It is a fact according to the present and past survey and statistics that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and the growth of Islam was fuelled after the incident of September 11th(Twin Tower).
After the incident of September 11th, the media started propogating against Islam and tried to explain to the Western public that fundamentalist muslims are behind such incident and they are against USA and the West.
According to some experts and Islamic Scholars living in West, this incident created a curiosity in the hearts of the Western people and they were really interested to know the truth about Islam and they had a question in mind "How can a person do such suicide attacks"?
They bought Qur'an from the book shops and started reading it,and some of the scholars from an Islamic Center in California and Chicago in USA have stated that majority of those readers came to Islamic centre and embrassed Islam after finding out the truth about this religion and those people have served their life in mosque and some of them are even preaching Islam to their friends. The rate of conversion to Islam in USA increased tremendously after september 11th from something around 2000 per year to 5000 per year.

The misconception existed in the Western world regarding the growth of Islam due to some of the extremist and anti-Islamic writters and authors who have presented Islam as an evil and intolerant religion.
According to them Islam was spreaded by sword and that is why we see great population of muslims in the world.
This claim is neither supported by any explicit evidences from any historical sources neither it is supported by rationality.
Some Western authors have even rejected to such misconception created by such anti-Islamic writers.
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Their claim that Muhammad(pbuh) was a clever man who was very simple when he and his followers were weak (before taking over and becoming the head of Madinah) and they tolerated the misbehaviour of the Qur'aishis(Polytheists) but after they migrated to Medinah,Muhammad(pbuh) had a revenge in his heart for the Qur'aishis and he started plotting against the Qur'aishis when he and his followers migrated to Medinah and after when muslims grow in number ,their strength and power in Arab increased,and they already gained political and social power in the region,they returned to Makkah and forcefully started converting the polytheists to Islam and those who rejected to be converted were slaughtered by Muhammad(pbuh) and his followers.
Thats how Islam took over Arabian Region and Makkah became their head quarter and they even go beyond stating that Hazrat Umar(Ra) who became the 2nd Caliph of Islam forcefully converted non-muslims to Islam when he conquered the terroritories.
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According to the Islamic History, when Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) migrated to Medinah with his followers from Makkah,He did establish an Islamic State their with Shariah but when his influence and power grow, he returned to Makkah with a huge force and history testifies to the fact that Makkah was conquered without any battle and not even a single person in Makkah was killed by the muslims.
If Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) had such revenge in his heart for the polytheists, then he wouldnot have left 1000s of idols untouched in Makkah before his death ,he only demolished those idols that were inside Kabbah(Holy House of God).
A question arises, an ordinary and uneducated person living in the deserts of Arabia faced persecutions and oppression from the hands of his own people living in his own society and he was forced to migrate to Medinah but didnot stop from preaching the messege of God. Why would a person turn against the beliefs and culture of his own society and in return he had achieved nothing,neither wealth or any treasure.
His great companions also followed his foot steps(hazrat Abu Bark,Umar ,Usman and Ali) and maintained the Islamic teachings that he left as a legacy.
Why would such kind of people turn against the society if they could have become influential and powerful personalities of their time and would have been wealtheir than anyone else.

If these personalities would have spreaded Islam by sword,then not even a single Christian or Jew would have survivied in Arab region, and we still have more than millions of coptic Arab Christians(Who are christians by generation) in Jordan,Lebanon and Egypt whose ansasters never embraced Islam and some of them have even seen the regeme of Hazrat Umar(ra).
Their are still coptic Jews alive and living in Isreal and Iraq who have their linage back to those Jews who lived in Medinah during Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) life time.
If Islam would have spreaded by sword than we would have seen traces of millitary expeditions towards Malaysia and China but we donot have any evidence to such and today their are millions of muslims in China and they are themselves evidence about the truth of Islam and Muslims.

Malaysia is an Islamic State which has christian population and they are also evidence to the truth about Islam.

Another question which sword is now converting non-muslims to Islam in Europe and USA?

And which sword is recommended by Islam if they decide later to convert back? I doubt that westerners, accustomed to being free to choose, really understand what would be in store for them anywhere that Muslim law is in effect for the simple matter of changing their minds.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.

