Through Force or Faith? — Page 287
Chapter 7 — Novelty in the Teachings of Muhammad 287 surrenders, place all of them under your tribute and to serve you (Deuteronomy 20:11). After conquering cities, and receiving them as an inheritance, ‘you shall leave nothing that breaths remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them’ (Deuteronomy 20:16), and to take away all their possessions (1 Samuel 27:7-11). And if people of any city leave the religion of the people of the Bible, that is they apostate, then ‘you shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword; and you shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit’ (Deuteronomy 13). In 1 Samuel 15:3, teaching is specific; ‘spare them not; but slay man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. ’ When you enter victoriously in to the Promised Land, you should not make any covenant with, or show mercy unto them; utterly destroy them; you should destroy their altars ’ (Deuteronomy 7). Whereas Islam says not to even revile the gods of other people ( S u rah al-An‘ ā m , 6:109); and it guarantees the sanctity of their places of worship ( S u rah al- H ajj, 22:41). This is the difference that exists between the religion brought by the Holy Prophet and other religions.