A Response to Yasir Qadhi: "Islam was spread by the sword" | Mufti Abu Layth

right yes and I'll be let's take a look at this question somebody asked about compulsion right Yasir Qadhi sure sure yes sir Adi Sahib dammit Mercato hialeah so she has a card he has done a talk recently that has been much to the delight of many ex-muslims and some Islamophobes where he seems to be kind of if I listen to not the entire thing but I listened to those that part ways discussing this about Islam where

he seems to be stating that Islam that Islam was spread by force and he seems to be saying yes and it was and what like you know he's I think he might be trying to do a good thing he I think what he's trying to do is provoke critical thought in his audience but this is what the lecture goes out like so the lecture was more like oh you know that there was all right right so the

lecture was about I mean it gets to this point where says how do you think Islam was spread it says by Empire thank you and you know people embraced Islam because their kings embraced Islam by and large this is how he says it and so I watched a video vid clips about this clip about this we a video on YouTube where he's posing and he's going through this whole kind of speech and he's encouraging is very grateful to share here Sephardi for having made these statements that Islam it wasn't really lovey-dovey wasn't peace and love and

all that hippie stuff it was really about just spread by the sword in essence he said I'm not saying mediate said look I'm not I mean I like video it's you know I consider him a friend but I'm in the just say video it's a I'm not saying everybody was forced but I would assume or he'd assume that most people probably were now and this seems to echo what she has her god he is saying in his speech because he's playing the clip that seems to be what yes of how do you sing so what do we

think about this now the truth is that that's that that is no way the case it isn't simply not true now I'm not saying that there was never compulsion I'm sure there was compulsion in certain places it would have been wrong but I'm sure there was I mean just like in any other human society you're going to get good politics bad politics you're going to get things but that was never the case and I think it's not you know the questions that are being asked like yes of Carly says oh the stories they tell you in Sunday school by traders they

embraced Islam huh yeah right he says Malaysia you think Malaysia embraced by trip right so right the truth is that look people and you've got to understand something to understand how people in the past embraced religion you have to you have to try to take yourself out of your mind frame and view into the minds of other people now what you're doing is you're

placing your mind 21st century mind in people back then now you might think well actually 21st century is much more liberal it is much more liberal however however 21st century is also much more insecure on several other things so you see on especially on identity identity today and in our recent past has become a huge salient feature of Homo sapiens like how we identify us

I and nature I belong to this country I am British for example I am Pakistani I am this I am that I'm Egyptian or I'm Saudi or these things did not even exist nobody people in the past wouldn't define themselves like that not as an identity I mean as a description yeah they would say yes I'm from southern Egypt for example or I'm from this part of the world but it wasn't like a kind of integral part of the identity makeup the way it is today and religion you see

you have to understand was a similar thing for huge parts of the world you see people in the past were much more open to new the concept of new gods you have to you see it's you are too you've got too many blinkers on if you think otherwise take a look at the empires like take a look at like the Roman empires every Roman Empire every time they took over something they incorporated the gods into their into their Pantheon some all the Greek gods are kind of subsumed by the Roman

culture when the Romans went into you know when they've gone into the Middle East they've subsumed their gods and it's because in fact when they've taken over the temple edge of Jerusalem this was you know the Emperor this was the thing he he couldn't make any sense of he was like but where's the god he's like this is the temple but there's nothing here so he was actually so bewildered that what are they worshipping so people in the past were always looking for gods of new because they felt that the new gods might bring

better luck to them so if you watch things like for example the Vikings or things like that they were always intrigued that hey Dee and so even in the TV series they highlight that that all when they come across England and one of the Vikings is telling the other Vikings this is what he says he says they have new gods they have a different God and they God does this and they got and people were intrigued by that in the past do you see today because our narrative has come off religion and religion is simply an identity rien issue now we don't think in that way therefore we

find it strange that people would think like that but in the past they actually did think like that so people were quite welcoming for other gods if they felt it would bring them good luck and it would kind of like they think oh wow maybe this will bring prosperity to us take a look at places like India India I mean Hinduism is an island this is just a term given to it by by the British but it was actually just so many different people and regions just worshipping different things these people worshipping Shiva you know worshipping Durga worshipping

you know Brahm worshipping whatever you some people even worship our oven you know the devil I mean if I can call him that in in the the anti-hero from there a Mayan now how did this happen because people felt it worked for them another feature that you have to throw in is that because of where the Middle East was placed it was bang in the middle of the Silk Road of the Silk Roads now all trade throughout the world whether you want to bring it down from China into Africa down from China into

Europe from Europe into China from Europe into Africa you had to go through the Middle East and because the Muslims generally controlled that it gave Muslims a huge power play hence Arabic was the lingua franca that Arabic was the lingua franca of the world a during I mean people saw Arabic in a great sense of prestige they didn't see it like you see Arabic the way we see English today so people today will pride themselves to say one or two words in English in some countries even if they can't speak English well because it's a language it's the

language of currency it's the language of power in a similar way Arabic was the lingua franca back then and I'm not saying this this is documented fact so when you see a prosperous nation that are powerful that have strengths that have military they have might they have the version of technology they have wealth they have the lingua franca and these people have a new God you see two people back then who were really into almonds they were intrigued by new gods

and the fact that maybe this God will bring good omen onto us so it's not you know this is nonsense that people were all forced to become Muslim oon and then they were there and then they had to uh stay Muslim I mean who was monitoring their Islam why would they make their children Muslim I think about it the dynasty afterwards had collapsed why would you you you you know and who's gonna be who's gonna be checking in the farmlands the majority of civilization was in the was rural was in the countryside's so who is gonna be policing all of this

so this is nonsense this is like just it either propaganda against you know religions or it's just bigoted views or it's the inability in may if it is genuine it's the inability to fathom what the minds of people in the past thought like so people are thinking or today I wouldn't because today it's true people won't just take on other religions so we're assuming that in the past but a good way to look at it today in some ways is like saying like how

people will maybe take on lifestyle approaches today like they'll change their lifestyle to match a particular lifestyle like I know like it's the new year you know I'm gonna go on to this lifestyle become healthy I'm gonna do this I'm gonna go dream I'm gonna become a vegan I'm gonna become a merit of this lifestyle I'm gonna get into this this particular I don't all environmental kind of lifestyle and get into this and people do still adopt that today I mean it's not a strong parallel but I'm just giving an example but in the past people were very eager to adopt something that

would bring them good almonds so yeah so I hope that makes sense it was never that this is nonsense utter nonsense I mean I'm not saying don't get me wrong I'm not saying nobody was ever converted by force I'm sure they were and I'm sure there were many oh if you know if you're gonna look over entire history of human civilizations but they would never that was never the norm of how it was happening that was never the majority that was not how Islam was spreading because somebody was going around saying oh you better accept Islam otherwise I'll chop your head off and what people were accepting it and they were becoming

Muslim as well and how many people were policing and how long did these empires last because within the empires thick their rulers keep getting taken over every five years so yeah so I hope that makes some sense I I definitely wanted to kind of shed some light on that