format_quote Originally Posted by
czgibson
The question is, why would anyone want to be a dhimmi?
Because they are already.
They don't need the Muslims whatsoever to become dhimmis.
For example, after defeating their nobility and other fighters in battle, the Muslim conquerors ran into the Jewish and Christian commoners. These commoners were offered a choice:
"Either you continue with your current religion, but then from now on, we will be your nobility and rulers, and then you will just keep paying your existing taxes to us that you used to pay to them. Alternatively, you can convert to Islam and be exempt from your existing taxes, just like we are."
This is utterly fair, because it is the religion itself that mandated that the Jewish and Christian commoners had to pay taxes to their nobility: Pay to God what belongs to God and to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Since Caesar was now the Muslim conquerors, it meant that they still had to keep paying all their taxes, but now to the Muslim conqueror.
If these Christian commoners wanted to be liberated from these crushing taxes, they simply had to abandon the religion that imposed them. It is exactly the same reasoning as the erstwhile revolutionaries in Europe, including Karl Marx later on: It is the religion itself that mandates oppression, crushing taxes, and unequal man-made law. If you stick to that religion, you also implicitly agree to the consequences of doing that.
That is why no matter who rules the Jews and the Christians, it will always be fair that, concerning the commoners, the new rulers continue the existing regime of crushing, increasing taxes and unequal man-made law in which these commoners will remain commoners with restricted rights. So, why if you ask why are the Christian commoners always being oppressed? You can find the answer is in Christianity itself:
Because that is what they are here for.
Why?
Christianity convinces the lowly scumbag peasants that they should pay taxes and obey to their lords. Pray to the Lord!
Therefore: Why? Because you should give everybody what they ask for (=what they are convinced of).
Hence, I am utterly opposed to the idea that any new rulers would reduce taxes on the Christian commoner or lift the restrictions, inequities, or injustices that exist in their man-made law. It is completely out of the question to do that. They must always be treated in accordance with their own beliefs.