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

Islamic Jihadcruelty perpetrated by Muslim invaders in the course of conquests, the establishment of Muslim rule did notalleviate the oppression and exploitation of the vanquished subjects either. For example, as early as in thereign of Caliph Omar, the taxes imposed on the conquered people were quite burdensome. According toMuslim historian Prof. Fazl Ahmed, a Persian slave named Abu Lulu Firoz, burdened by excessive tax, wentto the caliph one day and said: ‘‘My master squeezes too heavy a tax out of me. Please get it reduced.’’ 145Omar refused the plea. Angered by it, Abu Lulu stabbed the caliph to death the next day.Naik also concurs with al-Qaradawi on the motive of aggressive wars under taken by Muslim rulersas he wrote: ‘The fight against oppression may, at times, require the use of force. In Islam, force can only beused to promote peace and justice.’ 146 We will see how the Islamic rule of justice and peace in India hadreduced the non-Muslims of an otherwise prosperous country into beggars at the doors of Muslims within ashort time. They had to sell their wives and children in the slave-markets to pay for the grinding taxesimposed on them. The most helpless and destitute amongst them took refuge in jungles to live amongstanimals; they survived by highway robbery and on what was available in the wilderness (discussed later).Furthermore, al-Qaradawi’s claim that the Muslim invaders were jubilantly welcomed by theconquered people—seeking liberation from their tyrannical and oppressive rulers—does not hold any watereither. As cited above, even the general peasants used to take up arms against Muslim invaders. Some 4,000of such peasants, who had taken up arms against invading Muslims, were massacred in the region betweenGaza and Caesarea in 634. At Debal, Muhammad bin Qasim slaughtered the inhabitants for three days. Wasthis massacre perpetrated because the Hindus had welcomed Qasim’s army with opened hands? InConstantinople in 1453, Muslim soldiers engaged in massacring the inhabitants for three days flooding thestreets with blood. Some 30,000 peasants in Chittor had taken up arms alongside their Rajput rulers evenagainst liberal and magnanimous Akbar the Great in 1568. When they surrendered, Akbar ordered theirmassacre. 147 Such was the jubilant welcome the Muslim invaders received from the allegedly oppressedpeople of the invaded lands.Islamic invaders, according to the records of mostly Muslim historians, faced stiff resistance fromthe invaded people. If they welcomed the invading Muslim conquerors, Qasim needed not slaughter theinhabitants for three days at Debal. Al-Kufi records in Chachnama that ‘The infidels (of Debal) made a rushupon the Arabs from all sides and fought so bravely and steadily that the army of Islam became irresolute andtheir lines were broken up…’ 148 In the Muslim conquest of India, rarely people embraced Islam voluntarilybecause of its appealing message. In general, the adults fell to the sword of Islamic warriors while the helplesswomen and children were enslaved. In some instances, the Muslim invaders overran territories without muchresistance—not because the people warmly welcomed the Muslim invaders, but because they sought to avoidextermination by fighting losing battles.On Sultan Mahmud’s attack of Somnath in 1024, records Ibn Asir, ‘Band after band of defenders(Hindus) entered the temple of Somnath, and with their hands clasped round their necks, wept andpassionately entreated him (not to attack). Then again, they issued forth to fight until they were slain but fewwere left alive... The number of the slain exceeded fifty thousand.’ 149 These were just the ordinary people whosought to defend the dignity of their sacred temple. This temple was reconstructed three times by the devoutHindus, as Muslim invaders repeatedly destroyed it. These are definitely not instances of what oneunderstands to be jubilant welcome of the occupation army, but of stiff resistance against them, by theconquered people.145. Ahmad F, Hazrat Omar bin Khattab—The Second Caliph of Islam; http://path-to-peace.com/omer.html146. Naik Z (1999), Was Islam Spread by the Sword?, Islamic Voice, Vol. 13-08, No.152147. Smith VA (1958) The Oxford History of India, Oxford University Press, London, p. 342148. Sharma, p. 95–96149. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. II, p. 470–7165