Hi, this week's class is about a primer on Islam. And let me just explain a little bit why I do this unit. I think if you're studying the modern terrorism and Al-Qaeda, 9/11, Islamic fundamentalism. I really think it's important to understand a little bit about basic facts about Islam and Muslims and what Islam is and what it is not. I really realized this as I started teaching my classes that just diving into Al-Qaeda without at least a little bit of background. Now the topics that we're going to discuss in this series of conversations is things that people could study their entire life. The history of Islam, theology, some of the controversial issues relating to passages in the Quran or discrimination against Muslim-Americans. Nonetheless, we're going to do the best we can in the short amount of time that we have. And again, this is something to stimulate you to go and learn more. So we can't cover these topics comprehensively, but we're going to start your education, your thinking about these topics this week. And I am so fortunate to have with me to help in this endeavor my good friend and colleague Imam Abdullah Antepli. I'm going to provide a link to Abdullah Antepli's biography on our course site. So I'm not going to go through all of the distinguished qualifications- >> Thank you. >> Just to say that he is the first Muslim Chaplain at Duke University. He has a very distinguished career and is well known throughout the world and, especially, here at Duke for his wisdom and sensitivity and we're very, very glad to have you in our force. Thank you very much, glad to be here David. It's a great opportunity. >> Okay, well, let's dive into it then. >> Sure. >> I'd like this first section just really to give people a brief sense of the history of Islam. The birth of Islam in the seventh century, Christianity had been going for 600 years or so. Judaism being practiced in the same region of the world for thousands of years- >> For thousands of years, yes. >> We don't know exactly, but we can make estimates. Why did Islam arise? Was it filling a gap? What happened that led to the rise of Islam at this period in history do you think? >> I'm glad we are starting at the history. Because you will never try to understand Islam as religion today. A theology, a belief system today or the Muslims, 1.7 billion people today, unless what kind of history gave birth to the present day situation. Unfortunately all conversations about Islam and Muslims as religion and people, the historical aspect, the 1,400 years of civilization, rise and decline of Islam has been over grossly neglected. I'm glad we're starting on the history. I think Islam flourished, there could be millions of different answers to this question, I guess we will never know for sure. It was combination of Islam's creativity in locating itself in a Judeo-Christian home. Islam never claimed to be a new religion. Islam never claimed to be a distinct religion, like Mohammed never created a new club per se. Everything in its theology, as that theology manifests itself in the human experience in the early 7th century, it was so familiar to Jews and Christians. For the most part, when Islam was spreading in the Christian Middle East and North Africa. For many Christians, Islam and Muslims were another Christian heresy. It appeared like a Christian heresy. I know in the 21st century things are very polarized, and Christians and Muslims look so different. But it wasn't as polarized, as distinct, as different 1400 years ago. So it came as a familiar message. It came as something similar, theologically speaking, but with some new inventions. Islam sort of very quickly, the new theology, this new religion gave dynamism to Arab culture, the Persian culture, that they quickly adopted local traditions and cultures. They introduced new institutions such as religious minorities, their rights. Ruling the country as a hegemony power, but at the same time, respecting other religious communities to have their own accords and their houses of worship. This was unheard of, once you assume the power. So, it came as more acceptable. And also, historically speaking, the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire, they were going through major power vacuum that Muslims were able to fill that power gap, with a much more dynamic, inclusive and pluralistic approach. >> So when you think about the history of Islam, it spread so rapidly- >> Right. >> In it's early centuries. And then by the middle ages had spread literally thousands of miles around the globe as far as South East Asia and north into Spain, a span of North Africa throughout the Middle East, the Indian Continent. Again, why was Islam so successful in spreading across these various cultures of these various languages, the whole spread of that part of the world? >> If you look at the spread of civilizations and ideas, usually there are few things behind them. Economic power, industrial power, technological power and also ideological richness. When people feel they're superior throughout the history. Muslims very quickly observed the Greek philosophy. They really swallowed and digested the Persian culture and civilization. Arabs who were nomads, who were not urban people but quickly adapted to urban civilizations of the local areas. And I think that gave them kind of a motivation to just take this round and expand the borders of Islam. It could be explained theologically there was an internal drive to take this new religion to every possible places, but the fact that they could do that also shows that very quickly they equipped themselves with the economic, technological, industrial, trade related superiority, that they could have taken their religion all around. >> Some critics say well, Islam spread by the sword. >> [LAUGH] >> Do you think that would be possible in that to have accomplished that in such a massive span of territory. >> I don't think this is neither possible nor could be proven in any scholarly and scientific way. If Islam could have been spread by just solely sword, like the Mongolians. Like Mongolian invasion, and Mongolian spread, it's purely sheer power of destruction. If you look at the way in which the Mongolians have spread, and the kind of destruction that they caused. But if you look at the way in which Islam spread, with its civilization as it's like a snowball bringing new ideas, new art, new architecture and also respecting the minorities in that area, that alone itself disproves that. No, that's not the case absolutely. Because, for example out of 1.7 billion people today lives in South Asia and South East Asia. More than half of the Muslims live in the areas where Muslim armies never went. It was through trade, it was through peaceful means that Islam spread in those part of the world.
