If you’ve ever wondered about the real roots of Islam or whether Islam is the religion of peace the liberal Western media portrays it to be or whether Muhammad is a moral role-model for the modern man, then this article is for you. Below is an abstract of the paper I’ve written in the recently published book Christian Apologetics to Islam, Course Book 2. To read the full article click the highlighted title (The Politico-Religious Catalyst to the Early Islamic Conquests) at the bottom of this post.
ABSTRACT
Most modern, Westernized Muslims (as well as many well-meaning Americans) believe that Islam is a religion of peace. However, the most reliable scholarly evidence testifies to a more grim reality. There is an important epistemic distinction that people must make to better understand the misguided belief that Islam was not spread by the sword: psychological certainty (PC) vs. evidential certainty (EC). Modern-minded Muslims (who take PC for granted and thus do not question their motives or the textual evidence), will continue to naively believe via their culture and psychological willpower that Muslims throughout history have wielded the sword only in self-defense. Conversely, pre-modern-minded Muslims (who examine and testify to the veracity of the scholarly evidence via EC) are warranted in believing that militant, “offensive jihad” was the means that justified the early Islamic conquests.
The Politico-Religious Catalyst to the Early Islamic Conquests