Islam, Christianity and Hinduism

The advent of Islam in 7th century in Arabia had serious consequences for Christianity and Hinduism. What is significant to note is that the spread of Islam towards Christian lands and Hindu India took place at almost the same time. In 711 AD Arabs joined by the newly converted to Islam, Berbers of North Africa conquered the Iberian peninsula and invaded parts of Italy and France. The Islamic invasion of Christian Europe continued until the failure of the second siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683 AD. The story of Islamic invasion of Hindu India is no different. Mohammad bin Qasim invaded Sind in 712 AD. The Muslim invasions continued till the beginning of the eighteenth century. Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, was deported to Rangoon by the British in 1858 AD. It may therefore be noted that both Christian Europe and Hindu India suffered for one thousand years the threat of conversion to Islam and annexation of their lands.

Muslims invade Europe in 711 AD

An army of Berber converts of North Africa took control of the Southern Iberia. Shortly thereafter they invaded France. However, Muslim advance into western Europe was finally checked by Charles Martel in 732 AD near Poitiers. Southern Spain continued to remain under Muslim control till 1492 AD. After the Christians re-conquered Spain, many mosques were changed into Churches. In Seville, the top of the fifty metre high minaret of the Almohed mosque was transformed into a Cathedral bell tower.

The Turks were able to capture Constantinople in 1453 AD and renamed it Istanbul. The great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century. It was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquered Constantinople and the minarets were added then. From their base in Balkan, the Turks made a series of attempts to capture Vienna, the heart of Christian Europe. However, the second siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683 AD ended in failure and with this ended the Islamic threat to Christian Europe.

Consequences of Muslim Invasions

Wherever Muslim invaders went broadly the following happened :
a)One, whether Hindus or Christians the male population was slaughtered. Women and children were made slaves and distributed among the Muslim conquerors. Most of them were sold in the slave markets of Damascus and Baghdad. As a matter of fact, the term slavery comes from the word 'slav' who were taken as prisoners by the Turks from Balkan peninsula.In Afghanistan, kafirstan, an independent country inhabited by Hindus/Buddhists, was annexed by the Amir of Kabul and forced to convert to Islam. This happened in the last quarter of the 19th century. The new province was named as Nooristan. In India, the names of various cities and towns were changed to Muslim names. For example : the state of Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of towns/cities/villages converted to Muslim names. Mathura was changed to Islamabad and Benares to Muhammadabad.
b)Two, Churches and temples were destroyed and converted to mosques. In the case of India, such conversions ran into thousands.
c)Three, both Christians and Hindus were treated as dhimmis. That is they were allowed to retain their religion provided they paid Jizya (poll tax).

Conversion of Churches to Masjids in Europe

Within twenty years of the death of the founder of Islam, the Byzantine empire lost the provinces of Palestine, Egypt and Syria. Damascus was an important centre of Christianity before it was conquered by Muslims in 635 AD. The Umayyad mosque founded by the Caliph al-Wahid in 705 AD was earlier the site of Byzantine Church dedicated to St. John. Christians venerate Jerusalem as the place where Jesus died and was resurrected.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchure erected by the Byzantine emperor Constantine in the early fourth century AD marks the site of Christ's tomb. The taking of Jerusalem by Muslims after the defeat of the Byzantine troops at the battle of Yarmuk in 636 AD was a significant event for the determination of relations between Islam and Christendom. Originally Jerusalem was the place towards which the Prophet Muhammad had asked his followers to turn in prayer. It is also venerated as the location from which Prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended on his miraculous night journey through the heavens. Shortly after its capture, Caliph Umar ordered that Temple Mount of the Jews to be cleansed of the piles of garbage that had accumulated on it, and had a temporary mosque built on the site. In 661 AD Muawiyah was proclaimed as the Caliph in Jerusalem. He is said to have done the planning for the construction of he Dome of the Rock on the site of Umar's mosque.

