A note on Religious Pressure

The study of religion and how it spreads always provides an interesting view into socio-economic structure. There are several religions we have touched on so far and the most recent being the spread of Islam. Islam was a religion that was initially suppressed by the powerful roman church. However after the Romans were pushed back and after their great prophet Muhammad rose, Islam spread quickly. What I find remarkable about the spread of Islam and religions in general is that in ancient times, whoever was in power had great control over what the dominant religion was. After the Romans were pushed out, many found comfort in Islam and many converted. Soon the Arabian empire grew and eventually made all other religions second class. The unfortunate thing is, the same thing repeated itself in many other religions in many different places. For instance, there great religious power struggle in china between Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, also there was crusades in Europe to push out other religions. In early times it seems many civilizations were not tolerant of other religions and ideals from other civilizations. I think its remarkable how in our own information era we are able to be much more tolerant of other religions and ideals that differ from out own. America, though not perfect, has allowed for many religions to be combined into one country with no dominant religion.