Through Force or Faith? — Page 18
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 18 Sir William Muir (although a quite biased [orientalist] who has written many wrong things too) writes: We may freely concede that it banished for ever many of the darker elements of superstition which had for ages shrouded the Peninsula. Idolatry vanished before the bat- tle-cry of Islam; the doctrine of the unity and infinite per- fections of God, and of a special all-pervading Providence, became a living principle in the hearts and lives of the followers of Mahomet, even as it had in his own. An absolute surrender and submission to the divine will (the very name of Islam ) was demanded as the first require- ment of the religion. Nor are social virtues wanting, and Mahometanism may boast of a degree of temperance unknown to any other creed. ( The Life of Mahomet, vol. 4, by Sir William Muir, pp. 320–321, published in 1861 by Smith, Elder, & Co. , London) Edward Gibbon writes: His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happi- ness is the last consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that he assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revelations, the virtues and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of God; the blood of human