Political History of Islam

Islam

This article outlines the history of the politically significant interactions between Islam and the rest of the world, particularly what is now considered "the west".

Unless otherwise indicated, the historical accounts presented here are from wikipedia. Some accounts of the opinions of modern Muslims will be reference to the OzPolitic forum.

Timeline

• 69 BC to AD 629: Roman-Persian Wars and the Byzantine–Sasanian wars occurr every few years in the middle east. Proxy wars often fought in the Arabian peninsula by hired mercenaries.

• AD 117: Roman Empire at its peak extends into Arabian Peninsula.

• AD 570: Muhammad born.

• 607: Muhammad's first revelation.

• 610: Muhammad begins preaching publicly.

• 622: Muhammad flees Mecca, invited to Medina by pagans who share his animosity towards Meccans. Muhammad begins robbing Meccan caravans, killing and ransoming prisoners

• March 624: Muhammad's first significant military victory against Meccan traders. Strengthened by this victory, Muhammad begins threatening Jews with violence if they do not convert to Islam.

• 624: Muhammad orders the execution of a female poet, Asma bint Marwan, who mocked him. Some modern Muslims falsely claim she is Jewish in order to justfy the murder. In the same year, Muhammad orders the death of another poet and four other individuals. By 628, the list includes 43 people.

• 624: Muhammad expels the Banu Qaynuqa from Medina - the large Jewish tribe who he had threatened with violence if they do not convert.

• 625: Muhammad expels a second large Jewish tribe, the Banu Nadir.

• 627: Muhammad wipes out a third (and final) large tribe of Medina Jews, killing all the men and taking the women and children as slaves.

• 628: Muhammad attacks Kaybar because it is giving refuge to the Banu Nadir. Muhammad orders the torture of their treasurer, Kenana ibn al-Rabi to get him to reveal the location of the Jew gold he had hidden. He is then decapitated. Muhammad has the dead man's wife "beautified and combed" before consumating his "marriage" to her.

• 630: Muhammad marches on Mecca with 10 000 men, capturing it with little resistance. He takes the Kaaba for Islam and destroys all pagan monuments in Mecca. Muhammad begins directing large scale violence at pagans across the Arabian peninsula, slughtering them and destroying any religious monuments that might compete with the Kaaba. Muhammad gives some enemies an explicit choice of convert or die, but for the most part the threat is implicit.

• 632: Muhammad dies, having captured the Arabian peninsula for his Islamic state.

• 632-633: Abu Bakr (1st 'rightly guided' Caliph) dispatches armies with general commands to slaughter any groups who are not Muslim, or refuse to pay religious tax to the Islamic state, or who do not fully submit to the state as well as the religion.

• 634-644: Umar ibn Al-Khattāb (2nd 'rightly guided' Caliph) ethnically cleanses Hijaz region (western coast of Arabian peninsula) of all non-Muslims, fulfilling an instruction left by Muhammad in the Quran. He also expands the Caliphate.

• 661: Caliphate reaches halfway across the coast of North Africa and east to the modern border of Pakistan.

• 750 Caliphate covers entire north African coast, Spain (Iberian Peninsula), parts of modern France and extends east to the modern border with India. The slave trade grows under Islam in Spain, despite a general decline in most of Europe.

• 759: Muslim forces driven out of France.

• 1009-1013: Cordoba Caliphate collapses due to civil war. It had previously occupied most of Spain, except for the North.

• 1086: Moroccan ruler invades and retakes southern and eastern Spain.

• 1249: Emirate of Granada is the only remaining Muslim state in Spain.

• 1492: Fall of Granada.

• 1450-1700: 2.5 million slaves imported into Istanbul from the black sea.

• 1500-1750: 1.5 millions slaves captured in Europe by slave traders from Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli. Many more captured by Morocco and other raiders. Estimates for the total historical Islamic slave trade are of the order of 11.5 to 14 million people. These were mostly women used as sex slaves, and most were captured abroad in Africa and Europe, as male slaves were often castrated and the offspring of sex slaves were pressured to convert to Islam to escape slavery.

• 1785-1815: 700 Americans held as slaves in North Africa

• 1801-1815: First Barbary war. Thomas Jeffersen refuses to pay tribute to North African slave traders. American and European forces attack Tripoli and Algiers. The Philadelphia is captured and the crew enslaved.

• 1815-1816: Second Barbary war. US ceases paying tribute to Muslim north african states. Beginning of the delcine of the north african slave trade.

• 1861-1865: American civil war.

• 1920-1981: Britain, France and other western powers pressure Muslim nations to ban slavery.

• 1981: Mauritania becomes the last Muslim nation to officially ban slavery. They do this again in 2007.

• 2001: September 11 terrorist attacks

• 2014: ISIS takes parts of Iraq, significantly ramping up its trade in female sex slaves. Slavery claiming sanction under Islam continues in Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, and Sudan.

Church and State

Islam is perhaps the greatest lesson in the importance of the separation of church and state, or more broadly, religion and government. Muhammad and the Caliphate (Islamic state) that he helped to create demonstrate, on a grand scale, everything that can go wrong when religion comes under the control of government, or vice versa. In Muhammad's case, they both came under the control of one man, with nothing to balance his power. To further his quest for power, Muhammad practiced genocide, forced conversion, collective punishment, forced mass migration and established a society that used every method of coercion to cement Islam as both the apparatus of state and the only tolerable religion. He institutionalised slavery, in particular sex slavery, under a set of policies that, when the Caliphate ceased expanding, created a massive and continual demand for slaves on the international market.

Western Civilisation before Islam

Muhammad was born into a power vacuum. The gradual collapse and disintegration of the Roman Empire over the previous few centuries had created the closest thing in history to a Mad Max style post apocalyptic nightmare. Living standards dropped drastically. Smaller and smaller empires fought each other for the remnants of Roman glory. When the Song dynasty in China reached similar living standards to those at the peak of the Roman empire, about 1000 years ago, western civilisation was still stuck in the post apocalyptic nightmare. The difference now was that the west was once again united under an enourmous empire - the biggest the world had ever seen. Far from a resurgence in living standards, the west experienced continued stagnation under the yoke of Islam (despite the preference among Muslims to refer to this time as the Islamic golden age). Living standards in the west did not reach, or even come close to those under the Roman Republic and Empire until well into the industrial revolution. [1]

Before Islam, the Roman-Persian Wars and the Byzantine–Sasanian wars had occurred every few years for hundreds of years between 69 BC and 629 AD. High taxes were imposed on the populations in both the Byzantine Roman and Sassanid Persian empires to finance these wars. There was also continuous bloodshed of the people during these wars. The Arab tribes in Iraq were paid by the Persian Sassanids to act as mercenaries, while the Arab tribes in Syria were paid by the Byzantines to act as their mercenaries. The Persians maintained an Arab satellite state of Lakhm and the Byzantine Empire maintained the Arab satellite state of Ghassan, which they used to fight each other. These wars made outside influence unpopular within the Arabian peninsula. This, combined with Muhammad's unpopularity among Jews, led Muhammad to later change the spiritual focal point of his religion from Jerusalem to the pagan Kaaba in Mecca.

Closer to home, the power vacuum was even more pronounced. Despite lying just to the south of the birthplace of western civilisation, the Arabian peninsula was still torn between efforts at settled communal living and wandering tribes. There was no central government. Jews, Christians and various non-Abrahamic religious groups and tribes existed side by side, if not always peacefully. Even large cities existed without centralised control, governed by Arabic customary law between competing tribes. The need for a central authority was acknowledged, and it was one of those cities that Muhammad used to launch his empire. In a very short period Muhammad swept all of this aside. The region around Mecca and Medina was ethnically cleansed of all non-Muslims shortly after his death. It was one of the most rapid and drastic social transformations ever achieved, and it was imposed from above by ruthlessly slaughtering anyone who stood in the way (although Muslims like to insist it was achieved by mass voluntary conversion). It took another thousand years to subdue this empire.

Immediately after Muhammad's death, his empire continued to spread at the same breakneck speed it had towards the end of his career. It spread west along the coast of North Africa until it hit the Atlantic, the North into the Iberian peninsula. It spread east to the modern boundary between Pakistan in India. With the exception of the Iberian peninsula, the Islamic state swept aside diverse communities of Jews, Christians and all sorts of pagans. For the most part they ceased to exist. Those that remained have faced 1400 years of oppression and constant harassment, and to this day face the threat of a lynch mob if they speak out against Islam.

