"The believers who show the most perfect faith are those who have the best manners, and the best of you are those who are best to their wives."

"The more civil and kind a Muslim is to his wife, the more perfect in faith he is."

"The best of you is the best to his family."

"A Muslim must not hate his wife, and if he be displeased with one bad quality in her, let him be pleased with one that is good. "

"Heaven lies at the feet of the mothers"

"How could they beat their women in daytime as slaves and then sleep with them in the night?"

“O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers.”

O you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should you treat them with harshness…On the contrary live with them on a footing of equity and kindness. If you take a dislike to them, it may be that you dislike something and Allah will bring about through it a great deal of good. Quran (4:19)

But if your enemies incline towards peace, incline thou also to it, and trust in Allah. Lo! He, is the Hearer, the Knower. (8:61)

"Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded.“ Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

"When the bier (coffin) of anyone passes by you, whether Jew, Christian, or Muslim, rise to your feet" Prophet Muhammed

"One who kills a non-Muslim citizen will never smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its smell is perceived from a distance of forty years (of travel)." Prophet Muhammed PBUH

"Whoever hurts a non-Muslim citizen, I am his adversary, and I shall be an adversary to him on the Day of Resurrection." Prophet Muhammed PBUH

"Whoever hurts a Non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys God." Prophet Muhammed PBUH

"Beware the Day of Judgment! I myself shall be complainant against him who wrongs a non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state or lays on him a responsibility greater than he can bear or deprives him of anything that belongs to him." Prophet Muhammed PBUH

"You will encounter persons who spend their lives in monasteries. Leave them alone and do not annoy them; do not kill women, children or an aged infirm person; do not slaughter any sheep or cows or camels except for food; do not cut down fruit-bearing trees; do not destroy an inhabited place; do not burn bees and do not scatter them; do not steal from the booty; and do not be cowardly." – Abu Bakr, first Caliph after the Prophet's death, directing his commanders, Yazid Ibn Abi Sufyan and Malik ibn Anas

Say: O People of the Book! Come to a (shared) word common between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, that we ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us take others for lords beside Allah. But if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Allah). Quran (3:64)

And argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in a way that is better (in morals), save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our Lord and your Lord are One (in the same), and unto Him we surrender. Quran (29:46)

Had not Allah checked one set of people by means of another, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of Allah is commemorated most frequently, would assuredly have been destroyed. Allah will certainly aid those who aid his (cause);- for verily Allah is full of Strength, Exalted in Might, (able to enforce His Will). Quran (22:40). Mosques are mentioned last for emphasis among Muslims

And nearest among them in love to the (Muslim) believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. (5:82)

Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight not against you on account of your faith and drive you not out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: Verily, Allah loves those who are just Quran (60:8)

And insult not those who invoke other than Allah (in worship) lest they wrongfully insult Allah out of ignorance. Thus have We made fair seeming to every people their deeds; then to their Lord shall be their return, and He will inform them of all what they used to do. (6:108)

"The fact that many of the Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 chose to settle in the Ottoman Empire, where they enjoyed freedom to live and to practise their skills, shows the tolerance of the Muslim government as compared to that of Christian Spain." Decipering the signs of God: a phenomenological approach to Islam, Annemarie Schimmel

ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA: “When Tarik b. Ziyad in 711 crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and overran the Visigothic Kingdom, there were no communities of openly professing Jews in Spain. But there remained in the country many secret Jews who welcomed the Muslims as their saviors from long oppression and flocked to join them…Jews were represented in many occupations, including medicine, agriculture, commerce, and crafts…Cordoba was a center of both Arab and Jewish culture.
The Jewish literati acquired a sense of aesthetics and an appreciation of physical beauty from the artistic accomplishment of the Arabs in Spain…Jewish taxfarmers, advisers, and physicians served at different courts. The relatively tolerant rulers welcomed and esteemed Jewish financiers, advisers in matters and economic and political gifted writers, scholars, and scientists. The ethos of this Jewish upper class was distinguished by several features: the desire for and attainment of political power, the harmony of religion and secular culture, the study of the Talmud along with poetry and philosophy, equal proficiency in Arabic and Hebrew.
When Granada surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, the last Muslim king stipulated that Jews enjoy the same rights as other subjects, i.e. judical autonomy, freedom to practice their religion, and permission to emigrate. According to this treaty, Conversos who had come from Christian Spain could leave within a month. The Catholic monarchs, however, did not keep their word and proclaimed the edict of the expulsion of the Jews in Granada.”

"It is clear that Jews were much better off under Islam than in Christendom." Encyclopedia of the Jewish diaspora, VOL 1

"The fact that Islam, as a political system, created radically new conditions for Jewish economic, social, and intellectual development is undisputed." Encyclopedia of the Jewish diaspora, VOL 1

"Where Jews lived under Christian rulers, they often welcomed the conquering Moslems, and in Syria and Egypt the conditions of the Jews were improved under Islam." The New Jewish Encyclopedia

"The position of Jews has been more favorable under Islam than under Christian rule." The Shengold Jewish Encyclopedia

"Jews were suffering intense persecution in central Europe; they likewise looked to the Muslim Ottomans for refuge. Many Jews fleeing from this persecution would have received letters like the following, from Rabbi Isaac Tzarfati, who reached the Ottomans just before their capture of Constantinople in 1453. This is what he replied to those Jews of central Europe who were calling out for help:
Listen, my brethren, to the counsel I will give you. I too was born in Germany and studied the Torah with the German rabbis. I was driven out of my native country and came to the Turkish land, which is blessed by God and filled with all good things. Here I found rest and happiness… Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We are not oppressed with heavy taxes, and our commerce is free and unhindered… Every one of us lives in peace and freedom. Here the Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow hat as a badge of shame, as is the case in Germany, where even wealth and great fortune are a curse for the Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians… Arise my brethern, gird up your loins, collect your forces, and come to us. Here you will be free of your enemies, here you will find rest" Islam, fundamentalism, and the betrayal of tradition by Joseph E. B. Lumbard

New Catholic Encyclopedia: “After the city was besieged for four months, the Patriarch St. Sophronius (634-644) wisely capitulated to the Muslims on fair and honorable terms. For the next three centuries Christians and Muslims lived together in fairly friendly fashion in Jerusalem.”

Old Catholic Encyclopedia: “At last, when all further resistance was hopeless, the Patriarch Sophronius (who acted throughout as the head of the Christian defenders) appeared on the walls and demanded a conference with Abu-'Ubaidah. He then proposed to capitulate on fair and honourable terms; the Christians were to keep their churches and sanctuaries, no one was to be forced to accept Islam. Sophronius further insisted that these terms should be ratified by the caliph in person.
Omar, then at Medina, agreed to these terms and came with a single camel to the walls of Jerusalem. He signed the capitulation, then entered the city with Sophronius "and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities" (Gibbon, ci, ed. Bury, London, 1898, V, 436). It is said that when the hour for his prayer came he was in the Anastasis, but refused to say it there, lest in future times the Moslems should make that an excuse for breaking the treaty and confiscating the church. The Mosque of Omar (Jami 'Saidna 'Omar), opposite the doors of the Anastasis, with the tall minaret, is shown as the place to which he retired for his prayer.
Under the Moslems the Christian population of Jerusalem in the first period enjoyed the usual toleration given to non-Moslem theists. The pilgrimages went on as before. The new government did not make Jerusalem the political centre of Palestine.”