Treatment of Christians

During the Muslim rule of seven hundred years in Spain, "the most pious Muslim refrained from speaking to the infidels except at a distance. If a Muslim and Christian met on a public road, the Christian always had to give way to the Muslim. Houses of Christians had to be lower than those of Muslims. An infidel Christian could never employ a Muslim in service.Christians could not build new Churches or monasteries or repair old ones, if they deteriorated. Churches and Chapels had to be kept open day and night should a Muslim traveller wish to find lodging. Church bells could only be sounded softly. A priest could not carry a cross or gospel in a visible manner in case he should pass a Muslim Christian funeral procession could not pass through Muslim areas. A Muslim who converted to Christianity was immediately sentenced to death, even if he had formerly been a Christian who converted to Islam.

Once the Christian regained control of their lost territories the Muslims who remained were forbidden from giving the call to prayer from minarets, from joining on pilgrimage, and from publicly practicing their faith. Muslims had to choose between conversion, emigration or death. (The Oxford History of Islam, OUP, New York).

ISLAM AND HINDUISM

India was also attacked by Muslims at the same time. The Muslim rule lasted for more than six centuries. Sultan Qutub din Aybak was the first Sultan who ascended the throne at Delhi in1206 AD and Bahadurshah Zafar was the last Mughal emperor who was deported to Rangoon in 1858 AD.

The history of Islam in India begins with the invasion of Sind in AD 711 by Imad-ud-din Muhammad bin Qasim, an Arab. Sind became a Muslim majority area. Then came Mahmud of Ghazni, a Turk in 1001 AD. From this time on, there was a rapid succession of invasions, conquests, and dynasties until the middle of the nineteenth century. India had no respite. Professor Murray T. Titus, in his well known study Indian Islam gives the motives behind the invasion of non-Muslim lands by Muslim invaders : In considering the invasions of India it is well to have in mind the Muslim canon law in respect to invasions of non-Muslim countries. Behind them all was a religious as well as political motive. Early, in the development of Islam, jihad (holy war) was regarded as a religious duty of Muslim rulers. If practicable, they should fight until the whole world was under the rule of Islam. But if such continual conquest against infidels should be an impossibility, then the requirement of the law would be fulfilled if the sovereign made or prepared to make, an expedition once a year. In addition to the fanatical hatred of idolators and polytheists which such doctrine so successfully produced, there was the desire for booty - gold, silver, precious gems, and slaves.

Talking about the invasion of Sind by Muhammad bin Qasim, the author of Chachnamah (a history of Sind written in the 8th century AD) writes : The nephew of Raja Dhir, his warriors and principal officers have been dispatched, and the infidels converted to Islam or destroyed. Instead of idol-temples, mosques and other places of worship have been erected, the khutbah is read, the call to prayer is raised, so the devotions are performed at stated hours.

Forced Conversion of Hindus to Islam

In regard to forced conversion to Islam, Sir Thomas Arnold writes : For India has often been picked out as a typical instance of a county in which Islam owes its existence and continuance in existence to the settlement in it of foreign, conquering Muhammadan races, who have transmitted their faith to their descendants, and only succeeded in spreading it beyond their own circle by means of persecution and forced conversions. Thus the missionary spirit of Islam is supposed to show itself in is true light in the brutal massacres of Brahmans by Mahmud of Ghazni, in the persecutions of Aurangzeb, the forcible circumcisions effected by Haydar Ali, Tipu Sultan and the like. Professor Arnold goes on to say : Tipu Sultan is probably the Muhammadan monarch who most systematically engaged in the work of forcible conversion. In 1788 he issued the following proclamation to the Hindus of Malabar : I have made repeated vows to honour the whole of you with Islam and to march all the chief persons to the seat of Government; that every being in the district without distinction should be honoured with Islam, that the houses of such as fled to avoid that honour should be burned, that they should be traced to their lurking places, and that all means of truth and falsehood, force or fraud should be employed to effect their universal conversion." Thousands of Hindus were accordingly circumcised and made to eat beef.