| > it is very rarely an "optional" charity. It's not optional, not even rarely. It's important to understand the system that you're arguing against. > as a penalty for their refusal to accept Islam, That's your words. As I said, it's not imposed non non-fighters (women, children, elderly, and priests, among others). Fighter aged men got waived for serving in the army. > Having a practice persist today isn't necessarily an argument that it's a good practice, or even a morally acceptable one Who defines morals? We've seen the supposed morality of the west, on full display now especially after the epestein fiasco. > too convert to a state religion That's beside the point. There are many other "discriminatory" practices in present day secular nation states if you're going down that route. Some of these are fundamental to how states are run. > to fund an Islamic state You just assumed that (1) funding is the main goal, and (2) Jizya is able to support the system, even though I explained it was much less than today's income + sales taxes, which as we see, are not able to support the usurious financial system. More claims without evidence. > it's the exact same defense Christians use to wave away the violent commands in their own scriptures Apples to oranges. You literally snipped the text without reading the text that came before or after it. This is disengenuous. The small image I posted literally cites the text before and after it, and you explicitly admitted that you refused to read it. > The words are right there on the page. Exacltly, and you refused to read them. > Doesn't change Islamic States can be, too But not because they're Islamic. > I don't need "qualifications" to engage in this conversation, besides understanding language Totally incorrect (and you also showed you didn't understand the language). Please go educate yourself on how Islamic Scholars deduce rules (e.g. Fiqh, etc.). Language is one aspect of a whole curriculum. Ironically, it is this way of thinking that gave rise to certain fringe groups I'm sure you're quite aware of, and not just in Islam. > that pious Islamic beliefs are fundamentally incompatible with traditional Western values - and we should conduct ourselves accordingly. Yes, and we maintain that is a good thing, very clearly so given where the world is heading especially these days. > Have a good one! You too. |