"Of particular note is Justinian I (527-565), who as part of his struggle against Monophysism, denied its adherents access to Holy Sites. This restriction remained in force until the Islamic Conquest of Jerusalem in 638. The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem resumed the interrupted development of the Holy Sites as universal venues of worship and pilgrimage common to all Christians regardless of their church…. in contrast to the policies of the Byzantine state or church, Muslim rule permitted all Christian rites to maintain relations with their holiest sites." Christianity under Islam in Jerusalem, by Oded Peri

“Since the first century A.D., the Holy Land has had a native Christian population, mostly Eastern and Oriental Orthodox. Since the 7th century A.D., that population has lived under Muslim rule – and had learned to get along with its Muslim and Jewish neighbors. Ironically, it has been chiefly when Westerners (whether Latin Crusaders, Jewish Zionists or evangelical Christians supporting Israel in the mistaken notion that such support would hasten the second coming of Christ) have interfered that peace and coexistence have been upset.” Reverend Deacon David B. Cole, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, NE Portland

REGARDING ISLAMIC CONQUEST OF EUROPE: "The unbounded tolerance of the Arabs must also be taken into account. In religious matters they put pressure on no man… The Christians were not ungrateful. They were under obligations to their conquerors for the tolerance and justice shown them; and preferred their rule to that of, for instance, the Franks" Spanish Islam: A History of the Muslims in Spain, by Reinhart Dozy, Francis Griffin Stokes

JIHAD DOES NOT = HOLY WAR: It was Pope Urban II who first used the term "holy war" and ignited a crusader bloodbath. The Encyclopedia of Christianity reads "From Urban II in 1095 to Innocent XI in 1684, pope after pope wrote or authorized the dispatch of letters, including many general ones, in which the faithful were summoned to crusade, offered spiritual privileges if they responded and threatened with divine judgment if they did not … From the fourth century to the sixteenth most Christian thinkers believed that God or Christ could and would authorize the use of force, either personally or through an intermediary … Until the nineteenth century, moreover, the majority opinion was that acts of violence were not in themselves evil, but were morally neutral."

"The translation of Jihad as 'holy war', as is now current even among Muslims, cannot be justified on philological grounds; the term 'Holy War' was first coined in medieval Europe for the undertakings of the Crusaders." Decipering the signs of God: a phenomenological approach to Islam, Annemarie Schimmel

"One cannot but be struck by the way in which Islam tolerated and cultivated the Christian and Jewish communities in its midst, while midieval Europe exploited, persecuted, and finally destroyed or expelled its Muslim and Jewish subjects." The oxford illustrated history of Christianity by John McManners

Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "spread the faith by the sword"? Well, they just did not… Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations. – Uri Avnery, Muhammad's Sword

“Let us recall that in former times no people lived in greater friendship with us than the ancestors of these Arabs” – Albert Einstein

"There is nothing in Islamic history to compare with the massacres and expulsions, the inquisitions and persecutions that Christians habitually inflicted on non-Christians and still more on each other, in the lands of Islam, persecution was the exception." Bernard Lewis

"History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated." – De Lacy O'Leary, Islam At The Crossroads (1928)

“We have never heard about any attempt to compel non-Muslim parties to adopt Islam or about any organized persecution aiming at exterminating Christianity. If the Caliphs had chosen – they would have wiped out Christianity as easily as what happened to Islam during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella – by the same method which Louis XIV followed to make Protestantism a creed whose followers were to be sentenced to death; or with the same ease of keeping the Jews away from Britain for a period of three hundred and fifty years.” Sir Thomas Arnold,
Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford

“Islamic teachings have left great traditions for equitable and gentle dealings and behavior, and inspire people with nobility and tolerance. These are human teachings of the highest order and at the same time practicable. These teachings brought into existence a society in which hard-heartedness and collective oppression and injustice were the least as compared with all other societies” – H.G. Wells

"Muslim societies retained a considerable measure of religious pluralism, with Muslims living along side Christians, Jews, Hindus, and others." Islam, state and politics, by Bryan S. Turner

“It was only when the Muslims fell away from their religious law that they declined in tolerance.” – Sir Marmaduke William Pickthall (1875-1936)

"Indeed, there is significant value in exploring Islam's rich tradition of tolerance, explicating its humane conceptualizations and heartening examples." Islam, the West, and tolerance: conceiving coexistence, by Aaron Tyler