The problem of apologetics

Submitted by Malcolm Smith (Australia), Aug 15, 2020 at 01:01

Christianity's first 300 years was as a persecuted minority religion. Therefore, it developed the art of apologetics ie of explaining and expounding the faith to non-believers while countering criticism. However, Islam began as the official religion of an empire. Outsiders were put under extreme pressure to join, not so much by argument as by the carrot and stick policy, while non-Muslims were prevented by persecution from proselytizing Muslims. The result was that Islam has little in the way of a system of apologetics, and when Muslims arrive in a free country, they do not know how to react to criticism except by the traditional one of trying to silence it. But when that fails, the advantage goes to the non-Muslim.

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".