The following report is a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On April 19, 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) released a 29-minute video titled "Until There Should Come to Them Clear Evidence".[1] The film, produced by the organization's media company Al-Furqan and posted on jihadi forums such as Shumoukh Al-Islam,[2] is subtitled in five languages: English, French, German, Russian and Arabic. It explains that Christianity is a deviation from true monotheism, and presents the laws which ISIS applies to the Christians under its rule: they must either convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax. Otherwise, the Muslim will fight them. To exemplify this, it discusses the fate of the Christians in Raqqa, Syria, who complied with these rules, versus the fate of the Christians of Mosul, Iraq, who did not.
The last part of the video shows the mass execution of Christians in Libya who, according to the film, likewise refused to comply with the laws of Islam. A masked speaker, apparently North American, declares that ISIS will fight all Christians who behave in a similar manner. This message is then reiterated by an ISIS cleric, who tells Christians worldwide that ISIS will reach them. When it does, he says, they will have to either convert or pay the jizya tax. Otherwise, their men will be killed and their women and children will be taken captive.
The following are details:
In the first part of the video, a narrator explains that Christianity deteriorated after the time of Christ and deviated from the path of monotheism. Next, a senior ISIS cleric, Abu Malek Anas Al-Nashwan, explains that, according to the laws of Islam, Christians under Muslim rule have two options: they must either convert to Islam, or else pay the Jizya tax and accept Muslim dominance as part of a pact of protection (dhimma). He says that the Muslims of Raqqa in Syria accepted these terms and thereby ensured that they and their property would not be harmed, whereas the Christians in Ninveh province in Iraq refused them, and therefore faced the death penalty. However, the Caliph [ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi] decided to spare them and ordered instead to exile them from their homes and from their land. Their property was seized in accordance with the laws of Islam, says the sheikh.
The film presents testimonies of Christians in Raqqa who claim that, since they paid the jizya tax, their situation has been excellent – so much so that they urged fellow Christians who had fled from the city to return and live there in peace. Christians also testify that ISIS's Muslim courts handle their cases fairly and without discrimination.
Turning to Mosul in Iraq, the film shows ISIS members smashing crosses and destroying the churches of the Christians, who refused to either convert or pay the jizya tax.
The last part of the film shows the mass execution of African Christians in two locations in Libya: on a beach in Barqa (Cyrenaica) province and in a desert area in Fezzan in the south of the country. The prisoners in Barqa are dressed in the orange uniforms familiar from other ISIS execution videos, whereas those in Fezzan are dressed in dark uniforms. According to the film, the latter prisoners are members of the Ethiopian church. They are executed with a bullet to the back of the head, whereas those in Barqa are beheaded.
The Fezzan execution is presided over by a masked individual who speaks fluent English with a North American accent, dressed in black after the fashion of "Jihadi John." He delivers a message in which he threatens all Christians, and adds that he and his comrades will continue fighting all those who disbelieve in one god until they either convert or pay the jizya.
The video ends with a message from Abu Malek Anas Al-Nashwan to Christians everywhere: "The Islamic State will spread, with Allah's help, and will reach you, even if you are in your strongholds. Whoever converts to Islam will be safe, and whoever pays the jizya tax will be safe. But whoever refuses will recieve from us only the punishment specified by Muslim law: the men will be killed, the women and children will be taken captive, and the homes and property will be taken as booty."
[1] The title is taken from Koran 98:1: "Those who disbelieve from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and among Al-Mushrikun,were not going to leave (their disbelief) until there should come to them clear evidence."
[2] Shamikh1.info, April 19, 2015.
