The Right To Be A Citizen

For John, BLUF:  Citizenship is fundamental for individuals and is not to be taken lightly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On Tuesday The Washington Times published an article by Reporter Jessica Chasmar on the evolving situation in Egypt, "Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to Coptic Christians: Convert to Islam, or pay ‘jizya’ tax".  The jizya is, per Wikipedia:

… a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria.  The tax is and was to be levied on able-bodied adult males of military age and affording power (but with specific exemptions).  From the point of view of the Muslim rulers, jizzya was a material proof of the non-Muslims' acceptance of subjection to the state and its laws, "just as for the inhabitants it was a concrete continuation of the taxes paid to earlier regimes."  In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy, to be entitled to the Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, and to be exempted from military service and the zakat taxes obligatory upon Muslim citizens.

This is in contrast to the situation in colonial United States, where the Jews in then New Amsterdam (later New York City) sued to be allowed to be members of the Night Watch.♠  The person standing in their way was the colonial Governor, Peter Stuyvesant:

Stuyvesant importuned the colonial council to bar Jews from serving in the volunteer home guards.  The council levied a special tax on Jews to pay for others to serve in their place.  On November 5, 1655, Asser Levy and Joseph Barsimon filed petitions with the colonial court asking that they either be allowed to stand watch with the other citizens or relieved of the tax.  After an initial rejection and a two-year fight, Levy won the right to stand watch.

America, the land of opportunity (to sue for your rights, and win!).

But, back to the article in The Washington Times, the lede reads:

The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters have began forcing the roughly 15,000 Christian Copts of Dalga village in Egypt to pay a jizya tax as indicated in Koran 9:29...

Ten percent of Egyptians are Copts.

Ten percent on not full Citizens of Egypt.  Sound familiar?

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  This being the United States, those particular Jews were refugees from Brazil, which had been Dutch for a while, before Portugal conquered it back.  They were fleeing the Portuguese, since they had been openly practicing their faith under Dutch rule.