www.jihadwatch.org – Al-Haqiqah in Arabic, a web site published by the opposition France-based Syrian National Council for Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation, on 9 April publishes a 1,300-word “exclusive” report saying that Al-Faruq Battalion, which is affiliated with the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), is imposing Jizyah (an extra tax imposed on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule) on Christians in Homs Governorate. The report also says that “hundreds of Pakistani armed men” arrived in Homs to fight against the regular Syrian Army. The report cites “Syrian citizens in a number of [Christian] villages in Wadi al-Nasara, which is part of Tal Kalakh district in Homs Governorate,” saying that “armed men from the Wahhabi Al-Faruq Battalion, which is active in Homs and its districts, have started

Asking the residents of those villages to pay Jizyah and Kharaj.” Kharaj is the Islamic term for property tax. The report says: “This is the first action of its kind since the Syrian uprising started, or at least since it turned into an ‘armed Islamic revolution’ and the Islamists dominated the street a few months ago.”

The report cites citizens from those Christian villages saying that armed men from the said battalion force citizens to pay the Islamic taxes and threaten to kidnap or kill them or members of their families if they refuse to comply. One citizen is cited saying that “the countryside of the city of Tal Kalakh is now under the mercy of the armed Al-Faruq Battalion members, who are freely roaming the region as if they were the state’s security and administrative agency.” He says some of those who refused to pay Jizyah had their sons kidnapped or killed. The report, citing this unidentified man, says: “He estimated the number of people who were kidnapped in the region because they refused or were unable to pay Jizyah at more than 20. He said that while there is absolutely no news about some of them, others are certainly kept in detention centres the armed men created in Ammar al-Husn village, which turned into an operation headquarters for the armed men and their authority in the region.”…

The report also cites “very reliable local sources” saying that Dayr B’albah district in Homs and the nearby town of Tir M’allah “are now full of Pakistani fighters.” The report adds: “This is the first time fundamentalist Pakistani fighters are reported in any of the Arab or Islamic countries that witnessed an influx of foreign Jihadists. The sources explained the presence of these fighters in Syria by saying that almost all of them came from Turkey and Europe, particularly the UK, which has a large Pakistani community numbering millions. This community was and still is the biggest reservoir for fundamentalist fighters outside the Islamic world.” The report adds: “The sources said local and Arab armed men, in addition to the residents of the two towns, complain of the difficulty to communicate with these Pakistani mujahidin, as none of them knows Arabic. The two towns are among the most conservative and fanatic regions in Syria. They were an important source for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Combatant Vanguard during the crisis of the eighties.”