Was Islam spread by the sword?
No.
For example:
Spread of Islam in
Chile: [1]
The statistics for
Islam in Chile estimate a total
Muslim population of approximately 4,000, representing less than 0.1% of the population.
[1] There are a number of Islamic organizations in
Chile, including the "Muslim Society of Chile and As-Salam
Mosque" (
Spanish:
Sociedad Musulmana de Chile y Mezquita As-Salam) in
Santiago, Chile, "Bilal
Mosque"(
Mezquita Bilal) in
Iquique, and the "Mohammed VI Cultural Center" (
Centro Cultural Mohammed VI) in
Coquimbo, the
Community Islam Sunni Chile (Comunidad Islam Sunni Chile) and the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Chile, which was established in 2011,
[2]
A mosque in Coquimbo.
History[edit]
According to
Chronicles of the History of Chile by Aurelio Díaz Meza, there was a man in the expedition of discoverer
Diego de Almagro, called Pedro de Gasco who was a
morisco, or Muslim from
Spain who was forced to convert from Islam to
Catholicism. The coming of
moriscos was covered by history but, recently scholars of Chilean history have started acknowledging the country's Moorish heritage and its effects on the development of Chilean culture and identity.
It is known that in 1854 two “Turks” resided in the country, a situation that was repeated in the censuses of 1865 and 1875. Their country of origin is not known, just that they were natives of some territory of the immense Ottoman Empire, and this was followed two years later by the first major wave of Muslims to Chile began in 1856, with the arrival of
Arab immigrants from the
Ottoman Empire territories consisting of today's
Syria,
Lebanon and
Palestine.
According to the 1885 census, the number of “Turks” had risen to 29, but there is no precise information on their origin and their faith, since religion was not included in that census. However, the census of 1895 registered the presence of 76 “Turks”, 58 of them Muslims, who were primarily concentrated in the north of Chile in
Tarapacá,
Atacama,
Valparaiso, and
Santiago. In the census of 1907, the Muslim population was reported to have increased to 1,498 people, all of them foreigners. They were 1,183 men and 315 women, representing only 0.04 percent of the population, although this was recorded as the highest percentage of Muslims in
Chile’s history.
[3] In 1920 a new census showed that the number of Muslims had decreased to 402, with 343 men and 59 women. The greatest numbers were in Santiago and Antofagasta, with 76 in each province. The latest census figures from 2002 found a total of 2,894 Muslims living in Chile (0.03% of the population over 15), 66% of whom were men. The previous census of 1992 did not include Islam as an alternative.
In Santiago, the first Islamic institution of Chile, the Society of Muslim Union of Chile (Sociedad Unión Musulmana), was founded on 25 September 1926. Later, on 16 October 1927, the Society of Mutual Aids and Islamic Charity was established. With the 1952 census, the number of Muslims had risen again to 956. The majority lived in Santiago, with the rest of the population scattered in the provinces of
Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaíso,
O'Higgins,
Concepción,
Malleco,
Cautín and
Valdivia, without much organization among them. Their numbers decreased again, so that by 1960 there were only 522, with the majority of 209 living in Santiago. A decade later, the number of Muslims had increased to 1,431. However, the census did not indicate whether they were men or women, nationals or foreigners. Nevertheless, they were spread throughout the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Chile
Country/Region:
Chile
Muslim population 2010 Pew Report
[1]:4,000
Muslim percentage (%) of total population 2010 Pew Report
[1] :< 0.1
Percentage (%) of World Muslim population 2010 Pew Report
[1] :< 0.1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country
I don't see any sword in spread of Islam in
Chile . Do you see any?
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Regards
) and columbia university texts when it makes these claims, can you point me to more accurate and reliable sources?