Chapter 9IS LA M- SP RE AD BY
THE SWORD? YOU BET.
Virtu ally all Weste rner s have lear ned to apol ogiz e for the Crusad es ,
bu t l es s no t ed i s t he f ac t t ha t t he Cr us ad es ha ve an Is la mi c
co un te rp ar t fa r wh ich no on e is ap ol og iz in g an d of which few
are even aware. The firm large-scale contact of Muslims withthe Wes ter n
worl d came not wit h the Crus ade s, but 450 year s bef orethem. When
the forces of Islam united the scattered tribes of Arabia into asingle
community, the newly Islamic Arabia was surrounded bypredominantly
Christian lands—notably the Byzantine imperial holdings of Syria and
Egypt,aswell as the venerable Christian kinds of North Africa..Four of
Christendom's five principal cities—Constantinople, Alexandria,Ant ioc h,
and Je rus ale m—lay wit hin str iki ng dis tan ce of Ara bia. The
Byzantine Empire's great rival, Persia, also had a significant Christian
population.
But for cen tur ies now , the Mid dle Eas t, Nor th Afr ica , and Per sia
Iran) have been regarded as the heart of the Islamic world. Did this
Ta ns fo rm at io nta ke pl ac e th ro ug h pr ea ch in g an d th e co nv er si on of
hear ts and mind s? Not at all; The swor d spre ad Isla m. Unde r Isla mic
rule, the non-Musl im major itie s of thos e regi ons were gradu ally whit-
tled downto the tiny minorities they are today, through repression. dis-
cri mina tio n, and har ass ment tha t made con vers ion to Isla m the onl y
path to a betterLife.
Guess what?
What isknown
todayas the "Islamic
World"was created
bya series of brutal
conquestsof non-
Muslimlands.
These werewarsof
religious imperialism,
not self-defense
Theearly spread of
Islamandthat of
Christianity sharply
contrastin that Islam
spreadby forceand
Christianitydidn't,