ISIS makes Mosul's Christians pay $250 poll tax amid economic hardships

An Iraqi Christian woman leaves a church in Tal Kaeef north of Mosul. AP

ISIS is forcing Christians in Mosul to pay the jizya tax for non-Muslims.

The militant group has imposed a minimum payment of $250 on Christians in the city, according to Salama Al Khafaji, a member of the Council of the High Commission for Human Rights in Iraq.

The AINA news agency was quoting Arabic language website, Alsumaria News, in its report in which Al Khafaji explained that the amount Christians have to pay will vary depending on their profession.

"The economic situation in Mosul is extremely difficult, and there are no financial resources or job opportunities except for vegetable shops, any other businesses are non-existent," she said.

"Citizens are at a loss now as to how to make ends meet; how can they pay those amounts to ISIS?"

The AINA news agency posted another disturbing report to its site of people in Mosul and other ISIS-controlled areas being forced to send their unmarried women to "jihad by sex".

The report included an image of the original decree in Arabic in which ISIS threatens punishment for those who do not obey their order.

"After liberation of the State of Nineveh, and the welcome shown by the people of the state to their brotherly mujahideen, and after the great conquest, and the defeat of the Safavid [Persian] troops in the State of Nineveh, and its liberation, and Allah willing, it will become the headquarters for the mujahideen," it states.

"Therefore we request that the people of this state offer their unmarried women so that they can fulfill their duty of jihad by sex to their brotherly mujahideen. Failure to comply with this mandate will result in enforcing the laws of Sharia upon them."

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