Historically, the collection of the jizya was ended in the middle of the nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, under Western pressure. Jihad groups, however, want to revive it along with the caliphate.
“Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)
“Where in the World Christians Are Forced to Pay Jizya for Protection from Islamists,” by Antonio Graceffo, Gateway Pundit, April 10, 2026:
The jizya is a tax historically levied on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule, understood as a fee for protection, exemption from military service, and permission to practice a non-Muslim faith. Historically, jizya was imposed by Muslim countries across the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and Central Asia, a practice that has been abolished in most Muslim nations.
With the exception of Taliban-governed Afghanistan, no internationally recognized nation-state in the Islamic world currently imposes jizya by name or in formal legal code. However, it is being actively imposed today by jihadist groups operating as de facto governing authorities across West Africa, Central Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.
The most well-documented active cases are in Mali and the broader Sahel, where JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin), an al-Qaeda affiliate, controls large rural areas beyond the reach of the Malian government. In August 2024, church leaders in the Dougouténé area of southern Mali were summoned to a meeting with JNIM militants and given new rules the entire community was required to follow.
The group subsequently imposed a tax of 25,000 CFA francs, roughly $40 to $41, on all Christians over the age of 18 in Douna-Pen, the largest Christian village in eastern Koro, Mopti. Payment was set as a condition for the free practice of religion. Those unable or unwilling to pay were warned their churches would be closed. Militants collected the money openly and without resistance.
The practice began in Dougouténé and spread to Douna-Pen, with local sources warning that more communities would face the same demands. In the La Tapoa region near the Niger–Burkina Faso border, jihadists announced that all males 15 and older who refused to convert must pay jizya, with Christians told they would “live as slaves” if they paid.
Open Doors analysts assess that these cases are not isolated but part of a wider plan, with families who refuse or cannot pay being driven from ancestral lands. One Christian told Aid to the Church in Need, “We are supposed to be living in a secular state, where such practices should not take place, but unfortunately this is becoming our new reality.”
The 25,000 CFA franc monthly payment represents more than half the monthly income for many families in one of the world’s poorest countries.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), operating as ISIS’s Central Africa Province (ISCAP), has imposed jizya as part of a documented campaign against Christian communities. Around late 2022, ISIS’s Al-Naba newsletter first began imploring Congolese Christians to pay jizya to be spared from ISCAP violence. By June 2025, the group was presenting Christians in Ituri Province with three choices during preaching campaigns: conversion to Islam, payment of jizya, or death.
An August 2025 Al-Naba editorial stated: “If the Christians of Africa want to feel safe and escape the cycle of killing, then they must know that our true Islam provides them the freedom to choose between three options, Islam, jizya paid humiliated and subdued, or death and displacement.”…
somehistory says
Christians pray for our Savior to come to set all things right. Christians have Faith and Hope that the deliverance Christ promised will soon be here.
Jesus said, “When you see all these things, hold yourselves erect and lift up your heads as your deliverance is near.”
Christians also pray for endurance and understand from where the hatred and violence come.
The Apostle Peter wrote, “3Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “ Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.” 5But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,…”
OLD GUY says
Islam is no different than the Mafia or any other criminal organization.
somehistory says
One difference, Old Guy, is that the mafia, cosa nostra or even the aryan brotherhood doesn’t demand that everyone else on earth abide by their rules of operation and join them in their activities. muzzies demand at the point of a sword….join or die.