The famous historian, Thomas Carlyle, in his book %u2019Heroes and Hero worship%u2019, refers to this misconception about the spread of Islam: %u2019The sword indeed, but where will you get your sword? Every new opinion, at its starting is precisely in a minority of one. In one man%u2019s head alone. There it dwells as yet. One man alone of the whole world believes it, there is one man against all men. That he takes a sword and try to propagate with that, will do little for him. You must get your sword! On the whole, a thing will propagate itself as it can.%u2019
No compulsion in religion.
With which sword was Islam spread? Even if Muslims had it they could not use it to spread Islam because the Qur%u2019an says in the following verse:
