Short answer
No. Islam teaches that it is the only religion God (﷾) accepts, but it commands Muslims to tolerate the people who hold other beliefs. The Qur'an says there is no compulsion in religion. It tells the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) that his duty is only to deliver the message. Muslims may persuade, but they may not force anyone to become Muslim. The Prophet (ﷺ) warned that whoever kills a non-Muslim living under treaty will not smell Paradise. Under Muslim rule, Christian and Jewish communities kept their worship, their clergy and their own courts. When Spain expelled its Jews in 1492, many found a welcome in the Ottoman Empire. In short, Islam rejects false beliefs, but it protects the Christians, Jews and others who live under its rule.
Full explanation
One true religion
The Qur'an states that God (﷾) accepts no religion but Islam, meaning submission to Him. Muslims do not hide this or soften it. Christians say something similar about their own faith, in the words of Jesus in John's Gospel. Believing that your own religion is true is not the same as mistreating people who disagree. The real question is how a religion tells its followers to treat those people.
“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).”
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
No compulsion, only the message
The Qur'an forbids forcing faith on anyone: there is no compulsion in religion. It asks the Prophet (ﷺ) himself whether he would compel people to believe. It tells him that he is one who reminds, not one who controls them. His duty is only to deliver the message, with wisdom and good preaching. The same is true of every Muslim after him. So Muslims may not force anyone to become Muslim.
“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.”
“If it had been thy Lord's will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe!”
“Therefore do thou give admonition, for thou art one to admonish. Thou art not one to manage (men's) affairs.”
“The Messenger's duty is but to proclaim (the message). But Allah knoweth all that ye reveal and ye conceal.”
“Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.”
Protection for people under treaty
The Prophet (ﷺ) warned that whoever kills a person living under treaty with the Muslims will not smell the fragrance of Paradise. Free adult non-Muslim men paid a yearly tax, the jizya. In return the state protected them and did not call them to serve in its army. Muslims paid the zakat (the yearly charity Muslims must give), which non-Muslims did not pay. Women and children paid nothing. Hanafi law (one of the schools of Islamic law) also exempted the old, the blind and the sick who had no means. It also exempted the poor who lived on charity. The Qur'an adds that Muslims may deal kindly and justly with those who do not fight them. The terms of the jizya in Qur'an 9:29, and what "subdued" means, are set out on the page on that verse.
Abdullah ibn Amr reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that whoever kills a person who has a treaty with the Muslims will not smell the fragrance of Paradise, though its fragrance reaches a distance of forty years.
A book of taxation written for the caliph Harun al-Rashid by the chief judge of Baghdad. It sets out that the jizya is taken from free adult non-Muslim men, and not from women or children, the old, the blind and the chronically ill who have no means, or the poor who live on charity.
“Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.”
Their own law and their own courts
The Qur'an lets the people of the Injil (the Gospel Jesus preached) judge by what God (﷾) revealed in it. Islamic rule does not try to merge Christians, Jews and others into the Muslim community. Each community may keep its own judges and apply its own law. Many early scholars held that one verse was the first permission to fight. That verse names monasteries, churches and synagogues, alongside mosques, among the places God (﷾) protects.
“Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) those who rebel.”
“To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they are wronged;- and verily, Allah is most powerful for their aid;- (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right,- (for no cause) except that they say, "our Lord is Allah". Did not Allah check one set of people by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of Allah is commemorated in abundant measure. Allah will certainly aid those who aid his (cause);- for verily Allah is full of Strength, Exalted in Might, (able to enforce His Will).”
Jews back in Jerusalem
Under Byzantine Christian rule, Jews had not been allowed to live in Jerusalem. When the city came under Muslim rule, Jewish leaders asked the caliph Umar to let them come back. A Jewish chronicle records the talks. It was found in the Cairo Geniza, a store of old papers in a Cairo synagogue. The Christian patriarch offered fifty households, and the Jews asked for two hundred. Umar settled on seventy. Seventy Jewish families came from Tiberias and made their home in the south of the city. Moshe Gil, an Israeli historian who studied these papers, confirms that it was Umar who let the Jews settle in Jerusalem.
A Jewish chronicle, in Arabic written in Hebrew letters, about the Jews' return to Jerusalem after the Muslim conquest. It tells that Jewish leaders asked Umar ibn al-Khattab for leave to settle in the city. The Christian patriarch offered fifty households and the Jews asked for at least two hundred. Umar settled on seventy, and seventy households came from Tiberias and its region and settled in the south of the city, near the waters of Silwan.
A history of Palestine under Muslim rule by an Israeli historian of the Cairo Geniza. Gil records that under Byzantine rule Jews were not allowed to live in Jerusalem, and that a Geniza fragment confirms it was Umar who gave the Jews permission to settle there, after bargaining with the patriarch in his presence, so that seventy families came from Tiberias.
What happened in practice
Under the Ottomans, the Orthodox Patriarch kept charge of his people's religious and family law for centuries. He was the head of the Orthodox Church in the empire. Mehmed II, the Ottoman sultan who took Constantinople, had installed him. Under this system each community ran its own marriages, schools and courts. In 1492 the Catholic monarchs expelled the Jews from Spain. Many fled to the Ottoman Empire, where Sultan Bayezid II welcomed them. Their descendants still live in Turkey today. Some still speak Ladino, the Jewish form of Spanish their ancestors brought with them. The Prophet (ﷺ) set the rule, and Muslim rulers at their best kept it.
