The rise of Islam

[Steve]

I want to look at the rise of Islam from a geopolitical point of view. Much of the history of the area currently known as the Middle east has been turbulent for centuries with different empires(so to speak) competing with each other for influence. I understand that area is strategically very IMPORTANT because it sits in the middle of trade routes between the east and the west. I don't know much about the way 'the great games' were played back in the sixth and seventh century when Islam was born. All I know is that Christian Byzantine empire was dominant in the easter Mediterranean region around the time.

Now the question is that the Byzantine empire definitely had to be interested in extending it's sphere of influence further south all the way to the Arabian sea. That would have given it the control of trade routes from the Arabian sea all the way to China , India to name a few. Do you think Islam was possibly the BANNER under which the Arabs back then rallied to resist that southward Byzantine push. If it is the case, they were very successful. Nothing else explains the meteoric rise of Islam which conquered most of the known world in less than two centuries. Not to mention that they eventually conquered their would be master, the Byzantium empire itself.

 

I haven't studied Islamic history and I wasn't born in an Islamic family myself. But when I think about geopolitics, my conclusion is that the birth of the Islamic empire had to have something to do with it. My conclusion is that Islam was no accident, but a product of resistance, of geopolitical reality. What do you think?

 

[Daacuud]

Steve, if you want to know more about islam, go to the University of Southern California and search the Muslim Student Association webpage. I believe it is

 

http://www.usc.edu/msa

 

 

[unixguru]

I guess that is one way of looking at it...But to really understand Islam you must not look at it as a police or military force but as a spiritual force.

 

Islam is not about nations and empires, Islam is about the individual.

 

 

[MinneapolisKID]

Islam is from Allah, and not an accident. Steve, please seek some SHEIKHS to talk to. You are totally misguided.

[Yusufaddie]

If you studied the byzantine history you would no that n one was interested in Arabia at all. they dared not enter into arabia just because the arabs were looked at as a desolate peopl. Arabia served no interest in the so called civilised world at that time. Islam spread through out the world becauseof the values that it teaches and its simplicity to adopt. islam teaches honesty in a way one has never known. I don't expect you to understand what i mean because today we have thought our minds to not believe that a utopia can exist so to many islam is a fanatical way of life, "it is a dream and not reality" i must say this, a person who thinks this then verily they have walked away from the river.

Think of islam steve as the movie,"MATRIX" we believe we are living a good life but if we wake up , in islam, we soon realise what really is going on.

[Pig]

I agree with you Steve.