Islam and Tolerance (In response to Rakshas 10 Anan)

Submitted by The Scholar (United States), Nov 13, 2005 at 14:33

Posted 11/13/05

You gave us your opinion but you have failed to address any of the points I mentioned in my last post. Does this mean you have nothing to say and have thus decided to simply generalize and throw accusations around? Please read my previous messages and check the quotations I included. The claim that Islam does not tolerate other religions has already been discussed and unless you can discredit the references I used, I do not see how you can add to this!

I would really advise you to study history before you start attacking Islam and let me repeat again a few sections from my last post in case you have missed them:

Talking about non-Muslim citizens, Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) said "He who abuses a dhimmi [non-Muslim citizen] then I will be his rival and dispute him on the Day of Judgment."

Now let us know if other major religions have similar teachings! What about Christianity and, Judaism??

Quoting from encyclopedia Wikipedia "Many non-Muslims used to live with Muslims under the banner of Islam for almost thirteen centuries. Throughout those periods non-Muslims used to have the same high standard of living as the Muslims did. They enjoyed equal rights, prosperity, happiness, tranquility and security.

With regards to the coexistence of other religions within Islamic socities, the same source says "most pre-Islamic religious minorities continue to exist in their native countries, a fact which is in glaring contrast to the extinction of Muslim minorities in Europe at the time of the Renaissance." And then add "Religious persecution is also not sanctioned by Islam, although a few occurrences are known in history, but are mostly due to cruel rulers, or general economic hardships in the societies they are in."

Gibbon (the great historian) discredited the claim that Islam spread with the sword and said that these accusations are based on "ignorance and bigotry". He then added that this is refuted by "Quran, by history of Musalman conquerors and by their public and legal toleration of Christian worship." He then continues to say that "the great success of Mohammad's life had been effected by sheer moral force, without a stroke of sword". Thomas Carlyle also wrote in"Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History" in 1840: "The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only." And then he adds that "A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world, the world's Maker had ordered so." James Michener in ‘Islam: The Misunderstood Religion,' (Reader's Digest, May 1955, pp. 68-70) wrote: "No other religion in history spread so rapidly as Islam. The West has widely believed that this surge of religion was made possible by the sword, but no modern scholar accepts this idea, and the Qur'an is explicit in the support of the freedom of conscience."

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