Guest Author - Serkan Tufan

Every time we hear the word Islam, some really marginal words came with it especially in the last couple of years. Also there is a massive interest in Islam and when people search about Islam or get to know muslim people themselves, they are shocked to say: I had no idea this was such a beautiful, loving and articulate belief system.

Most of the negative remarks come with media and really absurd examples and pictures that I have even no idea where they come from. Yet, I understand the people who have rather misconceptions about Islam since they are really led by media and negative sources to believe that there is this utophic religion of violence.

In this article, I want to take you to the golden age of Islam and how Islam governments treated other religions and other peoples in their time.

Islam history started with the divine revelations to Prophet Muhammad in Mekke (Mecca) in Arabian Peninsula in around 611 A.C. After 13 years, Prophet Muhammad and believers with him were forced to leave Mekke, then they migrated ot Medina, where the first Islam state and Islam community life established. There Muslims were the majority and Jews were another smaller community, followed by the Christians in less numbers. As the perfect example for humanity, Prophet Muhammad, first made an aggreement with Jews that declared their safety and ultimate rights to be protected by Muslims.

Indeed, Jews and Christians were named Ehl-i Kitab (the people of the testaments) as the followers of Abraham religion along with Muslims and they were considered as "believers" altogether in Medina document signed. In the Quran also, the Christians were mentioned as :