If their is a non-muslim who embraced Islam and later on wants to convert back to his old religion, the Qur'an has mentioned such incident but not even a single verse in the Qur'an mentions any perticular punishment for such conversion?
During the Caliphate of Hazrat Umar(Ra), a Christian King embraced Islam and he was once doing Tawaf(walking around Kabah in prayer) just as it happens during Hajj(Pilgrimage), a begger was walking behind him, suddenly the begger stepped on the cloth of that King because of which his crown fell and the King slapped the begger.
Begger directly went to Hazrat Umar(Ra) and complained about it,Hazrat Umar(Ra) called the King and told the begger to slap the King in return.
The King who didnot enjoy this kind of justice since it was not one sided got angry and left Islam and nowhere in the history it is mentioned that the King had to face any kind of punishment under Hazrat Umar(Ra)'s rule inspite of knowing the fact that Hazrat Umar(Ra) was really strict.

Their are some schools of thought which just follow the tradition actually claim that a person converting to non-Islamic belief after embracing Islam should face punishment.
Although we donot have any clear cut and straight forward punishment mentioned in the Shariah(Islamic Law) for such issues.

Evangli, a religion is not a cloth that you can change it when ever you want.
I want to ask you a question that when you apply for a job and after becoming an employee of that company don't you have to follow the policies ,terms and conditions of that company?
If you go against it ,will the Manager or the Boss of the Company tolerate that and allow you to work in that company?

I hope this helps,

Then all those giving away free Qur'ans street corners in my city might remember that as they try to convert Christians to Islam. Christianity is a religion, too, or did you not know that? If a person can't change it when they want, then it would be wrong to try and persuade them to convert. Otherwise, they ought to be free to convert back. You cannot have it both ways.
And if I don't like the policies, terms and conditions, I am perfectly free to quit and go find another job. And if I am not free to do that, then I am a slave.

And if I pretend to believe what I no longer believe, then I am a liar and a hypocrite.

In any case, please read the important paper by Ibn Warraq on the subject of the need to put the apostate (murtadd) to death.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.

Evengli,

Your argument is invalid due to the fact that you donot understand the intentions behind what muslims or muslim scholars are doing in the West.
They only convince and preach Islam through words and books ,they donot compell people to embrace Islam and their 1st aim and objective is to eliminate the misconceptions about Islam that exists in the minds of the Westerns and obviously you cannot accept a thing if you have misconceptions or wrong information about it.

Giving out free Qur'an is a way to invite people to the Messege of God and this is exactly what muslims do in the West.
We are not directly changing someones religion, we are just preaching and removing misconception about Islam. Christians themselves come to Islamic Centers and listen to Islamic Lectures, no one forces them to come and listen to the lectures.

Christians are happily converting to Islam in the West and this conversion ratio has increased after WTC attack,when Christians read Qur'an and found out the truth about it. It is a record that Qur'an was the top selling book in the West after WTC attack and it was an eye opener.

The same question i can pose to you Evengli that what do you think about Christian Missionaries who are preaching Christianity in Muslim Countries?
Do you know there are more than 50,000 Christian Missionaries who are payed to preach Christianity in the world?
Muslim Scholars donot take even a single penny to preach Islam and this is the greatest evidence that Islam is a true religion.
A true religion is the one which strikes your heart and soul and doesnot make you to preach it and earn money from it.

Christians are more active in preaching then Muslims, do you even know that?

So the same question goes to you?

I hope this helps,

Dear Evengli,

I have gone through the link of Ibn Warraq that you quoted for me but
I donot really agree with what the author has mentioned and he has not even given the clear reference numbers of the hadiths.

No doubt their are certain hadiths of Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) in which he mentions about killing an apostate but the Primary source of Islam is Qur'an.

As you should be aware of the fact that the basis of the opinion regarding the death penalty of an apostate is not any verse of the Qur'an , but a saying ascribed to the Prophet (pbuh), as reported by Bukhari, in his "Kitaab al-Jihaad wal-Siyar", "Kitaab istitabah al-Murtaddeen" and "Kitaab al-ai`tisaam bil-Kitaab wal-Sunnah", in which the Prophet (pbuh) is reported to have said:

Whoever changes his Religion, kill him.

