Page 470 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

Jews and Christians. Whenever a disagreement arose
in later times, the People of the Book would point to
these treaties. For example, when the Christians of
Damishq had a problem, they showed their treaty to
Hazrat Umar, the caliph of the time, and requested a solu-
tion. This is a known fact appearing in history books.

• The text of a covenant of our Prophet (pbuh) with the Chris-
tian Ibn Harith ibn Ka'b and his people contains the passages;
"To Sayyid Ibn Harith ibn Ka'b, his co-religionists, and all those
who profess the Christian religion, be they in East or West, in
close regions or faraway regions, be they Arabs or foreigners,
known or unknown. … I commit myself to support them, to
place their persons under my protection, as well as their church-
es, chapels, oratories, the monasteries of their monks, the resi-
dences of their anchorites, wherever they are found, be they in
the mountains or the valleys, caves or inhabited regions, in the
plains or in the desert. I will protect their religion and their
Church wherever they are found, be it on earth or at sea, in the

West or in the East, with utmost vigilance on my part, the Peo-
ple of my House, and the Muslims as a whole. … No Christian
will be made Muslim by force: And dispute ye not with the Peo-
ple of the Book, except with means better (29:46). They must be
covered by the wing of mercy. Repel every harm that could
reach them wherever they may find themselves and in any
country in which they are."

• The charters given by our Prophet (pbuh) to the People of the
Book from Adruh, Makna, Khaybar, Najran and Aqaba' also
show that the lives and property of the People of the Book were
under the protection of Muslims and recognized their freedom
of belief and worship.

• When our Prophet (pbuh) first started preaching he first
encountered a number of Christians in Mecca. Indeed, one of

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