>>40896
To add to what everyone else has said, people often say Islam was spread by the sword, Mohammed Hijab explains it well in this video (https://youtu.be/2DoGwF9DX-g?t=966) (@16:07).
Its more complicated than that, basically, yes the Islamic empire was expanded with their military, because they had to, that was the nature of empires, if you don't expand your empire, then you will be swallowed whole by another expanding empire, it was always the case. If Islam didn't expand their empire, it would've been taken over.
But no, non Muslims, by and large, were not forced to covert (obviously there were probably a minority that were, those who forced it upon people were going against what Islamic law says) forced conversions are considered rare in Islamic history. Early historians attributed forced conversions to Islam due to western lens put on to it, where they tried to draw influence from other events in 'western history'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_conversion#Islam)
In reality a lot of them would convert to Islam because of faith, but also due to sociopolitical reasons since people are more likely to adopt the culture around them, and also many opted to use Islamic law and courts because of rights that were provided that their own communities/cultures did not provide, such as rights to women like inheritance, or rights for slaves.
