Dr. Ahmad Subhi Mansour says: "If Omar bin Khattab has not accepted to impose Jizya tax on Christians, they would have enjoyed equality with the Arabs. Yet Jizya was imposed on them proving they are less significant and second-class citizens. This was the beginning to persecute the Copts in Egypt. They were called Dhimmis, which became an insult for those who refused to convert to Islam.
Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt have carried that description for centuries and suffered for long time because of it. Such despise for the Christians was legalized in Islamic holy books, even by false sayings of Prophet Mohammed.
Christians suffered more under Ottoman rule since they were prevented from riding horses and wearing colorful clothes. They were forced to wear heavy crosses and to have limited names for their children.
However, Muhammad Ali Pasha dropped all those provisions in 1805, and allowed them to build churches, and to enroll in the army, and appointed them in public jobs. In 1855, Mohamed Said Pasha canceled Jizya tax that was imposed on Copts since 641.
In 1856, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Majid made new reforms that were named the Hamayouni creed that included ten points just like the Pact of Umar and the new law of building churches in Egypt.
Jizya tax has come to an end, but the Copts in Egypt are still considered Dhimmis who can’t be treated equally, especially when it comes to building churches. The problem is that the new law in 2016 has come to support the same culture instead of changing it.
