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Religions Spread Through Conquest Essay Research Paper

Religions Spread Through Conquest Essay, Research Paper


When studying history, both in a professional and academic


sense, we try to make connections between civilizations and time


periods. Historians have attempted to discover universal constants of


human nature, a bond that forms from continent to continent, human


being to human being. Is there a constant quality that all peoples


posses, and is reflected in all civilizations? Indeed, it is


extremely difficult to make generalizations about centuries of modern


history. To say that something is true of all of history is virtually


impossible, as a counter-example exists for just about anything that


can be said of any group of civilizations. To say that all religions


are spread by violence is equally unfair and untrue – because


contrasted religions has been spread in exceedingly diverse regions of


the world, by vastly different cultures. Islam, as a prime example,


has been characterized inequitably by historians and the media as a


religion of violence. To put it bluntly, as this article does, “Islam


was mainly spread through Arab territorial conquests (Sudo, 4).”


However, upon examination, it is not fair to make the generalization


that Islam is a religion of violence, and one notices when looking at


world religion on a whole, one finds that Islam was no more violent


than any other religion. In fact, not only is Islam not a


fundamentally violent philosophy, but we can also see that many other


religions normally considered “non-violent,” such as Christianity or


Hinduism, have been spread through bloody conquest. Thus, in


searching for a universal constant of history, we ought not fall into


the “fallacy of abstractions,” as Sydney J. Harris keenly puts it, and


assume that because of isolated incidents and conflicts of territorial


ambitions, that all religions have violent tendencies.


Islam has, throughout the centuries, been somewhat a victim of


circumstance – indeed it has been perceived by many as oppressive and


cruel. This belief originated over a thousand years ago, when Islamic


peoples first threatened the western world. As they slowly undermined


Byzantine authority, Christians became terrified of their presence,


resulting in widespread animosity and aversion. Hindus and Buddhists


of the South Asian subcontinent lived under Islamic law for hundreds


of years (Ahmad, et. al., 186), and eventually, in the twentieth


century, split the region into angry factions (Ahmad, et. al., 207).


Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was a great warrior. This invariably


lead defeated peoples to believe that he begot a cult of war and


violence. Over the centuries, it also has developed the ability to


instill a sense of holy purpose onto its believers and soldiers, where


they go into a battle of certain death for their faith in the jihad,


or holy war. Even today, the jihad is still a potent source of


conflict and aversion, as the many of the problems in the Middle East


center around the issue of Islamic Fundamentalism and the jihads.


Originally, Islam was perceived by western historians as a religion of


violence and conquest; “by preying on the caravans of the Quraish,


[Mohammed] weakened them to the point of submission (Mohammed and


Islam, 1).” In fact, Mohammed was a warrior, aristocrat, and


brilliant strategist – a stark contrast to many other holy men of


history. He was forced to both defend his cities and force


submission, as the passage had shown, because of the strong military


powers of his religious predecessors and oppressors, the pagans of the


Middle East. Islam means “submission” according to the Islam


discussion in class – and one might assume that the submission was


attained through military and forceful means. In fact, while Mohammed


preached peace from 610 to 622 AD, he attracted few converts and was


persecuted by the current ruling paganistic regime. After the visions


of 622 AD, he realized that his cause was even more urgent than


before, and only at that point did he begin to utilize his military


skills (Class Discussion). However, despite the more violent nature


that his quest took, even after the revelations by Gabriel in 622 AD,


“by reciting his revelations aloud, Mohammed made many converts,


(Mohammed and Islam,1).” Mohammed was not a purely violent man, but


also a great speaker and demagogue (Mueller, 2). He did not solely


attack the pagans of the Middle East, he also attracted a great deal


of converts by the truths he spoke. “If he could be ruthless, he was


more often gentle, kind, generous, magnanimous. He could be


Christ-like in his sympathy for the poor (Mueller,2 ).” Another


non-violent way of spreading Islamic culture was through the merchant


system which developed around its new centers of trade and culture in


both Mecca and Medina (Ahmad, et. al., 572). People from all around


the region would come to those cities to trade, and were attracted by


the religion. As Islam developed and spread rapidly, its control


quickly began to encroach on Byzantine territory where it found


diverse groups of people, who resented the foreign control of the


flailing western power. The people viewed the Middle Eastern Islamic


conquerors as liberators from the oppressive Byzantine Empire, and


welcomed both Islamic soldiers and religion. In addition to other


non-violent means of conquest, when Muslims actually did militarily


gain territory, they allowed other religions to grow around them.


