Muhammad's Sword
Description: A Jewish atheist speaks about the notion that Islam spread by =
the sword.
Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relat=
ions between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many c=
hanges.
Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306 - exactly 1700 ye=
ars ago - encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which incl=
uded Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodo=
x) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acq=
uired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his superiority.
The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in Eu=
ropean history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emper=
ors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an=
Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, "walked to Canossa", standing for=
three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle, until the P=
ope deigned to annul his excommunication.
But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other=
. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedi=
ct XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful h=
armony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide storm, =
went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism", in the context of th=
e "Clash of Civilizations".
In his lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he see=
s as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity i=
s based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God'=
s actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Alla=
h.
As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It =
is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. Bu=
t I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli livin=
g near the fault-line of this "war of civilizations".
In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the pr=
ophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword.=
According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the=
soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?
To support his case, the Pope quoted - of all people - a Byzantine Emperor,=
who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of t=
he 14th century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had =
- or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt) - with an unnamed Persian Musl=
im scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to himself=
) flung the following words at his adversary:
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find t=
hings only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the=
faith he preached".
These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Empero=
r say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present Pope=
quote them?
WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He a=
ssumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious emp=
ire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.
At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danub=
e. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defe=
ated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. On May 29=
, 1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople =
(the present Istanbul) fell to the Turks, putting an end to the Empire that=
had lasted for more than a thousand years.
During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an at=
tempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no =
doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian=
countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The=
aim was practical, theology was serving politics.
In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emp=
eror, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against =
the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking o=
n the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pop=
e supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European =
Union.
Is there any truth in Manuel's argument
The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned the=
ologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admit=
ted that the Quran specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force=
. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he=
meant verse 257) which says:
"There must be no coercion in matters of faith."
How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues t=
hat this commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginn=
ing of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered t=
he use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not ex=
ist in the Quran. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his wa=
r against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and others - in Arabia, when =
he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious o=
ne; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith.
Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of ot=
her religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim =
rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "s=
pread the faith by the sword"?
Well, they just did not.
For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslim=
s? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greek=
s held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians=
, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time=
or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody =
compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christia=
n.
True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nob=
ody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to=
become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.
In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jew=
ish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that=
time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christian=
s were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no =
effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the C=
rusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to ado=
pt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith - and they were the forefathers=
of most of today's Palestinians.
There is no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews.=
As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the=
like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. =
Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In=
Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, C=
hristian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the anc=
ient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golde=
n Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet decreed the "spr=
eading of the faith by the sword"?
What happened afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics re-conqu=
ered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. =
The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Chri=
stians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousan=
d of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them =
were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spani=
sh") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Ir=
aq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the nort=
h to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing =
like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pog=
roms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian =
countries, up to the Holocaust.
Why? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "peoples of=
the book"[1]. In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews a=
nd Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. Th=
ey had to pay a special poll-tax, but were exempted from military service -=
a trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Mu=
slim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentl=
e persuasion - because it entailed the loss of taxes[2].
Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep=
sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty genera=
tions, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "=
by the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.
The story about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one o=
f the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslim=
s - the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repuls=
ion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German P=
ope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of=
the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did no=
t make the effort to study the history of other religions.
Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?
There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crus=
ade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of "Islamofasci=
sm" and the "Global War on Terrorism" - when "terrorism" has become a synon=
ym for Muslims. For Bush's handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify =
the domination of the world's oil resources. Not for the first time in his=
tory, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interes=
ts; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade.
The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire =
consequences
http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/513/viewall/
Thank you