Buddhists are generally tolerant and accommodating, which is why religious persecution at Buddhist hands is unheard of in the long history of the religion. This has emboldened people of other religions to take advantage of Buddhist hospitality and tolerance by engaging in activities that are detrimental to Buddhism. We learn from history that with the Hindu overthrow of the Mauryan dynasty, around the early part of the 2nd century BC, the Hindus embarked on a massive and systematic persecution of the Buddhists, which resulted in a rapid decline of the religion in ancient India. A thousand years later they tried to wipe off whatever was left of Buddhism in the country by systematically distorting the Buddhist teachings and making Buddhism a subbranch of Hinduism. With the Moslem invasion of Sind in 710 AD, and especially when they gained more control over India in the 11th and 12th centuries, Buddhism suffered a great loss at the hands of Moslem fanatics. Buddhist monks were killed by the thousands, people were forced en masse to embrace Islam, and Buddhist monasteries were destroyed.