Religions

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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 ...

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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 ...

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