Why Did They Become Muslims

chapter of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, reads as follows in the
Authorized (King James) version:
“When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then
proclaim peace unto it.” “And it shall be, if it make thee answer of
peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is
found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve
thee.” “And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war
against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:” “And when the LORD thy
God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male
thereof with the edge of the sword:” “But the women, and the little
ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil
thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of
thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.” “Thus
thou shalt do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee,
which are not of the cities of these nations.” “But of the cities of
these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an
inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:” “But thou
shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Am’or-ites,
the Canaanites, and the Per’iz-zites, the Hi’vites, and the Jeb’u-sites;
as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:” “That they teach you
not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto
their Gods; so should ye sin against the LORD thy God.” (Deut: 20-
10 to 18)
We said to our Christian neighbour, “Your Holy Bible enjoins
utterly cruel behaviour towards weak people. This commandment,
which exists in your Holy Bible, has no proximity to the so-called
Christian compassion and mercy which you repeat so frequently.
Where is your mercy and compassion? This passage in the Holy
Bible is a commandment of terrible savagery and cruelty. In
contrast, our Holy Book, the Qur’ân al-kerîm, does not contain a
single word encouraging such horrible behaviour towards the
enemy. So your religion incites you to cruelty. On the contrary, the
Qur’ân al-kerîm abounds with expressions of mercy, compassion,
and forgiveness, and prohibiting cruelty. Then, how can Christian
priests dare to allege that Islam commands savagery and
Christianity is a religion of compassion? Here is a passage from your
sacred book, the Holy Bible! This means to say that, contrary to
your claim, the Holy Bible commands savagery, barbarism, and
cruelty. How will you explain this?”
The priest first had recourse to prevarication, saying that he did
not know of the passage. When we had the aforesaid Turkish version
of the Holy Bible fetched and showed him the hundred and sixtyninth
page, he said, “Well, this passage has nothing to do with Îsâ
‘alaihis-salâm’. The passage is a quotation from the Torah, which
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