The Islamic state grew to a grand scale in a mere 120 years. It conquered what at the time was almost the entirety of western civilisation. Much of the rest was depopulated by constant slave raids. The Mediterranean coastline had, by it's nature, allowed relatively unrestricted trade along it's entire coastline. When the Roman Empire took control over the region and reigned in piracy, trade flourished. When the Caliphate took control, people fled the coastline of southern Europe, or were transported en masse into the Islamic state as slaves. The rest of Europe had only recently been introduced by the Romans to settled civilisation (France and Britain) or was never subdued (Germany and lands to the east), remaining under the control of wandering and destructive tribes. The world that we know it today was shaped by the people on the fringe of western civilisation. The reshaping of the world was so dramatic that Muslims can, without any sense of irony, complain about "the west" interfering in middle eastern geopolitics. The west today is synonymous with Europe, America and the various colonies they established, but for the first 11000 years of western civilisation America was unknown and Europe was a tribal backwater.

Western Civilisation Leaves Islam Behind

The rise of modern civilisation required two major threats to be subdued. The first were the large tribes of the central asian steppes (in Roman times this threat extended west to Germany and France). The second was the Islamic state, which for a millennia had all but destroyed western civilisation. Instead of devoting its enormous resources to bettering the human condition (or allowing citizens to do this for themselves), it devoted its resources to wiping out the diversity and freedom that were the engines of growth. The European fringe of western civilisation managed to fight back the Islamic state, pushing it out of Spain. Eventually, it managed to reign in the rampant slave trade, allowing people to return to the coast of southern Europe. It took one look at the mess that Islam had created in north Africa and the middle east and decided to sail around Africa and do business with eastern civilisations. The rest, as they say, is history. In particular, it is the history we are familiar with. The overcoming of the central asian tribes (eg the Mongols who destroyed both the song dynasty in China and much of the Caliphate, as well as the more western tribes that destroyed Rome) is largely forgotten, including by the descendants of the people who brought civilisation to its knees over and over again. The remnants of the Caliphate - modern Muslims in the middle east and North Africa - have not forgotten their past glory and many long to recreate it. Until September 11, everyone else had forgotten about them. The stifling, but powerful and unyielding social forces that held the Caliphate together and made it such a huge success from a military perspective, also locked the region into a barbaric way of thinking that has held back its development ever since. For Muslims, the apocalypse never ended. Like a script for a Monty Python movie, these people long to relive their past success and glory by returning western civilisation to the lowest living standard it has seen in the last two and half millennia. Many think that their success is inevitable and all they need to do is start the fight, despite their inability to follow through.

Today, the success of the west, and now the east and many new centres of civilisation, has shrunk the world. Where we could previously decide to simply go around the Muslim world and leave it to its own devices, it is now in our back yard, and like the worst kind of jealous neighbour it prays for our demise. Our success came after the subduing of the Islamic state, and our collective identity was forged largely in ignorance of it's existence, when distance and backwardness (and a few campaigns to destroy slave trading ports) were more than sufficient to keep it contained. This is no longer the case, and the west is now struggling to understand what is going on without an awareness of its own history. Our ability to exclude the Muslim world when identifying western civilisation reveals how easily we forget that Islam once destroyed the west almost completely. The world is still a scary place, if you are prepared to turn over some rocks and see what is there.

Muhammad

Muhammad was born around 570 AD in Mecca, which at the time was a key site for an annual pagan pilgrimage, during which warring tribes declared a truce. The pagan Kaaba shrine held 360 idols f tribal pagan deities. There were also significant numbers of Jews and Christians in the area. Although a relatively barren area, it lies about 1000km south of the birthplace of western farming civilisation in modern day Iraq, which occurred about 10000 years earlier. Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, raised by his tribe, and became a relatively successful trader.

Muhammad received his first revelation in 607 and began preaching publicly in 610. His early teachings were more peaceful and tolerant than his later teachings, reflecting his weak position in Mecca. He and a small band of followers migrated to Medina in 622 after facing persecution in Mecca. This persecution resulted from Muhammad revealing verses that condemn polytheism and idol worship, as well as love of wealth (a significant declaration in a city built on trade). Muhammad's own tribe were the guardians of the pagan Kaaba, so his denunciation of their religion would have been particularly insulting to them, as well as being a risk to their income. An additional story relates that Muhammad received verses acknowledging three pagan Goddesses, and that this helped to reconcile him with the Meccans. However, he later recanted them as "satanic" verses. Most orthodox Islamic interpretations reject this authenticity of this particular story. In 619, leadership of Muhammad's own tribe was inherited by a tenacious enemy of Muhammad, and his tribe removed its protection of Muhammad (which took the form of the promise of blood vengeance for tribal members). Muhammad initially tried to gain protection in Taif, another prominent city.

Muhammad negotiated his way into a position of authority in Medina, which until then had no centralised political authority and was deeply divided. This was based on Muhammad's status as a neutral outsider. They were also jealous of Mecca's religious importance and hoped to gain power over the city with Muhammad's help. Muhammad created a constitution of sorts between 8 Medina clans and the new Muslim arrivals. There is no evidence of the other parties actually agreeing to the constitution, and the text implies acceptance of Muhammad as God's messenger. The constitution does not mention the three large Jewish tribes of Medina (Watt - Islam and the integration of society, p20), leading some scholars to believe that it dates from after Muhammad expelled them. The constitution specifically emphasised blood money and ransom payments, enshrined freedom of religious beliefs, and established women as second class citizens who were entirely at the mercy of the tribal group they belonged to. It declared Medina as a sacred place where the blood of people who were party to the treaty may not be spilled. The constitution also compels non-Muslims to participate in Islamic religious wars. In 624, Muhammad proclaimed that Muslims should face Mecca rather than Medina while praying.

Medina was an agricultural oasis. Although Mecca was barren, it had grown into the wealthiest town in the region through trade. In Medina, Muhammad revealed Quranic verses permitting his followers to rob Meccan caravans. They became very successful at this. They also ransomed prisoners captured in ensuing battles with forces sent by Mecca to protect the caravans. Muhammad also killed many prisoners, but generally released the poor ones for no charge. Quranic verses from this period focus on political issues, such as how to divide spoils of war.

Muhammad's success lead to rapid conversions by pagans. Embittered by this, two pagans composed poetry that mocked Muhammad. They were killed by Muslims, with Muhammad's blessing.

Hostility towards Jews

Muslims_Promote_Genocide

In Mecca, Muhammad's attitude towards Christians and Jews was initially very positive, but their unwillingness to convert to Islam soured the relationship. It went rapidly downhill in Medina. Muhammad initially proclaimed several ordinances to win over the numerous and wealthy Jewish population. These were soon rescinded as the Jews insisted on preserving the entire Mosaic law, and did not recognize him as a prophet because he was not of the race of David. There were three large Jewish tribes in Medina when Muhammad arrived. The first to fall victim to Muhammad were the Banu Qaynuqa, who were wealthy artisans and traders. In addition to being Jewish and rejecting Muhammad's prophethood, they close links to Mecca and were the least likely to support his agenda of revenge against Mecca, posing a political threat to Muhammad's quest for power. Anecdotally, a Banu Qaynuqa goldsmith assaulted a Muslim woman, causing her to be stripped naked. He was killed by a Muslim, which sparked a series of revenge killings. Under the constitution, Muhammad's role was supposedly to resolve this conflict using the tradition of blood money and to protect religious freedom. However, having been strengthened by a recent military victory over Meccan traders, Muhammad sought to consolidate his power. Muhammad gathered the tribe in the market and addressed them as follows:

"O Jews, beware lest God bring on you the like of the retribution which he brought on Quraysh. Accept Islam, for you know that I am a prophet sent by God. You will find this in your scriptures and in God's covenant with you."

Muslims will try to whitewash this incident by 'interpreting' it as not being a threat. [2]

The Quraysh were Muhammad's tribe from Mecca, and the retribution is a reference to his recent military victory over them. Here, Muhammad clearly abandons his promises under the constitution of Medina, which was the initial basis of his authority. Muhammad besieged them until they surrendered, then expelled them from Medina. A Muslim who convinced Muhammad not to slaughter them, and then argued that they ought be allowed to stay in anticipation of an attack from Mecca has forever been dubbed the leader of the hypocrites. This was also the first time that Muhammad's Islamic state took 20% of the spoils of war. Following this was a second major battle with the Meccans, which the Muslims lost.

