Islam - The FAQ - Answering the Issues

Romans who were Christians like them. This was because Christian
Egypt was suffering religious oppression by the Christian Romans to
compel them to adopt their religious beliefs. One of the earliest actions
of the Muslims in Egypt was the assurance of religious freedom and the
reinstatement of Benjamin as Bishop of Alexandria after years of hiding
from the Romans in the western desert.
But religious freedom was only one aspect of what Isl\m gave.
Whether Arab or non-Arab, Muslim or non-Muslim, Isl\m built up
what humanity aspires to be, a fellowship in equality and fraternity.
The story is well known of the running contest held in Egypt and won
by an Egyptian to the dismay of an Arab competitor who was the son of
`Amr ibn al-`¬], governor of Egypt. The Arab hit the boy saying, “How
dare you outrun me, the son of nobility!” When news of this reached
`Umar, the caliph, he summoned the governor, his son, and the
Egyptian lad all the way to Mad|nah, and ordered the Egyptian to
retaliate by hitting `Amr’s son, saying: “Hit him back. Hit the son of
nobility.” Addressing `Amr, he uttered these famous words: “O `Amr,
since when did you make slaves out of a people whose mothers had
given birth to them free?”
Let’s move on from history to the present times. According to global
religion growth rates based on the World Almanac and Book of Facts,
1935, and the Readers’ Digest Almanac and Yearbook 1983, Isl\m has
increased in the world over this period by an enormous 235%,
compared to an increase of only 47% for Christianity, making it the
fastest-growing religion in the world. And this is by no means only in
the ‘Third World’ countries: Hillary Clinton was quoted by the Los
Angeles Times on May 31, 1996, as saying, “Isl\m is the fastest-growing
religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our
people.” Nor was this state of affairs put to an end by the atrocities of
September 11, 2001. The New York Times ran an article in October 22,
2001, under the headline, “Isl\m Attracts Converts by the Thousands,
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