A historical perspective

When Islam came into existence in the Arab world, people were poor, consumerist, greedy, and idol worshiper. Condition of widows, orphans and weaker sections of society was pathetic (Dinkar, 2009). Gambling, superstitions, lose sexual norms, drunkenness and prostitution characterized society. Sometimes Christian and Jew preachers went there and tried to civilize them but their impact was marginal. Prophet Mohammad gave them a simple and ethical religion with which they could live virtuously and harmoniously. He fought vehemently against idol worship as well as the idea that God can have progeny. Eventually, the new religion developed into a strong political and religious organization and its leaders were called Khalifas. The Khalifas were both Islam’s political and religious heads. Islam saved people from superstitions, anarchy and exploitation.

There is some evidence that wherever the Arab invaders went they were welcomed because the people were terrorized either under the corrupt rule of Romans, under the Iranian autocrats, or the blind faith of Christianity. They were looking for an alternative. The case of Indian invasions was different. Indians lived quite peacefully with a developed and plural civilization. In India Islam was spread by Muslim invaders through proselytization (Madan, 1997) and often by creating terror among the local people. At the same time, it cannot be denied that several people converted to Islam also because of its stress on equality, preaching of fraternity, monotheism, and latter under Sufis who preached love and humanism. It may also be said that much before the entry of Mohammad bin Kasim in Sindh, in 712 AD, Islam had entered the west coast of India in 636 AD through the Arab traders. Moplas had converted to Islam on their own without any fear or coercion. Malabar’s king Cheraman Perumal had himself adopted Islam he facilitated religious conversions by the Arab traders (Dinkar, 2009).