There were now two large Jewish tribes in Medina. Muhammad assassinated the chief of one of them (the Banu-Nadir), who had written erotic poetry about Muslim women, then expelled them about a year later. As the Muslims did not defeat the Banu-Nadir militarily (they were even allowed to take some possessions) Muhammad claimed 100% of their remaining possessions on behalf of God. Following this, Muhammad attempted to prevent his enemies from uniting against him, by attacking smaller Arab groups one at a time with overwhelming force.

The next time the Meccans attacked, Muhammad built a trench around parts of Medina open to cavalry attack. The Meccan siege was a failure and the Meccans returned home. During the siege, the Meccas attempted, but failed, to negotiate an alliance with the last of the three large Jewish tribes in Medina - the Banu Qurayza. After the battle, Muhammad laid siege to the Banu Qurayza, who surrendered unconditionally. Muhammad slaughtered every male in the tribe who had reached puberty, with the exception of a small few who converted to Islam. Between 600 and 1000 men were executed in a single day. The women and children were enslaved. Today, Muslims cite the failed negotiations with the Meccans, or alleged attacks by the Banu Qurayza, or claims that the Banu Qurayza violated the constitution of Medina (despite it not even mentioning them) as justification for the genocide. Instead of acknowledging the "convert or die" choice given to the Jews, modern Muslims spin this incident as Muhammad showing mercy to any Jews who agreed to cease hostilities towards Muslims and re-enter the constitution of Medina.

In 628 Muhammad went on to attack and defeat the Jewish community of Kaybar, where many of the Banu Nadir had sought refuge. Muhammad ordered the torture of their treasurer, Kenana ibn al-Rabi to get him to reveal the location of the Jew gold he had hidden. He was then decapitated. Muhammad had the dead man's wife "beautified and combed" before consumating his "marriage" to her. Under the terms of their surrender, Muhammad took possession of all of their lands as a collective possession of his Islamic state, and required them to provide 50% of their annual produce as a tax. They were later expelled by Caliph Umar as part f his progrom to ethnically cleanse the Hijaz region.

Quran and Hadith

Islams two most canonical Hadith collections, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, both show Muhammad saying: "You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me) ; kill him."

From the Quran (5.82) "Certainly you will find the most violent of people in enmity for those who believe (to be) the Jews and those who are polytheists, and you will certainly find the nearest in friendship to those who believe (to be) those who say: We are Christians; this is because there are priests and monks among them and because they do not behave proudly."

Sahih Bukhari (53:392) - "While we were in the Mosque, the Prophet came out and said, "Let us go to the Jews" We went out till we reached Bait-ul-Midras. He said to them, "If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle."

Hostility Towards Pagans

Muhammad's hostility towards Jews was largely born of their reluctance to accept him as both a political and religious leader. Pagans tended to convert to Islam the most readily and Muhammad was initially tolerant of them in order to facilitate this. As his power grew, Muhammad became increasingly aggressive towards pagans also.

In AD 628, Muhammad and 1400 Muslims traveled to Mecca with sacrificial animals in order to demonstrate to them that Islam is an Arabic religion. He negotiated the right of Medinese Muslims to travel to Mecca for pilgrimage to the pagan shrine of the Kaaba. The peace treaty involved a cessation of hostilities and an agreement by Muhammad to return any Meccans who converted to Islam without permission. It was during this truce that Muhammad attacked the Jewish community of Kaybar and sent letters to many foreign rulers asking them to convert. Two years later, in AD 630, he marched on Mecca with 10 000 men and captured it with minimal casualties. He destroyed all the pagan statues and paintings in and around the Kaaba.

That same year, Muhammad had a military victory against the Hawazin. He then marched north with thirty thousand men, half of whom returned home on the second day. It was at this time that Muhammad received many verses damning Muslims who were reluctant to engage in warfare on behalf of the Islamic state.

Muhammad then ordered the destruction of all pagan idols in eastern Arabia. Muhammad ordered several wars with the specific purpose of killing pagans and destroying their religious monuments.

The last city in western Arabia to fall to Muhammad was Taif. Here again Muhammad decided to give them the stark choice of convert to Islam or die. He also ordered the men to destroy their statues of the goddess Allat.

Many Bedouins, as well as the Banu Thaqif, submitted to Muhammad to avoid being attacked, and also to share in the spoils of war.

In 632, Muhammad delivered a speech commanding Muslims to abandon many old traditions and pledges in acknowledgement of the new Muslim community.

Women's rights

Muhammad never tried to abolish slavery. He bought, sold and owned his own slaves. Women made up the bulk of Islam's slaves, and the owners were permitted to have sex with them. Modern Muslims often make a distinction between sex slaves and "slaves that you can have sex with", in order to differentiate Muhammad's practice from modern sex trafficking for the purpose of prostitution.

The capture of land, spoils of war and women in combat was a key nation building strategy for Muhammad. Polygamy and sex slavery created a shortage of women. The purchase of female captives helped to fund war, while the prospect of being rewarded with a wife or a sex slave became a strong motivator for young men to participate in war. During one battle in which a village was being slaughtered, a Muslim archer prevented the escape of the women by firing an arrow over them so it landed in front of them, causing them to stop in fear of their lives. he was congratulated by Muhammad.

In the 632 speech, Muhammad cemented the inferior status of women in Islam. Muhammad asked his male followers to "be good to women, for they are powerless captives (awan) in your households. You took them in God's trust, and legitimated your sexual relations with the Word of God, so come to your senses people, and hear my words ..." He told them that they were entitled to discipline their wives but should do so with kindness.

Muhammad's favourite wife, the child bride Aisha, was accused of adultery for which Muhammad imposed the death penalty. Muhammad received a revelation that she was innocent of the charge, and thereafter insisted on four eye-witnesses (or a confession) to adultery charges. Muhammad married Aisha when she was six years old, and she is regarded as the "mother if Islam" because of her status as Muhammad only virgin bride. According to Aisha, Muhammad first has sex with her when she was 9 years old. It is unlikely that Aisha had even reached puberty at this stage. Contrary to frequent claims by Muslims who wish to introduce an older age of consent under Islamic law, puberty is actually delayed in the harsh conditions experienced at the time, and there is not a single statement in Islamic literature stating that she had reached puberty.

Muhammad had 13 wives in total, 11 of them from after the migration to Medina. There is however some ambiguity as to whether two of them were wives or concubines. Muhammad's first marriage was to an older, wealthy widow whom he married prior to his career as a religious leader. This was a monogamous marriage until her death. Muhammad's other wives were the widows of men Muhammad and his Muslims had killed, the widows of slain Muslims, or were married for political reasons.

Muhammad died in 632, having brought the entire Arabian peninsula into his Islamic state. On his death, Aisha's father Abu Bakr became leader after being chosen by a small group called the Ansar. Many Muslims thought the role should have gone to a relative of Muhammad. Abu Bakr had to put down several rebellions from groups who had joined the Islamic state claiming only allegiance to Muhammad, as well as from other leaders claiming to be prophets. Abu Bakr was successful in forcing them to resubmit to Islam.

Curiously, Muhammad had few descendants. His first wife produced four daughters and two sons, who died in childbirth. Three of the daughters died before Muhammad. The other, Fatimah, is considered by some to be Muhammad's only daughter. A son to another wife died at the age of two. Fatimah's descendants are respected by Muslims, especially the Shiah. his favourite wife, Aisha, worked to cement his legacy through the Quran.

Relevant Verses

Quran (4:34) - "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great." Contemporary translations sometimes water down the word 'beat', but it is the same one used in verse 8:12 and clearly means 'to strike'.

Quran (38:44) - "And take in your hand a green branch and beat her with it, and do not break your oath..." Allah telling Job to beat his wife (Tafsir).

Sahih Bukhari (72:715) - A woman came to Muhammad and begged her to stop her husband from beating her. Her skin was bruised so badly that it is described as being "greener" than the green veil she was wearing. Muhammad did not admonish her husband, but instead ordered her to return to him and submit to his sexual desires.

Sahih Bukhari (72:715) - "Aisha said, 'I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women'" Muhammad's own wife complained of the abuse that the women of her religion suffered relative to other women.

