From: bv8bv8bv8@gmail.com   
      
   WAS ISLAM SPREAD BY THE SWORD?   
      
      
      
   Refutation of a common myth that states Islam was spread by the sword and that   
   people were forced to become Muslims.   
      
      
   It is a common misconception with some non-Muslims that Islam would not have   
   millions of adherents all over the world, if it had not been spread by the use   
   of force.   
      
   The following points will make it clear, that far from being spread by the   
   sword, it was the inherent force of truth, reason and logic that was   
   responsible for the rapid spread of Islam.   
      
   Islam has always given respect and freedom of religion to all faiths.  Freedom   
   of religion is ordained in the Quran itself:   
      
   “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion.  The right   
   course has become clear from the wrong.”  (Quran 2:256)   
      
   The noted historian De Lacy O’Leary wrote:[1]  “History makes it clear   
   however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and   
   forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the   
   most fantastically absurd myths    
   that historians have ever repeated.”   
      
   The famous historian, Thomas Carlyle, in his book Heroes and Hero worship,   
   refers to this misconception about the spread of Islam: “The sword indeed, but   
   where will you get your sword? Every new opinion, at its starting is precisely   
   in a minority of one;    
   in one man’s head alone.  There it dwells as yet.  One man alone of the whole   
   world believes it, there is one man against all men.  That he takes a sword   
   and tries to propagate with that will do little for him.  You must get your   
   sword! On the whole, a    
   thing will propagate itself as it can.”   
      
   If Islam was spread by the sword, it was the sword of intellect and convincing   
   arguments.  It is this sword that conquers the hearts and minds of people.    
   The Quran says in this connection:   
      
   “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue   
   with them in a way that is best.”  (Quran 16:125)   
      
   The facts speak for themselves   
      
   ·      Indonesia is the country that has the largest number of Muslims in the   
   world, and the majority of people in Malaysia are Muslims.  But, no Muslim   
   army ever went to Indonesia or Malaysia.  It is an established historical fact   
   that Indonesia entered    
   Islam not due to war, but because of its moral message.  Despite the   
   disappearance of Islamic government from many regions once ruled by it, their   
   original inhabitants have remained Muslims.  Moreover, they carried the   
   message of truth, inviting others    
   to it as well, and in so doing endured harm, affliction and oppression.  The   
   same can be said for those in the regions of Syria and Jordan, Egypt, Iraq,   
   North Africa, Asia, the Balkans and in Spain.  This shows that the effect of   
   Islam on the population    
   was one of moral conviction, in contrast to occupation by western   
   colonialists, finally compelled to leave lands whose peoples held only   
   memories of affliction, sorrow, subjugation and oppression.   
      
   ·      Muslims ruled Spain (Andalusia) for about 800 years.  During this   
   period the Christians and Jews enjoyed freedom to practice their respective   
   religions, and this is a documented historical fact.   
      
   ·      Christian and Jewish minorities have survived in the Muslim lands of   
   the Middle East for centuries.  Countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Palestine,   
   Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan all have significant Christian and Jewish   
   populations.   
      
   ·      Muslims ruled India for about a thousand years, and therefore had the   
   power to force each and every non-Muslim of India to convert to Islam, but   
   they did not, and thus more than 80% of the Indian population remains   
   non-Muslim.   
      
   ·      Similarly, Islam spread rapidly on the East Coast of Africa.  And   
   likewise no Muslim army was ever dispatched to the East Coast of Africa.   
      
   ·      An article in Reader’s Digest ‘Almanac’, yearbook 1986, gives the   
   statistics of the increase of the percentage of the major religions of the   
   world in half a century from 1934 to 1984.  This article also appeared in The   
   Plain Truth magazine.  At    
   the top was Islam, which increased by 235%, while Christianity had increased   
   by 47%.  During this fifty-year period, there was no “Islamic conquest” yet   
   Islam spread at an extraordinary rate.   
      
   ·      Today the fastest growing religion in America and Europe is Islam.  The   
   Muslims in these lands are a minority.  The only sword they have in their   
   possession is the sword of truth.  It is this sword that is converting   
   thousands to Islam.   
      
   ·      Islamic law protects the privileged status of minorities, and that is   
   why non-Muslim places of worship have flourished all over the Islamic world.    
   Islamic law also allows non-Muslim minorities to set up their own courts,   
   which implement family    
   laws drawn up by the minorities themselves.  The life and property of all   
   citizens in an Islamic state are considered sacred whether they are Muslims or   
   not.   
      
   Conclusion   
      
   It is clear, therefore, that Islam did not spread by the sword.  The “sword of   
   Islam” did not convert all the non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries.  In   
   India, where Muslims ruled for 800 years, they are still a minority.  In the   
   U.S.A., Islam is the    
   fastest growing religion and has over six million followers.   
      
   In his book The World’s Religions, Huston Smith discusses how the prophet   
   Muhammad granted freedom of religion to the Jews and Christians under Muslim   
   rule:   
      
   The Prophet had a document drawn up in which he stipulated that Jews and   
   Christians “shall be protected from all insults and harm; they shall have an   
   equal right with our own people to our assistance and good offices,” and   
   further, “they shall practice    
   their religion as freely as the Muslims.”[2]   
      
   Smith points out that Muslims regard that document as the first charter of   
   freedom of conscience in human history and the authoritative model for those   
   of every subsequent Muslim state.   
      
      
   Footnotes:   
   [1] In his book Islam at the Crossroads, p.8.   
   [2] Quoted in The World’s Religions by Huston Smith, Harper Collins, 1991, p.   
   256   
      
   http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/677/   
      
   thank you   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)