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

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?When the Jews of Medina obstructed the propagation of the universal message of Islam, the Prophetattacked them, exiled the Banu Qaynuqa and Nadir tribes and slaughtered the men of Banu Qurayza andenslaved their women and children. When Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem in 638, the devastation andpillage was so extensive that, the next year, ‘thousands died as a result of famine and plague consequent tothe destruction and pillage.’ During the Muslim campaigns of 634, ‘the entire region between Gaza andCaesarea was devastated; four thousand peasants—Christians, Jews and Samaritans who were simplydefending their lands—were massacred. During the campaign of Mesopotamia between 635 and 642 CE,monasteries were sacked, monks killed and Monophysite Arabs executed or forced to convert. In Elam, thepopulation was put to the sword…’ 140In Muhammad bin Qasim’s first successful foray into India, as recorded by al-Biladuri andMuhammad al-Kufi (in Chachnama): at Debal, ‘the temples were demolished, a general massacre enduredfor three days; prisoners were taken captive;’ at Nairun, ‘the idols were broken, and mosques founded despiteits voluntary surrender;’ at Rawar and Askalanda, ‘all the men in arms were put to the sword, and the womenand children carried away captive;’ at Multan, ‘all men capable of bearing arms were massacred; sixthousand ministers of the temple were made captive, besides all the women and children.’ 141The three-day period of general massacre, which became an oft-repeated paradigm in many Islamicconquests, was set as an example by Caliph Omar. Having taken the city of Alexandria in 641, ordered byCaliph Omar, the population suffered three days of horrendous carnage, pillage and plunder. After the fall ofConstantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehemet allowed his soldiers ‘three days of unrestricted pillage to which theywere entitled. They poured into the city… They slew everyone they met in the streets, men, women andchildren without discrimination. The blood ran in rivers down the steep streets…’ 142 Amir Timur orTamerlane, on his campaign to India—undertaken for fulfilling his obligation of waging holy war against theinfidels—slaughtered 100,000 captives in a single day in Delhi in December 1399. 143Al-Qaradawi tells us that the conquest of Egypt was so welcomed by the oppressed inhabitants thatonly 8,000 soldiers were required to capture it. Here is a sample of the gifts the inhabitants in Egypt receivedfrom the Islamic harbingers of peace. The horror unleashed by Caliph Omar’s forces after taking Alexandriais noted above. According to Ibn Warraq, when Amr advanced into Egypt and captured the city of Behnesanear Fayum, he exterminated the inhabitants. Nobody was spared, irrespective of surrendered or captured, oldor young or woman. The same happened to the citizens of Fayum and Aboit. On the early Islamic conquestsadds Ibn Warraq: 144At Nikiu, the entire population was put to the sword. The Arabs took the inhabitants to captivity.In Armenia, the entire population of Euchaita was wiped out. Seventh century Armenianchronicles recount how the Arabs decimated the population of Assyria and forced a number ofinhabitants to accept Islam and then wrought havoc in the districts of Daron, southwest of LakeVan. In 642, it was the turn of the town of Dvin to suffer. In 643, the Arabs came back with"extermination, ruin and slavery".Such was the kind of peace and justice that Muslim warriors brought to the conquered people by destroying,what they call, the existing "tyranny, oppression and injustice" of incumbent rulers. Apart from the barbaric140. Ibn Warraq, p. 219141. Eliot HM and Dawson J, The History of India As Told by the Historians, Low Price Publications, New Delhi, Vol.I, p. 469142. Runciman S (1990) The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Cambridge, p. 145; Bostom AG (2005) The Legacy ofJihad, Prometheus Books, New York, p. 616–18143. Lal KS (1999) Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi, p. 18144. Ibn Warraq, p. 22064