Jihadi Du Jour: Conversion by the Sword

Christians in Iraq forced to choose between Islam or their lives.

From AINA:

An unidentified Islamic group has been threatening the Christian Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) in the Dora district of Baghdad, a traditionally Assyrian area. The Islamic group issued an ultimatum yesterday to Assyrian families, telling them to leave Christianity and convert to Islam within 24 hours or they would all be killed. The Islamic group also issued a fatwa (a religious edict) to confiscate the property of all Christians, to force Assyrian women to veil themselves, to forbid genuflection (making the sign of the Cross) and the wearing of the Cross.

Earlier the same Islamic group forcefully removed the Cross from the churches of St. John and St. George. An affiliated Islamic group in Northern Iraq occupied the Assyrian monastery of Raban Hormuz.

The religion of peace insists that "forced conversions" are just a myth; as stated by Dr. Sharif Mohammed of thetruereligion.org:

Among the most widely believed myths about Islam in the West today is the myth of forcible conversion to Islam.

Many Westerners do believe that Islam is so widespread in the world today simply because of a "holy campaign of terror" carried out by the early Muslims to convert non-Muslims to Islam. Non-Muslims were offered the freedom to choose either Islam or death.

He also states:

[...] we should ask ourselves first, before we are asked by anyone else, what is the truth? Did Muslims really force others to convert to Islam? Is there any evidence for consistent forcible conversion throughout Islamic history? As a matter of fact, there is no such evidence anywhere in the history of Islam.

No evidence anywhere in history of Islam....

This last sentence does not match reality, there are hundreds of stories from Islamic country after Islamic country of forced conversions. The Iraqi story of Christian Assyrians at the top of this post is only one example. Here are a few more.

A Forced conversion to Islam fatal for Christian boy, A pakistani Christian boy was kidnapped and tortured for 5 days before being taken to a police station by his captors. The captors tried to cover up their crime with allegations that the boy was trying to steal a water pump. By the time the police sought medical attention it was too late to save this young man.

How about the cases of Pakistani Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam where Hindu girls are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and then married off to Muslim men in Pakistan.

So no one can accuse me of picking on Pakistan, let's add Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig to the list of "mythological" forced conversions. The journalists from the American Fox News channel were freed unharmed in Gaza after being forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam at the end of a two-week kidnapping ordeal. We have the video of this one, along with statement immediately following their release:

The truth about Islam is that believers are commanded to fight the infidels until they are converted to Islam or under subjugation to Muslims or DEAD.

If we look at versus in the Koran and the Hadith we find that indeed that Islam expects the believer to fight the non-believer and compel conversion.

Sura (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Sura (9:11) - "But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion"

Sura (2:193) - "And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion be only for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrong-doers."

and the Hadith:

Muslim (1:33) The Messenger of Allah said: "I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah..."
Muslim (19:4294) - "When you meet your enemies who are polytheists [Christians...], invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them ... If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them"
Bukhari (8:387) - "Allah's Apostle said, 'I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.' And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally and their reckoning will be with Allah.'"

The point is the real myth is the mistaken belief that no "forced conversions" can be found anywhere in the history of Islam; I say surely there is, was and will continue to be as long as the religion of peace exists.

Labels: Christianity vs Islam, Forced Conversion, Islam, Religion of Peace