Out of Context (Part 10) – Is there Persecution of Arab Christians?

In Part 10 of the interview, Shaykh Omar takes questions from the audience. Throughout history there has been a lot of friction between Muslims and Christians, says Sheikh Omar Suleiman, with Muslims also on the receiving end during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. In Islam, Christians are to be respected, they are allowed to worship and even live by their own laws. Regarding the "jizia" tax, at the time of the Prophet, non-Muslims were asked to pay it for protection instead of the zakat alms that are obligatory only to Muslims. But when there is political turmoil, groups tend to turn against each other, both intra-faith and interfaith leading to a tribalistic way of thinking along ethic and religious lines.