Re: Convert to Islam or die!
Unfortunately this is not the whole truth.
Compulsion was used to convert non-muslims where ever Muslims defeated them. Perhaps the first generation of converts were inwardly unhappy, but the subsequent brainwashing of their children & their children by the mullahs in mosques ensured a steady growth of adherants.
Even the Sikh religious history is full of offers of pardons if the Gurus or their children converted. They were all put to death because they refused.
Compulsion was used by heavily taxing the non-muslims, the Muslim converts & their children were used in the army & for running of the state, Hindus being second class citizens were denied these job (ofcourse unless they converted).
The kings like Akbar who were secular - were the wise ones and with unity between Hindus & Muslims there was prosperity & happiness in the country. Aurangzeb tried to quickly & forcibly try to convert the country by harsh methods - all this lead to revolts by the Hindus and lead to the weakening of the Mugals rule.
There will be 1000's of history books saying that Islam was spead by the 'sword', yet most muslims want to live in 'self denial' and keep convincing themselves contrary to the truth.
Malhot: You seem to be an educated and knowledgeable person; at least you can read and type, right? You claimed something. So please justify your claim logically and educate us. You can do that by giving logical answer to few questions below and do not start writing absurd. Believe me, if your answer would be logical I would accept that.
It is clear from Quran that Islam forbids force conversion. That is part of Islamic teaching, still you are insisting that force was used to sprad Islam. No doubt that a human could behave differently, even against their religion, so let me mention the question and see what could be your answer, as I would love to know to get convinced to what you are trying to claim. I would expect intelligent and logical answer from you. If you would try to evade the questions or give absurd answer than I would believe that you are nothing but mentally brainwashed idiot (sorry to say that … bura na manna :))
Over 350 million Muslims live in Burma, South East Asia, Korea and China. That is more than quarter of World Muslim population. Now tell us who went to Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Philippine, Thailand, China, Mongolia, etc to convert them to Islam?
Apart of North Africa (and Zanzibar), what I know is that Muslims never occupied any part of Africa by force. Over 350 million Muslims live in those part of Africa that I believe never came under Muslim occupation. So, can you tell me how they embraced Islam? What force Muslims used to convert them to Islam?
Above two areas consist of around or probably more than 50 percent of World Muslim population.
Muslims ruled Northern India including Indian Gujarat for over 1200 years. What was wrong or lacking with Muslim force that even after ruling them for that long and forcing them, still majority are not Muslims. Don’t you think that even if Muslims were not using force but giving some incentive, it would have been an easy task to convert those malnourished untouchable Indians, victim of being treated like dogs and pigs by Hindus in their own homeland, into Islam where they get equal rights and equal status? So what happened?
Forget caste Hindus, why Islam could not even force those poor and discarded untouchables, who are not even allowed to sit with Hindus of any caste, and even their’s shadow could make Hindus unclean and could result in getting them poor hacked or burned to death? Why Muslims could not even force them to Islam, what happened?
Aurangzeb who you so much love to refer as ruler that used force to spread Islam, ruled Northern India (including Gujarat for 50 years, from 1707 to 1757). What happened? Even in that 50 years Aurangzeb could not managed to convert those untouchables to Islam by force or incentives? What sort of ineffective force or incentives was that, it was not working? Do you know that spread of Islam in India (especially amongst untouchables) happened during British rule more than during 1200 years of Muslim rule prior to British rule?
Muslims ruled Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq since last 1400 years, so can you please tell us that what went wrong that Muslims could not get them all converted to Islam by force? As even today these areas have substantial numbers of Christians.
What about Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Romania, Greece, Macedonia, Armenia, Georgia, Cyprus … all were under Muslim occupation for hundreds of years, so what stopped Muslims to use force and get them converted to Islam, as unfortunately none of these countries even have Muslim majority?
What about Spain and Portugal, where Muslim ruled for 100s of years and they could not force convert them to Islam, as today Muslims are negligible in Spain and Portugal (and most Muslim population today in those areas are because of recent immigration). How that happened even when Muslims were using force in religion?
On contrary, what about Christians? Wherever they went they converted most of population to Christianity within few years of their rule (exception is lands they occupied from Muslim or they had Muslims as their adversaries). South America, Central America, North America and many sub-Sahara African countries are their exploits of forcing religion, in the name of ‘white man burden’. Philippine, New Zealand, Australia, Papua and New Guinea, are some of their other forced exploits where Christian army went and then their church followed.
Though I believe that English were lest enthusiastic about spreading Religion by force, still they did at places (like North American, Australia and New Zealand). Actually, I think that if English had not taken over Power in India from Muslims, or that if subcontinent did not had substantial presence of Muslims, most likely India would have been a Christian country today.
In the end, can you please explain that why Islam is the fasted growing religion today, even in western countries (not amongst hippies and loonies but amongst intellectuals, achievers, powerful, and educated)? Can you please tell us that what force or incentives Muslims are using to achieve that?
