A Critique of Robert Spencer’s Views Regarding Dhimmis and Jizya

The following research paper is an academic and historical study of Robert  Spencer’s views about Dhimmis and Jizya. According to Robert Spencer, dhimmis are treated like ‘guilty’ people and subjected to biased and stringent conditions. Furthermore, he believes that there is an entire system of regulations that institutionalize an inferior status for non-Muslims in Islamic law. This paper is an academic effort, aiming to prove that Islam does not treat non-Muslim citizens as inferior and second class citizens nor imposes unbearably rigorous taxes on them. It consists of two parts: the first deals with Robert Spencer’s views regarding Dhimmis and the second part takes into account his views about Jizya. In this connection, all his views and allegations have been taken into consideration and an attempt has been made to absolve Islam of such groundless allegations.

Studying the Role of Seed Size and Seed Priming on Wheat Productivity in Conservation Tillage With Different Row Spacing

Wheat crop is cultivated in multifaceted cropping system. Maximum wheat crop is being cultivated in rice-wheat and cotton-wheat cropping systems. In both cropping systems, prolonged maturity and poor residue management delays wheat sowing. Late plantation affected significant yield potential every year. No-tillage cultivation practice is the appropriate approach to meet the delayed sowing yield gap. Keeping in view, the study was planned with two experiments to evaluate the productivity and profitability of wheat crop planted under no-tillage conditions and different row spacings. In first experiment, the role of seed priming and seed size on wheat productivity in conservation tillage was evaluated. Seed of different sizes (viz. bold, medium and small) treated with hydropriming, osmopriming and unprimed seed (untreated seed) were sown under no-tillage and conventional tillage. The observations were made on stand establishment, morphological, allometric and yield related traits. Primed seed improved stand establishment traits with both tillage systems specifically bold primed seed performed significantly in no-tillage system both years. Similarly, primed seed crop significantly improved all morphological and yield related traits of wheat. While bold osmoprimed seed significantly influenced on all yield related traits, productive tiller, 1000 grain weight, and grain yield during both the growing seasons. In second experiment, graded seed sizes (viz. bold, medium and small) treated with hydropriming and osmopriming and no-priming (untreated seed) were sown in 22.5 cm and 30 cm spaced rows apart. Observations on stand establishment, morphological and yield related traits were recorded following standard procedures. There was no significant influence of row spacing for stand establishment traits during both the years. However, seed size was significantly affected all stand establishment. Similarly, seed priming treatments also significantly improved germination in both year of study. Row spacing at 22.5 cm apart improved plant height, spike length was recorded during both year of study. However spikelet per spike was recoded non-significant under all row spacing of wheat. All morphological traits were significantly affected by seed sizes. There was no influence of row spacing on productive tillers per sq meter, number of grain and grain yield during both year of study. However, influence of row spacing was found statistically significant on 1000 grain weight and biological yield. Bold osmoprimed seed perform better in 22.5 cm apart rows compared to 30 cm spaced planted crop. While primed seed significantly improved productive tiller, 1000 grain weight biological yields and grain yield in both row spacings.