Middle East, pre Islam....

[R1Geezer]

I gather that prior to Islam the middle east was a variety of different religions, including christianity. So when Islam was first started off, how long did it take to get a significant following? I mean at the time being new, followers must have been few and ridiculed much like the Scientologist types are now? So what was so special about islam that made the people follow it? I mean it is very restrictive and virtually anything that may be considered "fun" is barred, so how did it ever catch on?

[Ankou]

muhammed declared a jihad on over 200 tribes forcing them to adopt islam.
the growth was pretty rapid, but given the times and records, quantifying it would be very difficult.

[society]

What I'd like to know is why so many young blacks are joining Islam. Of course nothing's wrong with them joining, I'm just curious. (don't mean to be disrespectful or racist)

[keyplus90]

If you really are interested then I found this link that has good information.

http://www.angelfire....y/dawahpage/hist.html

[tamborine]

"..........So what was so special about islam that made the people follow it?..........."

Islam gives power to males to dominate females. IMAO - that is Islam's whole appeal.

[jake-the-peg]

Really tamborine - you think all those 5th century tribal women were running about leading liberated lives? and then a couple of hundred years later they were under the yoke of Islam?

The attitude of Islam to women varies depending on time and location.

It is related to those in positions of religous authority at the time - You get a pretty similar behaviour towards women in certain Christian groups like the earlier mormons or Armish (although they're just intolerant to anybody stepping out of line)

Currently a lot of Islam is swinging to the right. Look at pictures of Cairo in the 70s compare to today and you'll see many more women in western dress - Islam was still the religion then.

Early Isalm was very tolerant to other you could remain a Christian or a Jew under Isalm as long as you didn't convert people and were willing to pay the higher taxes.

This at a time that Christians were slaughtering each other because of their variations of belief. When Beziers was taken in Southern France they asked what to with the prisoners and were told "kill them all God will know his own".

In comparison Islam was translating and preserving the knowledge of the ancient world - we only have the writings of people like Plato and Aristotle because of them. They had quite sophisticated medecine while we were painting ourselves with woad.

But that was a long time ago, Islam's golden age

From a religious perspective it's a clearer sell - no idols of saints, no trinity or magic with blood and wine - one book -one author. That does remain the same and still has an appeal to many looking for "truth".

I mean when you sit down and say "what do Christians believe?" - it does get very messy very quickly

[naomi24]

I agree Jake. Islam has taken a huge backward step in recent times. Having said that, it's not without its divisions, nor its belief in magic, so it isn't as clear cut as it appears to be on the surface.

[R1Geezer]

Very interesting jake, so why do you think they have turned into the Islamic equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition, sounds like they once had a good thing going.

"I didn't expect the spanish inquisition"!

[keyplus90]

I agree with most of the things Jake said. Islam at a time when people had so many problems, introduced a system which gave solutions to those problems. And that was the attraction of Islam. As Jake said, Christians and Jews (or any None Muslims) paid tax called “Jiziah” and as a return they were given safety (defence) by the Muslim rulers against other invading Christians and others. There have been incidents where when Muslims left the area they refunded their tax (Jiziah) paid in advance, then from Arab traders used to go towards Indonesia and used to sell all the dodgy stuff but after becoming Muslims they started telling buyers about the possible faults in their goods. So these minor things attracted the attention of the others.

Naomi – You may say that Muslims have differences but only well known are Shia and Sunni. But Quran clearly forbids these sorts of things.

Quran 3:103. And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah.s favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make His Signs clear to you: That ye may be guided.
Allah’s rope here means Quran which is same. Muhammad (pbuh) and his companions were neither Sunni nor Shia. It all started later.

Muslims, when they acted upon Quran and Sunnah (life of Muhammad pbuh) saw their peak and produced pioneers of many fields out of people who werer never known for their knowledge. when they started straying away from that the decline started.

[Ankou]

as an expansion on my post abovce. if members of any pagan tribes raided by the muslims professed islam, they at once became exempt from further muslim raids. consequently, as the islamic community grew, the raiding propensities of the muslims had to be directed ever further outwards. it was this "religious" character of the jihad which channelled the energies of the arabs in such a way that in less than a century they had created an empire which stretched from the atlantic and the pyrenees in the west to the oxus and the punjab in the east.

[jake-the-peg]

It's a question of philosophy.

If you compare the more severe Islam practised in some parts of the world today with puritan Christianity from 400 years ago in Europe you'll see a lot of simularities.

So why did western Christianity form into the sort of church that is prevalent in most of Europe today? mostly the Enlightenment happened. Thinkers first from France like Voltaire and Diderot and Voltaire changed the way we look at things. Their ideas about the importance of the individual really changed things and form the basis of the values that underlie western democracies.

For a number of reasons many Islamic countries just don't buy into the whole individual/Enlightenment ethos. Especially where the countries are run by kings or dictatorships - ever noticed how few islamic countries are democracies and how those tend to be the more liberal Islamic countries.

You don't see stoneings going on in Turkey!

It's the balance of power between church and state that reflects the sort of religion that is practised - I can't think of any remaining Christian theocracies but I'm pretty confident that if one came about you'd see some pretty extreme Christianity going on.