Built on Force

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
The Ottoman Empire (at its peak containing Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Albania, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Aden, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Cyprus, large parts of the Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus, Armenia and Georgia) was run by a Moslem Sultan and yet it contained large Christian areas that we ...[text shortened]... gion as they wished.

When was it that Islam was supposed to have had this militant expansion?

I don't think those countries you mentioned just rolled over peacefully. I don't remember the Ottoman's being peaceful and just asking a country to join with them in a flowering of civilization.
Try asking Vienna in 1529 how they liked the peaceful advance of the ottomam empire,

Originally posted by Derfel Cadarn
You also forget that Alexander the Great and other Roman conquerors were responsible for the widespreading of Christianity too, if I'm not mistaken.

Since Alexander lived 300 BC and was a Greek you must be thinking of someone else.

Originally posted by princeoforange
"No religion can be built on force", claimed George Sand.
How well does Islam fit this criteria of religion?

(To find the quote, and many more, visit; www.quoteland.com)

Quite well actually. The Majority of Islam is quite peaceful.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I don't think those countries you mentioned just rolled over peacefully. I don't remember the Ottoman's being peaceful and just asking a country to join with them in a flowering of civilization.
Try asking Vienna in 1529 how they liked the peaceful advance of the ottomam empire,

No empire was peaceful in those days. However, the state religion was not imposed on the conquered regions. Islam was not imposed by force.

Originally posted by princeoforange
Righto, I'll give you that Catholicism, (though not Christianity) which is the religion of the crusades, has a violent past, however it was not [b]built on force, at least not on offensive force. Catholicism originated in 534AD when the Huns were invading the Roman Empire and the Emperor asked the Christian bishop of Rome for support. The bishop ...[text shortened]... o not change their spots) a violent religion. The fact remains, it was not built on force.[/b]

Come on, God allegedly had several thousand years of little but smiting. Surely that qualifies as religion built on force?!

Originally posted by Derfel Cadarn
You also forget that Alexander the Great and other Roman conquerors were responsible for the widespreading of Christianity too, if I'm not mistaken.

AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Indeed you are most egregiously mistaken.

Originally posted by Derfel Cadarn
You also forget that Alexander the Great and other Roman conquerors were responsible for the widespreading of Christianity too, if I'm not mistaken.

Well you are mistaken. Especially as Alexander the Great lived more than 300 years before Christianity emerged and most of the Roman Emperors persecuted Christianity vigourously.

Originally posted by XanthosNZ
When was it that Islam was supposed to have had this militant expansion?

For several hundred years, beginning shortly after Mohammed's death.

Originally posted by princeoforange
For several hundred years, beginning shortly after Mohammed's death.

By 732, Islam had spread from Spain to Sumatra, and Muslim ships dominated both the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. The reasons for this rapid expansion were numerous.

a. The Persian and Byzantine empires were exhausted and could not resist Muslim attacks.

b. Many people in the lands of both the Byzantine and Persian empires favored monotheism and found the Byzantine trinity and Persian dualism distasteful. Islam was more to their liking, and they not only converted to Islam, but helped to spread it further.

c. The Muslims swept away the burdensome taxation and top-heavy government in those lands that accepted them.

d. Islam was simple to understand, and its observances were clear and unequivocal. It did not call for asceticism and condemned excesses of all kinds.

e. Conversion was a simple and straightforward matter.

f. The Muslims practiced at least a limited religious toleration, and the social and economic doctrines of Islam were far more humane than those of the other peoples of the time. Islam was a liberal force. Religious toleration in Islam consists of the recognition of the revelations given by God to the Jews, whom the Muslims call "The People of the Law," and to the Christians, who are called "The People of the Book." Muslims recognize the Jewish prophets and the Christian Jesus as having been inspired by God but accord the highest position to Muhammad as "The Seal of the Prophets," to whom God revealed his final and complete message. One should note, however, that the Qu'ran does not suggest that those who worship Idols should be tolerated. In fact, it states that they are either to be converted to Islam or face war.

g. Arabic gave the peoples of Islam a common language, and the Qu'ran gave them a common set of laws and values.

It is useful to think a moment about the nature of the Muslim expansion. Some people regard it as amazing that the relatively small and primitive - if one can use such a word in such circumstances - people as the Arabs were able to defeat powerful empires and gain control of such vast expanses of territory in so short a time. One must remember that we are talking about the Muslim expansion, not Arab conquests.