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

Islamic Jihadimperialist. Although, the Umayyads exploited the doctrine of Jihad for their conquest, they never tookserious interest in propagating the religion of Muhammad; instead, they opposed the conversion of thevanquished as discussed already.Abu Sufyan, unlike Muhammad, was an elite and the leader of Mecca; his family was one of themost educated in the city. It is during the Umayyad dynasty, the descendants of Abu Sufyan, that interest inthe battered creative pursuits—in art and architecture, music and poetry, science and learning—were slowlyrevived. Later on, the persianized Abbasids further propped up and expanded these initiatives, ushering in thegolden age of the medieval Muslim world.The Muslim world had, indisputably, excelled over the rest between the ninth and the twelfthcentury. This is because Muslims had overrun the world’s greatest civilizations—Egypt, Persia, India and theLevant—incorporating their wealth, brains and accumulated intellectual treasure. The Hellenic civilization,following the trail of Alexander’s conquest, had moved eastwards from Greece to Alexandria and the Levant.Thus, the intellectual treasure of classical Greece also became incorporated into the Islamic world. Europe,battered by the so-called Barbarians from the North—the Vandals, Goths, Vikings etc.—and underobscurantist Christian influence, had sunk into darkness. Under these circumstances, which else could be theleading civilization of the world? After the initial battering by zealous Muslims, the vigorous pre-Islamiccivilizations, which Islam had devoured, revived themselves in the vast Islamic world. It was not Arabs, butthe Persians, Indians, Greeks and Levantines—many of them non-Muslims—who rejuvenated and nurturedintellectual and material endeavors in the Muslim world. The translation of foreign manuscripts, which wascentral for the medieval Islamic world’s excellence, was already occurring in pre-Islamic Persia. And in theMuslim period, the translations—patronized by the Godless Umayyads and wayward persianized Abbasids—were done entirely by non-Muslim scholars, mostly Christians; none of the translators were Muslims. Giventhe prohibition of the Islamic theology to many of these endeavors, little credit should go to Islam for themedieval Muslim world’s excellence; it must go to the pre-Islamic civilizations that Islam had violentlyappropriated and internalized.CALLING THE COLONIES HOMEIt is true that, everywhere Muslims went as invaders, they sought to make the place their home, which has notalways been the case with the European colonists. But, it was only expected of Muslims because Allahcommands them to conquer the world and make it Islamic in all respect. Allah made Muslims the inheritor ofthe earth. It was, therefore, incumbent upon Muslims to wrestle the ownership the world from non-Muslims.Unlike the European colonists, Muslims became the owner of the foreign lands they conquered (all Schools ofIslamic laws also affirm this); they could not return those lands to previous owners. The Muslim invaders’love for the conquered lands was so great that they have completely destroyed the indigenous culture,tradition and people forever in many cases. Muslims see this as an object of pride, as Hashmi boastfully says,‘unlike the British invaders, Muslim rulers considered India home.’ In praise of this trait of the Musliminvaders, Nehru similarly writes: ‘Their dynasties became Indian dynasties, and there was a great deal ofracial fusion by intermarriage… They looked to India as their home country and had no other affiliations.’On the other hand, says Nehru, ‘The British remained outsiders, aliens and misfits in India…’ 421Like Muslims, many European settlers in Africa, the Americas and Australasia have made the formercolonies their home, too. Muslims see their settlement in the conquered lands as an object of pride, andreceive praise for it from many quarters. But the European settlers often receive opposite reactions; instead ofpraise, they receive suspicion, contempt and even violence. This may appear rather perplexing, but there ismore to add. In many conquered lands where Muslims have become the majority population, they generally421. Nehru (1946), p. 233-34141