@Nilgiri I hope you won't mind my doing it in parts. I am sorry that I am not feeling ready to convey it in one writing for the time being, real life got disturbed by sudden sad demise of a young friend. It wasn't his time but that's the reality, we can't do much to reverse it or prevent it. Mine will come too.
However, I had promised to write so here is my attempt, I hope it makes some sense. It is simple my own personal account so you won't find any references to any historical writings and works.
Before I start.
Please Note
I don’t intend to offend anyone, any ethnicity, any religion any sect, any people, or preach anyone, readers may agree or disagree it’s totally up to them. So I will appreciate that no one takes this personally and tries arguing with me on those lines,
I won’t change my views. And being a follower of Islam I firmly believe that every human on this earth should be free of subjugation, oppression, exploitation of any kind (monetary as well as non monetary) so he / she has the time and freedom to think himself and form his own independent opinions and make his own choices and decisions without any undue influence. Further personally I believe that in Islam Quran is the only true word of ALLAH (the God, the Al Mighty), rest of the literature and books have been written by ordinary humans, hence are subservient to Quran and open to thorough check and validation, if those traditions, stories, history contradict with Quran they are not Islam, and I don't accept any justification for existence of any sect, whether you call them schools of thoughts or differing views, they remain sects, and there is no place for any division in Islam. (This is the area where it all went wrong, a parallel man made religion constructed over centuries to avenge Islam and defame Islam ...... whether you agree or not 99.9% of criticism of Islam is because of these men made and written books).
Having said that I will start by trying to first answer the illogical blame that gets put on Islam,
People were converted to Islam at the sword tip aka forceful conversions. There are many recent and historical examples where one can study and conclude what percent of people will surrender to any forceful conversion (the invading oppressor), what percent would resist it, what percent would flee and the ones who have been forcefully converted, how long they are going to stay loyal. For example take Rohingya, the poor helpless people, how many of them converted to Buddhism to get their lives spared? Yazidis in Iraq, they got killed, made sex slaves, some forced to convert ..... but what is their current status, do they accept it or despise it? Kashmiris, honestly won't majority Indians be happy and their lives become easy if they get converted to Hinduism? Why don't they? Afghanistan that country gets bombed every now and then, do they leave their religion despite being the poorest nation on the face of this Earth? British India, Mughal India ........ how come after all these many invasions Hindus are almost billion plus, China how it was left majority Atheists? Sikhs, Christians and Muslims in these areas and region no matter whatever form of religion they are practicing they tend to be loyal and faithful .... how come generations of forcefully converted people remain loyal and faithful? Bosnia would disagree. Look at Iran, they say it was majority Sunni and it became Shiite, and now they say that 70% want to convert back to Zoroastrianism ..... why they converted to being Shiite and why (if there is any truth to it) wish to convert to Zoroastrianism ..... would any authoritative rule be able to stop them if that is case?
These are just simple examples which I present to you to think and consider, you can convert hundreds and thousands forcefully but you cannot convert the whole generations and keep them loyal. Any neutral unbiased person shouldn't find it hard to agree with.
Moving forward ...... where is the source of or motivation for forceful conversions, it has to be documented a Divine order ..... else it is human not Religion. So
Is there any verse of Quran or Divine commandment in Quran, that orders Muslims to forcefully convert others?
None. Instead Quran clearly mentions "To you your religion, for us our's", "Why don't you think, why don't you see, why don't you listen", "The ones who don't agree leave them" ....... these are some extracts of how Quran speaks about it ....... But then how it all happened? How come the numbers increased and why Muslim armies marched into different regions (Early Muslim expansion only)?
How it happened initially.
You know for any sensible normal human or millions of humans, to convert or to change to anything, it has to be something superior in thought, purpose, service, betterment, ideology and rewards .......... and its a given that any existing system that has been proven inferior, that system and its strict adherents would feel threatened by any superior ideology / system. That is why revolutions happen(ed), because people get fed up with continuous subjugation and slavery of systems, because people want things to change for better ....... and in one similar superstitious, humanely backward society, that is where Islam the last Divine interference / instruction / guidance / help originated, It shook and threatened the core of a superstitious society where treating humans like animals was routine. Islam was (and is) a threat because its true teachings focus primarily on freedom of humans, Islam not only guaranteed freedom and rights for humans (both men and women) but also animals. And that was (is) not acceptable by Kings/ Lords/ Masters/ Oppressors/ Exploiters, Capitalists and Clergy (anywhere in any form). If you are a normal human like many others and not some wealthy capitalist, a prince or some high priest enjoying authority and rule over many ..... you would want freedom from all these three ......... and that freedom came in form of Islam. Reason why it gathered so much support and followers in short span of time ..... those common people witnessed the system of equality and justice brought by Islam, the concept of State looking after its citizens, the freedom of having a say and to think and freely express ..... if this wasn't the case, Islam would have died centuries ago.
Why they invaded other territories
Do I really need to ask what do you think or feel when you hear our dear doc called "Hendi", when you see an ordinary common Indian's image being posted here and made fun of and subliminally every Indian and Pakistani told that you are inferior ugly weaklings? Or even today you must hear and read that "lizard eating people" insult thrown at Arabs ... It's not a surprise for me because Doc's ancestors were 100 times more arrogant, rude, insensitive and proud, They had the king, they had the Clergy, they had the rich wealthy capitalists ......... the result common people resented them, they felt exploited, oppressed, overburdened, subjugated and humiliated. You can ask doc he still boasts how they ruled and kept my people in check for centuries ......... and their mistake? They couldn't timely understand that once those lizard eating desert dwellings had been reformed and changed they had seen how it feels like to be treated as a free human .... they believed and practiced a belief system where every human was free with equal rights, and that it is their duty to ensure that. So when they (Persians) were politely told to look after those poor and helpless and don't make their lives miserable ....... their baby king replied "Go back to your desert and we will look after your clothing and will feed you" .... the height of ignorance and failure to be humble. The result, divine duty to come to the rescue of helpless (its very clearly given in Quran, if one studies permission in Quran for war). Now doc may disagree and say that we came after their land and wealth, we killed and raped, destroyed their once civilisation .... but can he answer why only a handful of them fled and why majority remained behind despite there were no borders to restrict their movement .... why it was a common Persian who killed their king and not some desert dwelling Arab ............ can an occupier remain there forever without support and willingness of local populace? (Today's Afghanistan and mighty USSR and USA). If everything got destroyed then how come doc so conveniently displays an old Persian flag, how come they celebrate all their past festivals? Ask doc what he thinks of you if you could become someone equal to him and ask me ...... only this response can make you understand why it all happened. For him blood matters, for me human of any blood color or race can join me and become better than me. Our fight remains the fight for free humanity, there never was anything against their land their religion, their beliefs ..... I hope you won't see me ever making fun of his beliefs or criticizing his beliefs in anyway. Instead why I support him, because he is minority now, whereas if what majority think of my religion, I should be at the front line totally wishing for his non existence. And I happen to be the weakest Muslim possible.
This is my try at the introduction ......... containing some questions. Next I will try to write something to inform you of how Doc's ancestors after fleeing got their revenge and how it all started to go wrong for us.
