The choice in Mali: Pay a tax or lose your home

Christians are being told they have to pay militant groups a tribute, or they’ll be driven out Christians in Mali are reporting ongoing persecution–they’re being forced to pay an Islamic tax … or risk being expelled from their homes and communities.

The tax is called “jizya,” and is a historically a tax paid by non-Muslims to the rulers of Muslim states. However, no country—including Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan—collects jizya in modern times. Additionally Mali, which is ranked No. 14 on Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List — the annual list ranking the 50 places where it’s most difficult to follow Jesus—has a constitution that establishes the country as secular and guarantees freedom of religion.

Despite these realities, there are numerous, on-the-ground reports showing that Christians are being threatened if they do not pay jizya. In August 2024, Open Doors partners in Mali heard from a local pastor in the Dougouténé of southern Mali, where he and other church leaders were summoned to a meeting with Islamic militants. “When we got [to the meeting] they gave us all the new rules everyone in the area must follow,” he said. “They said it was not war, but they wanted to inform us of their intention so that there would be no surprises when they come to attack.”

Some of the rules there were given include:

• All Christians, including pastors, must convert to Islam.
• All must help wage the Islamization war.
• Pay tithing to the militants. Every man, aged 18 to 40 must pay a sum of 5,000 CFA francs (about $8—in a country where the monthly income for many families is less than $80) each year.
• Men and women must dress according to Islamic law.
• Worship may only happen quietly, with no banging on instruments too much or shouting or singing loud.

And now, the Aid to the Church in Need, a Roman Catholic charity, recently reported that reveal Christians over 18 in Douna-Pen village in the Mopti region must pay 25,000 CFA francs (US$ 41) each month in the form of a jizya. That’s more than half the monthly income for many families. “We are supposed to be living in a secular state, where such practices should not take place, but unfortunately this is becoming our new reality,” one Christian told Aid to the Church in Need.

Mali has been wracked by Islamist insurgencies for over a decade. The military government, which seized power in 2021, are struggling with the jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), a militant group that has ties to al-Qaeda. Additionally, across Mali, Burkina-Faso, Niger and Nigeria, terror-linked Islamist extremists carry out attacks against civilians and government forces. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and JNIM all operate alongside one another. Experts speaking to Open Doors believe the group behind the Mali jizya is a small group under the command of JNIM. Security analysts say the convergence of security threats and likely cooperation between terror groups is intensifying.

Open Doors’ analysts believe that the cases emerging in Mali are not isolated, but part of a wider systemic plan.
“Families who refuse, or cannot afford to pay, are driven from their lands—places where they have grown up and lived all their lives,” says Jo Newhouse*, Open Doors spokesperson in sub-Saharan Africa. “The long term physical and emotional impact is devastating.” The jizya in Mali is just one aspect of persecution facing Christians. Violence has led to school closures, food shortages, recruitment of child soldiers and displacement of Christian populations, while Christian missionaries living in Mali face constant threat of abduction. The jizya is also part of the intensifying persecution of Christians in this part of West Africa.

In June, males over the age of 15 in the Niger-Burkina Faso Tillaberi border region were also ordered to begin jizya or convert to Islam.

The persecution in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria is also not limited to West Africa. Across sub-Saharan Africa, God’s people are under attack. Shocking violence has left thousands of believers dead, millions of Christians displaced and millions traumatized. Such a massive problem requires a huge response. That’s why the church in sub-Saharan Africa has partnered with Open Doors to launch the Arise Africa campaign, a multi-year effort to both stop the violence and to start the healing—so African Christians can continue to be resilient, living as salt and light even amidst the hardest circumstances. You can find more information about the campaign, along with a way to add your voice and prayers, by clicking here.

For now, please pray for the believers in Mali who face an awful decision. Ask God to be with them, give them comfort and hope, and help His people to continue to stand for Him even in what seems like an impossible situation.