Shaykh Shadee Elmasry elaborates on what distinguishes the muslim Arab conquests of the 7th century from the European Colonialism of the 15th century & the current day Zionist expansion that began in the 19th century:

• Not all conquests are the same

• Conquest is a part of life

• Expansion can be good

• In what way did you expand?

• How did you treat the people?

• Why are you expanding?

• Did you expand purely for material gain?

• If so, then that is not jihad

• What is the objective measure to test your intention?

• What did you do to people’s homes?

• Did you steal their homes and property?

• The Sahaba never stole people’s homes

• Did you destroy the infrastructure of the nation?

• Did you repatriate the people in some capacity?

• Look at the generations that came after the Sahaba

• They remained committed Muslims

• If their rule was so evil and brutal, why didn’t the succeeding generations renounce Islam?

• Can you imagine vast amounts of Palestinians wanting to be Zionists and passing it down to their children? No

• Check out the work of Professor Richard W. Bulliet

• He analyzed how Islam spread

• Muslims conquered areas and let people be

• They respected property rights

• They collected the jizya (military exemption tax)

• Non-Muslim men could serve in the military if they didn’t want to pay the jizya

• Women, children, and religious leaders were exempt from jizya

• Jizya was generally lower than the 2.5% zakat alms Muslims had to pay on excess savings held for a year

• It took 300 years for Egypt to become 50% Muslim

• It took 500 years for Syria to become 50% Muslim

• Andalusia (Spain) never achieved a Muslim majority

• This highlights that conversion to Islam was a slow organic process and not an instant “at the point of a sword” forced conversion some people like to claim

• Some Christians project their own history of conquest onto Islam