A history of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople under Ottoman rule: Mehmed II installed Gennadios as Patriarch after taking the city in 1453, and the Church kept charge of its own people's religious and family law through the Ottoman centuries.
A history of the Jews under Ottoman and Turkish rule. It describes how Sultan Bayezid II welcomed the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, how they settled in Istanbul, Salonica and other Ottoman cities, and how their Spanish-speaking community lived on in Turkey into modern times.
Still there today
Jewish and Christian communities still live in many Muslim countries. Iran's constitution names Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians as recognised minorities. They are free to practise their rites, and to follow their own rules in family matters and religious teaching. It keeps seats in parliament for them: one for the Jews, one for the Zoroastrians and three for the Christians. Pakistan's constitution keeps ten seats in the National Assembly, and seats in the Senate, for non-Muslims, among them its Christians and Hindus. In Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church has lived among Muslims since the Arab conquest in the seventh century. It is still the country's main church.
Article 13 names Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians as the recognised religious minorities, free within the law to perform their rites and to follow their own rules in personal matters and religious education. Article 64 reserves seats in parliament for them: Zoroastrians and Jews each elect one member, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians jointly elect one, and Armenian Christians in the north and in the south each elect one.
Article 51 reserves ten seats in the National Assembly for non-Muslims, who include Pakistan's Christians and Hindus, with the whole country as their constituency. Article 59 reserves seats in the Senate for non-Muslims, one from each province.
Describes the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the principal Christian church in predominantly Muslim Egypt. It notes that after the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century the caliphs, though they tended to favour those who adopted Islam, did not interfere much in the church's internal affairs.
A verse read the other way
In one of Jesus' parables, a master tells his servant to compel people to come in. Augustine, a Christian bishop and writer of the early fifth century, used these words to justify forcing Christian dissenters back into the Church. They were quoted for centuries to defend coercion. The Qur'an has no such verse. It forbids compulsion in so many words.
“And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”
Augustine defends the use of imperial force to bring the Donatists back into the Catholic Church, and reads the words "compel them to come in" from the parable in Luke 14 as a warrant for it.
“Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.”
Verse by verse
Qur'an 3:85 — Surat Al Imran (The Family of Imraan), verse 85
“If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).”
Cited for
Critics say that if God accepts no religion but Islam, Muslims must see every other believer as an enemy to be fought or converted.
The response
The verse is about what God (﷾) accepts in the Hereafter, not about how Muslims treat people now. The same Qur'an forbids compulsion in religion. It limits the Messenger (ﷺ) to delivering the message. It allows kindness and justice to all who do not fight the Muslims.
Where it lands — Islam's claim to be the one true religion goes together with a ban on forced conversion and a duty of justice to non-Muslims.
Perspectives
The critic's reading
Islam teaches that God rejects every other religion. So, the critic says, it cannot be tolerant of other religions, or of the people who follow them.
The Qur'an says that no religion other than Islam will be accepted.
Rebuttal
The verse does say that God (﷾) accepts no religion but Islam. But it speaks of the Hereafter. How people are to be treated now is answered elsewhere. The Qur'an forbids forcing anyone in religion (2:256). It says the Messenger's (ﷺ) duty is only to deliver the message (5:99). And it allows kindness and justice towards those who do not fight Muslims (60:8).
Jain: truth has many sides
Jains teach anekanta, which means that truth has many sides. No ordinary person can see a thing from every side. Many Jains say this makes their faith more open-minded than religions that claim to hold the one truth.
Reality has manifold aspects that no ordinary person can see whole, so no religion should claim the whole truth.
Rebuttal
Jaini explains that Jains themselves use anekanta to judge other systems. They call the teachings of other schools wrong because they see only one side. So Jainism too holds that it sees more truly than others. Islam makes the same kind of claim openly, and joins it to tolerance. There is no compulsion in religion, and kindness and justice are owed to all who do not fight Muslims.
Jewish: we do not seek converts
Judaism does not look for converts. Maimonides rules that the pious of the nations who keep the seven laws of Noah have a share in the World to Come. Many Jews contrast this with Islam, which calls everyone to accept it.
Judaism gives the pious of the nations a share in the World to Come without asking them to convert. Islam says only Islam is accepted.
Rebuttal
Maimonides adds that the gentile must keep those laws because God (﷾) commanded them through Moses. So Judaism too holds that one revealed law is true. Holding your faith to be true is not intolerance. Islam forbids forcing anyone in religion. It lets Muslims eat the food of Jews and marry Jewish women. And it commands kindness and justice towards all who do not fight Muslims.
The Islamic perspective
Islam holds that it alone is true, and it rejects false beliefs. But the Qur'an and the Prophet (ﷺ) forbid forcing faith on anyone. They protect non-Muslims living under Muslim rule. Their communities keep their own worship, law and courts.
The Qur'an forbids compulsion in religion and tells the Prophet (ﷺ) that he may not compel people to believe.
The Qur'an says the Messenger's (ﷺ) duty is only to deliver the message. He is not there to control people.
The Prophet (ﷺ) warned that whoever kills a non-Muslim under treaty will not smell Paradise.
The Qur'an lets the people of the Injil judge by their own scripture.
The jizya was a yearly tax paid in return for protection. Only free adult non-Muslim men paid it. Women and children paid nothing.
Under the Ottomans the Orthodox Church kept charge of its own people's religious and family law. The Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 were welcomed.
Islam rejects false ideas, but it commands tolerance and justice towards the people who hold them.