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Disagreements between Muslims and people of other beliefs, or between different Muslim groups, have at times resulted in the persecution of non-Muslims or other Muslims in Muslim ruled areas. There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... Look up Persecution in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Conversely Muslims have been persecuted in non-Muslim ruled areas because of their beliefs or birth status as Muslims.

Historically there has been ongoing conflict and persecution between various groups of Muslims, e.g. the Sunni, Shiite, Mu'tazilite and Kharijite sects of Muslims and the Druze and Ahmadiyya groups which are considered non-Muslim by mainstream Sunni and Shi'a clergy, as well as conflict between Muslims and non-Muslim groups such as Zoroastrians, Hindus, Jews, Christians, Sikhs or Yezidi. Sunni Islam (Arabic سنّة) is the largest denomination of Islam. ... Shi‘as (the adjective in Arabic is شيعى shi‘i; English has traditionally used Shiite) which mean follower in Arabic make up the second largest sect of believers in Islam, constituting about 30%-35% of all Muslim. ... Mutazili (Arabic المعتزلة al-mu`tazilah) is an extinct theological school of thought within Islam. ... Kharijites were members of an Islamic sect in late 7th and early 8th century AD, concentrated in todays southern Iraq. ... Religions Druzism Scriptures Languages Arabic, Hebrew The Druze (Arabic: درزي, derzÄ« or durzÄ«, plural دروز, durÅ«z; Hebrew: , Druzim; also transliterated Druz or Druse) are a Middle Eastern religious community whose traditional religion began as an offshoot of the Ismaili sect of Islam, but is unique in its incorporation of Gnostic, neo... Ahmadi Muslims are followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. ... Zoroastrianism was adapted from an earlier, polytheistic faith by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia very roughly around 1000 BC (although, in the absence of written records, some scholars estimates are as late as 600 BC). ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... This article is about the religous people known as Christians. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban The adherents of Sikhism are called Sikhs. ... The Yezidi or Yazidi (Kurdish; Êzidî) are adherents of a small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. ...

Persecution of Hindus in the Mughal Empire

Main article: Persecution of Hindus

The initial invasion of South Asia by Muslim armies led to widespread carnage as Muslims regarded the Hindus as infidels.[1] Persecution of Hindus refers to the religious persecution inflicted upon Hindus. ...

Many temples were looted and destroyed. One such example is the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid, which was the birth place of Lord Rama. The temple was destroyed by Babar and a mosque was built over it. The Hindu Right wing in India is fighting to get it back as a temple. Ram Janmabhoomi (राम जन्मभूमि) refers to a tract of land in the North Indian city of Ayodhya which is believed to be the birthplace of the Rama. ... A view of the Babri Mosque, circa pre-1992. ...

The Mughal Empire was marked by periods of tolerance of non-Muslims, such as Hindus, Christians and Sikhs, as well as violent oppression and persecution of those people. Large scale conversions were carried out at the tip of the sword in most places where Muslim emperors ruled. It has been suggested that Mughal Era be merged into this article or section. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... This article is about the religous people known as Christians. ... A Sikh man wearing a turban The adherents of Sikhism are called Sikhs. ...

The Mughal emperors Akbar the Great and Shah Jahan were famous for their religious tolerance and conflicts with the Islamic clergy. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Shahbuddin Mohammed Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan. ...

Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire

Main articles: Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide, and Pontic Greek Genocide

