RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND CONVERSION

conversion process. That is, when two systems of thought clash, an intellectual revolution ensues. This dialogue-conversion process is the single ladder to all human progress. Whenever any revolutionary change has occurred or a group of people have succeeded in performing some great creative role, it has always come in the wake of this same dialogue-conversion process. There is no single form of this process. It can be religious or non-religious in nature. In the history of the last fifteen hundred years we find two major examples—one of religious conversion and the other of secular conversion. The history of the Arabs provides the example of religious conversion. By the sixth century, A.D., the Arabs were leading a confined tribal life under the polytheist system. Then in the beginning of the seventh century Islam, the religion of monotheism, appeared. As a consequence, intensive dialogue began between the monotheists and polytheists. This dialogue assumed such an aggressive character that it came to the point of collision. As a result a new way of thinking was born among the Arabs, which kept growing till it took the form of a great intellectual revolution. This intellectual revolution, the discovery of a new idea, resulted in the emergence of a new personality among the Arabs. In the words of a European historian, every one of them acquired such a revolutionary personality that their entire people became a nation of heroes. Within just fifty years they brought about that historical event which is called by a historian “the miracle of all miracles.” In The Making of Humanity Robert Briffault (18761948) puts this in a nutshell: “But for the Arabs, the western civilisation would never have arisen at all.” Another example is that of European Christian nations. After the crusades, a historical process extending several hundred years, these nations too went through a conversion process. This conversion was secular rather than religious. Intense conflict took place between science and religion. One report of this conflict can be seen in the book: History of the Conflict between Science and Religion by John William Draper (1811-1882). This encounter continued for several hundred years in the form of dialogue and conflict until a new intellectual revolution was produced within the European nations and they finally bade good-bye to the Conversion is the birth of a new entity resulting from the encounter between old and new schools of thought.