Islam and Religious Tolerance #1
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Channel: Mohammad Qutub
Series: Mohammad Qutub - Islam and Religious Tolerance
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AI Generated Summary ©
The transcript discusses various misconceptions about Islam, including its intolerant stance and its "monster" status. It also touches on the conflict between Catholic and Easter Christian religion in Syria and the loss of political control over the region. The transcript also touches on the historical sham and its impact on political and cultural context of the West. The segment concludes with a brief advertisement for a book.AI Generated Transcript ©
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certainly be lonely indeed Subhan Allah Milena Illa Valentina in the cantle Alleman Hakeem published rather suddenly what is psyllium determinedly, sir, probably. I praise Allah Almighty and I send prayers and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam family writers companions and all those that follow them the right guidance until the day of judgment I mean
Glory be to Allah no knowledge we accept that which would have taught us indeed you all you are the All Knowing the all wise.
Dear brothers and sisters As Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.
Very nice to be with you, again,
on a bi monthly basis, today, insha Allah, we continue with our series Islam in the misunderstood religion.
And today, we want to deal with one of the prime misconceptions about the religion of Islam. And one of the accusations that has leveled against the religion of Islam, that is that it is an intolerant religion, or that it is somehow
not
aiming Kabul, towards other faiths and other ideas or ideologies.
I will
attack this
subject this topic from two different angles. One being the practical angle, and the other one being the theoretical.
And allow me to begin with the practical, even though the normative order would be to deal with it on a theoretical level, and then go to the practical. But in this situation,
I can, I don't want to get lost in the theoretical and then not have enough time. To talk about the practical and the non reality, I think I would need more than one talk to really give it justice. But unfortunately,
otherwise, it's misunderstood religion will be a one year or a two year series. So for that purpose, I'm going to try to squeeze whatever I can to today. And then we deal with another misconception
the next time in shop. So I want to try to deal with some of those practical examples, which is going to show us
from the very beginning, before we even get into the theoretical, and especially if we have non Muslim friends present, it's going to show them that
tolerance is not just a theoretical concept of Islam, but rather it is a modus operandi.
modus operandi. It's a mode of operation in Islam. And it was practiced. For the longest time, as we will see.
Any
observer and student
of history
will immediately realize that history was full of conflict.
And, to a large extent, much of that conflict.
What civilization
was civilization? It had a civilizational factor.
No, we talked about civilization. We're talking about religion, we're talking about culture, politics.
We see that in a lot of the conflict in history, some of it was pure economics.
Pure rail politic.
Just one people trying to dominate another. Some of it was like that. But a good part of it was also civilizational. It didn't have to do with religion, it had to do with culture.
And
you might have all heard of the
famous thesis of Samuel Huntington, the clash of civilizations.
A theory and a book that was widely
circulated and commented upon. criticized as well. Okay. Some may even say, totally debunked.
Maybe when we're talking about the present era,
but I think when we talk about history,
it's not very difficult to see that there was a lot of clash. And a lot of it did seem to be civilization. Okay.
Having said that,
when you look at all of that conflict, and Islam like other religions, other empires
other
political
groupings
was part of that equation.
So, if you take all of that history of conflict
in mind, you may think to yourself, tolerance has no place in the religion of Islam
when he talked about the history of conflict that had occurred
and sometimes in this lambs name
you may think that therefore tolerance doesn't have a place in Islam.
However,
we will see that in fact it is the diametrical opposite.
So, please give me your ears, your eyes,
not so much your noses, your brains your attention, okay. And try to concentrate because there are going to be a lot of quotations in this talk alright. So try to follow and inshallah it will be fruitful.
One Orientalist confessed. And we are glad that he had confessed,
maybe grudgingly but he confessed that only the Muslims were able to combine
missionary zeal
with tolerance.
Again, it may seem that these two things are
in Clash. How can you have missionary zeal, right?
The fervor
to bring people to your religion.
Missionary meaning calling people to the religion calling to Islam? How can you have that intolerance as well? It's almost as if it's an oxymoron. It's a contradiction, right? He's confessing, only the Muslims were able to combine these two, ostensibly
opposite things.
So he's saying the Muslims have missionary zeal.
They love to convert people to their religion, but that did not prevent them from being tolerant. This is an important confession.
And here we see to this Orientalist and his likes, that as you have realized this, you have to now also realize
by corollary,
that this must be because tolerance is an inherent Islamic paradigm.
As Muslims were able to demonstrate this, this cannot be somehow just the actions of some of those Muslims who are taller cannot be
because we see it OMA wide, everywhere the Muslims went. So therefore we cannot attribute it to those specific Muslims being tolerated, but rather, this is something that is inherent in the religion. It's in the texts. It's what the religion teaches. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to demonstrate such tolerance
after the death of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa set it up. As you all know, the aspirations of Muslims were focused on the blessed lands the blessed land here being what
what is it
Medina and Mecca are the lands of Islam
but now
after the death of Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem Muslim aspirations are their eyes are on the blessed land of a sharp yes consists part of a sharp Be careful
I won't have to get up
how did I get up? Oh, I just put these but this one is
my my hand is itching to draw to show you a sharp but
what is a sharp brothers and sisters?