The Ottoman Empire was marked by long periods of limited tolerance and some periods of bloody repression of non-Muslims rebellion. Many Jews fled from Christian Spain to more tolerant states, such as the Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire to escape persecution. The Janissary army corps consisted of young men who were brought to Istanbul as child-slaves (and were often from Christian households) who were converted, trained and later employed by the Sultan (the devshirme system). At the end of the Ottoman Empire, between 10,000^[1] and 2,500,000 Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks perished as a result of direct killing and starvation, see Armenian genocide or Assyrian genocide. Not to be overlooked was the killing of Muslims by Armenians et al. in their hopes of getting land to form their own countries - backed by the enemy of the Ottomans: Russia. In the nineteenth century, there were several campaigns of ethnic cleansing against non-Muslims, such as the Assyrian Christians and Yezidi in contemporary Iraq, as documented below: Armenian Genocide photo. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The historical Pontus region New York Times headlines which observes that the entire Christian population of Trabzon was wiped out. More relevant headlines[1] Pontic Greek Genocide[2][3][4] is a controversial term used to refer to the fate of Pontic Greeks during and in the aftermath of World... Motto دولت ابد مدت Devlet-i Ebed-müddet (The Eternal State) Anthem Ottoman imperial anthem Borders in 1680, see: list of territories Capital Söğüt (1299–1326) Bursa (1326–65) Edirne (1365–1453) Constantinople (Ä°stanbul, 1453–1922) Language(s) Ottoman Turkish Government Monarchy [[Category:Former monarchies}}|Ottoman Empire, 1299]] Sultans  - 1281–1326... The Janissaries comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultans household troops and bodyguard. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, London. ... Devshirmeh (Turkish devşirme) refers to the system used by the Ottoman sultans to tax newly conquered states, and build a loyal slave army and class of administrators: the Janissaries. ... It has been suggested that Assyrian people be merged into this article or section. ... Armenian Genocide photo. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Assyrian Church of the East is a Christian denominational body that traces its origins to the See of Babylon, said to be founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. ... The Yezidi or Yazidi (Kurdish; Êzidî) are adherents of a small Middle Eastern religion with ancient origins. ...

Badr Khan Bey, A Hakkari Kurdish Amir, combined with other Kurdish forces led by Nurallah, attacked the Assyrians, intending to burn, kill, destroy, and, if possible, exterminate the Assyrians race from the mountains. The fierce Kurds destroyed and burned whatever came within their reach. An indiscriminate massacre took place. The women were brought before the Amir and murdered in cold blood. The following incident illustrates the revolting barbarity: the aged mother of Mar Shimun, the Patriarch of the Church of the East, was seized by them, and after having practiced on her the most abominable atrocities, they cut her body into two parts and threw it into the river Zab, exclaiming, "go and carry to your accursed son the intelligence that the same fate awaits him." Nearly ten thousand Assyrians were massacred, and as large a number of woman and children were taken captive, most of whom were sent to Jezirah to be sold as slaves, to be bestowed as presents upon the influential Muslims.^[2]

Similar events occurred in 1846. In neither case did the Ottoman Government or its security forces intervene to prevent the massacres or punish the wrong-doers, indicating that they were happy with the outcome, and thus making the Khilafah accomplices to the massacres. In 1847, Muslim forces massacred 30,000 members of the Assyrian Christian community. A good example of State complicity by the Khilafah in massacres of Christians begun by individual Muslims occurred in Lebanon and Syria in 1860, and which were only finally ended by the intervention of French forces: Languages Assyrian, Chaldean, Turoyo Religions Christianity Related ethnic groups other Semitic peoples Assyrians are an ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but who have migrated to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. ...

In Lebanon, from April to July, more than sixty villages of Al-Matn and Al-Shuf were burned to ashes by the Druze and Kurdish forces. The big towns then followed. The Ottoman garrison commander again offered the Maronite population asylum, as he had offered to the small villages, asking for the surrender of their arms and then slaughtering them in the local serai. Such was the fate of Dayr al-Qamar, which lost 2600 men; Jazzin and environs, where 1500 were slaughtered; Hasbayya, where 1000 of 6000 were cold bloodedly killed; Rashayya, where 800 perished. The orders for Hasbayya were that no male between seven and seventy years of age should be spared. Malicious eyes feasted on mangled, intermingled bodies of old and young in the courtyard of the Shihabi palace. Zahla, largest among the towns with 12000 inhabitants, held out for a short time and then succumbed under an attack by a host including fighters from Harwan and Bedouins from the desert. The town lay snugly in a deep ravine carved by the Bardawni flowing from the Mount Sannin. Hardly a house escaped the flames. The total loss of life within the span of three months and a space of a few miles was estimated at 12000. From Lebanon the spark of hate flew to Damascus and ignited a reservoir of Muslim ill-feeling generated by the policy of Ibrahim Pasha and the egalitarian provisions of Khatti Humayun. The Assyrian quarter was sent on fire and some 11000 of its inhabitants were put to the sword.^[3]

