[AntiGuv]

You are absolutely correct, but it's worth noting that the Islamic conquest would never have succeeded were it not for the Byzantine Orthodox imperial persecution of the Monophysite Christian heretics..

[nuke rocketeer]

Absolutely! If the Coptics had been treated right, they would have never surrendered Egypt to the muslims.

[RobbyS]

And the wars with Persia. Both the Greeks and the Persians were worn out from a generation of fighting.

[Antoninus]

You are absolutely correct, but it's worth noting that the Islamic conquest would never have succeeded were it not for the Byzantine Orthodox imperial persecution of the Monophysite Christian heretics..

That's only half the story. The real cause of the easy Islamic conquest of much of the Empire's eastern territory was the fact that immediately before the Muslims arrived on the scene, the Byzantines had just finished defeating the Persians in a economically draining and militarily exhausting war that had been occurring on-again-off-again for over 100 years. The weakness of Persia after this defeat by Byzantium is also what allowed the Islamic armies to so easily engulf what had previously been a powerful kingdom.

As for the monophysite heretics, they soon learned to regret their decision to abandon the Chalcedonians and support the Islamic invaders. Considering the pathetic and oppressed remnant of Copts in Egypt today, it's clear that their decision didn't serve them well.

[Wuli]

You are partially right in noting one of the things that lead to a weakend Byzantine Empire, which helped make some of the Muslim conquests possible. There were many other factors as well.

My main point is that the spread of the Muslim faith was entirely by Military conquest, other than in Indonesia, Malyasia and the southern Philippines where Islam was introduced by seafaring traders to people who were essentially animists (nature worshipers).

It is historical stupidity to ignore that they were "conquests" and they were conducted for the spreading of Islam. It was not peaceful conversion of neighboring peoples.