In Islam and Pluralism, Shah Abdul Halim, chairman of the Islamic Information Bureau, Bangladesh, sets out to show that Muslims who see the world entirely in terms of believers and unbelievers and conflict between them are ignoring the broader perspective of their own Islamic tradition.
For instance, he cites classical sources (and ones of great authority) against the idea that the non-Muslim world should be classified as dar al-kufr (abode of disbelief) or dar al-harb (abode of war):
Dr. Alwani, president of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) and also a member of Jeddah based International Academy of Fiqh, pointed out in an interview with the "Islamic Horizons" that an "example of misguided rulings is the fatwa that countries like the United States are dar al kufr and dar al harb, where Muslims have the right to circumvent their laws and regulations"... ...Dr. Alwani also identified that "in the past, scholars were unanimous in their view that the entire earth was the land of Allah and did not divide it into such spheres. Instead, some scholars like Imam al Razi considered the earth to consist of dar al ijaba, which replaces the term dar al Islam, and dar ad dawah, which replaces the term dar al harb. Dar ad dawah means a land for dialogue and inter-faith communication, a land where people are not classified, but all human being are considered one family. This family has two parts. One is identified as ummat al ijaba, instead of ummat al Muslim, and other as ummat ad dawah, instead of kuffar or harbiyun. This part of our heritage and legacy represents Islam more correctly than the other part, because the whole earth has been created by Allah as humanity’s home. The Prophet (saws) told us that the entire earth is a masjid and pure. The only difference is that in dar al ijaba, the message of Islam has been established, and in dar ad dawah the message has to be spread. We all know what the nuances of performing dawah are, and certainly that misguided dar al harb / dar al kufr ruling is not among the instruments of dawah". "The famous 5th Hijra century Imam al Mawardy, in fact said that even if we have one Muslim family living in a non-Muslim state, their home will be the home of Islam. The reality is that wherever Muslims find the freedom to practice Islam, that place will be dar al Islam for them, and there is no need for them to migrate to some other dar al Islam for this purpose"Later on, he tackles the question of the jizya, the tax traditionally imposed on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule, and provides historical and legal evidence that the jizya should be (a) commensurate with the services rendered by the Islamic government to the non-Muslim people, and (b) equivalent in value to the zakat tax paid by Muslims, which would seem to remove any oppressive aspects from it. In a supplementary section of the article, he shows that the correct understanding of the Islamic sources and scholars is that there can be no punishment on those who simply change their religion away from Islam; any legal punishment is limited to those who engage in armed rebellion against the state or treason. I have made this same point before myself, at length here in a discussion of political dissent, in passing here and at greater length in the comments on that blog entry (1, 2), and in the comments on another blog entry here. The article has a lot that both Muslims and non-Muslims can learn from.