They did not force conversion by slaughter in the name of Allah, as


Christians often did. The Muslims were tolerant of both foreign


religions, peoples, and traders. They welcomed Far Eastern merchants


into their territory. In India, while they did militarily gain


control of the South Asian subcontinent, they never forced conversion,


nor did they enter the territory with a religious intent. Indeed, the


reason that the Hindu and Muslim clashes arose was based on religious


differences, which were largely initiated by the Hindus, who viewed


their conquerors as heretics – not the opposite (Ahmad, et. al., 186).


In fact, that page of the text also notes that the first Delhi


sultans set up hundreds of schools, hospitals, and other public


establishments. The Koran was very tolerant, accepted many beliefs,


and was another basis for the peaceful spread of Islam. The Koran,


according to “The Koran” article and class discussions, appealed to


the impoverished and the destitute – people from all walks of life


could embrace the Koran, because it was targeted at them, not at the


government-ranking aristocrats that most other religions were centered


around, as those religions had been created for the purpose of social


control, rather than deep spiritual convictions or for spiritual


well-being. The Muslim needs no priest nor intermediary to pray to


Allah – the only spiritual transmitter to god he needs is prayer –


Islam does not even require a mosque or temple for litany. The actual


religion of Islam preaches decidedly against violence and speaks out


against aggression. “The concept of jihad refers to? inner spiritual


struggle of Muslims for self control in order to do good (Sudo, 5).”


Actually, the average Muslim is not violent, nor is he driven by any


form of holy conquest. Islam has been unfairly depicted as a religion


spread through Jihad and the lure of riches and conquest. But Islam,


the most unlike

ly of candidates, has been, throughout the centuries, a


relatively tolerant religion. It has never believed in any form of


religious genocide, nor had any inquisitions or messianic crusades, as


religions of many other parts of the world did. In fact Akbar I of


1556-1605 AD, the third ruler of the Mughal Empire, took the ultimate


steps toward tolerance, by marring a Hindu princess, and allowing


Hindus a strong role in the government (Ahmad, et. al., 187). The


wars that Islam fought have been rather secular, despite the fact that


their government often was not. However, the same cannot be said of


Christian, Hindu, and Aztec government, all which had strong ties to


both violence and conquest, and indeed, while often are characterized


as non-violent forms of religion (with perhaps the exception of


Aztec), are equally as violent as Islam, if not more so.


Perhaps the religion which has perhaps shaped the world, for


better or worse, more than any other religion, has been Christianity.


This is not to deny the roles of the vast numbers of religions in


many parts of the world, nor which is to say that Christianity has


been particularly unique. Despite the fact that the Western world


likes to set European man and Christians apart from the rest of the


world, their connection to imperialism, mercantilism, and social


conquest is undeniably real. While Islam is seen by many as a violent


religion because of its origins and the popularization of the term


‘jihad,’ they have never had far-reaching imperialistic goals, nor


have they preceded their soldiers with missionaries. Christians,


however, as we have studied, were instrumental in the undoing of


Africa, and in fact the seeds that the pious missionaries of Europe


planted into African society eventually lead to the destabilization of


centuries of culture and hierarchy. The missionaries poured into


Africa, only to be followed by soldiers and company men – it was the


foothold of the missionaries that allowed Europeans to eventually


dominate the continent All of which was done in the name of “saving


enlightening the heathens.” Christianity is certainly not without its


bloody conquest, as the most blatant example is that of the Crusades,


which were, to Christians of the middle ages, the very symbol of their


faith. The Christians ventured towards the holy land with the sole


purpose of killing the ‘infidels’ and ridding the holy land of all


Islamic influence, bringing it back into the light of Christianity.


However, the Muslims in the holy land provided important technology


for the Christians. In all truths, Christianity was spread to Latin


America in a most brutal fashion. The Spaniards murdered millions of


Indians, and wiped out civilizations of peoples not for the purpose of


not only religion, but gold! The primary reason that Christianity


remains the ubiquitous religion in Latin America is because the


Spaniards forced conversion of their Indian slaves – something that


Islamic conquerors rarely did. In fact they charged a tax on their


non-Muslim subjects, which eventually lead to conversion by choice


rather than by force. Christians in the Americas came to dominate the


continent by using their superior technology to forcefully overwhelm,


enslave, or force conversion on inhabitants, in contrast to the


Islamic people, who attracted converts from an economic standpoint,


but also came to absorb many conquered peoples, as evident in the


cultural blending of South Asia, which eventually fell apart for


secular reasons (Ahmad, et. al., 186). Spaniards burned books,


temples, and sculptures, and quelled all rebellion by the once mighty


Americans (Ahmad, et. al., 46). The Spanish enslaved the Indians of


Central and South America, while the British, Dutch, and French


enslaved the Africans.


Another religion with ties to violence is Hinduism. While that


may perhaps be a startling revelation, history proves that it has had


many violent incidents and tendencies. It was originally a product of


the early Aryans, a war-like people who stormed into South Asia,


sacking cities and eventually covering virtually all traces of the


early culture of the Indus Valley. These Aryans transmuted their


beliefs onto the now helpless people of the Indus river, and created


what would eventually be Hinduism. While Hinduism remained relatively


non-violent throughout the centuries, when the first Muslim invaders


appeared and they clashed in both a philosophical and violent sense.


Hindu violence returned in the mid-twentieth century, when they


finally regained control of India. They smashed a Muslim temple at


Ayodhya (Ahmad, et. al., 207), and Sikh and Tamil rebel groups rebel


against their authority. However, what is even more notable about


Hinduism, is its rigid caste system, in which peoples have set social


classes, that are totally unchangeable, and are products of the


religion. The untouchables were considered as low as animals, and


forced to do menial work such as sweeping and leather working. They


were forced into a life of separatism, and the rest of Hindu culture


either ignored them completely or hated them. And on the other side


of the world, in Central America, the Aztec people were powerful


warriors, who swept across the Mexican plains, conquering villages and


whole peoples (Ahmad, et. al., 450). Their religion consisted of


brutal human sacrifices of enemy slaves – in fact the sacrifices grew


so many in number that they were watching their population decline


significantly, which eventually allowed the Spanish invaders to


overcome them. When we look at the aggregate spectrum of cultures and


religions, we see a significant relationship between religions and


violence, one could conclude that much of the world’s problems today


are echoes of past religious exploits in places such as Latin America,


India, and Africa.


To say that religion on a whole is violent and counter


productive would be a massive abstraction – and a false one too. In


fact, the purpose of this essay is not to denigrate the notion of


organized religion, but to clarify the purpose of the Islamic


religion, and to dispel the commonly held notion that Islam is solely


a cult of violence. Through the ages, religion brought light to


literally billions of people. It has inspired artists, scientists,


writers and scholars. It was the founding basis of Western


Civilization, and our entire society. We cannot deny it’s overriding


role in our history. The purpose of this essay is also not to


contrast Islam as good and Christianity as bad. Truly, Islam, when


closely examined, is a rather tolerant and non-violent religion – it


has no history of imperialism, nor has it ever forced the conversion


of mass people. Whatever violence it has created, it is at least not


any worse than any other religion. In summary, it is not fair to say


that religions are fundamentally violent, nor does it do justice the


study of history, which indeed proves to us that often religion had a


far nobler purpose. Would our world perhaps have been a better place?


That question can never be answered We do know, however, that


religion was both violent and beneficial – to classify it as one or


the other would not do it justice. However, we will continue our


search for the universal constant, and perhaps the study of religion


will someday bring us closer to the truth.

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