Thanks for a great article

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 12, 2020 at 15:45

Dear Dr Pipes, Thanks for the article entitled ""Godless Saracens Threatening Destruction" on your blog. It is true that within 200 years (or less) the barbaric militant movement called Islam reached as far east as India and as far west as Europe. Muhammad invented the idea that a perfect recipe for armed victory is to adapt religious ideas from the scriptures of that time (Jewish ideas, in this case), marry them with the most brutal militaristic ideas known at that time (Q 5-33). and hand them over to rogue chieftains of that time to conquer anything they wanted to conquer. Such a combination can always be violent for victories but is free to fall back on the scripture to prove that it is noble.

Western culture of that time was advanced enough to at least record what happened (the records that you researched and quoted in your article). Cultures in the east were too busy advancing non-violent doctrines. And, they were too idealistic to claim credit for written thoughts, records, and ideas. So they did not record anything. For Muslim armies conquering Sindh to Bengal must have been a cake walk. The Indian records of that time are mostly scanty and, in most cases, written by the conqueror who saw nothing wrong in what they did (perhaps based on Q5-33 and other such verses).

Islam is a religion of over a billion people. These followers will genuinely ignore the violent side of Islam and advertise the good side. We cannot change this fact. But we can force Muslims to adopt separation of church and state. If the quran had not followed the sword in Islamic history, Islam might have been a small local religious movement and, perhaps, a good one.

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