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The rise of a major civilization,such as that of the United States,

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around 50million peaceful individuals,at the most conservative estimates,met ghastly death

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By contrast,the rise of Islamic civilization involved battles that resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 people,

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at the highest estimates,and all of them were military personnel.

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Does Islamic History Mean Islam?

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When civilizations are compared,we find people often compare the United States with the former Soviet Union,

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or China with Japan,or the Old Persian Empire with the Byzantine Empire.

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But what do they compare Islam with?

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They simply compare it to a perceived Utopia that has no presence except in their own imagination .

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Two points need to be borne in mind when we consider the relationship between Islam as a faith

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and Islamic history as the product of human action.

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The first is that when we compare Islamic history with the history of other civilizations,

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we are bound to conclude that the history of Islam shows to be in the lead of human progress

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and the least aggressive towards other nations and communities.

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Here is a link to a study prepared by Naveed S.Sheikh of the University of Louisville in the United States:

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The study asks:which religions and civilizations caused the killing of the largest number of human beings?

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It then gives the following answer

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Secondly,Islam is a well preserved religion that lays down clear principles which,

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when followed,bring happiness to individuals and communities.

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When these are abandoned,all will suffer.

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Islamic history represents this truism in both parts,not only the first.

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Deviation in various forms occurred in different stages of the history of the Muslim community,

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but Islam is the first to denounce such deviation in all forms.

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In this we find Islam at variance with distorted religions and man-made creeds

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that condone ill behaviour by their followers,

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and are always ready to bless it with false justification.

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To cite deviations that occurred in different periods of Islamic history

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as evidence of the non- workability of the Islamic system

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is the same as claiming that all rules of architecture are false

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on the basis of the collapse of a building constructed by an unqualified architect.

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The Prophet (peace be upon him)addressed his army as it prepared to march,saying:

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People,I urge you to observe ten rules and keep them in mind:

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Do not commitany treason;do not take what does not belong to you;do not cheat.

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You must not disfigure anyone’s body,

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or kill a child,a woman or an elderly person.

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You must not destroy or burn any date tree,or cut any fruit tree.

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Do not slaughter a sheep or a camel except for food.

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You shall pass by people who live in hermitages where they concentrate on worship.Leave them alone

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 Bearing these clear rules in mind,suppose that a Muslim soldier kills a child or a  woman during a battle

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can we blame the one who issued these orders simply because they were unheeded?

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We note that there is a continuous effort that seeks to pick up individual cases from the history of the Islamic civilization

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during its period of strength and try to distort its image,

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yet it remains the purest major civilization the world has known.

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I wonder:is this an attempt to justify today’s atrocities against Muslims at their time of weakness?

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I leave the answer to you.

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