While I was reading your response to
Rashid Mughal
in which you stated, " The only defense that can be offered is that
the warfare that verse 2:98 permits is defensive"...I was also reading
Tariq Ali's book The Clash of Fundamentalisms in which he highlights how
the Islamic Empire expanded in the first twenty years after Mohammad's
death under the reign of his four best friends: Abu bakr, Umar, Usman
and Ali...Khulafa-e-Rashideen. He writes on page 31 "The military
successes of the first Muslim armies were remarkable on every front. The
speed of their advance startled the Mediterranean world. The contrast
with early Christianity could not have been more pronounced. Within
twenty years of Muhammad's death in 632, his followers had laid the
foundations of the Islamic Empire in the regions of the Fertile
Crescent. This base was then used to spur the growth of Islam throughout
the region. Mosques sprouted in the desert. The army expanded
accordingly. The swift triumphs of this army were seen as a sign that
Allah was both omnipotent and on the side of the Believers."
I would be interested in your comments on
such expansion of Islamic Empire when the choices Muslim Generals
offered to other communities, cultures and countries were...Accept Islam
or get ready for Jihad....Was Islam not expanding as a imperial power
and Muslim Generals fighting aggressive and offensive rather than
defensive wars? sincerely sohail
