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To: Atlantic Friend
Yes it can - as it once was.

When? Where? In conquered lands where non-muslims were made to be slaves?

You would have a point if:

1. You could point out examples of islamic countries today that are full of peace and tolerance. But there are none. When islam takes over, non mulsims are brutally crushed. Turkey may be the best example except they ban islamic parties from running for or holding political office.

2. At no time in the history of islam has islam been "peaceful." Even its very beaconing was one of conquests and brutality.

I know it is hard to believe, but at one point in history, the countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey and Iraq had large populations of Christians. These countries were peacefully converted to Christianity by word of mouth.

They were conquered by Muslim armies (along with all of North Africa and Spain) and forcibly converted to Islam by the sword (conversion or death).

The spread of Islam has always been an armed invasion.

Muslims were sometimes welcomed by the Christian population because those populations were considered heretics for their beliefs and under threat of death by the Catholic Church. But as time went on more and more restrictions were heaped on the "Dhimmis or non-muslims", and, although technically regarded as "People of the Book" and permitted to practiced their religion in private, unlike other faiths which were given the alternative of death or conversion, Dhimmis suffered cruel discrimination. They couldn't participate in government, they were forbidden to carry arms, they couldn't testify against a Muslim, the could be enslaved while a Muslim could not, they could not make improvements on the exterior of their churches or synagogues, they had to wear a distinguishing badge marking them as Dhimmis, they couldn't practice their religion in public, they were forbidden under pain of death from converting or attempting to convert Muslims, and were subjugated to the same periodic pograms Jews in Europe enjoyed.

In today's Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, other religions, even other forms of Islam, are simply and totally forbidden. So things have hardly improved.

65 posted on 05/26/2004 7:01:32 AM PDT by 2banana (They want to die for Islam and we want to kill them)
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To: 2banana
beaconing = beginnings
68 posted on 05/26/2004 7:05:15 AM PDT by 2banana (They want to die for Islam and we want to kill them)
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