The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c8.s1.6

c8.s1.6

The fundamental basis of the Islamic polity is the attainment of complete religious uniformity, to root out heresy and to extirpate infidelity - populations everywhere were to be converted into true believers.¹⁷ The Quranic injuction is: And when the sacred months (*Ramzan*) are passed, kill those who join other deities with God, wherever you shall find them. But if they shall convert then let them go their way.¹⁸ The prophet of Islam who had accorded some sort of religious toleration to the Jews of Medina, expelled them afterward to bring about a complete religious uniformity in that city, while Caliph Omar I (C.E. 634-644) expelled the Jews and Christians from the whole of Arabia.¹⁹