Page 307 - A Call for a Turkish-Islamic Union

Harun Yahya - Adnan Oktar

was even less than that exacted by the old, and the conquered
could now pursue their religious practices with more freedom
and less interference. 37

According to Princeton scholar and author Samuel Moffet:
Under the patriarchal caliphs and all through the turbulent
years of the civil wars, apart from the killings and horrors to
be expected in any war, treatment of Christians in the [Muslim]
conquered territories of Persia and Byzantine Syria proved to
be remarkably generous. 38
When examining their social and religious lives under
Islamic rule, the following picture emerges:
On Islamic territory, true freedom of religion existed. No

one was forced to change his or her religion, and communities
that rebelled and came back later under the authority of Islam
were given the same rights as before. The Islamic authority, save
for a few exceptions, never intervened in the election of patri-
archs or the appointment of religious authority, and guaranteed
not to intervene by signing various agreements. These communi-
ties continued to speak their own languages in their private lives

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