauddinKhilji (1296–1316), the peasants had literally become bonded slaves of the government, since up to 50–75percent of the produce was taken away in taxes, mainly as kharaj. Even during the reign of Akbar, kharaj wasfixed at ‘one-third, but in reality it came to two-thirds’ of the agricultural produce in Kashmir. In Gujarat, thepeasants had to hand over three quarters of the produce in around 1629 in the reign of Emperor Shahjahan. 209As already noted, the Hindus were reduced to such a desperate situation by the crushing economicexploitation that they were taking refuge in jungles to evade the torture of tax-collectors. Just by reciting theIslamic profession of faith—the Shahada: [I testify that] there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is themessenger of Allah, the Hindus could relieve themselves from all these economic burdens, sufferings andhumiliation. This coercive incentive for conversion seemed to have worked brilliantly as testified by SultanFiroz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351–88) in his memoir Fatuhat-i-Firoz Shahi:I encouraged my infidel subjects to embrace the religion of the prophet, and I proclaimed thatevery one who repeated the creed and became a Musalman should be exempted from the jizyah,or poll-tax. Information of this came to the ears of the people at large, and great numbers ofHindus presented themselves and were admitted to the honor of Islam. Thus they came forward205. Lal (1999), p. 116206. Ibid, p. 130207. Ibid, p. 113208. Ibid, p. 113–14209. Ibid, p. 132,13480