What's a show
Okay, Syria, Syria is part of sharp.
Okay, what else?
Is not part of the shepherds the blessed land? The most less than Lance? Do I write with this?
Brother
Okay, so Syria,
Lebanon,
Palestine
all of this is part of Shabbat
Turkey also
was what?
Jordan masala. Alright. Interestingly, when I was giving a talk about the blessing of the land of Sham,
it was kind of a talk about what's happening in Syria, but from a kind of a religious perspective, religious angle. So I was talking about the blessed land and a sham and I had, it was a PowerPoint presentation. So I showed them the pictures and the map and so on. So after I showed them some of the authentic hadith, so everyone was excited to be part of a Shabbat. So one sister raises their hand and says, Sheikh, what about Turkey? Is Turkey part of the show, you know, everyone wants to be part of this blessed land. Okay, so we have Syria, right.
But yeah, and then we have Lebanon, right.
And we have Jordan.
We have Palestine, right.
So all of these, yes, this is all Sham.
This is all channeled. When the Prophet sallallahu seldom talks about the blessing of the land of a sham in the Hadith, he doesn't only mean, it's
clear,
this is all a sham.
These are not our demarcations.
These are not our lines.
These are the lines of sites.
And because
they drew those lines, not us, too. We don't have any differentiation.
But that's how it always was. So this is a shell.
And what was it called an English
delivered?
Live how does all of this sucks and pick up these lines.
I like to say
if Samsung people were to come out of their graves today, they would be shocked.
You ready, it's are still following the lines we drew more than 100 years ago.
This is what I think they would say.
You idiots are still obeying these lines, that we just randomly drawn a map over 100 years ago.
This is a sham.
And some may see
the very northern tip of Saudi Arabia, it'd be part of the show some difference of opinion of how to demarcate the blessed land of a sham. The point is
the Muslim aspiration was towards a Shem after the death of Prophet Muhammad said otherwise.
As the Muslim armies took one
place after another, these places were inhabited by Orthodox Christian communities. Okay, so keep in mind, we're talking about Christianity
all the way up until
all the way up until
Martin looser in the early 16th century
1518 or so.
All the way up until this date.
The main chasm between for in Christianity is between the two main Christian sects, and they are
Catholics and the Orthodox.
This is the main cousin because until
Now we don't have something called
Protestants.
Clear.
Protestantism starts in the early 16th century with Martin Luther.
So,
all the way up until this time, the main chasm is here.
And it's a huge chasm.
The conflict that happened between Catholic Christians and Orthodox Christians is
difficult to describe.
They were mortal enemies of one another.
All right.
So
of course, when the Muslims, this is what you can describe as Eastern Christianity here.
And this is pretty much Western Christianity.
So whenever you read a room, and there are Hadith of the prophets of Salaam, it's talking about
Eastern Christians.
The Byzantines, whose capital is Ms. antium. Ms. antium is a post on tinea Constantinople as we said before modern day Islam you remember good all right.
So
the the the Muslims were only really exposed. You have to stop me when I go on these historical tangents otherwise, we'll never finish we have to come back to tolerance, we have to come back to tolerance. Okay.
The Muslims are only really exposed to Western Christianity, Latin Christianity with the Crusades, but that's much later. Right?
That's in the end of the 11th century, right 1095 1099
When the Crusades started, so most of the time, especially in the early period, they are dealing with the Orthodox Christians, the Eastern Christians, okay. So these Orthodox Christian communities that populated a sham,
okay. They actually welcomed the new Muslim rulers,
right?
Why? Because they attributed to them,
their deliverance from
the repressive tyrant Heraclius
also known as hereafter.
They even saw it, some even saw it as a manifestation of Divine punishment.
That God is punishing this tyrant
by the coming of the Muslims
so they actually welcomed
the Muslims taking over
many of the lands of a shot because they were being persecuted by their own Christian
co religionists. So now we're talking about a chasm within Orthodox Christianity as well.
What are called the Caledonian Christians as opposed to the non Caledonian
one anonymous Syriac chronicle quotes the following.
In this we gained no small advantage, in other words was a huge there was a big advantage in that we were saved from the tyrannical rule of the Romans.
So they felt that these Romans though they are co religionists, were persecuting them. And now the Muslims have come and delivered them from them.
So
when you hear things like this, you immediately make the connection
that the rapidity with which
the Muslims were able to take over the lands of Hashem
is definitely due to their ability not to take over the land.
But to take over the hearts first.
Here are the people welcoming them.
Seeing them as an AMA is a blessing from Allah. Right.
Otherwise,
taking over the London show
wouldn't have been that easy.
We have to realize that.
So this is religious tolerance.
In another quotation by one scholar it says the Byzantine administration.
The administration now was well known for both its high taxation and its strict enforcement of Orthodox religious beliefs.
