$hiftyIceQueen said:
no they began the war coz they didnt accept it as a religion and because the non-muslims didnt want islam to exist, therefore the non-muslims began the war
also about this whole theory of muslims forcing non-muslims to become muslims where the hell did everyone get that from??????
maybe they got it from when constantinople was seiged and taken by muslims?
The Ottoman empire has frequently been touted as the original muslim empire. It was responsible for spreading islam as far as Spain. However they did not do this is a peaceful way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople
many civilians were slaughtered by the Turks when they first burst through the walls and captured the towers on the land walls
the doors were breached, the troopes separated the congregation according to what price they might bring on the slave markets. A few of the elderly and some infants were summarily slain with a commercial ruthlessness. Soldiers fought over the possession of richly clad senators or for the comely youth or maiden.
hint: to rape them
a large part of the populace was either raped, despoiled, or enslaved
i beleive that proves how violent and uncouth muslims were.
So now we know that muslims conquered lands forcibly, but how does this affect conversion?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmi
rulers occasionally broke the pledge and dhimmis were forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death. Forced conversions occurred mostly in the Maghreb, especially under the Almohads, a militant dynasty with messianic claims, as well as in Persia, where Shi'a Muslims were generally less tolerant than their Sunni counterparts.[53]
In the 12th century, rulers of the Almohad dynasty killed or forcibly converted Jews and Christians in Andalusia and the Maghreb, putting an end to the existence of Christian communities in North Africa outside Egypt
communities were subjected to the payment of taxes in favor of Muslims — a requirement that was central to dhimma as a whole. Sura 9:29 stipulates that jizya be exacted from non-Muslims as a condition required for jihad to cease. Failure to pay the jizya could result in the pledge of protection of a dhimmi's life and property becoming void, with the dhimmi facing the alternatives of conversion, enslavement or death (or imprisonment, as advocated by Abu Yusuf, the chief qadi — religious judge — of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid).[82]
so now we know after muslims take over your city you may be given the choice to covert or die, or given the choice to pay heavy taxes [ said to be a heavy burden to payable by most] or die, be enslaved or possibly castrated.
Those who themselves escape punishment for the ultimate crime or being a non-muslim sometimes paid the price through their children.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
For some reason the janissary article is down, but basically muslims would go on something like a pogrom smashing down doors and kidnapping non-muslim children. These kids were usually castrated and then treated as slaves. Most of these slaves went on to military school and became the backbone of the ottoman empire. Most would never see their family again.
So as we can see, muslims are clearly a peace loving people who do not force you to convert at all, there is no extortion, threat of death or heavy taxes going on. Yeah right.
Try and defend this position by saying that this all happened in the past and i will tear your arguement apart. I dont need to start quoting examples of people being stoned to death recently for deciding to change religions in an islamic country do i?