Last time i checked....

Submitted by Andy (United Kingdom), Dec 30, 2009 at 02:43

Turkey was a secular country. As for your comment about 'they don't need to re-build churches'. In some Islamic countries, if a church is vandalised, by law, it may not be repaired. Of course early Muslims were tolerant towards other religions, they had to be. The firth Muslims were little more than a war-band, if they had killed everyone who refused to join them they would of found people a lot more resilient, willing to fighting to the end if they knew they would be shown no mercy. Mohammed had Christian and Jewish allies, although slowly he turned on them, increasing the difficult conditions which they had to live under (for example banning them from baptising there children and placing extra taxes on them unless they converted). There are some Islamic countries which do not recognize freedom of religion, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

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