Re: Most Persecuted Religions in History
Hinduism does not support discrimination based on caste. Like the sufis , hindus too have many sages and saints who are venerated even today and belonged to “lower castes”. Hindus do not care for the caste of a saint/sage as long as they get spiritual fulfillment. Heck, Hinduism does not even support anything like a caste system. What it has is “Varna” which is different from jati (caste) which is man made. Varna is roughly similar to western class system of middle, aristocrat, business and working classes and is a artificial/intellectual classification of society. The religion does not even endorse discrimination based on varna either. Many scholars believe that the system of jati that we have now emerged only about a thousand years ago. To blame hinduism for the man-made caste system is wrong and is similar to blaming Islam for say the female genital mutilation followed by many African muslims or blaming buddhism for the chinese tradition of footbinding.
Having said that, even if “lower castes” converted to escape the “evil caste system”, what did they really gain ? They traded being oppressed and hindu to being opressed and muslim. If you say caste system in Islam is because of Hindu influences, what is preventing the muslims from disassociating with it. Why is there no well known fatwa banning caste system and promoting inter-marriage between various castes , ashraf and ajlaf based on compatibility ofcourse. So a syed should not have a problem marrying a untouchable convert who can support his family well.