I. Introduction
    The question of Islam’s relationship with other religions of the world carries a significance that needs no elaboration. Shortened frontiers, enhanced communication and increased interaction in this present era have only magnified the importance of this issue. Indeed, the past fourteen centuries of co-inhabitation with other religions has greatly influenced world history and the shaping of global geographic boundaries.
    The general opinion of Muslim scholars on this matter is based on the premise that Islam is the final truth and therefore only Islam has the right to rule in this world; non-Muslims better be aware of this or else they will have to face animosity and hostility from Muslims. Peaceful co-existence is something which generally finds mention in the Muslim view where they are in power and people of other religions live in subservience to Muslims. Jeffrey Lang, professor of Mathematics at the Kansas University, who converted to Islam in the early eighties, vividly records this typical Muslim mindset in the following words:
‘I’m sure you know that it’s incumbent on Muslims living in the United States to work and struggle and, if necessary, to fight to establish an Islamic state here’, said the dean of the Middle Eastern University, aware that tradition and scholarship were on his side.

‘My idea of what makes a state Islamic might be very different from yours’, I answered. ‘Do you, for example, feel that your country is an Islamic state?’

‘Of course it’s not perfect’, he offered. ‘But we’re free to practice our faith and most of the Shari‘ah is enforced’.

‘But what if we’re already free to practice our rituals here and to influence the laws and government through democracy?’

‘But democracy recognizes the will of the majority, while an Islamic state gives final authority to God as revealed in the Qur’an and teachings of the Prophet!’

‘Might not the two converge in a society where the majority are committed to the viewpoint that God is the supreme authority and Muhammad is His Prophet? If the majority is not so committed, then what purpose is served by declaring an Islamic state or a state religion?’

‘What you’re advocating is secularism!’1

    A little deliberation shows that Muslim scholars base their view on what transpired in Arabia fourteen hundred years ago when Muhammad (sws) the last of the Messengers of Allah led a long struggle against the exponents of Kufr (denial of the truth). Many verses of the Qur’an and certain Ahadith which record and depict this struggle apparently ask the believers to be hostile to non-Muslims. There are directives like severing ties with non-Muslims and cursing them in prayer. Some Qur’anic verses and Ahadith even ask the believers to put to death non-Muslims. As Rev. Stephene puts it:
In the Qur’an, the Mussulman is absolutely and positively commanded to make war upon all those who decline to acknowledge the Prophet until they submit, or, in the case of Jews and Christians, purchase exemption from the conformity by the payment of tribute. The mission of the Mussulman, as declared in the Qur’an, is distinctly aggressive. We might say that Mahomet bequeathed to his disciples a roving commission to propagate his faith by the employment of force where persuasion failed. ‘O Prophet, fight for the religion of God’ – ‘Stir up the faithful to war,’ such are commands which Mahomet believed to be given to him by God. ‘Fight against them who believe not in God, nor the last day’, ‘attack the idolatrous in all the months’, such are his own exhortations to his disciples.2
    So the conclusion is simple. Muslims must follow what is written in their Holy book and what is ascribed to their Prophet (sws).
 

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1. Jeffrey Lang, Struggling to Surrender, 2nd ed., (Beltsville: Amana Publications, 1995), p. 190
2. Rev. W.R.W. Stephene, Christianity and Islam; The Bible and the Qur’an, 1st ed., (London, 1877), pp. 141-2