At [1] Opinion Duel (thanks to all who sent this in) there is a revealing debate on this topic between Andrew McCarthy and Mansoor Ijaz. McCarthy is impressively well-informed -- perhaps he has been reading Jihad Watch? -- and politely eviscerates Ijaz's dissembling apologetics.

Dissembling apologetics? You heard me. Ijaz explains Qur'an 9:29 as referring to alms that all must pay, which outrages its obvious and traditional interpretation as mandating a special tax to be levied only on the People of the Book.

Read it all. (It goes from the bottom up.)