How are the rights of the Non-Muslims protected in an Islamic state?
Islam is a religion of tolerance. It has granted equal rights to the non-Muslims in the Islamic State, but without imposing equal duties on them. The reason is that Islamic State, unlike the modern national State, classifies citizens into two categories according to their religion or faith: Muslims and non-Muslims. Muslims have different kinds of rights and duties than those of the non-Muslims. The non-Muslims are known in Islamic Shariah as Dhimmis (Zimmis), whose protection is the responsibility or obligation (dhimmah or zimmah) of the Islamic State. As the Islamic State is an ideological State, its defence (jihad) is the duty of the Muslims only, while the non-Muslims are exempted from this duty. Hence their rights are also different from those of the Muslims. Under Islamic law (Shariah) there are three kinds of Zimmis
Those as have entered into a treaty or agreement with the Muslims at the time of their submission, which determine their rights and responsibilities: they are known as “contractees”. A Hadith of the Holy Prophet/^ has enjoined: “If you fight a non-believing people and overpower them and they enter into a treaty with you, agreeing to pay annual tribute ‘Kharaj’ in order to save their lives and properties, and of their progeny, then do not take a penny more than fixed amount, because it is not permissible.” Again, “Whosoever is hard or cruel towards such people (i.e. “contractees”) or curtail their rights or burdens them with more than they can endure or demands something from them against their free will, I shall myself be a complainant against him on the Day of Judgment.”
Those non-Muslims who submitted to the Muslims after a defeat in the war. They are known as “Conquered”. When they pay jizya or poll tax to the Islamic State, they too become “Zimmis” and their lives and properties are protected by it.
Those non-Muslims who have submitted to the Islamic State, though without any defeat in a war, nor by an agreement or treaty. But their submission is a proof that they have accepted its hegemony or supremacy. They too have to pay jizya or poll tax.
Nature of relationship between the Islamic State and its non-Muslim citizens:
Islam’s attitude towards the non-Muslims is determined by the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah. The Quran declares: “There is no compulsion in matters of religion (Deen)”. It further says in Surah 5, verse 48, that humanity will never follow one single creed, and therefore rituals and dogmas and modes of worship will continue to be different. From this arises the Islamic belief in the coexistence of different religions and rituals. Moreover, tolerance of the non-Muslim communities within the boundaries of the Islamic State has been its hallmark throughout the history of all Islamic kingdoms, and empires in the past ages and of the Islamic States in the modem times, even though some of them are of secular ideology today, like modem Turkey.