The great H.G. Wells once wrote :

“The 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 preceding it….Islam is replete with gentleness, courtesy, and fraternity.”

In 628 C.E. Prophet Muhammad (s) granted a Charter of Privileges to the monks of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. It consisted of several clauses covering all aspects of human rights including such topics as the protection of Christians, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from military service, and the right to protection in war.

An English translation of that document is presented below.

This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

• Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
• No compulsion is to be on them.
• Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
• No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.
• Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
• No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
• The Muslims are to fight for them.
• If a female Christian is ’married to a Muslim’, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
• Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
• No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).

A further explanation of the term ‘married to a Muslim’.

Qur’an 5:5

• This day are (all) things good and pure made lawful unto you.
• The food of the People of the Book is lawful unto you and yours is lawful unto them.
• (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are believers
• but chaste women among the People of the Book revealed before your time
• when ye give them their due dowers
• and desire chastity not lewdness nor secret intrigues.
• If anyone rejects faith fruitless is his work
• and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good)..

“The Meaning of the Glorious Koran,” An Explanatory Translation by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, a Mentor Book Publication. (Also available as: ”The Meaning of the Glorious Koran,” by Marmaduke Pickthall, Dorset Press, N.Y.; Published by several publishers since 1936).