Many have alleged that the massacres of the Ottoman Empire were not distinctly Islamic in nature, and rather, were the cause of the rise of Turkish nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th century, however, there are distinctive Islamic overtones to the massacres the Turks engaged in against their Christian subjects. However, although the Young Turks had a distinctively nationalistic modus operandi they were also devout Muslims. As documented below in a speech made by Sheik Ab-dul-Hack:

Yes! The Musulman religion is in open hostility to all your world of progress. Understand, you European observers, that a Christian, whatever his position may be, by the mere fact of his being a Christian is regarded by us as a blind man lost to all sense of human dignity. Our reasoning with regard to him is as simple as it is definitive. We say: the man whose judgment is so perverted as to deny the existence of a one and only God, and to make up gods of different sorts, can only be the meanest expression of human degradation; to speak to him would be a humiliation for our intelligence and an insult to the grandeur of the Master of the Universe. The presence of such miscreants among us is the bane of our existence; their doctrine is a direct insult to the purity of our faith; contact with them is a defilement of our bodies; any relation with them a torture to our souls. Though detesting you, we have condescended to study your political institutions and your military organization. Over and above the new weapons that Providence procures for us through your agency, you have yourselves rekindled, the inextinguishable faith of our heroic martyrs. Our Young Turks, our Babis, our new Brotherhoods, all our sects, under various forms, are inspired by the same idea; the same necessity of moving forward. Towards what end? Christian civilization? Never! Islam is the one great international family. All true believers are brothers. A community of feeling and of faith binds them in mutual affection. It is for the Caliph to facilitate these relations and to rally the Faithful under the sacerdotal standard.

The role of the religious establishment in the massacres and genocide of the Armenians is also pointed out below, by an eyewitness account to one such massacre.

To save shell and powder, the gendarmerie commander in charge of this large convoy had gathered 10,000—12,000 Turkish peasants and other villagers, and armed with 'hatchets, meat cleavers, saddler's knives, cudgels, axes, pickaxes, shovels', the latter attacked and for some 4—5 hours mercilessly butchered the victims while crying 'Oh God, Oh God' (Allah, Allah). In a moment of rare candor, this gendarmerie commander confided to the priest—author, whom he did not expect to survive the mass murder, that after each massacre episode, he spread his little prayer rug and performed the namaz, the ritual of worship, centered on prayer, with a great sense of redemption in the service of Almighty God.^[4]

Historian Lord Kinross also points out the role of Islam in the Genocide of the Armenians and the role of local ordinary people as well as local Islamic religious establishment in the massacres:

It became their normal routine first to assemble the Moslem population in the largest mosque in a town, then to declare, in the name of the Sultan, that the Armenians were in general revolt with the aim of striking at Islam. Their Sultan enjoined them as good Moslems to defend their faith against these infidel rebels. He propounded the precept that under the holy law the property of rebels might be looted by believers, encouraging Moslems to enrich themselves in the name of their faith at the expense of their Christian neighbours, and in the event of resistance, to kill them. Hence, throughout Armenia, 'the attack of an ever increasing pack of wolves against sheep.'... Each operation, between the bugle calls, followed a similar pattern. First into a town there came the Turkish troops, for the purpose of massacre; then came the Kurdish irregulars and tribesmen for the purpose of plunder. Finally came the holocaust, by fire and destruction, which spread, with the pursuit of fugitives and mopping—up operations, throughout the lands and villages of the surrounding province. This murderous winter of 1895 thus saw the decimation of much of the Armenian population and the devastation of their property in some twenty districts of eastern Turkey. Often the massacres were timed for a Friday, when the Moslems were in their mosques and the myth was spread by the authorities that the Armenians conspired to slaughter them at prayer. Instead they were themselves slaughtered, when the Moslems emerged to forestall their design. The total number of victims was somewhere between fifty and a hundred thousand, allowing for those who died subsequently of wounds, disease, exposure, and starvation...In each of thirteen large towns the numbers of those dead ran well into four figures. In Erzurum, the bazaar of a thousand shops was looted and wrecked by the Moslems, while some three hundred Christians were buried the next day in a single massed grave...Cruelest and most ruinous of all were the massacres at Urfa, where the Armenian Christians numbered a third of the total population. Here in December 1895, after a two—months siege of their quarter, the leading Armenians assembled in their cathedral, where they drew up a statement requesting Turkish official protection. Promising this, the Turkish officer in charge surrounded the cathedral with troops. Then a large body of them, with a mob in their wake, rushed through the Armenian quarter, where they plundered all houses and slaughtered all adult males above a certain age. When a large group of young Armenians were brought before a sheikh, he had them thrown down on their backs and held by their hands and feet. Then, in the words of an observer, he recited verses of the Koran and 'cut their throats after the Mecca rite of sacrificing sheep.'...When the bugle blast ended the day's operations some three thousand refugees poured into the cathedral, hoping for sanctuary. But the next morning — a Sunday — a fanatical mob swarmed into the church in an orgy of slaughter, rifling its shrines will cries of 'Call upon Christ to prove Himself a greater prophet than Mohammed.' Then they amassed a large pile of straw matting, which they spread over the litter of the corpses and set alight with thirty cans of petroleum. The woodwork of the gallery where a crowd of women and children crouched, wailing in terror, caught fire, and all perished in the flames. Punctiliously, at three—thirty in the afternoon the bugle blew once more, and the Moslem officials proceeded around the Armenian quarter to proclaim that the massacres were over. They had wiped out 126 complete families, without a woman or a baby surviving, and the total casualties in the town, including those slaughtered in the cathedral, amounted to eight thousand dead.^[5]

Persecution of liberal and secular Muslims in South Asia

Many secular and liberal Kashmiris have been harassed and killed by Kashmiri Islamist militants, who consider them traitors. Several incidents are reported in which Kashmiri girls which did not wear a hijab were attacked with sulphuric acid.^[6][7] The list of South-Asian former Muslims against whom fatwas with a death sentence have been issued includes Taslima Nasreen and Salman Rushdie. Ahmadiyyas are persecuted by several Islamist groups, especially in Bangladesh^[8][9][10] and Pakistan.^[11][12] Persecution includes personal harassment, looting and burning of mosques and murder.^[13] Illustration of an Islamic headscarf “Higab” redirects here. ... Taslima Nasrin, also known as Taslima Nasreen, (born 25 August 1962 in Mymensingh, Bangladesh) is a writer. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... Ahmadi Muslims are followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. ...

Indian Muslim women are claimed to face discrimination because the Indian civil code for Muslims favors Muslim men above Muslim women.^{[14][15][original research?]}

Persecution of secularized Muslims in the West by Islamists

Secular and liberal Muslims living in Western countries report an increased repression by Islamist elements, at times even culminating in death threats. On rare occasions, women refusing to wear traditional Islamic clothes like the hijab or burqa suffer from intimidation and abuse. Disturbed by the position of immigrant women in French society, a group of Maghreb feminists began the campaign "ni putes, ni soumises", although they would be more than reluctant to speak of a so-called "historical persecution by Muslims" in France.^{[weasel words][citation needed]} Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. ... Illustration of an Islamic headscarf “Higab” redirects here. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissives) is a French feminist movement, founded in 2002, which has already secured the recognition of the French press and parliament. ...

