Ahl-e-Kitaab / ppl of Book(POB) refer to ppl who were given scriptures before Qur'aan. Irrespective of fact whether those scriptures r in true form or fiddled with.
Being
Mushrik is a seperate issue. Like a Doctor can be male or female. Similarly POB can be a Mushrik
or a non-Mushrik. Even a Muslim can be a Mushrik that's why Prophet Muhammad(saw) said in Hadees that
"Any one of my followers who died without doing Shirk..............." So this proves that even followers of Muhammad can commit Shirk.
In another post of mine i proved that all muslims who seek intercession of "Dead" like of "Ali(ra)" or of "Sufis" or even of Prophet Muhammad(saww) etc etc, ALL r commitig shirk.
So POB can be non-Mushrik e.g.,
(Out of believers of Eesa/Jesus):- Unitarian christians, Sabians, Arians, Messianic Jews
& Jews(Rejectors of Eesa).
& POB can be Mushrik like
Trinitarian Christians.
Like scriptures of Hindus stress on ONEness of God Almighty, still they worship idols, similarly OT & NT stress on ONEness of God still some follow that rightly while others(Trinitarians) take things metaphorical, Literally, that too in selective cases only.
e.g., bible calls son of god to many prophets & angels etc etc, but Trinitarians take it literally ONLY for Eesa.
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Just by the way;
Quran says in one place that we can Marry "Chaste" women
out of POB; while in a prior verse Quran says that we should
NOT marry
"Mushrikeen & Mushrikaat" (Mushrik men & mushrik women).
So to marry a "Trinitarian" either we'll have to believe that they do NOT commit shirk, or we'll have to change definition of "Mushrik".
Another thing is that word
(Muhsinaat) translated as "
Chaste women"
also means "
Righteous/Virtuous women". So this translation implies that "Righteous" will be those
out of POB who don't commit shirk.!!!!!