Islam was a pleasant alternative
for it was religiously tolerant, and even the taxes that are non Muslim was obliged to pay the Jizya
were significantly less than those levied by Constantinople, Constantinople being the capital being robbed, right? This point we're talking about
the second row Byzantium, Constantinople, right?
These victories, my brothers and sisters, pave the way for the bloodless acquisition of
adversity.
Was a bloodless acquisition, there was no blood. There's no bloodshed, there's no killing, a far cry from what will happen during the time of the Crusades. Right. A far cry.
In fact, as we know,
the presence of Omicron Kappa was specifically requested in order to receive the key to the city in order for the
for the patriarch to hand over the city to say no criminal Hapa.
On one occasion
the Muslims had to vacate some of these Levantine Levantine is an adjective of
that. So the Muslims had to vacate some of these Levantine cities, okay, in order to face the large army of Heraclius.
As they were vacating hems, and fences were Syria.
At one point, it was considered the capital of the Syrian revolution
as they were vacating hence.
In other words, they're leaving it now. They have to all congregate because they have to face directly it's
guess what they did.
They returned
the jizya money that they took from the Christians they give it back.
This has never happened to them before.
They couldn't believe it.
Who are you people? Where did you come from?
So they returned whatever money you think correctly is, whatever return the taxes that he took?
Why did they return it?
Because the GCR money that they were taking from the non Muslims is actually it's like a fee that the non Muslims are paying for the protection of the Muslims for the protection of the state. And now they're leaving,
so they cannot protect them anymore. So gave them they give them their money back refund
Subhanallah
upon which the Syriac residents replied, indeed your room and justice is more beloved to us than the oppression and tyranny we were under
and with your deputy,
they left the deputy with your deputy we shall repel the soldiers of Iraqis so now they're gonna fight with the Muslims against
directly as when they saw this magnanimity this toleration, this kindness.
This is what we're talking about.
This is at a time where Islam is
at the peak of its strength. No one can say oh, the muscles are weak. It's exactly the opposite.
Toleration is an inherent aspects of inherent characteristic of this religion and the Muslims displayed it in the best way.
Of course, similar incidents occurred in some of the other cities that they also had to do.
vacate
we have to understand ation of the Quranic injunction or principle that there is no
there is no compulsion in religion,
though we would love more than anything
to bring that one person
to the religion of Islam.
But there is no compulsion doesn't work that way. Right? You cannot force anyone, no one, as the claim was forced into Islam by the sword. This is a myth.
A myth that even some of the objective Western scholars
started refuting. But this is not true, as we will see.
So these newly annexed lands, enjoyed freedom of religion under Muslim rule, and there was no pressure on them to convert it anyway. Okay.
Nothing is better proof of this, then the large number of Jews and Christians that lived under Islamic rule
whose religious demographics did not change hardly changed even after the Muslims took that city or that location.
I'll give you an example. After about a century
of the celebrated conquest of Syria,
it was found that Muslims constituted just over how much what was the percentage of Muslims in Syria in this area?
What's the percentage of Muslims 100 years after the Muslims entered? When did the Muslims enter in whose reign?
I'm gonna cut up? Right? So just 100 years later, you're talking about 120 130? Right. Hijiri.
So
what was the percentage of Muslims in Syria after the Muslims entered it?
100 years later?
Ticking guess?
Yeah, absolutely. You're talking about the Omega
six 60%. Okay.
Other guesses will be 40. Okay.
That lasted all the way up past 100 years, right.
After about a century, it was found that Muslims constituted just over 6% 6% of a stable population of 4 million. This is according to the study by conversion and FARC until 98.
What does that tell you?
There's no forced conversion.
There's no first conversion. So
yes, and we're talking about the capital two level. It's a very good point.
So the Muslims are just 6% They left the Christians be
like a little while. Well, yeah.
The Muslims were ruling. Yes. They were ruling the Muslim the ruling them justly, right with the justice of Islam, with the freedom and toleration of Islam. You want to convert?
Right.
Later on, as we will see, especially in Spain, yes, people were converting in droves.
Actually, some of the Muslims started feeling that
we're losing
that economics. There's no disease, they're becoming Muslim, right.
But they understood, at least Al Khalifa, Amara blah, blah. This was was teaching people as well. That we are not here to collect money. We are here to guide people. If they convert to Islam, genuinely. They don't pay the Jizya anymore. This is what we want. Leave the economics to Allah. Right.
Of course, the same was not true, unfortunately of Christian rule.
Places where Christians would
wear
Jews survived their persecution but not Muslims.
Okay
listen to this incident
there was widespread voluntary conversion from Christianity to Islam. Were in an area some of you may know maybe your brother in Quran.
Okay? It's close
despite the absence of any religious pressure on the indigenous peoples, so people were coming willingly converting from Christianity to Islam.
This annoyed ishow yob, the third, who was an historian, Patriarch, he is a Christian, almost like a priest. He's a patriarch.
And he expressed his indignation in a letter to see me on the metropolitan of river, the sheep, and the Primate of Persian. He says, I quote, and the Arabs to whom God at this time has given the Empire of the world. Behold, they are among you, as you know, well.
And yet they attack not the Christian faith.
But on the contrary, they favor our religion.
They do honor to our priests, and the saints of the Lord.
And they confer benefits on churches and monasteries.
Why then have your people of MERV muddle without?
Why have they abandoned their faith for the sake of these Arabs? So he's basically saying they didn't put pressure on you. They didn't put a sword on your neck. Why are your people converting in so many large numbers?
And then he says, and that too, when the Arabs as the people have murdered themselves declare, have not compelled them to leave their own religion, but suffered them to keep it safe. And undefiled. If they gave up only a majority of their goods, the jizya they didn't want anything from you see, with your religion, you just have to give a small Jizya that is, yes, symbolic brothers. It's not like the taxes of Constantinople, the jizya is symbolic. So you're saying it's just give up a small majority of their goods, meaning
it will be ludicrous for some
ignorant person to say, Oh, they were converting so that they don't have to pay the Jizya. Bologna, the GCL is nothing symbolic.
That's not an incentive for them to change their religion so that they don't have to pay it. Right. And he says it clearly here.
Thomas Arnold, a famous Orientalist.
When he laments the fact that there are not enough Christian documents, telling us about the first century after the Hadron, he refers to this letter I just mentioned as one of the important ones. And this ultimately elucidates the peaceful nature of Islam.
How much time do I have?
I think to get through all of this, we might do in three lectures that have one
the yes side, how much do I have? How much time 14?
You can't sit that long can you?
Lose is another case in point.
What's
the time when Muslims ruled Spain, which was for how long?
Yes.
800 years? It's a long time. Right?
From the first century hugely, in in C, we're talking about 700, right 711 Or so all the way up until 1490 to
the time of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
when they
destroyed
Islam in Spain,
but the word that is usually mentioned in conjunction with
Have Learned Delos Muslim Spain is convivencia.
It's a Spanish word.
And
if you know a little bit of English or Latin, you might know that the root of the word seems to indicate what con events here, con, con together
coming together, right?
Something along those lines, right kind of events here just means the almost
almost relatively utopian coexistence
that happened during the time of Muslim Spain.
In fact, when you talk about coexistence, especially in history, Muslim, Spain is the
is the archetype.
Example, the archetypical exam of coexistence,
a time where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peacefully,
were non Muslims were contributing as much as the Muslims
to civilization.
This is a Muslim Spain, you cannot find this anywhere else. And that's why this term was used convivencia.
Again, there may be some will try to detract from it and say no, it wasn't a utopia and this and that, well, there is no fully perfect utopia. But especially for that time, where empires are at each other's throats. That was an amazing example.
Truly amazing example. In fact,
many people might even say we wish we could really live the Conservancy of Spain, maybe even nowadays.
And that was
some 1500 years ago.
Or, say 1000 years ago, during the time it was from Spain, and especially in the first few centuries, after the Muslims ruled and entered Spain.
This is why
Jews migrated to Muslim Spain in their 1000s.
So many 1000s of Jews migrated to Muslim Spain.
And it is no exaggeration when one of them called it their salvation,
the Jewish salvation
where the Muslims rule in Spain SubhanAllah.
How ironic, right? So here are the Jews finding their salvation under Muslim rule.
And here we are in the 20th and 21st century, and the only real military occupation we have in the world is under the Jews. And they are occupying Muslim lands.
How ironic.
They forgot their history. No, they didn't forget they know their history.
So that's why the Jews call that and historians call it the Jewish Golden Age, the time where Jews were in Muslim Spain.
As we know, the economy Valencia did not last
there was a Reconquista movement
whose purpose was to get the Spain back
and bring it under the fold of Christianity again. And they succeeded in 1492 when they
took the last Muslim stronghold in Granada
and started their campaign
to
decimate whatever was left of Muslims in Spain. And of course, the famous notorious rather
institution
which they began
also known as
what is it not us
How did they destroy Islam and spin?
The Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition,
whereby
scores of Muslims and Jews for that matter, were thrown out of Spain, there was a mass exodus
of the Jews.
And whoever was left in Spain was tortured many times to death, or the other option is to become a Christian. So if anybody forced people
into their religion, by the tip of the sword, it was the Christians and Muslims.
After establishing convivencia, for centuries,
the Christians started the notorious Spanish Inquisition.
Some of the most unspeakable torture that happened happened during that period.
To Muslims, because they refuse to
apostatize and leave Islam.
In fact, according to Karen Armstrong, she calls it the most evil of all Christian institutions, the Spanish Inquisition.
And that one had that that Spanish Inquisition turned centuries of Muslim toleration and convivencia on its head.
And that's when Spain, according to these Catholic Christians, became homogeneous nation Subhanallah the tyrants always like the word homogeneous. I also liked that word, but I like it from a chemical engineering perspective, right? We make something homogeneous you blend it.
But when it comes to people's, when you say homogeneous, you mean, you completely destroyed other cultures or ideologies and only left one type. Exactly the opposite of what the Muslims did. We said 6% Is that homogeneous? It's homogeneous in the Christian of the Christian side, not on the Muslim side, it's totally heterogeneous. But once the Christians come in on press, they want to make it homogeneous. MashAllah said use the same word?
No, during the Syrian revolution,
as he was starving, one town after another, okay.
Especially in in central Syria and in the south, especially in El Hoopa, the blessed area of water and he said, Now we have
a homogeneous
population. In other words, only people who do sudo to him
right.
So homogeneity is something that tyrants like
again, I mean, there's so much to say so
let's fast forward to the Ottoman period.
Or let's call it a double ended with many
smugly
whether you speak Turkish
Okay, good. So, so you can correct my pronunciation that presentation.
Less than half a century
before the thriving civilization in the endless breed. Its last
the Byzantine capital at Constantinople had finally fallen. So, when did Spain become Christian?
1492 When did Constantinople become Muslim?
1450 357
HD?
Unfortunately,
a lot of us were only doing dealing with the Gregorian calendar 1453
was piano
for the Christians, the last day
alone will ask
14 That's what they call
consent to know
fulfill
Byzantium
capital, the second Rome for over a millennium, more than 1000 years. This is the last day
how much between it and
what happens next spent less than half a century, less than less than half a century, right? Less than 50 years.
Constantinople became Muslim.
Spain became Christian. Okay.
In the words of one author, he puts it very nicely.
He said, Spain and Anatolia, Anatolia, being Turkey pasta pasta to Spain and Anatolia changed hands. At about the same time, almost the same time.
Christians expelled the Moors from Spain, the Moors being the Muslims, Christians expelled the Moors from Spain, why Muslims conquered what is now Turkey.
Every Muslim was driven from Spain
put to the sword,
or forced to convert.
Whereas the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church remains in Istanbul to this thing.
Imagine
can say
So who of these two is tolerant? Where does tolerance lie?
Very interestingly
if you really understand that this is the last day
you might as well die if you're an Orthodox Christian, and your capital just felt okay.
Taken by the Muslims. If you really understand
how
serious this matter is, it will only make you more shocked to hear the following
the impending threat of the siege, the siege that eventually led to the fall of Constantinople was so dire that Emperor Constantine Panelo ghosts, found himself compelled to seek the immediate assistance of Latin Christendom. So now, you have Orthodox Christians
calling on their arch nemesis,
the Latin Christians and they've been fighting each other forever. The Crusade in 2004.
The Crusades were between again and ce 1099 and 1291. Right.
In 2004, the crusade was not against the Muslim was the Latin Christians against the Eastern Christians. They they pledged
Constantinople
they're all own co-religionists.
So now, but this is a human. This is serious. So now he feels compelled. He has to seek the assistance of his arch enemy, right.
Many Greeks objected grips, Eastern Orthodox. Many of the Greeks objected to the Emperor's request, and even an indicated a preference before the Turks.
Let the Turks come other than our own Christian core religions, okay.
Is this an inclination towards the Muslims? Not likely?
It seems more like Greek abhorrence of the the Latins, the Latin Christians
Byzantium Constantinople,
their own Grand Duke
famous Grand Duke Lucas Notaras
is popular for his caustic remark.
When he said, quote, he had rather Behold, in Constantinople, the turban of Muhammad, turban of Mohammed, then the Pope's
tiara
or a Cardinals hat. So in other words, I'd rather see a Muslim turban rather than a Cardinals hat or a Pope's TR, look at
enmity between them the animosity, SubhanAllah. Right.
Let's read the Quran talked about this as well.
And this is why
as Emperor Constantine was riding through the streets, the you could hear the general public shouting, better we turn Turk rather than Latin.
We'd rather become Turk rather than become Latin.
It's very interesting.
Definitely, they must have heard and realize the tolerance of the Muslims as well.
Where have you heard these things before? Have you heard these things before? Have you read them?
Definitely not hear it in the media.
Much less some of the scholarly works and looks. This is the tolerance of mystery. This is our legacy. Right? We need to know this.
So
the fall of the second rule, this one
after its millennia legacy, was a more historic occurrence than the end of Muslim Iberia. That followed four decades later, this is more historic than this.
Therefore, it could have easily produced similar horrific oppression of the indigenous population.
Why wasn't this like this? Even though this is more historic.
The Muslims could have annihilated the
snot the way of the Muslims.
Even Ahsoka Muhammad and he started talking is the one who obviously performed the conquest. He started talking to these two Christians gathering, not slaughtering them, forcing them into Islam or exiling them as happened just four decades later in Iberia.
Let us quickly look at the situation of Al Kitab in
Romania, okay. Many of those who are religiously persecuted in Europe after
the
Turks got accustomed to India, and you have to remember that this is a time of strength for a donut with money. The time of weakness doesn't start till approximately after 1571
with the Battle of Lepanto, after that, weakness starts to set in even though there's still another three centuries or so for it to fall right, but weakness started to set in actually with the son of Soloman CARDONE Saleem, a fairly, that's one weakness started.
But up until this time, this is the age of strength for a donor with money.
So for many of the religiously persecuted
guess what the Ottoman Empire as they call it, was a refuge.
Many of the religiously persecuted Christians and Jews sought refuge in again, as we saw in Iberia, Spain, sought refuge in
Muslim lands.
In Anatolia, Turkey
was a prime destination.
And what the Turks implemented is a system they called the millet system. Mila from Mila, right.
And the roots of this millet system originate in Islam and Islamic laws concerning what is called 100. Okay, and this is why the sublime port, meaning a doubleheader with Maria
They gave unprecedented privileges to these non Muslims that were living.
So he's saying that pernicious tenet has been imputed to them.
The duty of extirpating all other religions by the sword.
This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the Quran. They used to spell it Koran. Still, their knowledge of Islam is still quite limited. They don't call it the Quran the Quran right with a que
this charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the Chorale, by the history of the Muslim conquerors, and by their public and legal toleration of the Christian worship.
We'll show you the shahidul.
So this is your own historian
par excellence of the Roman Empire. He's not a historian and his dad was a historian of the Roman Empire. He is saying this, and he's exonerating Islam of what he called a pernicious tenant, that this is not correct. And this is not Islamic, right.
Interestingly,
Norman, Daniel says the toleration had no place in medieval Christian
as it did within what he called strictly defined limits in medieval Islam. And he cited the disappearance of Muslim communities living under Christianity, as opposed to Jews and Christians living under Muslim rule.
During this acquisition of Jerusalem,
something very memorable happened
between say now
and the patriarch, known as patriarch Sophronius.
refused to pray inside the church. You've heard this How many have heard this story? This is famous, everyone knows. Everyone should know. Right?
Why Why didn't he want to pray in the church?
Because It's haram.
Why? His brother
pictures, okay. Why his brother, because
Baraka Luffy
kebab is looking ahead,
if he prays there, what's gonna happen, years down the line, Muslims will come and say,
our immediate Momineen prayed here. So they'll raise the church. He's afraid of that. Three refuse to pray lover
who is sometimes accused of being a strong personality, and maybe he was harsh and this and that.
Look at the way he's thinking.
So there are different accounts of the dialogue that occurred. But this is an interesting account of
alerted Christian authority that I will quote to you, the Melkite, Patriarch of Alexandria, known as you Tiki aside in battery.
Those of you who speak Arab, Arabic might have heard of sorry, he says, when the time of prayer approached, Omar said to patriarch Sophronius, I want to pray.
So the patriarch responded, Commander of the Faithful, Emile Momineen. Pray in the place where you are now.
And Ahmad said, I do not want to pray here. The patriarch then led him to the church of Constantine, the church of the resurrection,
also known as Can you sit Altea, where he spread a mat, made of straw on the floor of the church. But the Roman said, I do not want to pray here.
He went out to the steps which are at the gate on the eastern side of the Church of St. Constantine.
And he prayed alone on the steps SubhanAllah. Then he sat down and said, to patriarchs or Fronius, Patriarch, do you know why I did not pray inside the church. He said, I do not know Commander of the Faithful. I'm gonna say to him, If I had prayed inside the church, you would lose it. And it would have gone from your hands, because after my death, the Muslims would seize it, saying, oh my god has prayed here.
But give me a piece of
almost like papyrus to write a document.
And he wrote that Muslims should not pray on the steps as a congregation, but rather individually and that they should not gather here for the purpose of communal congregational prayer, nor should be called together by the voice of
love.
Look at the tolerance
look at the Justice
this tolerance towards the Christians in our goods
was not restricted
to not interfering in their affairs. It went beyond that the Christians at times with request them the Muslims to arbitrate some of their differences
some of their own differences out of confidence in their justice
in their objectivity.
Subhanak era and we know that Amara pub gave the people of Jerusalem the Amana right assurance of security, okay.
And this ultimately ended centuries of religious intolerance, II even in the area of outputs. Okay. It was the man of Sedna, which made this place a place of peace, I'll quotes
has been the object of conflict for centuries, right? between different empires. We know that the story mentioned in the Quran of how the Romans and the Persians were vying for it right.
This is an excerpt This is Palestine. So the Persians were palette were vying for it. The Romans. Okay, and civilizations before that. So there was a lot of conflict in an Aqsa woods.
I remember reading, nice
comment. I think it was by Karen Armstrong. And she's written plenty on, on Islamic religious history as well as Palestine. And she visited, she can.
So she said when I when I stood in the church there,
I almost froze in all
thinking about the amount of bloodshed that occurred in history
in order to
take control of this place.
But that all changed.
Now, these are my words, this is a no longer end quote for Karen Armstrong, just the fact that, you know, she was thinking about all of the bloodshed that occurred before and she's standing there now. Now I am saying
all of that change with the amount of Satana Amara that he gave to the people of Palestine,
it again became a place of bloodshed what happened?