Sahih Muslim (4:2127) - Muhammad struck his favorite wife, Aisha, in the chest one evening when she left the house without his permission. Aisha narrates, "He struck me on the chest which caused me pain."

Sahih Muslim (9:3506) - Muhammad's fathers-in-law (Abu Bakr and Umar) amused him by slapping his wives (Aisha and Hafsa) for annoying him. According to the Hadith, the prophet of Islam laughed upon hearing this.

Abu Dawud (2141) - "Iyas bin ‘Abd Allah bin Abi Dhubab reported the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) as saying: Do not beat Allah’s handmaidens, but when ‘Umar came to the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) and said: Women have become emboldened towards their husbands, he (the Prophet) gave permission to beat them." At first, Muhammad forbade men from beating their wives, but he rescinded this once it was reported that women were becoming emboldened toward their husbands. Beatings in a Muslim marriage are sometimes necessary to keep women in their place.

Abu Dawud (2142) - "The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife." The authenticity of this verse is characterized as daif (weak), however, a similar verse from Sunan Ibn Majah 3:9:1986 is said to be hasan (sufficient).

Abu Dawud (2126) - "A man from the Ansar called Basrah said: 'I married a virgin woman in her veil. When I entered upon her, I found her pregnant. (I mentioned this to the Prophet).' The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: 'She will get the dower, for you made her vagina lawful for you. The child will be your slave. When she has begotten (a child), flog her'" A Muslim thinks he is getting a virgin, then finds out that she is pregnant. Muhammad tells him to treat the woman as a sex slave and then flog her after she delivers the child.

Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 969 - Requires that a married woman be "put in a separate room and beaten lightly" if she "act in a sexual manner toward others." According to the Hadith, this can be for an offense as petty as merely being alone with a man to whom she is not related.

Kash-shaf (the revealer) of al-Zamkhshari (Vol. 1, p. 525) - [Muhammad said] "Hang up your scourge where your wife can see it"

Religious apartheid and ethnic cleansing

Muhammad gained control of Medina by ethnically cleansing it of the three powerful Jewish tribes. The first two were evicted and then attacked wherever they sought refuge. The third was slaughtered, with the women and children being enslaved.

Shortly before his death, Muhammad achieved his lifelong dream of seizing control of Mecca. He kept the pagan Kaaba as Islam's holiest site, and made the pagan pilgrimage to the Kaaba one of the five central pillars of Islam. However, he destroyed all pagan artifacts and to rub salt into the wound, banned pagans from the Kaaba:

Quran 9:28 O you who have believed, indeed the polytheists are unclean, so let them not approach al-Masjid al-Haram after this, their [final] year. And if you fear privation, Allah will enrich you from His bounty if He wills. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Wise.

Al-Masjid al-Haram Great Mosque of Mecca, which surrounds the Kaaba, the pre-Islamic centerpiece of pagan worship in Arabia.

Muhammad was still not satisfied:

Sahih Muslim, 21: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.

Muwatta Malik: Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Two deens shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula." Malik said that Ibn Shihab said, Umar ibn al-Khattab searched for information about that until he was absolutely convinced that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had said, 'Two deens shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula,' and he therefore expelled the jews from Khaybar." Malik said, Umar ibn al-Khattab expelled the jews from Najran (a jewish settlement in the Yemen) and Fadak (a Jewish settlement thirty miles from Medina). When the Jews of Khaybar left, they did not take any fruit or land. The Jews of Fadak took half the fruit and half the land, because the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had made a settlement with them for that. So Umar entrusted to them the value in gold, silver, camels, ropes and saddle bags of half the fruit and half the land, and handed the value over to them and expelled them."

The 'deens' referred to by Muhammad (two deens shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula) are religions, or creeds.

Umar was successful in ethnically cleansing all non-Muslims from the Hijaz region, which includes Mecca, Medina and Kaybar - where under the terms of a surrender agreement to Muhammad the Jews were permitted to stay, albeit with an absurdly onerous taxation arrangement.

http://www.ozpolitic.com/images/hejaz-hijaz.jpg

This was achieved through forced conversions, slaughter, and forced mass migration.

Although Muhammad was successful in taking Mecca and banning pagans, his did not personally achieve his broader agenda of ethnically cleansing the entire Arabian peninsula. This was partly achieved his immediate successors, such as Umar. When the current nation of Israel was created, there were very few Jews remaining on the Arabian peninsula. A small population remained in Yemen. They were expelled, and many ended up in Israel. After WWII, there were in fact more Jewish immigrants to Israel from nearby Arab Muslim nations than from Europe.

Forced Conversions

Muhammad began spreading Islam by the sword as soon as he was in a position to do so. He focused his efforts at conversion on those most receptive to his message. For the rest, his strategy focused on slaughtering people in large numbers and letting them figure out for themselves what to do. His political strategy was tolerant of 'insincere' conversions because it combined politics and religion. Converting to Islam meant joining his Islamic state as well as his religion. The state then imposed the death penalty on anyone who changed their mind, and brought the full force of the state to bear on coercing people to comply with the functionary aspects of the religion. Muhammad's strategy was not all stick - he also offered the significant carrot of a share in the spoils of his successful military campaigns, which included land and crops, livestock such as goats, women and children.

Pagans were far more willing than Jews to convert to Islam, so it is no surprise that Jews were Muhammad's first targets. When Muhammad negotiated himself into a position of power in Medina, he established a constitution that protected freedom of religion, binding his small group of Muslim immigrants and eight other tribes. Medina's three large Jewish tribes were not included in this treaty. [3] The constitution compelled the pagans to assist Muhammad in his religious war, which they were apparently willing to do because they were jealous of the position of Mecca as the centre of Arabian paganism. Soon after, Muhammad had a significant military victory against his own tribe from Mecca, the Quraysh. He had been robbing their caravans, with the assistence of his new Medinese friends, for years. Following this, Muhammad assembled one of the Jewish tribes in the marketplace and addressed them as follows:

"O Jews, beware lest God bring on you the like of the retribution which he brought on Quraysh. Accept Islam, for you know that I am a prophet sent by God. You will find this in your scriptures and in God's covenant with you."

Even though Muhammad still did not have complete control over Medina, he was already emboldened enough to confront a large tribe of already-hostile Jews, threaten them and demand they convert to Islam. Shortly after, he expelled the tribe from Medina. A second tribe soon followed, leaving only one of the original three large Jewish tribes. Muhammad wiped this tribe out, killing all the adult (post pubescent) men and taking the women and children as slaves. Muslims have gone to significant effort to rewrite history on this incident, claiming for example that the tribe was party to the treaty of Medina [4] and thus deserved to die for treacherously violating it, that they were judged according to Talmudic law so it was fair to wipe out the entire tribe, that only warriors were executed (all men were killed, including old men and young boys), that they had all taken up arms against Muslims (they had surrendered unconditionally to Muhammad after he laid siege to their fortress), that they were not even bona fide Jews (not what the point of this one is, perhaps it is a reference to Islam's supposed 'protection' of Jews), that they were literally a mindless collective, that they planned genocide of Muslims (no evidence for this, and other battles against Muslims actually withdrew once they heard Muhammad had died), that they posed a threat to Muhammad's nascent Islamic state (which they did in a way, by not converting to the state religion), and that Muhammad generously offered to let them live if they 'disowned their treachery' (a very small number who converted to Islam were spared). [5]

Having become a dictator in Medina, he turned his sights to subduing Mecca. As soon as Muhammad conquered Mecca, things changed for the pagans also. His first act was to destroy all symbols of paganism in and around the Kaaba, which at the time was the centrepiece of Arabian paganism. The Kaaba itself was spared as Muhammad declared it a Muslim artifact. Muhammad sent out missions to slaughter pagans and destroy pagan shrines and artifacts. He ordered destruction of any remaining pagan idols in Eastern Arabia. Many Arabic Bedouin converted when faced with the choice of being slaughtered or participating in the slaughter. Here, Muhammad capitalised on the fear generated by his genocide of a Jewish tribe in Medina and the unpredictable nature of the campaigns to attack pagans. His forces rarely confronted people and gave them a choice of converting. Muslims attempt to spin the outcome of this campaign as the whole Arabian peninsula suddenly converting voluntarily to Islam. Larger groups who could not be eradicated (eg the Jewish community in Kaybar, where many Medina Jews had fled) were subjected to forced mass migrations (or conversion). Any non-Muslim communities and individuals who found themselves subject to the Islamic state but still did not convert were faced with a range of punitive measures, including the Jizya tax and highly discriminatory laws that restricted their religious activities and denied them justice when wronged by Muslims. Muhammad also on occasion resorted to direct and explicit conversion by the sword. The last city to hold out against the Muslims in Western Arabia was Taif. Muhammad refused to accept the city's surrender until they agreed to convert to Islam and allowed men to destroy the statue of their goddess Allat.

