Q: Did Islam spread by the Sword?

A: No

 

Q: How come if Islam fought wars and people became Muslims after the war not before the war?

A: This is true Muslims had to fight and people entered Islam in masses after Muslims conquered their governments and established an Islamic government instead. However, this doesn’t conflict with the statement that Islam didn’t spread by the sword according to the following logic, facts and evidence

 

1.     Evidence using logic and common scenes

a.       The sword opens a heart and doesn’t open a heart

b.      The person who loves and practice Islam, as well as teach Islam to his children is not the one under the threat of the sword

c.       The following table summarizes the difference between what happened after the Muslim’s invasion versus the typical invasion

 

What Happens after the Invasions?

Invasions done by Muslims

Typical

Invasions

 

Sharing the same constitutional rights with the conquered people

 

Islam orders Muslims to give the conquered people their Koranic (constitutional) rights. The Koranic rights are human based and not religion based. People were allowed to keep their own religions and their Koranic rights. Non Muslims were legally distinguished from Muslims in the following ways:

1)      They were not held accountable to the same moral laws the Muslims are held accountable to, such as eating pork or drinking wine, as long as they are not practiced in shared public spaces

2)      They were exempted from Jihad because Jihad is considered a religious duty

3)      They were exempted from paying the obligatory charity because it is a religious duty and instead they were paying taxes of comparable amounts. Taxes were reasonable and certainly much less than the taxes collected by Uncle Sam today where the dollar is taxed several times before it arrives to your pocket and then taxed again when you use it to buy something.

 

In return, the Islamic law guarantees them the following rights

1)      Respect and protect their worship places. Visit Jerusalem and Cairo and you will see the ancient holly places for both Jews and Christians protected and respected

2)      Equal human rights

3)      Freedom to worship and practice any faith. This particular right was not given to their fellow Muslim citizens where Muslims were not allowed to denounce Islam publicly. If a Muslim decides to abandon Islam, he/she is required to do it without advertising. This law is intended to protect the public from those who play the game of in and out to advertise against Islam. It was not intended to compel Muslims to remain Muslims as people can do whatever they want in the privacy of their homes. In addition, people who move from one place to another can easily declare themselves with different religion in the new place and this will be okay as long as they don’t advertise against Islam.

Conquered people are not given equal rights established by the constitution of the invading nation. They were often treated as slaves or given fewer rights at best. In almost all cases, the conquered people will fight for their freedom because they feel that they are not treated fairly. If the invaders were perceived as liberators, then conquered people will never fight them because they improved their life.

 

Sharing wealth and technology of the invading nation with the conquered nation

 

Muslims shared every thing they had with the invaded nations. When Muslims invaded Iraq, Egypt, Spain, …etc, they made all these countries better than Madina and Makkah, which are their own holly places and the most dear to them. Visit Spain to see the beautiful artistic buildings that Muslims built and note that such buildings don’t exist in Makkah or Madina. Their reputation in doing this made them welcomed as liberators. There was no resistance from the people of conquered nations, after defeating their government using the sword, because they had better life after the Muslim invasion. All invaded nations, except Spain, remained as Muslim nations until today. Spain remained a Muslim nation for 800 years. People of Spain were not the ones to seek independence, but the European armies were victorious in defeating the local Muslim government in Spain. Muslim historians reported that these local Muslim kings became very corrupt and they deserved what they got. Muslims and Jews were later given the choice to leave, get killed or stay and give up their religion. Those who didn’t take Islam/Judaism seriously had no problem to stay and denounce their religion. They were subject to Inquisitions, which is a Christian product and not an Islamic product, to verify their claims. They were also labeled as “fake” Christians and treated less than “true” Christians. All mosques were converted to Churches with no exception. Later, the queen of Spain persecuted and murdered even Christians who didn’t belong to her denomination.

Exploitation of the conquered people and stealing their wealth was done. Imperialism and colonialism were the real motives behind these typical invasions, even if fake moral covers were claimed. This is evident from what happens after the invasion where the invading nations slaved the conquered people, and stole their wealth and natural resources. France stayed in Algeria 140 years and did not make a copy of Paris in Algeria. England stayed in Egypt 70 years and didn’t make Cairo like London, …etc. Instead, Egypt and Algeria were taken advantage of and the people fought for their freedom. 1.5 Million Algerians were killed in the struggle to get their freedom back from France. If the Algerians were given similar constitutional rights and France shared its wealth, technology and equality with them, they would have not killed themselves to gain their freedom back. Such a large indicates that people were dying to get their freedom back.

 

2.     Evidence from History that can be verified today

a.       In the example of Spain, examining the current population of Spain and its history will show that both Muslims and Jews were eliminated from Spain. If Muslims force people to change their religion, then how come the Jews were kicked out only after the Muslims were defeated and not before. If Christianity is more tolerant, then how come Muslims tolerated the Jewish population but Christians didn’t

b.      Is inquisition an Islamic product or a Christian product? Visit the Museums of Spain either physically or online to see the torture machines used during inquisition

c.       Jews in particular were persecuted by many nations. The majority of the Jewish population is often punished for the crimes of the few who cooperate and network like mafia when doing business and they collaborate and conspire based on Jewish Supremacy, i.e. the “chosen people”. Do we have any reports that any Islamic government have ever persecuted Jews? How did Jews enjoy life under the ruling of the Ottoman Islamic empire? How did they enjoy life under the ruling of the Christian Hitler and even in Christian United States when they first arrived?

d.      Visit the Churches in Spain and you see many of them decorated with the Islamic arts and verses from the holly Koran. This decoration was still preserved until today. These churches were Mosques. In return, visit all ancient churches in Egypt and Jerusalem that have been protected and respected by all kinds of Muslim government that ruled both countries for the past 1400 years

e.       15% of the Arabs are deeply rooted Christians whose families have been always Christians since the times of the Romans. How come they were not asked to leave or give up their religion similar to what happened in Spain?

f.        Go back and do some research to find out how did the Latin Americans lost their original language and religion and became Christians who speak Spanish. Find out about the technique of isolating the children from their parents in missionary camps and raise them as Christians who and taught to speak Spanish only. Go and find more about the parents who were placed in labor camps. While you are doing your research about these issues, please go the extra mile to find out if any historian has ever reported a similar technique used by Muslims and find out how come only 17% of today’s Muslims speak Arabic and 83% of them don’t speak any Arabic

g.       g.    Islam spread in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country, through trading only. No military struggle involved at all

 

3.     Evidence from the Koran and from the Islam Law

a.       In the Islamic law, any divorce, contractual agreement, decision, declaration, testimony, etc… that is done under any kind of threat or pressure is nullified

b.      Since the issue of the declaration of faith is the most important, it was emphasized in the Koran that God have the ability to compel people to become Muslims and he decided that this is not the way, then he continues to say, if I decided that this is not the way, then who are you to decide other wise. Koran 10:99. Three different English translations by three different people are presented for the verse in the previous link.

c.       What matters is the heart. Since the heart can’t be compelled, any declarations under threat doesn’t count. Only what the heart admits counts. Koran 16:106

d.      Clear orders in the Koran not to compel in religion. Koran 2:256, 18:29, 50:45, …etc

e.       The job of the Prophet is just the delivery of the message and no more Koran 5:99, 13:40, 42:48, 16,35, 16:82, 24:54, 3:20, 5:92, 29:18, 36:17, 64:12

 

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