Objection · Case 10 · Islam
Early Christian persecution was sporadic and local until Decius in 250, and Muslim conquest was mostly political rule over populations who weren’t forced to convert. After both admissions, what’s left of the contrast?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
What is left is the founders’ models, which is what the claim is really about. Jesus refused political power and told Peter to put away his sword; Muhammad led armies and governed a state. That is a real and uncontroversial difference between the two founders, and it is the whole content of the point. Spread by conquest versus spread under persecution is the looser framing, and the founders’ relationship to force differed is the accurate one.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The early Muslim conquests.
Historical records show that within roughly a century of Muhammad’s death in 632, Muslim armies had conquered vast territories from Spain to Persia. Muslims fairly note that forced conversion was…