Should We Believe What ISIS Terrorists Say about Christian Persecution?

Veronica Neffinger | iBelieve Contributor | Updated: Sep 15, 2016

Should We Believe What ISIS Terrorists Say about Christian Persecution?

It is becoming more and more widely acknowledged that Christians are facing severe persecution in the Middle East from terrorist group ISIS.

However, many news sources report that if Christians pay the jizya tax, a Muslim tax levelled on those of other religions, ISIS militants let them live and remain in their homes.

Ira Rifkin of GetReligion.org questions the truth of this.

Rifkin points out that this information actually comes from ISIS itself, and is therefore suspect to ISIS propaganda.

The British magazine The Spectator has this to say about the Islamic State’s claims:

“Christians continue to be slaughtered in the Middle East. But as reports of genocidal atrocities mount up, our governments have found a new reason to sit on their hands. Christians, the theory goes, don’t have it as bad as the Yazidis. As ‘people of the book’, Christians enjoy privileged status. Rather than suffering the full extent of Islamic State’s depravities, they can pay a tax (Jizya) in return for protection. It sounds credible and contains just enough theology to bamboozle the secular population of the international community.”

Contrary to their claims, ISIS terrorists often exact the jizya tax from Christians, but then do not hold up their end of the bargain, and often persecute and kill Christians regardless.

 

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: September 15, 2016



Should We Believe What ISIS Terrorists Say about Christian Persecution?