This was stated by the Prophet himself in the Ashtiname or Covenant, a kind of charter that he signed which granted protection to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery. It was in this spirit that the Prophet Muhammad dealt with the Christians of his time.Īny Muslim who fails to protect the life, property and honour of Christians is not only acting in contrast to Islamic tradition but is also violating the oath made by the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The Quran in Al-Mumtahanah (60):8 says: "Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just." However, even this was highly regulated as Muslims were forbidden to fight during four sacred months.įurthermore, the historical fact is that Muslims in general adhered to the Quranic ideal of showing tolerance and compassion to Jews and Christians who lived in Muslim-ruled lands. The Quran in Al-Tawbah (9):13 asks: "Will ye not fight people who violated their oaths, plotted to expel the Messenger, and took the aggressive by being the first (to assault) you?" This makes it clear that the exhortation to fight mentioned a few verses earlier referred to cases of defence against aggressors. The other is to demonstrate how Muslims in history were guided by Islamic ideals and acted towards non-Muslim minorities. One is to show that these verses are to be interpreted in their historical contexts. There are two ways to deal with this question. How do we reconcile the idea of Islam as a religion of peace, with the verses of the Quran that appear to support the violence perpetrated against Christians, such as those during the reigns of Al-Hakim and Al-Baghdadi? It was reported that a man who was caught eating during the fasting month was crucified for three days while a woman who committed adultery was stoned to death. It is also important to point out that ISIS also targets Muslims who run afoul of the authorities. Archbishop Athanasius Toma Dawod of the Syriac Orthodox Church said that ISIS had burned churches and old religious texts, damaged crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary, and converted churches into mosques. After capturing large areas of Iraq and Syria earlier this year, ISIS began to target Christians and other religious minorities, subjecting them to harassment, arrest, violence and conversion on pain of death. We are reminded of this barbarism today by the actions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) under Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
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