Muslims were tolerant conquerors for the time-period, but there
was no concept of equal rights (especially since the concept of
"rights" did not exist until the Enlightenment in Europe).
Non-Muslims, called Dhimmi in Moslem-ruled state, lived in Muslim
territories at the will of the sovereign.
Purely in terms of respecting the ideas of Judaism and
Christianity, the Muslims were very tolerant and extolled the
virtues of those faiths in addition to decrying them as corrupted.
However, respect for a religion is abstract, but respect for
practitioners is not.
The Dhimmi had to to the jizya, or tax for not believing in
Islam. Dhimmi also had to pay additional taxes on land-holdings and
these taxes where called kharaj. In addition, Dhimmi could not sell
wine or pork in the public marketplace. They were not allowed to
build new places of worship, restore old places of worship, or
perform any act which could be viewed as proselytization. In many
jurisdictions, a Dhimmi could not trust law enforcement to protect
him, a judge to accept his testimony (especially against a Muslim),
and in certain cases had their children stolen by Islamic rulers to
be raised as Muslims (most commonly in the Ottoman Empire's
devshirme system). The Dhimmi was a humiliated second-class
citizen.
Muslims argue that the taxes that the Dhimmi were compelled to
pay are similar to Alms or Zakat in Islam. However, Moslems pay the
Zakat as an act of faith and belief in the same way that Christians
paid tithes to the Church in the Middle Ages. Paying the Zakat is a
privilege and an honor and a pillar of faith. Paying the jizya and
the kharaj are forms of repression. The money expended by each
party is irrelevant, it is the purpose behind the tax that is
important.