Egypt Coptic Christians Choice: Convert to Islam, or pay jizya tax

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to Coptic Christians: "Convert to Islam, or pay ‘jizya’ (Protection Money in Arabic)"

http://www.washingt ontimes.com/ news/2013/ sep/10/egypts- muslim-brotherho od-convert- islam-or- pay-jiz/

The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters have began forcing the roughly 15,000 Christian Copts of Dalga village in Egypt to pay a jizya (Protection Money in Arabic) as indicated in Koran 9:29, author and translator Raymond Ibrahim reported on Sunday.

Jizya is the money, or tribute, “that conquered non-Muslims historically had to pay to their Islamic overlords ‘with willing submission and while feeling themselves subdued’ to safeguard their existence,” Mr. Ibrahim explained.

According to Fr. Yunis Shawqi, who spoke yesterday to Dostor reporters in Dalga, all Copts in the village, “without exception,” are being forced to pay Protection Money.

“[The] value of the tribute and method of payment differ from one place to another in the village, so that, some are being expected to pay 200 Egyptian pounds per day, others 500 Egyptian pounds per day,” Mr. Shawqi said, according to the translator.

In some cases, families not able to pay have been attacked. As many as 40 Christian families have now fled Dalga, Mr. Ibrahim reported.

This tax is not unique to Egypt either.

Just over the weekend Syrian rebels in Syria, went into a Christian man’s “shop and gave him three options: become Muslim; pay $70,000 as a Protection Money tax levied on non-Muslims, known as jizya; or be killed along with his family,” Christian Science Monitor reported.