Page 48 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

Seeing that the Muslims were not fighting back, the Quraysh
stepped up their aggression and tortures. The Quraysh in question
were now martyring Muslims the moment they saw them.

As the persecution worsened, the Muslims, who did not
respond to it in any way and did not even defend themselves since
the Qur'an prohibits the shedding of blood, found themselves unable
to remain in Mecca any longer. That meant they had to migrate to

Medina.

The Medinan Period and the Battles

As the idolaters' attacks grew in severity in Mecca, the Muslims
migrated to the city of Yathrib (later known as Medina), where the
climate was freer and friendlier, and set up their own administration
there. Yet even after they established their own political structures,

the attacks by the pagans of Mecca did not come to an end. The
Quraysh followed the Muslims and persisted in violent attacks
against them. But our Prophet (pbuh) and the Muslims around him
never embarked on a battle against the idolaters.

No person, community or country in the world will fail to
respond if they are attacked. They will always respond to the aggres-
sor in "self-defense" and at the very least, take defensive action. Peo-

ple who engage in self-defense are invariably exonerated by the
courts, and countries that do so are exonerated under international
law because they have been subjected to an unjust attack, and peo-
ple's lives, families and loved ones, or countries' peoples, lands and
honor are endangered.

That also applied to our Prophet (pbuh) and Muslims in the
Meccan period. Yet despite all the unjust and murderous attacks on

them, our Prophet (pbuh) and the Muslims never counter-attacked

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