Middle East Forum

Dhimmitude Project

The Dome of the Rock stands at the center of a modern system of intimidation and religious subordination rooted in the classical Islamic institution of the dhimmah.
Dhimmitude Project
Neo-Dhimmitude on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount—A Case Study
The Paradox of a Secular Jewish State as the De Facto Enforcer of Islamic Supremacism
July 29, 2026
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Tom Nisani
For thirteen centuries, the jizya stood as a religiously mandated instrument of subjugation—rooted in explicit Qur’anic command and elaborated across classical jurisprudence—not a reciprocal protection fee. Its graduated payments, humiliating collection rituals, and surrounding architecture of legal disabilities extracted wealth while enforcing abasement, driving the demographic collapse of once-thriving Christian and Jewish communities across the Levant, North Africa, and beyond. The jizya's enduring legacy of humiliation and contempt requires honest reckoning today: formal acknowledgment, restitution where possible, and reparative justice for the descendant communities who paid for the right to remain what they already were.
Dhimmitude Project
Confronting the Legacy of Jizya as an Instrument of Subjugation
Modern Muslim States Must Abandon the Mythology Surrounding the Jizya and Confront its Damage to Religious Minorities
July 15, 2026
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Jalal Tagreeb
Protesters gathered outside Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2018 to demand the execution of Asia Bibi, a Christian farmworker accused of insulting Islam. Bibi's status as a Christian, coupled with Pakistan's blasphemy laws, rendered her vulnerable to the “hanging sword” of neo-dhimmitude in Pakistan, where mere allegations can lead to prolonged detention, social ostracism, and in some instances, violence. After the Pakistani Supreme Court overturned her conviction, Bibi fled the country in 2019.
Dhimmitude Project
Neo-Dhimmitude in the Land of the Pure: Pakistan’s Native Christians and the Betrayal of Jinnah’s Pluralism
April 20, 2026
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Craig Considine
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