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From the oasis cities of Makkah and Madinah in the Arabian desert, the
message of Islam went forth with electrifying speed. Within half a century
of the Prophet's death, Islam had spread to three continents. Islam is
not, as some imagine in the West, a religion of the sword nor did it
spread primarily by means of war. It was only within Arabia, where a crude
form of idolatry was rampant, that Islam was propagated by warring against
those tribes which did not accept the message of God--whereas
Christians
and Jews were not forced to convert.
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Outside of Arabia also the vast lands conquered by the
Arab armies in a short period became Muslim not by force of the sword but by
the appeal of the new religion. It was faith in One God and emphasis upon
His Mercy that brought vast numbers of people into the fold of
Islam. The
new religion did not coerce people to convert. Many continued to remain
Jews
and Christians and to this day important communities of the followers of
these faiths are found in Muslim lands. |
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Moreover, the spread of Islam was not limited to its
miraculous early expansion outside of Arabia. During later centuries the
Turks embraced Islam peacefully as did a large number of the people of the
Indian subcontinent and the Malay-speaking world. In Africa also, Islam has
spread during the past two centuries even under the mighty power of European
colonial rulers. |
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Alquran the Islamic Holy
Book
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Islam was destined to become a world religion and to
create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe to the
other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates, first the Arabs, then
the Persians and later the
Turks set about to create classical Islamic
civilization. Later, in the 13th century, both Africa and India became
great centers of Islamic civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms
were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims
flourished throughout China. |
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