KARL MARX - Oppression of Non-Muslims

KARL MARX on the Ottoman/Muslim Governmental System & Oppression of Non-Muslims

Karl Marx's description of the Muslim attitudes and Muslim law concerning non-Muslims is remarkably similar to descriptions of the same by contemporary writers. Ironically, this portrayal of Muslim law and attitudes is more often held by those today designated "right-wingers," than by Communists, who are likely to be uncritical (calling themselves "critical") supporters of jihad. Marx's account is found in his column in the New York Tribune of 15 April 1854. The Tribune was edited by Horace Greeley, the famous editor, who advocated American settlement of the Western territories of the US, including the Louisiana Purchase (obtained from France) and other lands obtained from Mexico by war or purchase.
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"The Koran and the Mussulman legislation emanating from it reduce the geography and ethnography of the various peoples to the simple and convenient distinction of two nations and of two countries; those of the Faithful and of the Infidels. The Infidel is "harby," i.e., the enemy [NOTE: harb is an Arabic word for war]. Islamism proscribes the nation of the Infidels, constituting a state of permanent hostility between the Mussulman and the unbeliever. In that sense the corsair [= pirate] ships of the Berber States [= Barbary Coast, North African pirate ports] were the holy fleet of the Islam. How, then, is the existence of Christian subjects of the Porte [= Ottoman central govt] to be reconciled with the Koran?

[here Marx gives a long quote from Cesar Famin]
'If a town,' says the Mussulman legislation, 'surrenders by capitulation, and its inhabitants consent to become rayahs, that is, subjects of a Mussulman prince without abandoning their creed, they have to pay the kharatch (capitation tax) [= kharaj], when they obtain a truce with the faithful, and it is not permitted any more to confiscate their estates than to take away their houses . . . In this case their old churches form part of their property, with permission to worship therein. But they are not allowed to erect new ones. They have only authority for repairing them, and to reconstruct their decayed portions. At certain epochs commissaries delegated by the provincial governors are to visit the churches and sanctuaries of the Christians, in order to ascertain that no new buildings have been added under pretext of repairs. If a town is conquered by force, the inhabitants retain their churches, but only as places of abode or refuge, without permission to worship.
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http://ziontruth.blogspot.com/2005/06/karl-marx-on-ottomanmuslim.html