Page 156 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

154 Islam Denounces Terrorism

the pilgrims by force or cunning, and lavishly distributed it
samong the needy. So great was the contrast between the kind
treatment the pilgrims received from [them] . and the cruelty
of their fellow-Christians, the Greeks, who imposed forced
labour upon them, beat them, and robbed them of what little
they had left, that many of them voluntarily embraced the
faith of their deliverers. As the old chronicler [Odo de Diogilo]

says: "Avoiding their co-religionists who had been so cruel to
them, they went in safety among the infidels who had com-
passion upon them, and, as we heard, more than three thou-
sand joined themselves to the Turks when they retired." 11

These statements by historians reveal that Muslim administrators
who truly adopted the morality of Islam always ruled with compas-
sion and justice. Likewise, the history of the Ottoman Empire which
ruled lands on three continents for centuries abounds with examples
of justice.

The way the Jews settled in Ottoman lands during the time of Sul-
tan Beyazid II, after being subjected to massacre and exile in the
Catholic kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, is a fine example of the
compassion that Islamic morality brings with it. The Catholic mon-
archs who ruled much of Spain at the time brought grave pressure to

bear on the Jews who had formerly lived in peace under Muslim rule
in Andalusia. While Muslims, Christians and Jews were able to live
side by side in peace in Andalusia, the Catholic monarchs tried to
force the whole country to become Christian, and declared war on the
Muslims while oppressing the Jews. As a result, the last Muslim ruler
in the Granada region of southern Spain was overthrown in 1492.
Muslims were subjected to terrible slaughter, and those Jews who

refused to change their religion were sent into exile.
One group of these Jews without a homeland sought shelter in
the Ottoman Empire, and the state allowed them to do so. The