Obviously, if the matter had ended here, I would probably have had no objection in submitting that the Prophet (pbuh) has fixed the punishment for ALL apostates to be death.

Nevertheless, the matter does not end here. We know that the Qur'an has referred to the issue of apostasy at more than one place (for example see Al-Baqarah 2: 217, Al-Baqarah 2: 108, Aal Imraan 3: 90, Al-Nisaa 4: 137 and Al-Nahl 16: 106). But at none of these instances does the Qur'an mention the punishment of death for such people, who change their religion. The Qur'an does mention that such people shall face a terrible punishment in the hereafter, but no worldly punishment is mentioned at any of these instances in the Qur'an . This situation obviously raises a question mark in the mind of the reader that if Allah had wanted to give the punishment of an apostate a permanent position in the Shari`ah, the punishment should have been mentioned, at least at one of the above mentioned places. If the Qur'an was devoid of any reference to apostates, the matter would have been different. The strange thing is that the Qur'an mentions apostasy, and still does not mention the punishment (if any) it wants the apostate to be subjected to.

Moreover, the Qur'an clearly mentions in Al-Baqarah 2: 256 that:

There is absolutely no compulsion in religion

While if the referred directive (regarding the apostate) ascribed to Prophet (pbuh) is taken to be general and not specific for a particular people, the Qur'anic statement: "There is absolutely no compulsion in religion" would lose all its meaning. If a person is to be killed in case he converts to another religion, it would imply that the statement of the Qur'an only means that a person cannot be forced to accept Islam, but he CAN be forced to remain a Muslim throughout his life. It is quite obvious that such is not the case.

Furthermore, the Qur'an has strictly disallowed the imposition of the death penalty except in two specific cases. One of them is where the person is guilty of murdering another person and the other is where a person is guilty of creating unrest in the land (fasaad fi al-ardh) like being involved in activities that create unrest in a community, for example activities like terrorism etc. The Qur'an says:

Whoever kills a person without his being guilty of murder or of creating unrest in the land, is as though he kills the whole of mankind. (Al-Maaidah 5: 32)

Obviously, apostasy can neither be termed as "murder" nor "creating unrest in the land".

Let me put into your knowledge that Shariah(Islamic Law) is derived
from 2 sources Qur'an and Hadith.

If any one of these 2 sources is silent on any matter than Shariah doesnot
apply on it.

I hope this is clear

Quotes from the Koran:

"They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing as they.... But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them...." [4:89]

"Seize them and slay them wherever ye get them...." [4:91]

"For the Unbelievers are unto you open enemies.... The unbelievers wish...to assault you in a single rush...." [4:101]

"The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides....and heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter." [5:33]

"Those who believe, and adopt exile, and fight for the Faith...for them is the forgiveness of sins and a provision most generous." [8:74]

"...then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem (of war)...." [9:5].

"Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day...nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth...." [9:29]

"...fight the Pagans...." [9:36]

"...wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy)." [33:61].

The question is - are Muslims obliged to follow the teachings of Muhammad, or not? And are the teachings of Muhammad contained in the Koran?

Minerva

Fahad I expect will respond to the above post but I would offer that these quotes as cited from Qur'an are only partial ones, that is, they are not taken in full context and are designed to imply only one orientation...

Lets consider one of the above quotes:

"...wherever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy)." [33:61].

The full context reads:

Truly, if the Hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and those who stir up sedition in the City, desist not, We shall certainly stir thee up against them: Then will they not be able to stay in it as thy neighbours for any length of time:
[Yusufali 33:61] They shall have a curse on them: whenever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy).

The Qur'an advises defensive response to those who aggress and say seize property or attack the believers... Jihad was basically a defensive reaction to the Meccan pagans who were bent on destroying the new Faith.


Finally two things ..

One is that over the centuries there has been a prejudice about Islam that has developed since the Crusades and

the second is that the current tensions in the middle east have revived some of these old ideas. There are people only too happy to exploit this situation so remaining objective and studying more about say Islam and history is a good thing I think.

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler