The Miracle of Freedom

by Ted Stewart

  So it is that, despite all of its great qualities, the religion of Islam has proven historically have no tradition of freedom, self-government, science, or economic development.7

  On the Eastern Tip of the Pyrenees Mountains Southern France

  They stared at each other uncomfortably. “I don’t understand,” the younger brother simply said.

  The older brother, the southerner, was slow to answer. “Few of you do,” he finally replied.

  The younger one was angry. It showed in his eyes and the tone of his voice. “You have joined the enemy.”

  “No, brother, I became the enemy a long time ago.”

  “You have betrayed our family. Our honor. The memory of our father . . .”

  “You know nothing of our father,” the other spat. He had never betrayed his father and he knew he never would, for honor for his elders ran deep within him now. And though his father may not have understood his actions in this world, in the next world he would. “What do you remember of our father?” he continued. “You were too young, naively hanging on our mother’s coat as she dragged you away. You were not yet weighed and measured when you last saw our father. It would be foolish to presume that you could speak for him now.”

  The younger brother held his tongue. “How could you do this?” he asked again.

  “Do what, my brother? What have I done? What do I stand accused of? The world is a complicated place. It is evil and cunning and absurdly brutal. My faith teaches something more. Something better. It gives me hope. It gives us hope. It is the only thing that teaches the truths to save us . . .”

  “Save us! Save us from what? You and your people have devastated a swath of earth that never sees the setting sun! You have trampled and defeated. You have taken slaves and riches. And you do it in the name of religion, as if you were on the errand of your God.”

  “Your God. My God. It is the same thing, brother. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.”

  The younger brother waved an inpatient hand. He had heard it all before. Over the past twenty years, since the Arab armies had first started racing across the Pyrenees with their scout parties, always probing for weaknesses, summing up their enemies as they prepared for the main attack, the faith of Islam had become well known through the northern land.

  “Save us!” he repeated. “You and your armies are going to save us!” His voice reeked with sarcasm and disdain. The Moors, as the Arab and North African invaders were commonly called, had taken the Iberian Peninsula and built up a kingdom they called Al-Andalus, which meant, as he understood it, “to become green after a drought.” But many things were not green now. And the world wasn’t any better. He had seen how the conquering army treated their own women, how they treated the young girls they took as slaves. He had seen how they put the stamp of their god upon nearly everything they conquered. And if the invaders brought a new color, it wasn’t green, but the red blood of war.

  The brothers fell into silence once again.

  “You lost your religion,” the younger finally concluded. “You sold yourself for nothing but a poll tax and a way to better your position in this world. You gave away your Christ because it was a little easier. To save your lands. Your wealth. Your ambition. You sold your religion for a pot of porridge and nothing else.”

  The older brother sadly shook his head, his face calm. If he felt anger, he didn’t show it, and his voice remained soft and composed. “Some have done that, brother. I would be a fool to deny that sometimes that has been the case. But that is not what changed me, brother. I found a better way. More truth. More light. What you believe isn’t wrong, and I don’t want to take away from the faith you have. After all is said, we still share much together. The prophets and the testament. Prayer. Faith. Goodwill and giving alms. Much of what we believe is the same. I have only . . . how could I say this . . . taken another step up the ladder. Now I’m reaching down to you, my brother.” Here he seemed to pause, his face clouding over quickly. “I’m reaching for you, brother, but you must take my hand. You cannot fight against us. You cannot defeat the mighty arm of God. We sweep across the earth because it is His will. We cannot be defeated as long as Allah marches at our guard.

  “And yes, we bring truth and we bring mercy, but that is not all we bring. We extend a hand to those who take it—but to the others, you are right, we bring subjection. They become our enemies, the enemies of the one true God.”

  The younger brother stared at his hands. “Would you really do this, brother? Would you really march into our lands? Will you fight against the cross? Against your brothers and your family? Will you ride with the armies of Islam as they fight their way through all of Europe?” He stopped and exhaled slowly, his breath freezing in the mountain air. “Which side will you fight for? Which side of history will you choose?”

  The older brother didn’t hesitate. Pushing back his robe, he placed his hand upon his sword. “I have already chosen, brother. We will conquer. We will win. The hand of the caliphs stretches from the jungles of Asia to the Great Sea in the west, five thousand miles of conquest underneath our feet. We have conquered every land that we have ever ridden into. Is there any doubt that we will defeat this land also?

  “Your lands, your people, and your Christian God, they are the last to stand against us. But you will not stand for long!”

  Who Were the Muslim Invaders?

  According to tradition, the man known as Muhammad was born in AD 571 in the oasis town of Mecca in western Arabia.

  Throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, Christianity was the dominant force, and the world into which Muhammad was born had been shaped by this fact. Except for Judaism and Zoroastrianism (the religion of Persia, or modern-day Iraq and Iran), almost all of the pre-Christian religions in the area had disappeared. The Roman Empire had fallen into decay, the western branch having essentially been destroyed—overtaken by a series of invasions by barbarians. The Roman Empire of the East, the Byzantine Empire, with its capital in Constantinople, still prevailed, but it was but a fragment of the once mighty realm. And though Christianity had risen as the predominant religion, it had also reached the point where it had begun to fracture into a number of sects and churches.

  The world was not a peaceful place. In the east, the powerful Persian Empire and its unceasing conflict with the Byzantines was the dominant political and military reality of the age. The two empires were at constant war, fighting over territory and control of the trade routes to the east.

  Most of the people of the region were under the control of one of these two great empires, the Arabs being one of the few exceptions.

  But things were changing quickly on the Arabian Peninsula. The contest between the Byzantines and Persians brought many refugees. The richness of the trade routes brought a great number of foreigners and colonists as well. This influx of new blood unsettled the Arabic society, exposing it to the outside world. The ancient pagan religions of the Arabs were being challenged. Some of the Arabs had already converted to Christianity, especially those living in areas that bordered Christian regions. The Jews, many of them refugees, had expanded their numbers as well, forming a substantial presence in the Arab lands. These peoples introduced new ideas, tools, traditions, beliefs, and technologies into the area. (Interestingly, some of the primary technologies introduced to the Arab people were advances in Roman and Persian military hardware, something they would put to considerable use in the near future.)

  Although it was a time of considerable turmoil and change, no one had any idea of how much the future was about to be altered by the birth of the man from Mecca.8

  • • •

  At the time that Muhammad was born, the Arabian Peninsula was sparsely populated. The nomads who lived in the desert raised a few sheep, goats, or camels. A handful eked out a living farming the tiny patches of arable land that were available. Their p
rimary loyalty was to one thing, and one thing only: their tribe. This was the exclusive focus of their world. They held little identity as Arabs, virtually no identity as a state or nation, and much of their life—outside of feeding themselves—was focused on raiding richer neighbors for bounty and slaves.

  There were, however, some small towns and settlements along the trade routes. Mecca was one of those. At the time, Mecca was experiencing a burst of prosperity due to an increase in the number of caravans along the trade route that ran through it. It also had the benefit of something that was almost unheard of the area: an enduring source of income. Thousands of Arabs would travel to Mecca to worship Al-Hajura-I-Aswad, the Black Stone, a black meteoritic rock that they believed (and Muslims still believe) was found by Abraham and dates back to Adam and Eve.

  When he was about thirty-nine years old, Muhammad received his call to become the last of the Prophets. His message was not complicated: there is one God, Allah; Muhammad was his messenger with the responsibility to pass on God’s word; in the life hereafter, we will all be judged and either awarded with a wonderful heavenly home or assigned a burning place in hell.

  In the first years of his calling he made but a few converts—first, among his family, then among other townspeople. But spreading his message was not easy in Mecca, and he suffered persecution for, among other reasons, fear that his new religion might harm visitation to Mecca’s sacred shrine.

  In 622, he fled Mecca and found refuge in Medina, a city some two hundred miles to the north. There he was welcomed and found not only acceptance but also strong believers. It wasn’t long before he became ruler of the city.

  It soon became apparent that Islam was not just a religion and Muhammad was not just a religious ruler. His followers in Medina turned on the pagans of Mecca, instigating war. Muhammad rode at the head of this army, for he was in fact as much a warrior as a prophet. The war was long and wearisome. After an eight-year struggle, Muhammad prevailed against his home city. The Islamic religion was imposed on the people there. As noted by historian and Middle East expert Bernard Lewis, unlike Moses, who was stopped from entering his promised land, Muhammad conquered his:

  Muhammad conquered his promised land, and during his lifetime achieved victory and power in this world, exercising political as well as prophetic authority. As the Apostle of God, he brought and taught a religious revelation. But at the same time, as the head of the Muslim Umma, he promulgated laws, dispensed justice, collected taxes, conducted diplomacy, made war, and made peace. The Umma, which began as a community, had become a state. It would soon become an empire.9

  In the two years between the time he conquered Mecca and his death in 632, Muhammad’s religion and political authority spread throughout much of Arabia.

  According to Islam, he was the last of the Prophets. Once he had restored the true, monotheistic faith, it was up to his followers to take it to the rest of the world. The supreme rulers who followed Muhammad, the caliphs, took that responsibility very seriously. In the decades that followed, the Islamic empire was to expand to India and China to the east, to the west through Africa as far as the Atlantic Ocean, and north into Europe.

  The speed with which the armies of these Islamic Arabs conquered these many peoples and lands was breathtaking.

  Rise of the Islamic Caliphs

  In 632, Islam was the religion of no more than a few, largely nomadic Arab tribesmen living in the desert regions of Syria and Iraq. Just one hundred years later, it was the religion of Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and southern Pakistan. All of these lands came to be ruled by Arab-speaking elites. And as Islam took hold in these subjugated lands, it immediately dominated all other religious faiths. Throughout the Persian Empire, Zoroastrianism all but disappeared. And with the exception of Spain and Portugal, Christianity and Judaism were nearly wiped out in the conquered regions.

