<p>JamesN:</p>
<p>As an Oxford history graduate myself I am not very impressed by your historical method.</p>
<p>
[quote]
1.) If you ask ANY scholar of history, they will tell you that Muhammad was not a muderer/terrorist etc. What he did was in defense. ...DEFENSE, and all scholars of history agree.
[/quote]
Have you examined all scholars? So you will be aware of the Sirat Rasul Allah by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. Even though it wasn't favoured by the compilers of the Hadith it is still important as the earliest suviving biography of Muhammad. In it there are stories of murders ordered by him on the slightest provocation. In one case he ordered the murder of Asma Bint Marwan because she wrote a poem criticising an earlier murder he had ordered.</p>
<p>
[quote]
2.) If you think the conversions were FORCED, then you are horribly mistaken. Under the Ummayid Caliphate, the Arabs DID NOT want non Arabs to become Muslim. And under the Abbasid Caliphate, all conversions were VOLUNTARY.
[/quote]
This is a very bold absolute statement. How do you know all conversions were voluntary? You will no doubt be aware of the conditions imposed on non-muslims, or dhimmi, which institionalised their second class status including the payment of the jizyah or poll tax and a raft of other repressions. There were sufficient drivers to convert without them being forced.</p>
<p>
[quote]
3.) Did you know that there was religious tolerance under these empires?
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The tolerance of mediaeval Islam is much overrated. There was tolerance as long as you accepted the second-class dhimmi status imposed upon you. If you went outside the bounds your life would be forfeit. Even in Muslim Spain, often seen as the apogee of Muslim tolerance, Christians were put to death for publicly stating those aspects of their faith that contradicted Islam, such as the divinity of Jesus.</p>
<p>
[quote]
An apology could have ended all this real fast. Did you ever wonder WHY they printed those pictures?
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The background was the impossibility of finding an illustrator in Denmark for a children's book on Islam. Impossible because of fears of the reaction from the local Muslim community. So Jyllands-Posten commissioned the cartoons and published them alongside an article on the threat and dangers of self-censorship. One of the cartoons is of an artist drawing a picture of Muhammad, while looking terrified over his shoulder. Given the reaction and the demands that the cartoonists be killed it seems they have a strong point.</p>