Daniel J. Pipes

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History Cannot Lie, Christianity Was Spread By Both Word Of Mouth, Missionaries

Reader comment on item: A Christian Boom
in response to reader comment: islam wasnt spread by the sword.

Submitted by AnneM (United States), Feb 28, 2007 at 17:42

How the Christian faith spread in Europe was done on a non-violent basis. In its early years, people who had become Christian had spread it not only by the lives they lived but by word of mouth. It was only after it became a part of the latter Roman empire and once Christians were allowed to practice the faith and to build churches as well as found religious orders, that later it was spread by the help of missionaries.

Unlike Christianity, Islam was often spread by military force in its early history. Many passages in the Koran and Hadiths take on the tone of military fighting in order to spread the faith. More likely because of the practice of treating non-Muslims like second class citizens, Jews and Christians in particular, with its burdensome rules and payment of a special tax, caused many Jews and Christians to convert to Islam.


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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