The Crusaders came and took it for that short
period less than a century.
Running out of time.
As you can well see, what is it?
10 minutes.
Told you, I talked about the theoretical. Seems you guys are enjoying the practical,
theoretical, love to do the theoretical in 10 minutes. All right.
Let me just say quickly, were there exceptions to the rule? Yes, there were exceptions, was everyone.
So magnanimously tolerant, not always. There were exceptions. And I have some of those exceptions. I don't have time to mention them. But, you know, what's more important than the exceptions, that whenever there was an exception, a violation of the
modus operandi of tolerance.
There was someone to correct it.
There was someone to say this is wrong. What you're doing is wrong. While you're doing is against Islamic principles.
even at the time of
Prophet Mohammed Salah salah, of course at the time,
people were still close to the time of the Helia takes time to reform themselves. So there may be certain manifestations of that, the practice of the time of Germania. But there was always someone to say this is wrong, people would not be quiet. Because this was part of it, I'm gonna borrow from mukha, even if it was dealing with the non Muslims.
But I don't have time unfortunately, to go into those examples.
So my brothers and sisters
when we talk about tolerance,
I feel the matter is
largely misunderstood.
Tolerance today is understood by many
to mean
almost a wholesale acceptance of the other person
and his beliefs and his ideology.
I claim this is a very erroneous definition of tolerance.
In fact, it's almost
farcical.
Because
if I accept you, and I almost agree with what you think and what you say,
and I almost find credence in what you believe.
It's no longer called tolerance, it's called, we're very close. We're very close and thinking, we're very close in ideology. So these Christians who are fighting each other for centuries, in reality, they're quite close.
And they can be tolerant to one another's.
They just have some differences about, you know, the single nature or the dual nature of Christ. Fine, there are issues of creed.
But
they're not that huge.
They're not that different.
So this is not where tolerance comes in, you're already quite similar.
Tolerance comes in when we are drastically different.
Tolerance means something when I am
most vehemently opposed to what you believe or think,
on a theoretical level.
But on a practical level, I'm able to show you respect to treat you well.
And to be tolerant of you, this is tolerance.
This is the ultimate definition of tolerance.
So nowadays,
everyone wants to say tolerance is almost like I have to accept you wholesale, almost like we have to say, if we were talking about say, Christianity, that oh no, we can accept that, you know,
the Son of God that Jesus is the Son of God, maybe metaphorically, no. You can never accept anything like this. And this is ultimate Coover. And the Quran is unequivocal about this.
Will that lead to intolerance for Muslim? No.
Similar to the comment of that orientalist, when he talks about being able to
demonstrate two seemingly contradictory things, missionary zeal and tolerance similar here. The Muslims are the only ones who can really combine
complete aversion
to the other party's aqidah because we realize it's all Cofer.
But still, we tolerate them, and show them respect and be just with them. Because Allah loves justice loves the just, this is tolerance. This is the ultimate definition of tolerance.
I don't have to in any way except
At your Arcada, I am my aqidah is diametrically opposed to yours. One is Iman and the other is kufr.
clear is that clear is the right.
But
I can be tolerant, and I was tolerant. And the entire history of Islam demonstrated that tolerance in the most beautiful way
saying it in another way.
And we know, of course, all of the textual evidence, talks about the importance of al Qaeda
tells us clearly that everything else is covered. But despite that, we talk about even a higher level of tolerance towards al Kitab.
Right, because there are certain legislative matters
between us and Al Kitab, that do not apply to others. Because their origin
is from Allah, their origin, before it was corrupted, was a truly monotheistic religion. So they have a special place.
Again,
this is a demonstration of that tolerance, right?
To the extent that you can even
marry
a Jew or Christian, even though
you must understand them believe that what they are worshipping.
If it is something other than Allah subhanaw taala, there are socially important, it is crucial.
But yet there's another connection between the Allah Allah SubhanAllah.
There is love and respect between you as husband and wife, even though you view technically view her as a disbelief.
And maybe she views you as a disbeliever. By the way, it's not unidirectional. Keep that always in mind.
They view you as a Kaffir as well.
Yeah.
You're kofod According to them, right?
And that's why caffeine is a pejorative term, even in English.
Kefir, caffeine. It's a pejorative term, right? They used to call us the heathens, right? The Saracens, sometimes even the Turks at the time of the Turks, Turkmen Muslim and Muslim men work, you know.
So,
I say
it is the concomitant existence of humane treatment,
and such an extreme rejection of another systems another another's system of belief and practice, which makes Islam substantiated history of tolerance truly, all inspiring. So, when you look at all of the stories we mentioned about tolerance, practical tolerance, the history of Muslim tolerance, when you add to that
the unequivocal aversion and rejection of Islam of any party the other than its own,
it makes all of that tolerance and toleration even more or inspiring.
Those stories are enough on their own.
Even if we were like others, not so
inclined to the issues of
art either, okay, orthodoxy.
Maybe, let's say we were more like the Buddhists. It's all good. You worship Buddha, you worship dirt, you worship the wall. It doesn't matter, right.
So let's say, Phil, just hypothetically, that was our Arcada. That's all good.
Still, those stories of toddlers are all inspiring.
But then when you see that, actually the Muslims are the most strict when it comes to the issue of orthodoxy and Arcada.
You are in
even more inspired with all when you read about all of that tolerance
and peaceful coexistence that we promoted. Allah Allah, Allah more African desert on Long Island.
On the lower cinema, welcome to the museum.
Yes.
Time accommodated?
Precisely, precisely my point. So a lot of people are equating toleration with accommodation, almost like, you know, let's worship your God one day and you worship hours one day, as the kuffar of old used to say, this is not this is not what tolerance is about. This is why I'm trying to correct this misconception. Everyone seems to think tolerance means that as you tell me, and try to explain to me how God is a statue, or his the sun and the moon, or that he's a human being, or that he is the Son of God or God incarnate.
They almost think that they want me to not as they're saying, No, this is this is clear as sunlight for a Muslim, and this is totally unacceptable. But that does not in any way, detract or Vitiate. From my tolerance. This is what we're trying to say. You think that these Muslims that demonstrated this tolerance,
when he was doing this, he didn't think Sophronius is a Catholic,
or a disbeliever.
Kappa was wishy washy or nakida. That's why he, he was so tolerant, and I don't want to pray in the church and this and that.
They were even more strict when it came to these issues. That doesn't touch tolerance is a different domain. That's why I said here.
You see.
A higher level of manifested tolerance need not mean greater acceptance, the relationship mathematically speaking is unidirectional. And this is the crux of the misunderstanding of tolerance as a concept. Tolerance is a practical phenomenon,
not a spiritual or intellectual one.
Thus practicing tolerance need not derived from an acceptance of another's beliefs and or culture at all.
In fact, true tolerance is the display of humane treatment, despite the rejection and possibly a fierce one of another system of belief and practice.
So that's, that's the whole idea, people do not differentiate. So they think taller, that means I have to totally accommodate, right? Almost as if I have to accept what you're saying as true. It's not the case.
That's not what tolerance is about.
And this history shows that it is indeed achievable and achievable to a level people are finding difficulty implementing even in our day.
And all of this brothers and sisters, as you see
is not under a secular system.
In all of this history, was there such a thing as secularism?
It was under Muslim rule.
Regulation when the enemies of Islam keep trying to fear monger right
and scare everyone or Islam is coming. Sheree was coming. funds coming these people are you know, as if we
were going to destroy the world habibi. The world never knew tolerance until the Muslims came.
When Muslims were ruling, the world enjoyed peace.
There was true civilization there was true coexistence under Muslim rule. Right.
This is and this is a very critical point as well.
Everything else
just
A
very long time rather more than 1000 years,
more than 1000 years, until
until
Protestantism
was born
after Protestantism was born, the and of course orthodoxy was no longer that important because of the fall of their capital.
So, it almost, you know, this conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism almost substituted what conflict there was between Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity.
But it wasn't as fierce this was brutal for over 1000 years. Yeah, Mashallah. Excellent question. Mashallah. Mashallah.
So where's Orthodox Christianity today?
Russia, mainly Russia, right? So this is why when Samuel Huntington talks about civilizations,
he calls it Orthodox civilization, obviously, represented by Russia.
Even though
Orthodox and
Catholicism or Protestantism nowadays, they don't seem so different, right. On a geopolitical level, you have Russia and the US at loggerheads, even though it's not at the level of the Cold War, though some people were afraid it might develop into that, especially after what happened with the annexation of Ukraine and so on and so forth. But sometimes their, their positions are not that different. Right? They'll then they'll work together, okay, maybe against a common enemy.
So that's why he even talked about having different civilizations, even in the United Nations.
different civilizations, if this is, if Orthodox, Orthodox civilization is represented by Russia.
Then who are the five permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations? China, Russia, France, Britain, and he was you who has France,
and UK
are all part of one civilization, Western civilization. So Western civilization has three permanent seats. This is unfair.
The other seats is for Orthodox civilization. And the last one is for cynic civilization, the Chinese civilization, whereas the Muslim civilization not represented. Where's Islam?
There is no Islam.
You just have Malaysian Islam, Indian Islam, African Islam, Arab Islam, right. Russian Islam,
Turkish.
We divided Islam into all of its different countries. Furthermore, we divided it into ideologies you have the Quan Islam, Sufi Islam, Salafi Islam,
tablet, Islam, jihad, Allah,
Allah will start We ask Allah subhanaw taala to
unite the Ummah
anything else
was
the first one, the first one was Rome,
Rome in Italy. So, you need to have
the second Rome is Byzantine.
No, no. Now we have the third row
the third row, so Moscow you have one was the seat of Orthodox
civilization.
The first room the first room is way before and the, what is called the Western Roman Empire, which fell in the late fifth century and the late before Islam before
So a little bit before