Persecution of those converting away from Islam

Muhammad said that if anyone leaves Islam, he should be killed. ^[16] Muslims who convert to other religions face persecution in Muslim majority countries. An example of this is in Afghanistan where Abdul Rahman, who faced the death penalty for apostasy after he converted to Christianity [2]. Following significant pressure from external governments, the case was eventually dropped because of "technical and legal flaws". Abdul Rahman (Persian: ) (born 1965) is an Afghan citizen who was arrested in February 2006 and threatened with the death penalty for Apostasy from Islam when he converted to Christianity. ... Apostasy in Islam (Arabic: ارتداد, irtidād or ridda) is commonly defined as the rejection of Islam in word or deed by a person who has been a Muslim. ...

Forced conversion

Although it is widely acknowledged that most conversions to Islam were and are voluntary, there have been some instances where they were forced. In the recent open letter to the Pope^[17] even the scholars admit that "As with the rules of war, history shows that some Muslims have violated Islamic tenets concerning forced conversion and the treatment of other religious communities, but history also shows that these are by far the exception which proves the rule."

See also

• Historical persecution by Christians
• Criticism of Islam
• Persecution of Zoroastrians
• Allahdad incident - a group of Jews was forced to convert to Islam
• Arab slave trade
• Ottoman wars in Europe
• Conquests of Timur the Lame
• Ottoman Bulgaria
• Mongol-Tatar Yoke in Russia
• Jews under Muslim rule
• Batak massacre
• Chios massacre
• Siege of Antioch
• Ottoman conquests

Christians have at times persecuted non-Christians or adherents of other Christian denominations on the basis of conflicts in their religious beliefs. ... Criticism of Islam has existed since Islams formative stages on philosophical, scientific, ethical, political and theological grounds. ... The persecution of Zoroastrians has been common since the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the rule of Umayyad Arab empire that replaced it. ... The Allahdād incident (literally, God gave or Gods gift) refers to the mob attack of the Jews of Mashhad in the spring of 1839. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. ... The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe marked the better part of the history of southeastern Europe, notably, giving infamy to the Balkans. ... Statue of Timur in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas (Chagatai Turkic: تیمور - Tēmōr, iron) (1336 – February 1405) was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-Mongol descent[1][2][3][4], conqueror of much of Western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire (1370–1405... After falling almost entirely under Ottoman rule in the end of the 14th century, the Bulgarian state ceased to exist as an independent entity and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries until 1878. ... This is a list of the Mongol and Tatar military campaigns in Russia following the Mongol invasion of Rus: 1252: Horde of Nevruy devastated Pereslavl-Zalessky and Suzdal. ... This article deals with those Jewish communities indigenous to the Middle East. ... Batak massacre 1876 Batak massacre was a part of massacres of Christian civilians throughout Bulgaria in 1876 after the massacre of 300 Muslim villagers by Bulgarians. ... After the beginning of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, Turkish soldiers began the massacre of thousands of Greeks around the Ottoman Empire. ... In 1260 Baibars, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, began to threaten the crusader state of Antioch, which (as a vassal of the Armenians) had supported the Mongols, the traditional enemies of the Turks. ... Turkish Navy was once the largest sea power in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean; entering the history books of many countries in distant lands such as the British Isles, Iceland and Newfoundland in the west to India, Indonesia and Malaysia in the...

References

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since March 2007.

1. ^ Turkish Historical Society.
2. ^ Death of a Nation, pp. 111-112
3. ^ Death of a Nation, pg. 115
4. ^ Reverend K. Balakian, Hai Koghota (The Armenian Golgotha)
5. ^ Lord Kinross, Ottoman Centuries
6. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1484145.stm
7. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/08/29/india.veil/index.html
8. ^ http://religion.info/english/articles/article_179.shtml
9. ^ http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/06/26/d5062601033.htm
10. ^ http://in.news.yahoo.com/050719/139/5ze95.html
11. ^ http://www.thepersecution.org/case/case003.html
12. ^ http://www.southasia.net/article100.html
13. ^ http://hrw.org/reports/2005/bangladesh0605/
14. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4504889.stm
15. ^ http://www.indiatogether.org/2006/sep/wom-aimwplb.htm
16. ^
17. ^ http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=122619&Itemid=67&cattitle=Featured%20News

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

External links

• Shi'a account of Banu Nadir
• Muhammad’s Dead Poets Society