  It is important to note that, unlike other great conquests in history, the empire of the caliphs was to endure. Even today, with the exception of Spain and Portugal (due to events soon to be described), Islam remains the dominant religion in all of these lands. Further, Arabic is the dominant language in many of these countries.

  And though it was true that Muhammad’s success in spreading his religion was not entirely because of his military conquests—many converts pledged allegiance because of the appeal of his doctrine as well as his prominent tribal connections—the fact that he used military power to achieve his religious aims was of great importance to his followers:

  Muhammad’s military campaigns were, in one sense, the beginning of the Muslim conquests. His example showed that armed force was going to be an acceptable and important element first in the defense of the new religion and then in its expansion. The Prophet’s example meant that there was no parallel to the tendency to pacificism so marked in early Christianity.10

  On the whole, Muhammad’s military campaigns and successes made up the bulk of the early accounts of his life, and his military prowess was widely acclaimed by his followers.

  Once Muhammad was gone, military conquest became the primary means of spreading his gospel, a pattern that was established soon after his death when a number of Arab Muslims declared their independence of Medina. The reaction of Muhammad’s self-proclaimed successors was swift and eager. A large military force was sent to crush the apostates, who were quickly corrected or dispatched.

  The battle against the renegade Arabs proved to be a watershed event, for it established a powerful precedent that would be adhered to for generations.

  A Call to War

  Once the armies of Islam had been set in motion, they were not inclined to stop. Having tasted the sweetness of military victory and impressed themselves with its relative ease, they looked at the world around them and realized that the Roman and Persian Empires were ripe to be taken.

  The call to battle went out. The Arab armies went on the march. If there was fighting to be done, and booty to be taken, most of the nomadic tribesmen wanted to be part of it, even if it meant strict obedience to Muhammad’s successors in Medina.

  But although their military campaigns quickly became a powerful source of new recruits, it was an uneasy battle call for some.

  The scriptural basis for the use of military force to spread Islam is somewhat cloudy. There are verses in the Koran that clearly justify, if not demand, the use of force to deal with nonbelievers.11 But other verses imply a less vigorous approach to the “People of the Book” (Christians and Jews), stating that they are to be spared if they will pay a tax and acknowledge that they are to be second-class citizens and subservient to the believers. For others, including pagans and believers in more than one god, the choices were somewhat less appealing: conversion, death, or slavery.12

  The seeming inconsistency in the scriptures regarding the use of force upon the nonbelievers was eventually settled by looking at the time period in which the revelations were received. Because the more militant verses were received later, they were deemed to be the controlling verses, leading to justification for Islamic conquest.

  Despite the fact that outright forced conversion was not condoned, the penalty for failure to convert—punitive taxes, inferior status, even slavery—resulted, not surprisingly, in mass conversions:

  A frequently cited hadith refers to the vast and growing numbers of infidels who were converted to Islam after their defeat and enslavement: “God marvels at people who are dragged to paradise in chains.”13

  Having subdued their own territory, the Arabic forces were hardly satisfied. Indeed, they felt they were just getting started. Arab armies were dispatched to the east and the west. These armies were powerful but apparently not large, estimates of the number of soldiers who conquered Syria being only 30,000, Iraq somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000, Egypt around 16,000.14 And they traveled light, each man supplying his own
food and supplies. Their primary weapon was a three-foot sword with a broad, straight blade, but they supplemented these weapons with bows and arrows and spears to defend against enemy cavalry attacks. Although horses and camels provided mobility, most of the fighting took place on foot, sword to sword.

  As one expert on the Islamic conquests, Hugh Kennedy, has noted:

  The early Muslims had no secret weapons, no mastery of new military technology with which to overpower their enemies. Their advantages were simply those of mobility, good leadership and, perhaps most important of all, motivation and high morale.15

  Although it is difficult to surmise what drove these warriors of Islam, scholars have identified five primary motivations for their military campaigns, most of which are ascertained from early Arab sources:

  1. Throughout Arabic culture, war and bloodshed were the greatest source of individual glory and enduring reputation. This long tradition of loving war and bringing slaughter existed long before Muhammad. And yet Muhammad’s successors understood that their new religion forbade them from attacking other members of their faith. This created a dilemma, for the Arabs had always thrived on assault and pillage. Without the possibility of attacking their fellow Muslims, bringing war to their neighbors to the east and west became a necessity to vent the Arab tradition.16

  2. The concept of jihad or “holy war” was real. Defenders of Islam who died in battle were martyrs who went straight to paradise. The infidels who died were sent straight to endless fire and hell. Some modern Muslim theologians give jihad a meaning of personal spiritual or moral striving; however, Bernard Lewis points out that in the early days of Islam its meaning was clear:

  The overwhelming majority of early authorities, however, citing relevant passages in the Qur’an and in the tradition, discuss jihad in military terms. Virtually every manual of shari‘a law has a chapter on jihad, which regulates in minute detail such matters as the opening, conduct, interruption and cessation of hostilities, and the allocation and division of booty.17