The spread of Islam was not always violent

Submitted by Ron Lukens-Bull, Ph.D (United States), Jan 27, 2005 at 20:39

Those who say that Islam was always spread by violence overlook the history of Malaysia and Indonesia. The latter having the largest Muslim population in the world. To say that Chrisitianity and Judaism never spread by violence is to ignore the Pentateuch, which clearly details the use of violence by ancient Israel to establish itself as a kingdom rather than a tribe of nomads. And for Christianity, it ignores, among other examples, the history of the Americas; the conquistadors did not exactly spread Catholicism in the most peaceful of ways.

One more thought -- while we openly acknowledge that there are very different approaches to Judaism and to Christianity, we seem stuck on the idea that there is only one way in which Muslim practice Islam.

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