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

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?protection to any enemy except to those who are of rank (i.e., accept Islam). This is a worthyresolve, and want of dignity will not be imputed to you.’ 179Having received this command from Hajjaj, Qasim followed it through in his next conquest of Brahmanabad,sparing none who did not embrace Islam. According to al-Biladuri, ‘eight, or some say twenty-six thousand,men were put to the sword.’ 180 However, putting the great multitude of Hindus, who often refused to embraceIslam, to death was difficult. Instead, giving them quarters for raising taxes was a more lucrative alternative.Qasim later wrote to Hajjaj in this regard. In response, Hajjaj wrote back:‘The letter of my dear nephew Muhammad Kasim has been received and the fact understood. Itappears that the chief inhabitants of Brahmanabad had petitioned to be allowed to repair thetemple of Budh and pursue their religion. As they have made submission, and agreed to paytaxes to the Khalifa, nothing can be properly required from them. They have been taken underour protection (dhimmi), and we cannot in any way stretch out our hands upon their lives orproperty.’ 181Hindus were, thus, accepted as dhimmi subjects, which spared them from conversion by the sword. TheGodless Umayyad rulers were more interested in filling the treasury by extracting higher taxes from non-Muslim subjects than converting them to Islam. For example, al-Hajjaj harshly treated those, who convertedto Islam. 182 When a group of non-Muslims came to him to inform their acceptance of Islam, al-Hajjaj refusedto recognize their conversion and ordered his troops to return them to their villages. 183 The first UmayyadCaliph Mu'awiyah desperately wanted the Egyptian Copts not to convert to Islam, ‘claiming that if they allconvert to the true religion (Islam), they will cause the treasury a great loss in income from the jizyah.’ 184The leniency, accorded to Hindus by the Godless Umayyads, was obviously a violation of thecanonical Islamic laws of the Quran and Sunnah. This irreverent concession was later included in the Hanafilaws; all other Schools of Islamic laws demand death or conversion of Polytheists. Therefore, as far as forcedconversion is concerned, the infidels of India suffered the mildest of persecution.Following the extermination of the Godless Umayyad dynasty in 750, the more orthodox rulers oftenconverted Hindus at the pain of death. Saffaride ruler Yakub Lais captured Kabul in 870 and took the princeof Kabul prisoner. He put the king of Ar-Rukhaj to death, destroyed and plundered the temples and theinhabitants were forced to embrace Islam. He returned to his capital loaded with booty, which included headsof three kings and many statues of Indian divinities. 185In Sultan Mahmud’s conquest of Kanauj, ‘the inhabitants either accepted Islam or took up armsagainst him to become the food of Islamic swords,’ records his secretary Abu Nasr al-Utbi. 186 In the capturedof Baran, records al-Utbi, ‘since God’s sword was drawn from the scabbard, and the whip of punishment wasuplifted… ten thousand men proclaimed their anxiety for conversion and their rejection of idols.’ 187After conquering a city, Sultan Mahmud—an educated cultured man and a master of Islamicjurisprudence (fiqh)—would normally slaughter the men of fighting age, enslave their women and children179. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. I, p. 173–74180. Ibid, Vol. I, p. 122181. Sharma, p. 109182. Bulliet RW (1979) Conversion to Islam and the Emergence of a Muslim Society in Iran, N. Levtzion ed.,Conversion to Islam, Holmes and Meier Publishers Inc., New York, p. 33183. Pipes (1983), p. 52184. Tagher, p. 19185. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. II, p. 419186. Ibid, p. 26187. Ibid, p. 42–4374