The Ottoman Empire

While I was doing the reading in the book, I noticed a few interesting things regarding Islam and the numerous other religions present in the empire. First of all, the religions lived side by side, tolerant of each other and peaceful. Second of all, the Muslim rulers of the empire even funded some of the churches, not forcing the Christians or Jews to convert to Islam. As I read this, I mentally compared this situation to the situation of the present. In the Middle East, the radical(and I stress that I mean radical, not mainstream) Muslims have not been so tolerant of western religions and western ideals. In fact, people have died or have been killed because of the lack of tolerance towards their religion, or have at least been threatened or persecuted. This is an interesting parallel. Radical Muslims have been talking about reestablishing Islam as the religion of a giant empire, just like the Ottoman Empire. For some reason, this time around, not everyone is welcome and accepted, and the rule would definetly be stricter if the radicals have anything to say about it. In the Ottoman empire, the Muslims were establishing themselves as a world power, and didnt only want to intimidate people. They also wanted to make friends with the other religions to keep the peace. Now, it seems to me that the radicals are using scare tactics to keep their advantage and make themselves more well of than anyone else to establish themselves as the world power once again. Comparing these two time periods have helped me to understand what the empire was trying to accomplish and how their methods worked. Now I can better understand what is happening in my world today.