Fine comparisons you are trying to make, Islamic tyrannies of yesteryear (which by the way, any self-respecting scholar of Islamic jurisprudence will tell you were naught but woeful misuse of faith for personal/familial goals), or middle ages to be more precise, and the United States of America. You sir, are in the wrong field, on an Albanian tractor. A couple thousand clicks deep...Show me ONE country with a majority muslim population that collects tax from people of other faiths, please do so, as you have steered the conversation into some absurdist comparisons...
If you want to compare righteously, compare the Moors to their successors and the Spanish kingdom. I'm sure you know how benevolent their conquistadors were in central America :)
As for the Ottomans, you can plainly compare them to the multitude of feudal kingdoms of Europe of the time, all of which answered to the will of the Vatican.
Let me tell you also, that I, coming from regions of what once was that same Ottoman empire, have no love for them whatsoever. My people were subjugated to them for a good 400 or so years. But during that time, while not only monetary tax was collected but blood tax as well (the culling of young boys from non-muslim villages who would be sent to Istanbul to be trained as Janissaries, the Ottoman infantry elite), at the very least they didn't declare crusades on a whim and proclaim people as heathens whose flesh is legal game to the brave executors of the Pope, thereby wiping out entire peoples as they saw fit, whenever rulers of Papal design were not instated or the tax to Vatican left unpaid. The Ottomans were in effect, not much different from other European royals. Many an Ottoman vizier, bey, pasha, princess were of descent other than that of the Ottoman Turks. They had their ignoble practices and their instruments of repression, like any tyrannical empire of the time before democracy even existed as a far fetched idea...to be honest, for an empire to be truly Islamic, the people must approve their ruler (Caliph), if you do a little research, you will find out that ever since the first four righteous caliphs after Muhammad's passing, this fundamental rule has never been observed.
This was the ways of the feudal age of Europe and the Middle East. I am sure you know Christianity well enough to be aware of the fact that the Catholic church did not always act as prescribed by Scripture. Neither did the Muslim empires follow the orders of the Qur'an as much as they should or indeed could have...Great were the sins committed in the name of God, and greater will be committed too the way things are going. Such is the nature of man and that is an entirely different topic of discussion...
Fine comparisons you are trying to make, Islamic tyrannies of yesteryear (which by the way, any self-respecting scholar of Islamic jurisprudence will tell you were naught but woeful misuse of faith for personal/familial goals), or middle ages to be more precise, and the United States of America. You sir, are in the wrong field, on an Albanian tractor. A couple thousand clicks deep...Show me ONE country with a majority muslim population that collects tax from people of other faiths, please do so, as you have steered the conversation into some absurdist comparisons...
If you want to compare righteously, compare the Moors to their successors and the Spanish kingdom. I'm sure you know how benevolent their conquistadors were in central America :)
As for the Ottomans, you can plainly compare them to the multitude of feudal kingdoms of Europe of the time, all of which answered to the will of the Vatican.
Let me tell you also, that I, coming from regions of what once was that same Ottoman empire, have no love for them whatsoever. My people were subjugated to them for a good 400 or so years. But during that time, while not only monetary tax was collected but blood tax as well (the culling of young boys from non-muslim villages who would be sent to Istanbul to be trained as Janissaries, the Ottoman infantry elite), at the very least they didn't declare crusades on a whim and proclaim people as heathens whose flesh is legal game to the brave executors of the Pope, thereby wiping out entire peoples as they saw fit, whenever rulers of Papal design were not instated or the tax to Vatican left unpaid. The Ottomans were in effect, not much different from other European royals. Many an Ottoman vizier, bey, pasha, princess were of descent other than that of the Ottoman Turks. They had their ignoble practices and their instruments of repression, like any tyrannical empire of the time before democracy even existed as a far fetched idea...to be honest, for an empire to be truly Islamic, the people must approve their ruler (Caliph), if you do a little research, you will find out that ever since the first four righteous caliphs after Muhammad's passing, this fundamental rule has never been observed.
This was the ways of the feudal age of Europe and the Middle East. I am sure you know Christianity well enough to be aware of the fact that the Catholic church did not always act as prescribed by Scripture. Neither did the Muslim empires follow the orders of the Qur'an as much as they should or indeed could have...Great were the sins committed in the name of God, and greater will be committed too the way things are going. Such is the nature of man and that is an entirely different topic of discussion...