Muhammad gave this general instruction to his military leaders:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war, do not embezzle the spoils; do not break your pledge; and do not mutilate (the dead) bodies; do not kill the children. When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. Then invite them to migrate from their lands to the land of the Muhajireen and inform them that, if they do so, they shall have all the privileges and obligations of the Muhajireen. If they refuse to migrate, tell them that they will have the status of Bedouin Muslims and will be subjected to the Commands of Allah like other Muslims, but they will not get any share from the spoils of war or Fai' except when they actually fight with the Muslims (against the disbelievers).

Thus, the Arabian peninsula, which until Muhammad's time had housed Pagans, Jews and Christians without the need for a central governing authority to manage their affairs, was ethnically cleansed into a homogenous and oppressive society. Thus Saudi Arabia today is not an aberration, but the inevitable fulfilment of Islam.

After Muhammad's death the military conquest continued. Muhammad's approach to spreading Islam by the sword was codified into a general instruction to all military leaders:

1) Call the Azaan (Islamic call to prayer).

2) If the tribe answers with the Azaan, do not attack. After the Azaan, ask the tribe to confirm its submission, including the payment of zakat. If confirmed, do not attack.

3) Those who submit will not be attacked.

4) Those who do not answer with the Azaan, or after the Azaan do not confirm full submission, will be dealt with by the sword.

5) All apostates who have killed Muslims will be killed.

6) With these instructions Abu Bakr launched the forces of his Caliphate against the apostates.

The strategy was successful. The Hijaz was soon ethnically cleansed of all non-Muslims. Within 120 years, the first Islamic state had spread west across North Africa and Spain, only stopping when it hit the Atlantic. In the same time it spread east to the modern border between Pakistan and India, where it was stopped by more effective local resistance. With the exception of Spain, where the Muslims were gradually pushed back by an entirely disorganised resistance, the territories it captured are the oppressive Islamic regimes we see today. Islam spread east-west rather than north-south because at the time that is where the vast wealth of civilisation lay. Islam followed that wealth. Today the countries within the Caliphate are some of the poorest, most oppressive and most violent places on earth, where slavery still has not been eradicated (and not just thanks to the modern Islamic state). Prior to Islam, these places housed a diverse range of Jews, Christians and various non-Abrahamic religions. Very few survived in North Africa and the Middle East. The process of military conquest and forced conversion had to be followed up with a prolonged effort to make the conversion real. Where Islam has dominated for the longest in a political and military sense, that is exactly what happened.

Slavery also played in to the strategy of forced conversion. Most directly, it was a threat to all who might collectively resist the advancing Islamic state, as well as a threat to any non-Muslims from within the Islamic state who might be tempted to break the myriad laws intended to restrict their freedom of religion. Women made up the majority of slaves, and although it is technically against Islam, the men were often castrated. Thus most children of slaves had a Muslim father and a non-Muslim mother, with the father having control over how the child was raised. Even where this was not the case, the child would most likely be faced with the choice of converting to Islam or being a slave. Thus slavery also worked to force conversion at the intergenerational scale. Furthermore, by creating such a large Islamic state in which Muslims could not be enslaved, Muhammad created a massive long distance trade in slaves. The result was that while the population grew, nearby areas saw a population reduction, both directly through the taking of slaves, and indirectly by people fleeing the area. This was most pronounced on the southern coastline of Europe. Thus, even when the Caliphate stopped expanding, Islam continued to expand through human trafficking. This human trafficking totaled over 4 million Europeans and even great numbers of Africans.

Saudi Arabia

Modern Saudi Arabia (which includes Mecca) is a reflection of Muhammad agenda of ethnic purity.

Non-Muslims public religious activities are banned in Saudi Arabia. The definition of "public" is left deliberately ambiguous. Jews are forbidden from entering Saudi Arabia. Non-Muslims are banned from Mecca and part of Medina. Non-Mulims clergy are forbidden from entering the country to perform religious rituals. Non-Muslim proselytising, including book distribution, is banned. Members of the Shi’a minority are the subjects of officially sanctioned political and economic discrimination.

Under the provisions of Shari’a law as practiced in the country, judges may discount the testimony of people who are not practicing Muslims or who do not adhere to the official interpretation of Islam. Legal sources report that testimony by Shi’a is often ignored in courts of law or is deemed to have less weight than testimony by Sunnis. Sentencing under the legal system is not uniform. Laws and regulations state that defendants should be treated equally; however, under Shari’a as interpreted and applied in the country, crimes against Muslims may result in harsher penalties than those against non-Muslims. Information regarding government practices was generally incomplete because judicial proceedings usually were not publicized or were closed to the public, despite provisions in the criminal procedure law requiring court proceedings to be open.

Customs officials regularly open postal material and cargo to search for non-Muslim materials, such as Bibles and religious videotapes. Such materials are subject to confiscation.

Islamic religious education is mandatory in public schools at all levels. All public school children receive religious instruction that conforms with the official version of Islam. Non-Muslim students in private schools are not required to study Islam. Private religious schools are permitted for non-Muslims or for Muslims adhering to unofficial interpretations of Islam.

In 2007, Saudi religious police detained Shiite pilgrims participating in the Hajj, allegedly calling them "infidels in Mecca"

Ahmadis are officially banned from entering the country and from performing the Hajj to Mecca.

Saudi Arabia has criminal statutes forbidding apostasy, which is punishable by death.[33][34] On 3 September 1992 Sadiq 'Abdul-Karim Malallah was publicly beheaded in Al-Qatif in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province after being convicted of apostasy and blasphemy. Sadiq Malallah, a Shi'a Muslim from Saudi Arabia, was arrested in April 1988 and charged with throwing stones at a police patrol. He was reportedly held in solitary confinement for long periods during his first months in detention and tortured prior to his first appearance before a judge in July 1988. The judge reportedly asked him to convert from Shi'a Islam to Sunni Wahhabi Islam, and allegedly promised him a lighter sentence if he complied. After he refused to do so, he was taken to al-Mabahith al-'Amma (General Intelligence) Prison in Dammam where he was held until April 1990. He was then transferred to al-Mabahith al-'Amma Prison in Riyadh, where he remained until the date of his execution. Sadiq Malallah is believed to have been involved in efforts to secure improved rights for Saudi Arabia's Shi'a Muslim minority.

In 1994, Hadi Al-Mutif a teenager who was a Shi’a Ismaili Muslim from Najran in southwestern Saudi Arabia, made a remark that a court deemed blasphemous and was sentenced to death for apostasy. As of 2010, he was still in prison, had alleged physical abuse and mistreatment during his years of incarceration, and had reportedly made numerous suicide attempts.

In 2012, Saudi poet and journalist Hamza Kashgari became the subject of a major controversy after being accused of insulting Muslim prophet Mohammad in three short messages (tweets) published on the Twitter online social networking service. King Abdullah ordered that Kashgari be arrested "for crossing red lines and denigrating religious beliefs in God and His Prophet.

Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty for crimes of sorcery and witchcraft and claims that it is doing so in "public interest"

Saudi Arabia's treatment of religious minorities has been described by both Saudis and non-Saudis as "apartheid" and "religious apartheid".

The branch of Imam Mohamed Bin Saud University in Fairfax, Virginia instructs its students that Shia Islam is a Jewish conspiracy.

The Saudi Ministry of Education Islamic studies textbooks ... continue to promote an ideology of hatred that teaches bigotry and deplores tolerance. These texts continue to instruct students to hold a dualistic worldview in which there exist two incompatible realms – one consisting of true believers in Islam ... and the other the unbelievers – realms that can never coexist in peace. Students are being taught that Christians and Jews and other Muslims are "enemies" of the true believer... The textbooks condemn and denigrate Shiite and Sufi Muslims' beliefs and practices as heretical and call them "polytheists", command Muslims to hate Christians, Jews, polytheists and other "non-believers", and teach that the Crusades never ended, and identify Western social service providers, centers for academic studies, and campaigns for women's rights as part of the modern phase of the Crusades.

