Why did Muslim rulers allow christians and Jews to practice their faith?

Answer 1

Answer 1

All of them because if the caliphs killed all of them or forced them to convert there would be more Muslims than Christians and Jews.

Answer 2

Islamic Law permits Jews and Christians to live in Islamic Empires in a lower position according to Surah 9:29 of the Qur'an:

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled."

Muslims allowed Jews and Christians to live in Islamic Empires according to the provisions of 9:29. They were forced to pay the Jizyah Tax to Muslims and found themselves in a "humbled" position. However, they were allowed to continue their non-Muslim belief and were "protected", leading to them being called the Dhimmi.

In addition to the Jizyah tax, the taxes included the kharaj, which was a tax on non-Muslim land-holdings in the Muslim World. The kharaj was so untenable that most Dhimmi were forced to live in the cities where the tax would not be applicable. On paper, a Christian or Jew could testify against a Muslim, but in reality, such testimony was not acceptable and the attempt to defame a Muslim would receive retribution. Christians and Jews were not allowed to build new houses of worship, restore old houses of worship, proselytize in any way (this included religious debate or dialogue), or allow wine or pigs to be shown in public.

This humiliated class would serve to show that Muslims were better and superior people. They were not "humbled" like the Jews and Christians. Additionally, it created a tax base that allowed Muslims to be mostly tax-free except for the Zakat. It also provided incentives to conversion towards Islam, so that the Caliphs would not have to expend military efforts to forcibly convert people in anger, but allow them to make a rational choice to improve their citizenship status.

As for Answer 1, his logic is nonsensical. There are significantly fewer Jews than Muslims (14 million vs. 1,660 million) and the majority of Christians were never under Islamic Caliphs, which is one of the reasons that they exist in such large numbers. Jewish and Christian communities under the Islamic Caliphates shrank as we would expect. It is also interesting to note that in Muslim-majority countries, it is often the case that 90+% of the people identify as Muslim, whereas almost no Christian-majority country are the numbers so skewed.

Answer 2

They follow Islam teachings that no compulsion in religion. In addition Muslims call Christians and Jews people of the book because they are holders of the God holy books Torah and The Bible that Muslims also believe that they are God holy books.