living tax
IS propaganda about Christians.
Pay or die - this is the choice that the Islamic State offers to Christians in Central Africa through the front page of its newspaper. The latest issue brought attacks against Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique to a head, announcing 150 deaths, which propaganda calls "Christian fighters".
The warrior tag is a technical device here. This is how militants treat villagers who refuse to pay jizya, a tax imposed on non-Muslims. Some villages in the DRC, according to the same reports, pay, and this turns a one-time extortion into a permanent tax on life.
The numbers and details cannot be verified - this is the self-report of the armed men. But the wave of violence is real. Not long ago we documented a new phase of Islamist terrorism against Christians in Ituri district, where dozens of people died a month.
- where politics is hotter than the equator.
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