Someone keeps telling me that Muhammed pbuh's followers in Mecca were not persecuted and he wrote this:
"Actually, the Muslim faith itself provides evidence that this wasn't the case, and that Muslims were not persecuted in Mecca, only Mohammed was, as he was attempting to wage war against them. (That's a really bad habit, he should have grown out of it...) Here are just two examples.
"The story of Fatima's sister, Muhammad's oldest daughter, is of acute embarrassment to those who insist Muslims were suffering in Mecca. Zaynab was married to Abu al-Aas ibn al-Rabee, one of Muhammad's arch enemies, and had no desire to leave. When Muhammad took her husband prisoner at the Battle of Badr, Zaynab tried to ransom him, but the prophet of Islam would not free the man until she promised to leave Mecca and live in Medina with him instead. She was actually forced to trade her marriage for her husband's life. It was not until Abu al-Aas agreed to "embrace" Islam (after being taken hostage again six years later following a Muslim caravan raid) that Muhammad allowed the two to live together."
I feel so compassionate to the poor Moslems....
She was suffering so much in Mecca...
And the Qu'ran teaches there is no compulsion in religion...
yea, right!
"The historical account also flatly contradicts the popular view that all Muslims had to flee Mecca following Muhammad’s declaration of war. In fact, it was only Muhammad himself whom the Meccans were interested in seizing. This is proven by the episode recounted in Ibn Ishaq/Hisham (326-328) in which Muhammad's own son-in-law, Ali, sleeps in his bed to trick his enemies into thinking that they had cornered him on the night they came to seize him.
Not only did the Meccans do no harm to Ali, even after finding out that he had fooled them, but he remained in the city for several days thereafter with Muhammad’s daughter Fatima in order to arrange the transfer of the family business to Medina.""
Is there a rebuttal for this brother?