Schism

When Muhammad died, he left no clear instructions regarding succession or how the leadership of his Islamic state was to be decided. Given that he got into a position of power by killing a lot of people, it is no surprise that Muslims following his example soon started killing each other in the same quest for religious, political and military power. Today, most victims of Islamic terrorism and various forms of Islamic oppression are other Muslims of the 'wrong' type.

The modern struggle between Sunni and Shiite Muslims is a continuation of the very first disagreement over who should replace Muhammad as leader. Muslim governments, particularly in the middle east, make it very difficult to obtain accurate statistics on the number of Sunni and Shia muslims. It is estimated that Shiites make up 25 to 30% of the entire Muslim world. The overwhelming majority live between Pakistan and Lebanon. Sunnis make up almost all of the rest.

The Sunnis won the first battle and installed Abu Bakr as leader. Abu was the father of Muhammad's favourite child bride (Aisha, known as the mother of Islam) and perhaps Muhammad's closest ally. He was chosen by a small group of people to replace Muhammad. Aisha was among his supporters.

Shiites believe that Muhammad ordained Ali Ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Ali was Muhammad's first cousin, as well as his son in law. That is, he married Muhammad's daughter. He fathered Muhammad's two grandsons. Shiites believe that Muhammad's (ie Ali's) descendants are the rightful rulers under Islam, and that Muhammad quoted this in a hadith.

The Shia believe that Ali's descendants are the Imams. The role of an Imam is more of a prophetic role than that of a Caliph in Sunni theology. They believe the Imams to have special spiritual qualities. Twelvers believe the imams are immaculate from sin and human error, and can understand and interpret the hidden inner meaning of the teachings of Islam. In this way the Imams are trustees who bear the light of Muhammad.

Ali himself remained loyal to the first three Caliphs, and became the fourth Caliph. These four are regarded by Sunnis as the four "rightly guided Caliphs," but Shiites reject the legitimacy of the first three. Aisha wanted revenge against the assassins of the third Caliph, however Ali wanted to restore peace to the land. In 656, Aisha took up arms against Ali (her step son-in-law) over this point. Her forces were defeated. Ali later fought a three day long battle against those responsible for the assassination of the third Caliph. Eventually both sides agreed to stop fighting, but sporadic attacks continued whenever Ali pursued negotiations. Eventually Ali agreed to an arbitration, in which it was decided he is to be stripped of the Caliphate. He rejected the outcome, but the damage was done and his opposition grew. He won another battle against his opponents, but was assassinated three years later. These events are grouped by historians as the first Muslim civil war.

Next came the Umayyad Caliphate, defined by the rule of members of the Umayyad family. The second Muslim civil war occurred between AD 680 and 692, during the Umayyad dynasty, following the death of the first Umayyad Caliph. The first challenge came from Husayn ibn Ali, and later from his supporters seeking revenge for his death in 680. The second came from Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who was killed in 692. The Umayyad's also put down a Berber revolt between 740 and 743. They were weakened by the third Muslim civil war (744–747) and toppled by the Abbasids in 750.

The Abbasid Caliphate reigned from AD 750 to 1258, and AD 1261 to 1517. They descended from Muhammad's youngest uncle and used this to recruit Shia support. The Shia believed that they were promised the Caliphate, or at least that religious authority would be vested in Shia Imam. This did not happen and the Shia effectively went into hiding as a result of persecution.

The Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258. The leaders moved to Cairo and claimed religious authority until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt.

In the 16th century, many Shia migrated from Iran to Iraq. Shi'ism grew in Iran, particularly under the Safavid Empire (1501-1736).

Sunni–Shia clashes also occurred occasionally in the 20th century in South Asia. There were many between 1904 and 1908. These clashes revolved around the public cursing of the first three caliphs by Shias and the praising of them by Sunnis. To put a stop to the violence, public demonstrations were banned in 1909 on the three most sensitive days: Ashura, Chehlum and Ali's death on 21 Ramadan. Intercommunal violence resurfaced in 1935–36 and again in 1939 when many thousands of Sunni and Shias defied the ban on public demonstrations and took to the streets. Shia are estimated to be 21–35% of the Muslim population in South Asia, although the total number is difficult to estimate due to the intermingling between the two groups and practice of taqiyya by Shia

Sunni razzias which came to be known as Taarajs virtually devastated the community. History records 10 such Taarajs also known as Taraj-e-Shia between the 15th and 19th centuries in 1548, 1585, 1635, 1686, 1719, 1741, 1762, 1801, 1830, 1872 during which the Shia habitations were plundered, people slaughtered, libraries burnt and their sacred sites desecrated.

Modern Sunni Shia conflict

The Sunni-Shia schism is at the heart of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, an ongoing struggle for regional influence between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The countries have provided varying degrees of support to opposing sides in nearby conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq, as well as conflicts in Central Asia and Pakistan.

In what has been described as a cold war, the conflict is waged on multiple levels over geopolitical, economic, and sectarian influence. American support for Saudi Arabia and its allies along with growing Russian support for Iran have drawn comparisons to the Cold War era, and the proxy conflict has been characterized as a front in what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has referred to as the "New Cold War".

This ongoing conflict was the trigger for the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, which killed hundreds of thousands of people. During the Arab spring of 2011, Saudi Arabia attempted to strengthen it's dominance of the region. ISIS is a largely Sunni venture, and Shia militias are a key part of the coalition fighting to destroy ISIS. The mistrust between Sunni and Shia in Iraq is at the heart of the dysfunction of Iraq's democracy.

Some scholars see the period from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire as a period of relative harmony between Sunni and Shia, caused by a percieved common enemy of secularism - both the western variety as well as Arab nationalism. Howeverm since 1980 sectarian violence has been on the rise, particularly in Iraq and Pakistan, leaving thousands dead. Many Muslims blame outside conspiracies for this violence. Some scholars attribute it to the end of colonialism and decline of Arab nationalism, which was to some extent replaced by religious fundamentalism.

Many attribute the trends towards fudnamentalism in Saudi Arabia as a response to the Iranian revolution, which the Saudis saw as potentially popular among all Muslims. As a result, the Saudis sought to shore up their religious legitimacy, which inevitably resulted in more oppression of local Shia. The Saudis were also heavily involved in Afghan jihadism. The Saudis fund Islamic schools around the world, so this shift had far reaching implications.

Today, Azerbaijan is probably the only country where there are still mixed mosques and Shia and Sunnis pray together. From 1994 to 2014 satellite television and high-speed Internet has spread "hate speech" against both Sunni and Shia. Fundamentalist Sunni clerics have popularized slurs against Shia such as "Safawis" (from the Safavid empire, thus implying their being an Iranian agents), or even worse rafidha (rejecters of the faith), and majus (Zoroastrian or crypto Persian). In turn, Shia religious scholars have "mocked and cursed" the first three caliphs and Aisha, Mohammed’s youngest wife who fought against Ali.

Invasion of North Africa

After Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr began what is known as the Riddah wars. He sent out 11 main military corps. In addition to specific missions, the commanders were given the following orders, which basically amount to conversion by the sword and follow a tradition established by Muhammad himself:

1) Call the Azaan (Islamic call to prayer).

2) If the tribe answers with the Azaan, do not attack. After the Azaan, ask the tribe to confirm its submission, including the payment of zakat. If confirmed, do not attack.

3) Those who submit will not be attacked.

4) Those who do not answer with the Azaan, or after the Azaan do not confirm full submission, will be dealt with by the sword.

5) All apostates who have killed Muslims will be killed.

6) With these instructions Abu Bakr launched the forces of his Caliphate against the apostates.

From 632 to 661, the Rashidun Caliphate spread halfway across North Africa, as well as east to the modern border of Pakistan. The next Caliphate captured the rest of the North African coastline by AD 750, bringing the bread basket of the Roman empire into the Caliphate. Despite capturing the largest land empire that had ever existed and an important trade route between east (China) and west, living standards did not increase. They remained well below the living standards of the previous Roman Republic and Empire, even during what Muslims call Islam's 'golden age'.

Christians and Jews became second class citizens, facing a variety of discriminatory laws, as well as outright hostility from Muslims. Conversion often happened under threat of death or as the result of ongoing persecution. Renouncing Islam attracted the death penalty. Women were captured as sex slaves. Muslims established the central African slave trade, paying locals to obtain women for them.

