Innocent III Quotes
We decree that no Christian shall use violence to compel the Jews to accept baptism.
Innocent III, ~1160-1216, Roman Catholic Pope, Decree of 1199
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism under penalty of death. While the archbishop did not approve, he did not describe the murders in moral terms or used his great religious power to stop the practice.
See {586039} for a quotation that goes further and seeks to punish and humiliate the non believers. This sura is often used by those wishing to illustrate the intolerance of Islam—especially of other religions. They fail to put this into the context of the Old Testament which proscribed death for heretics or the history of Christianity regarding the murder of nonbelievers. The difference is however, that a very small proportion of Jews or Christians today believe in following Biblical instructions in this respect while the proportion of Muslims who believe in the literal interpretation of scripture on these points is much larger. However there are Islamic modernists and moderates throughout the world who reject this notion of warring on all other religions and there is a struggle going on within Islam itself.
This article was originally directed against non-Muslim religions who actively sought to convert Muslims. However, Islamic organizations, have also historically made their greatest inroads with the poor and ignorant members of a society. The madrassas of Pakistan, the activities of Hezbollah, in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza all have common characteristics with the Salvation Army where services are provided for the poor and often uneducated with the required participation in religious services, education and/or prayer. There are many Christian, Muslim, and other religious leaders who do not approve of such attempts at conversion, but there are forces within these same religions who not only take advantage of poverty and ignorance to convert but are almost exclusively devoted to that tactic. The Russian Orthodox Church had the same protest against Protestant sects targeting the poor after the fall of the Soviet Union. In general, most religions see nothing wrong with converting people in times of crisis, so long as they are doing the converting. But if another religion is converting their adherents, then it is a violation of human rights.
In the early stages of Islam, Muhammad had hoped to convert the Jews and others on the Arabian Peninsula. When they refused to be converted, he warred against them usually killing the men, and taking the women and children as slaves. The result was that non-believing tribes were “cleansed” from the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslims at the time preferred children as slaves. For then they could convert the children against their will. Adults in Islam must accept Islam in order to convert. Children are regarded as having no such maturity of decision making and therefore opposition to conversion may be ignored and they may be forced. Critics of Islam and those who argue that Islam is at odds with all other religions point to this quotation. They claim that it is the only religion whose founder and fundamental scriptures demand war against others for no other reason than that they believe in a different religion. The Catholic Church during the Crusades and the Inquisition had a similar philosophy as did Christian missionaries colonizing Africa later. One difference is that most Christians today repudiate the doctrine as against the true spirit and teachings of Christ and view it as historical error, while very few modern Muslims repudiate this quotation of the Prophet.
Henry of Navarre. The practice of kidnapping children from parents of the other faith and baptizing them was rampant.
Lopez and Elizer were Jews who had escaped the persecution in Portugal to come to America. They and other non-Christians could live and work in Rhode Island but could not vote or hold public office by a previous decision of the Rhode Island Assembly. See {619707}.The Jews had petitioned for their civil rights.
The Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians were allowed to maintain their own religion and live as 2nd class citizens and pay a special tax, but ALL other religions were to be forced to convert.
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus
It is this verse that for some Muslims justifies terrorism against non-Muslims. See {584354} for a specific example. There are similar provisions in the Old Testament which a few extremely conservative Jews and Christians have used to advocate for blasphemy being a capital crime. Note that if an unbeliever repents and becomes a Muslim, he should be spared.
The Koran is even more discriminatory regarding Jewish & Christian clerics: {584380}.
This sura has unfortunately been used by some Serbians and other Christians to justify ethnic cleansing against Muslims.
Pope Innocent III was the 176th Pope of the Catholic Church from 8 January 1198 to his death.
