My personal experience with Muslims has been positive. However, I understand the concern some people have.
I'm glad you have had a positive experience! And I also understand the concern that people have but I assure you, just a little reading and understanding of said passage can help clear things right up.
The Quran 9:29 says, “Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.
First of all, you must understand that the Qur'an was revealed over a period of 23 years. The way we derive meaning is from the context of each verse, otherwise the Qur'an will seem 'all over the place'.
This specific verse was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as an instruction to a specific event - what led to the battle of Tabuk. Commenting on the verse, one of the disciples of The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar states:
fight those mentioned when the conditions which necessitate fighting are present, namely, aggression against you or your country, oppression and persecution against you on account of your faith, or threatening your safety and security, as was committed against you by the Byzantines, which was what lead to Tabuk.
You can do this with every single verse in the Qur'an. There are contexts in which each verse is revealed. Just a little research can give you the answers!
Yes! To understand Jizya you also must understand a few things. Just a little research can clear all misconceptions.
See, in Muslim countries, ALL citizens must pay a tax. Muslims must pay a tax called Zakkah. All Muslims must pay an amount
larger than the Jizyah that goes towards the government to maintain economic balance in the society.
However, the government must provide services for all its citizens, including non-Muslims. For example, in the Muslim Shariah (man made laws in an attempt to practice religious law) run country, the government is responsible for building the places of worship for other faiths - like churches and synagogues and temples or what have you. They must maintain them and keep them clean. They must also pay the wages of those working in them - priests, rabbis etc.. The government also mandates that Muslims must enlist in the army fight for their country if threatened but non-Muslims are exempt from this. The Muslims must fight for the minority groups within its borders, and non-Muslims are exempt from this.
So you see, the Jizyah is simply a tax that is
lower than what Muslims must pay and its purpose is to allow non-Muslims to live freely protected by the Muslim army and for the government to provide them services with said money.
It is a lower tax than what Muslims must pay. Kind of like income tax today. We all pay a large portion of our money to allow the government to protect us with its army, to provide healthcare, education and for the government to maintain the country's infrastructure etc.. Nothing new.
This certainly does not speak well of the way the Quran instructs Muslims to treat non-Muslims, especially since there are things that the Quran calls unlawful that Christians do not consider unlawful.
So you see, just a little research can provide all the explanations you need! If people are worried, they should read about it! and do as you have done here ask a Muslim! I hope that answered your worries.
Also, I'm curious as to which things Muslims call unlawful which the Bible itself does consider lawful? This would be interesting to discuss because you'd be surprised what the Bible says.
Also just as a side note, in a Muslim Shariah run country, minority religious groups decide and implement their own laws. For example, alcohol is not allowed in Islam (and getting drunk is forbidden by the Bible), but Christians still drink! In a Muslim Shariah country, Christians can buy and sell their own alcohol. They decide their own laws. Our religious laws do not apply to them.
That is why countries like the United Arab Emirates contain alcohol - they are for non-Muslims. I must note though that, although these countries practice some Shariah laws properly, there are many which they ignore so they are not perfect examples of how a Muslim country should be run.
A perfect example would be Spain that was Muslim for 500 years, or the early days of Islam in Arabia. Look into how those times practiced the Shariah.
