Ibn Warraq - Why I Am Not a Muslim

The Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects 221
to nullify the virtue of the act. Henceforth grant pardon to no one of the enemy
and spare none of them, or else all 'will consider you a weakminded man.
Concluded with compliments. Written by Nafia in the year ninety-three.
Later, Hajjaj returns to the same theme: "My distinct orders are that all those
who are fighting men should be assassinated, and their sons and daughters
imprisoned and retained as hostages." Obedient to a fault, Qasim, on his arrival
at the town of Brahminabad, "ordered all the men belonging to the military classes
to be beheaded with swords. It is said that about 6000 fighting men were massacred
on this occasion, some say 16000. The rest were pardoned."
Mahmud of Ghazni (971-1030)
The real conquest of India by the Muslims dates from the beginning of the eleventh
century. In A.D. 1000, the head of a Turco-Afghan dynasty, Mahmud of Ghazni,
first passed through India like a whirlwind, destroying, pillaging, and massacring.
He justified his actions by constant references to the Koranic injunctions to kill
idolaters, whom he had vowed to chastise every year of his life. As Vincent Smith
put it, "Mahmud was a zealous Muslim of the ferocious type then prevalent,
who felt it to be a duty as well as pleasure to slay idolaters. He was also greedy
of treasure and took good care to derive a handsome profit from his holy wars."
In the course of seventeen invasions, in the words of Alberuni, the scholar brought
by Mahmud to India: "Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country,
and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms
of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the
people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion
toward all Muslims." 445
Mahmud began by capturing King Jaipal in the Punjab, then invaded Multan
in 1004. On conquering the district of Ghur, he forcibly converted the inhabitants
to Islam. Mahmud accumulated vast amounts of plunder from the Hindu temples
he desecrated, such as that of Kangra.
Mathura, the holy city of Krishna, was the next victim. "In the middle of the
city there was a temple larger and finer than the rest, which can neither be
described nor painted." The Sultan [Mahmud] was of the opinion that 200 years
would have been required to build it. The idols included five of red gold, each
five yards high," with eyes formed of priceless jewels.
"The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha
and fire, and levelled with the ground." Thus perished works of art which must
have been among the noblest monuments of ancient India. 446
At the battle of Somnath, the site of another celebrated Hindu temple, 50,000
were killed as Mahmud assuaged his lust for booty.
Mahmud was equally ferocious with those whom he considered heretics, such