Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgaryborn
Also, I have read that the early writings of your prophet embraced the notions of peaceful relations but, later in his ministry he took up the sword and advocated warfare as a means of winning the world for Allah.
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Don't really want to get drawn into a major discussion, but I am really curious where you read that?
From my limited knowledge of world history, the expansion of the Islamic world did not really occur until after the death of the Prophet...so I wonder how much of this expansion can be solely attributed to the religion and how much can be attributed to other factors (political/regional forces)?
The other thing I remember from my history courses is that while lot of lands were under Muslim rule, diversity of thought was respected and encouraged - in fact, non-Muslims (Jews, Christians, etc) often held very high posts in the "governing administration" of the regions. As far as I remember, the first centres of learning (universities) were created in Baghdad and Cairo under Muslim rule and scholars from non-Muslim lands were invited to come "teach". This would indicate a great deal of respect for non-Muslims...Also, the Muslim world took a lot of ideas and knowledge from Greek/Roman/Chinese/Indian/Persian/... cultures and built on it to solve problems of the day (medicine, astronomy, math, etc), so there was definitely openness to exchange ideas with others -- a lot of this knowledge was passed on to Europeans (and really added to the flowering of art&science in Europe, i.e. the Renaissance)
So I am trying to understand the worldview you have read (expansion by the sword) and see how it fits with the history that I have been taught (both while I lived in Europe and while living in Canada)...
The article that you had a link to was very one-sided...it seems to be an article which put the blame of all problems in the Muslim world on the religion... And as with many things, I need to ask, how much the problems that the Muslim world is experiencing today (and which are manifesting themselves in growth of radical ideas), are due to seeds sowed in the past 50-100 years (colonialism, political chess by "superpowers of the day"), how much is due to economical/social pressures and how much is due to the faith...
This ended up being much longer than I had anticipated, but it is an interesting issue in general (and it is/has played out in other parts of the world as well - e.g. Northern Ireland, Kashmir)...