A community of Coptic Christians survived in Egypt, today making up approximately 10% to 20% of the population. The jizya tax on non-Muslims was only abolished in Egypt in the 19th century, when they were also permitted to enroll in the army. In law, the testimony of non-Muslims was considered inferior to that of Muslims (as was the testimony of women). This meant they had no effective legal representation and were at the mercy of their Muslim neighbors. More recently Egyptian coots have been forced to flee Islamic state militants after many were killed. They are still forced to obtain permission to repair Churches. Churches, crops and houses are occasionally burned. In 2013, 40 churches were looted and burned and 23 more heavily damaged. The Muslim brotherhood used their Facebook page to further foment hatred of coots. Police typically arrive to the scene of hate crimes and larger scale attacks after the violence is over, and no arrests are made. Members of U.S. Congress have expressed concern about "human trafficking" of Coptic women and girls who are victims of abductions, forced conversion to Islam, sexual exploitation and forced marriage to Muslim men. Conversion to Christianity is technically legal, but made difficult and often prevented by officials in case it provokes violence. This often extends to detaining those who apply for new identity papers.

Paganism largely ceased to exist in North Africa.

Invasion of Europe

In the final two years of Muhammad's life he used his stronghold in Medina to bring Mecca and the entire Arabian peninsula. Over the next 120 years, from 632 to 750, his immediate successors spread Islam by the sword, from Pakistan in the east, across North Africa and into Southern Europe. A small force landed in Byzantine Sicily in 652, just 20 years after Muhammad's death. This was quickly repelled. Parts of Sicily were again held between 827 and 1072. From 711, the Caliphate (Islamic state) established a foothold in Southern Spain by lending themselves to assist a local leader in a conflict, then turned on their previous allies and used the foothold to spread north. By 750 they had captured the Iberian Peninsula (modern day Spain and Portugal) as well as parts of what is now Southern France. They sent raids further into Europe.

The first victory against them occurred some time between 718 and 722. The area under Muslim rule shrunk gradually and by 1236 was limited to the southern province of Granada. In the 8th century, Muslim forces pushed beyond Spain into Aquitaine, in southern France, but suffered a temporary setback when defeated by Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, at the Battle of Toulouse (721). In 725 Muslim forces captured Autun in France. The town would be the easternmost point of expansion of Umayyad forces into Europe; just seven years later in 732, the Umayyads would be forced to begin their withdrawal to al-Andalus after facing defeat at the Battle of Tours by Frankish King Charles Martel. From 719 to 759, Septimania was one of the five administrative areas of al-Andalus. The last Muslim forces were driven from France in 759, but maintained a presence, especially in Fraxinet all the way into Switzerland until the 10th century. At the same time, Muslim forces managed to capture Sicily and portions of southern Italy, and even sacked the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome in 846 and later sacked Pisa in 1004. Granada surrendered in 1492 and by 1614 Muslim civilians had been expelled from Spain.

This was not an organised 'reconquista' as it is often portrayed. During the lengthy period, different Muslim groups fought each other, as did different Christian groups, and local hired mercenaries fought for either side.

In addition to Israel, many modern Muslims still consider Spain to 'belong' to Islam and consider its recapture to be both important and inevitable.

Throughout the 16th to 19th centuries, the Barbary States sent Barbary pirates to raid nearby parts of Europe in order to capture Christian slaves to sell at slave markets in the Arab World throughout the Renaissance period.[13][14] According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th centuries, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from the crews of captured vessels[15] and from coastal villages in Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like Italy, France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland, the Azores Islands, and even Iceland.

For a long time, until the early 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. The Crimean Tatars frequently mounted raids into the Danubian principalities, Poland-Lithuania, and Russia to enslave people whom they could capture.

The Ottoman Empire began its expansion into Europe by taking the European portions of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries up until the 1453 capture of Constantinople, establishing Islam as the state religion in the region. The Ottoman Empire continued to stretch northwards, taking Hungary in the 16th century, and reaching as far north as the Podolia in the mid-17th century (Peace of Buczacz), by which time most of the Balkans was under Ottoman control. Ottoman expansion in Europe ended with their defeat in the Great Turkish War. In the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), the Ottoman Empire lost most of its conquests in Central Europe. The Crimean Khanate was later annexed by Russia in 1783. Over the centuries, the Ottoman Empire gradually lost almost all of its European territories, until its collapse in 1922, when the former empire was transformed into the nation of Turkey.

Apart from the effect of a lengthy period under Ottoman domination, many of the subject population were converted to Islam as a result of a deliberate move by the Ottomans as part of a policy of ensuring the loyalty of the population against a potential Venetian invasion. However, Islam was spread by force in the areas under the control of the Ottoman Sultan through devşirme (taxation of sons to serve the Islamic state) and jizya (financial tax).

A 2013 poll by Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung says that Islamic fundamentalism is widespread among European Muslims with the majority saying religious rules are more important than civil laws and three quarters rejecting religious pluralism within Islam.

Slavery

At the time of Muhammad's birth, slavery was an almost universal practice. One key exception was Europe, where slavery largely came to an end with the collapse of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity and Judaism - religions that hold the exodus story as central to their identity.

The rapid expansion of the Caliphate, combined with Muhammad's ruling the slavery was permitted and his ban on Muslim slaves, forced the establishment of an international slave trade. Slavery was a key motivator for war. Polygamy and concubinage (sexual slavery) caused a constant shortage of women, exacerbated by the death penalty for adultery, severe punishments for fornication, the segregation of men and women, extreme control over women's lives by men, and the dress codes imposed on women. War was the only way for many men to find women. In addition, children of slaves and prisoners of war became slaves, unless they converted to Islam. Slavery thus had the effect of supporting the political and military spread of Islam, as well as conversion to Islam within the Caliphate. This is in addition to the choice between converting and dying often offered to defeated foes, and other coercive pressures such as taxation, oppression, harassment and inferior legal status. Islam's codification of slavery did more to create and vastly expand the slave trade than to restrict it.

In the Atlantic slave trade, there were roughly two male slaves for every female slave, reflecting the economic focus on forced Labor. In the Islamic trade (at least as far as black slaves are concerned), the ratio was the opposite - two women for every male slave, reflecting the Islamic focus on sex.

In parts of Africa to the south of those controlled by the Caliphate, slaves were simply purchased from local traders. The flow of money had a massive impact on African society and has continued for the entirety of Islam's history. When Europeans traders started travelling between the Americas, Europe and Africa, they poured even more money into this established trade, for up to four centuries until European and American powers put an end to it. Europeans were far more reluctant to sell each other into slavery, however Muslim slave traders depopulated the Spanish and Italian coastline in efforts to satisfy the demand for slaves. They raided extensively along the rest of the European coastline, reaching as far north as Iceland.

From the 1440s into the 18th century, Europeans from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and England were sold into slavery by North Africans, as described in the book "Christian Slaves White Masters". This same book controversially states that "white slavery had been minimised or ignored because academics preferred to treat Europeans as evil colonialists rather than as victims," and likely overestimates the number of slaves taken. In 1575, the Tatars captured over 35,000 Ukrainians; a 1676 raid took almost 40,000. About 60,000 Ukrainians were captured in 1688; some were ransomed, but most were sold into slavery. Some of the Roma people were enslaved over five centuries in Romania until abolition in 1864.

The Ohio State University history Professor Robert Davis describes the White Slave Trade as minimized by most modern historians in his book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500–1800. Davis estimates that 1 million to 1.25 million white Christian Europeans were enslaved in North Africa, from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th, by slave traders from Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli alone (these numbers do not include the European people which were enslaved by Morocco and by other raiders and traders of the Mediterranean Sea coast), and roughly 700 Americans were held captive in this region as slaves between 1785 and 1815.

Sixteenth- and 17th-century customs statistics suggest that Istanbul's additional slave import from the Black Sea may have totaled around 2.5 million from 1450 to 1700. The markets declined after the loss of the Barbary Wars and finally ended in the 1800s, after a US Navy expedition under Commodore Edward Preble engaging gunboats and fortifications in Tripoli, 1804 and later when Algeria was conquered by France. The Kingdom of Morocco had already suppressed piracy and recognized the United States as an independent country in 1776.

