Minorities in an Islamic State — Page 73
73 fortune from you; if you desist not, we will certainly stone you, and a painful punishment will surely befall you at our hands'. They replied, 'Your evil fortune is with your own selves. Is it because you have been admonished? Nay, you are a people transgressing all bounds". (36:14-20) All these verses and the examples from the life of the Holy Prophet sa related in the foregoing pages, clearly prove that contrary to the beliefs of certain so-called Muslim Ulema and critics of Islam, it not only grants to the non-Muslims the freedom to preach and convey the message of their faith but also encourages the holding of religious dialogues between the adherents of different religions. The only restriction imposed by Islam is that such debates should be held in an atmos- phere of good-fellowship and should be conducted in a positive and constructive manner. The fact of the matter is that only that religious community fears to allow other peoples to preach their faith which, either realizing the weaknesses and unreasonableness of its own religion tacitly acknowledges the superiority of other faiths, or whose elders, ignoring their duty to teach their people in the fundamentals of their faith, leave them ignorant of their own religion, so that when attacked by others, knowing nothing about their own beliefs, they have to