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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 23, 2026

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That's because Islam spreads by conquest, not by evangelism. They don't ask you nicely if you'd like to convert, they kill you if you don't.

The early Islamic conquests definitely didn't do that (unless you were pagan). Hence people of the book and all that. Most of the Middle East was Christian until the early modern period.

And places like Indonesia did convert by evangelism.

Christianity also spread this way throughout much of history. Germany, Spain, and South and Central America aren't Christian because of gentle proselytism.

Spain has been majority Christian since the Roman Empire; thé caliphate failed at converting the majority of the population.

It’s fair to see the inquisition as ethnic cleansing of the former occupying elite, but not mass conversions- because there simply weren’t a huge number of Muslims or Jews.

I dislike Islam as much as the next Christian, but Islam doesn't exclusively spread by conquest. For example its spread to Indonesia (the largest Islamic country in the world) was largely done through trade and evangelism.