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

Islamic Jihadbeasts of prey. The tract was freed from idols and idol worship and the foundations of infidelity weredestroyed.’ 438In Aibak’s expedition to Benares, ‘which was the centre of the country of Hind… here they destroyednearly one thousand temples, and raised mosques on their foundations; and the knowledge of the law (Sharia)became promulgated, and the foundations of religion were established,’ adds Nizami. 439 In January 1197,Qutbuddin Aibak advanced against Nahrwala, the capital of Gujarat and ‘fifty thousand infidels weredispatched to hell by the sword and from the heaps of the slain, the hills and the plains became of one level’and ‘more than twenty thousand slaves, and cattle beyond all calculation fell into the hands of the victors.’ 440On Aibak’s brilliant achievement in the expedition to Kalinjar in 1202, records Nizami: ‘The temples wereconverted into mosques... and the voices of summoners to prayer ascended to the highest heaven and the veryname of idolatry was annihilated.’ ‘Fifty thousand came under the collar of slavery and the plain becameblack as pitch with Hindus,’ continues Nizami. 441 On the Ghaurivid invasions, notes Nehru: ‘These Muslimswere fierce and cruel to begin with… The first effect of Muslim invasion was an exodus of people to thesouth… when the new invasions came and could not be checked, crowds of skilled craftsmen and learned menwent to southern India.’ 442These examples of mass slaughter of the hapless Hindus, their enslavement and forced conversion toIslam in large numbers, the destruction of countless Hindu temples and their replacement with mosques andthe wholesale looting and plundering of their wealth were not isolated examples. Instead, they were thestandard practice in the numerous conquests and wars, which became a familiar feature in India throughoutthe Islamic rule. Sultan Alauddin Khilji (r. 1296–1316) and Muhammad Shah Tughlaq (1325–1351) weregreat persecutors and exploiters of the infidels of India. Sultan Firoz Tughlaq (1351–88) was the kindestamongst Delhi Sultans. He was very careful when his wars put lives of Muslims, whether of his side or hisopponent’s, in danger. Still, in his campaign to Bengal, records Shiraj Afif, ‘The heads (of the slain Bengalis)were counted and amounted to rather more than 180,000.’ 443All earlier Muslim rulers had exempted the Brahmans from jizyah payment. But a zealously piousMuslim that Sultan Firoz was, thinking that this was a religious error and that ‘the Brahmans were the verykeys of the chamber of idolatry,’ he imposed jizyah on them as well. 444 He staunchly suppressed idol-worshipand destroyed many Hindu temples. He appointed spies to inform him about idol-worship and building oftemples in his kingdom. He records many instances of his destroying Hindu temples and murdering thepriests. In one instance, he writes in his memoir, Futuhat-I Firoz Shahi: ‘(Hindus) now erected idol temples inthe city and in the environs in opposition the Law of the Prophet which declares that such temples are not tobe tolerated. Under Divine guidance, I destroyed these edifices and killed those leaders of infidelity whoseduced others into error, and lower orders I subjected to stripes and chastisement, until this abuse wasentirely abolished.’ 445 In another instance, he received information that the Hindus had erected a new idoltemplein the village of Kohana; they assembled in it and performed their religious rites. He records: ‘Iordered that the perverse conduct of the leaders of this wickedness should be publicly proclaimed and thatthey should be put to the death before the gate of the palace. I also ordered that the infidel books, the idols,and the vessels used in their worship… should all be publicly burned. The others were restrained by threats438. Ibid, p. 224439. Ibid, p. 223440. Ibid, p. 230441. Ibid, p. 231442. Nehru (1989), p. 208–9443. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. III, p. 297444. Ibid, p. 366445. Ibid, p. 380149