European Intervention

Muhammad's codification of slavery made eradication of slavery in the Muslim world extremely difficult, given the strong economic pressures to continue the trade. In the end it was European and American intervention that finally brought it to an end, though this process is not yet complete. There are several key historical events that contributed to this. The Roman empire made extensive use of slavery. The fall of the Roman Empire, combined with the spread of Christianity and Judaism, gradually brought an end to slavery in Europe. The invasion by the Caliphate of Southern Europe temporarily reversed the trend away from slavery. Had the Caliphate succeeded in maintaining a foothold in Europe or capturing more of Europe, it would probably look similar to North Africa today, and the implications for the later enlightenment would have been dire.

When the Spanish discovered the Americas, they brought back vast wealth, in the form of gold and silver. This was used to purchase slaves from the established traders in Africa to bring to the Americas, where they were primarily used to establish the agricultural sector. Despite benefiting financially from this arrangement, the Spanish crown made genuine attempts to eradicate it. These attempts were not successful. Later, British and French traders joined the market. Slavery was being legally abolished across Europe, and North America eventually followed with the civil war. During this time, Europeans were also fending off raids from Islamic slave traders.

Barbary Pirates

Barbary pirates from North Africa were a major contributor to the slave raids on the European coast. This reached it's peak during the 17th century. By the second half of this century, European naval powers were able to effectively strike back against the pirates, however the pirates capitalised on the competition between European powers, who had an incentive to permit continued piracy on other nations.

Piracy was enough of a problem that some states entered into the redemption business. In Denmark, "At the beginning of the 18th century money was collected systematically in all churches, and a so called ‘slave fund’ (slavekasse) was established by the state in 1715. Funds were brought in through a compulsory insurance sum for seafarers. 165 slaves were ransomed by this institution between 1716 and 1736." "Between 1716 and 1754 19 ships from Denmark-Norway were captured with 208 men; piracy was thus a serious problem for the Danish merchant fleet."

In the late 18th century piracy began to arise again. In 1783 and 1784 the Spanish bombarded Algiers to end piracy. The second time Admiral Barceló damaged the city so severely that the Algerian Dey asked Spain to negotiate a peace treaty. From then on Spanish vessels and coasts were safe for several years. Separately, the Danish attacked Tripoli in 1797.

Until the American Declaration of Independence in 1776, British treaties with the North African states protected American ships from the Barbary corsairs. Morocco, which in 1777 was the first independent nation to publicly recognize the United States, in 1784 became the first Barbary power to seize an American vessel after the nation achieved independence. The Barbary threat led directly to the United States founding the United States Navy in March 1794. While the United States did secure peace treaties with the Barbary states, it was obliged to pay tribute for protection from attack. The burden was substantial: in 1800 payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States federal government's annual expenditures. The United States conducted the First Barbary War in 1801 and the Second Barbary War in 1815 to gain more favorable peace terms; it ended the payment of tribute. But, Algiers broke the 1805 peace treaty after two years, and refused to implement the 1815 treaty until compelled to do so by Britain in 1816.

The Congress of Vienna (1814–5), which ended the Napoleonic Wars, led to increased European consensus on the need to end Barbary raiding. The sacking of Palma on the island of Sardinia by a Tunisian squadron, which carried off 158 inhabitants, roused widespread indignation. Britain had by this time banned the slave trade and was seeking to induce other countries to do likewise. States that were more vulnerable to the corsairs complained that Britain cared more for ending the trade in African slaves than stopping the enslavement of Europeans and Americans by the Barbary States.

In order to neutralise this objection and further the anti-slavery campaign, in 1816 Britain sent Lord Exmouth to secure new concessions from Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, including a pledge to treat Christian captives in any future conflict as prisoners of war rather than slaves. He imposed peace between Algiers and the kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily. On his first visit, Lord Exmouth negotiated satisfactory treaties and sailed for home. While he was negotiating, a number of Sardinian fishermen who had settled at Bona on the Tunisian coast were brutally treated without his knowledge. As Sardinians they were technically under British protection, and the government sent Exmouth back to secure reparation. On August 17, in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, Exmouth bombarded Algiers. Both Algiers and Tunis made fresh concessions as a result.

The Barbary states had difficulty securing uniform compliance with a total prohibition of slave-raiding, as this had been traditionally of central importance to the North African economy. Slavers continued to take captives by preying on less well-protected peoples. Algiers subsequently renewed its slave-raiding, though on a smaller scale. Europeans at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 discussed possible retaliation. In 1820 a British fleet under Admiral Sir Harry Neal bombarded Algiers. Corsair activity based in Algiers did not entirely cease until France conquered the state in 1830.

Although the conditions in bagnios were harsh, they were better than those endured by galley slaves. Most Barbary galleys were at sea for around eighty to a hundred days a year, but when the slaves assigned to them were on land, they were forced to do hard manual labor. There were exceptions: "galley slaves of the Ottoman Sultan in Constantinople would be permanently confined to their galleys, and often served extremely long terms, averaging around nineteen years in the late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century periods. These slaves rarely got off the galley but lived there for years." During this time, rowers were shackled and chained where they sat, and never allowed to leave. Sleeping (which was limited), eating, defecation and urination took place at the seat to which they were shackled. There were usually five or six rowers on each oar. Overseers would walk back and forth and whip slaves considered not to be working hard enough.

Barbary slaves could hope to be freed through payment of a ransom. Despite the efforts of middlemen and charities to raise money to provide ransoms, they were still very difficult to come by. As European communities increased their charity funding for ransoming slaves, North African states increased the amount of ransom required. Lack of money to pay a ransom was not the only problem. Persons taken captive needed to notify their families of their status and tell them the ransom price. Mail charges were often beyond the reach of ordinary captive slaves, and it could take several months for the mail to be delivered.

In the first years of the 19th century, the United States of America and some European nations fought and won the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War against the pirates. The Barbary Wars were a direct response of the British, French and the Dutch states to the raids and white slave trade by the Barbary pirates, which ended in the 1830s when the region was conquered by France. The white slave trade and markets in the Mediterranean declined and eventually disappeared after the European occupations.

After an Anglo-Dutch raid in 1816 on Algiers immobilized most of the Pirate fleet, the Dey of Algiers was forced to agree to terms which included a cessation of the practice of enslaving Christians, although slave trading in non-Europeans could still continue. After losing in this period of formal hostilities with European and American powers, the Barbary states went into decline.

The Barbary pirates did not cease their operations, and another British raid on Algiers took place in 1824. France invaded Algiers in 1830, placing it under colonial rule. Tunis was similarly invaded by France in 1881. Tripoli returned to direct Ottoman control in 1835, before falling into Italian hands in the 1911 Italo-Turkish War. As such, the slave traders now found that they had to work in accordance with the laws of their governors, and could no longer look to self-regulation. The slave trade ceased on the Barbary coast in the 19th and 20th centuries or when European governments passed laws granting emancipation to slaves.

Arab slave trade

Two rough estimates by scholars of the number of slaves held over twelve centuries in Muslim lands are 11.5 million and 14 million.

The Arab slave trade was most active in West Asia, North Africa, and Southeast Africa. In the early 20th century (post World War I), slavery was gradually outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France. Among the last states to abolish slavery were Saudi Arabia and Yemen, which abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from Britain; Oman in 1970, and Mauritania in 1905, 1981, and again in August 2007. However, slavery claiming the sanction of Islam is documented presently in the predominantly Islamic countries of Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, and Sudan.

ISIL also currently makes extensive use of sex slaves.

Slavery was a legal and important part of the economy of the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman society until the slavery of Caucasians was banned in the early 19th century, although slaves from other groups were allowed. In Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the administrative and political center of the Empire, about a fifth of the population consisted of slaves in 1609. Even after several measures to ban slavery in the late 19th century, the practice continued largely unfazed into the early 20th century. As late as 1908, female slaves (Circassian and African) were still sold in the Ottoman Empire. Sexual slavery was a central part of the Ottoman slave system throughout the history of the institution.

Ottomans practiced devşirme, a sort of "blood tax" or "child collection", young Christian boys from the Balkans and Anatolia were taken from their homes and families, brought up as Muslims, and enlisted into the most famous branch of the Kapıkulu, the Janissaries, a special soldier class of the Ottoman army that became a decisive faction in the Ottoman invasions of Europe.

During the various 18th and 19th century persecution of Christians and the culminating Assyrian Genocide, Armenian Genocide and Greek Genocide of World War I, many indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christian women and children were carried off as slaves by the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies.