islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

The Arab–Islamic Imperialismthem until they are subdued and subjugated to Muslim rule [Quran 9:29]. This way Muslims must completethe establishment of an imperial Islamic state of global expanse.The global imperial Islamic state also has a colonial dimension of economic exploitation and gains.Allah commands Muslims to plunder the wealth of the infidels in Jihadi wars as sacred booty: ‘(Allah)inherited you their land, their homes, their money, and lands you had never stepped on. God is able to do allthings’ [Quran 33:27]. Allah not only commands Muslims to plunder booty, He also takes a share of it: ‘Andknow that out of all the booty that ye may acquire (in war), a fifth share is assigned to Allah and hisMessenger…’ [Quran 8:41]. Furthermore, Allah commands Muslims to impose taxes upon the defeated andsubjugated dhimmi subjects, the Jews and Christians etc. [Quran 9:29], for enriching the coffer of the Islamicstate.Therefore, the Quran evidently outlines a module for the establishment of a colonial state of globalexpanse, albeit of divine nature. Prophet Muhammad had meticulously acted upon every command of Allahand established, with Allah’s unfurling assistance, a prototypical model of Islamic rule, which was ideallycolonial and imperial in nature. He came to Medina with his followers from a foreign land as refugees. Hesoon established a foreign rule and an Islamic state in Medina by exterminating the non-submissive Jewishtribes one after another, while the Pagans—through coercion or the lure of booty—became assimilated intohis militant religious community. Once the foreign Islamic rule was established in Medina, it became thelaunching-pad for further conquest and imperial expansion beyond its borders.The ideal example of establishing a colonial rule by Prophet Muhammad was the conquest ofKhaybar. Under no provocation, he led a large Muslim army against Khaybar in May 628. After defeating theJews, he put the men of fighting-age to death, captured their wealth and treasures, and carried away theirwomen and children as slaves. The surviving Jewish men (the old ones) were spared and allowed to tend theirlands. The Prophet imposed upon them a heavy tax, 50 percent of the produce, to be remitted into the overseastreasury of the Islamic state, based in Medina. But this arrangement was to continue until Muslims werecapable of taking possession of the Khaybar lands by themselves. The second Caliph Omar (d. 644) laterexpelled the Jews altogether in accordance with the Prophet’s last wishes.Similarly, Allah granted the "women, children, and flocks" of the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes ‘asbooty to His Messenger, who divided the spoils among those Quraysh who had recently embraced Islam,’records al-Tabari. 342 By the time Muhammad died, he had established a nascent Islamic empire in the ArabianPeninsula by expanding colonial Islamic domination over the Christian, Jewish and Pagan strongholds.Whenever, he conquered a foreign land by the force of arms or by threats—the people, particularly theidolaters, were converted to Islam on the pain of death, their religious institutions were destroyed, andrestrictions were imposed on their religious and cultural practices. Most of all, he plundered the wealth andtreasures, including enslaving the women and children of the vanquished, and imposed taxes, namely jizyahand kharaj, upon them. This was a perfect template of colonial rule, involving both economic exploitationsand socio-cultural degradations to the extreme.Muhammad’s conquest of Khaybar was evidently a perfect example of conquering a foreign land forestablishing a colonial rule. The difference between the prophetic and later European models of colonial ruleis that the Europeans, in most instances, did not enslave the women and children of the conquered lands andsend them to the imperial capitals of Europe. Secondly, the Europeans probably never evicted the entirepopulation from the lands they conquered and colonized.This ideal model of imperial expansion and colonial exploitation established by Prophet Muhammadwas, after his death, embraced by his immediate successor caliphs and later Muslim rulers throughout theentire period of medieval Islamic domination. Within two decades of Muhammad’s death, the powerfulPersian Empire was under the feet of Islam, while Byzantium, the most powerful empire of the time, had lost342. al-Tabari, Vol. IX, p. 3114