DOES ISLAM
TOLERATE OTHER BELIEFS?
The Quran says: God forbids you not,
with regards to those who fight you not for [your] faith nor drive you out of
your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them; for God loveth those who
are just. (Quran, 60-8)
It is one function of Islamic law
to protect the privileged status of minorities, and this is why non-Muslim
places of worship have flourished all over the Islamic world. History provides
many examples of Muslim tolerance towards other faiths: when the caliph Omar
entered Jerusalem in the year 634, Islam granted freedom of worship to all
religious communities in the city.
Islamic law also permits
non-Muslim minorities to set up their own courts, which implement family laws
drawn up by the minorities themselves.
The Patriarch invited him
to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but he preferred to pray outside
its gates, saying that if he accepted, later generations of Muslims might use
his action as an excuse to turn it into a mosque. Above is the mosque built on
the spot where Omar did pray
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