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The Quran
says: God forbids you not, with regards to those who fight you not
for
[your]
faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and
justly with them; for God
loved those who are just. (Quran, 60:8) It is one function of
Islamic law to protect the
privileged status of minorities, and this is why non-Muslim places
of worship have
flourished all over the Islamic world.
History provides many examples of Muslim
tolerance towards other faiths: when the caliph Omar entered
Jerusalem in the year 634,
Islam granted freedom of worship to all religious communities in
the city. Islamic law
also permits non-Muslim minorities to set up their own courts,
which implement
family laws drawn up by the minorities themselves. ABOVE: Mosque of
Omar and
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. When the caliph Omar took
Jerusalem from the
Byzantines, he insisted on entering the city with only a small
number of his
companions. Proclaiming to the inhabitants that their lives and
property were safe, and
that
their places of worship would never be taken from them, he asked
the Christian
patriarch Sophronius to accompany him on a visit to all the holy
places.
The Patriarch
invited him to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but he
preferred to pray outside its
gates, saying that if he accepted, later generations of Muslims
might use his action as
an excuse to turn it into a mosque. Above is the mosque built on
the spot where
Omar
did pray. RIGHT: According to Islam, man is not born in 'original
sin'. He is God's
vicegerent on earth. Every child is born with the fitra, an innate
disposition towards
virtue, knowledge, and beauty. Islam considers itself to be the
'primordial religion', din
al-hanif,
it seeks to return man to his original, true nature in which he is
in harmony with
creation, inspired to do good, and confirming the Oneness of God.
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