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

The Arab–Islamic Imperialismthe one-fifth share of the booty and slaves went to the treasury of the caliphate. In the post-prophetic era, theMuslim army became a formidable and rarely defeated force; during this time, the examples set by theProphet were meticulously applied albeit on a grander scale. The examples documented by contemporaneousMuslim historians and European travelers recounted above confirm that the prophetic model of imperialconquest and colonial exploitation was consistently, although often with less severity, applied throughout thehistory of Islamic conquests.Like in European colonial rule, the economic exploitation of the vanquished dhimmi subjects and thesiphoning of their wealth and resources to Muslim capitals in foreign lands were a common motive of Islamicconquests and subsequent rules over vast parts of the world. The economic exploitation was the main aim ofthe European colonial powers: the British, Dutch and French. For Islamic colonial expansion, it was thesecondary aim. The primary aim of Islamic imperial expansion, initiated by the Prophet in the name offighting in the cause of Allah, was to spread the Islamic faith over all peoples at all corners of the globe. Theyslaughtered a great multitude of infidels and ruthlessly destroyed their religion, culture and civilization. In thisrespect, the Islamic colonists, like the Portuguese and Spanish, had largely identical aims: religious expansionas well as economic exploitations.THE CULTURAL IMPERIALISM OF ISLAMAllah says in the Quran that He has perfected Islam as a religion and chosen it for all mankind as His favourand proclaimed it to dominate over all other religions:1. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and havechosen for you Islam as your religion. [Quran 5:3]2. It is He Who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaimit over all religion: and enough is Allah for a Witness. [Quran 48:28]Islam, as noted already, is a complete package for humankind, encompassing the religious, social, cultural andpolitical, indeed, every aspect of life and society. Muslims universally believe that Islam is a "complete codeof life". Islam, therefore, is a complete civilizational religion of divine nature. The society of believers—founded by Prophet Muhammad and his early successors, the Rightly Guided Caliphs—in Medina (622–661)was the ideal civilization that must transcend all corners of the world. Allah’s proclamation of Islam over allreligions and peoples must be achieved, as noted already, by the muscles of the believers through Jihad.At the birth of Islam under Muhammad, pre-Islamic civilizations—cultures, customs and religions—became recognized as belong to the age of ignorance (jahiliyah). Those were superseded by the divinelyguided civilization established by Muhammad and his community of believers. Prophet Muhammad actedsingle-mindedly to erase the previous Pagan civilization—namely the religious practices, culture and customsof Arabia, even of his own kinfolk—by giving them the choice of death or Islam in accordance with Allah’scommand in Quran 9:5. As Muslim holy warriors sprang out of Arabia for fighting in the cause of Allah andconquered vast territories, including the world’s greatest civilizations of Persia, Byzantium and India etc., thevanquished peoples suffered extensive destruction of their cultures, customs and religious practices.Therefore, apart from the crushing economic exploitations and terrorizing political exertions, Muslim invadersand rulers caused unprecedented and incalculable cultural and civilizational devastations to humanity.The great pre-Islamic conquerors—namely Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, the Germanicpeoples (Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths etc.) in Europe, and the Sakas and Huns in India—either gotthemselves assimilated in the culture, religion and society of the conquered lands or facilitated a syncreticsynthesis of the conquering and conquered cultures. In the Islamic era, the Mongol invaders also eventuallyassimilated themselves in the civilizations of the conquered peoples: ‘In China and Mongolia, most of them124