Islams history of violently subjugating

Submitted by David Nelson (United States), Jul 31, 2002 at 13:58

Our American ahistorical viewpoint prevents us from seeing things as they really are. Even in a nation with a Christian heritage we are all but incapable of seeing historical Christianity as anything but feudal and Roman, when the reality was quite different and is publicly available in any number of books. We're even MORE ignorant about Islam.

We forget, for instance, that most of today's Islamic lands were once predominantly Christian. Most of these were Orthodox Christian, not Roman. Where did these thriving Christian populations go? The Koranic teaching on dealing with subject peoples [dhimmi] led to a political status that was almost subhuman and in some places continues to this day. Wives and daughters carried off for sexual pleasure, children taken as tribute and forcibly converted to Islam, whole towns enslaved, property taken away, back-breaking taxation, poverty, murder, rape, environmental devastation, etc. were apparently common. It was a human rights disaster area, even as it's reported in the Muslim literature (see compilations thereof by Bat Ye'or).

We can argue all we want about what Islam will do or must do, but Islam is an amalgam of something like 73 sects. How many of them have renounced the bloodthirsty history of jihad and dhimmitude? All I hear is a deafening silence, mixed with some sarcastic snickering as we beg them to be nice.

Islam spread when its princes became rich and powerful (through conquest and slavery) and its opposition became weak through stupidity, infighting, and decadence. Let's not do them any more favors, ok?

Muslim armies were eventually turned back from the walls of Vienna on September 12, 1683. If they had captured it Europe would have finally been vanquished and Western civilization as we know it would have been erased.

We need to focus on rejuvenating our American culture and liberating it from Muslim-controlled oil, not wishing the Muslims would be different from whatever they choose to be.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".