Since you have honestly professed a lack of knowledge of Islamic history, I’ll try and brief you with some details. Mohammad’s message of Islam is effectively a global brotherhood. When he migrated to Yathrib (now Medina) he had created a document, a proto constitution that outlined the rights of the people in the city. He explicitly stated that Jews, Christians and Muslims were all the "Muminoon" ie true believers. All had the same rights. The Jews of Yathrib generally held the Arabs in contempt and were not impressed with this upstart who claimed he was a prophet. They made trouble for him, and continued doing so until they were eventually expelled. As did the Arabs of Mecca. The persecution of Muslims in Mecca has been documented. There were two wars that were launched by the pagan Arabs with the intent of annihilating the new religious movement: The battle of Badr and the battle of Uhud. Many of the ‘violent verses’ in the Quran are a response to these events. It’s kill or be killed. As a charismatic leader Mohammad had to lead his troops in battle. Islam is a highly pragmatic religion. When threatened, fight back, when at not at war, deal fairly with your neighbors. Islamic history has been far more tolerant than Christian history. From the intellectual center of Cordoba, Spain, to the multicultural speldour of Baghdad, Islamic history is a testament to tolerance with even Jews making it up to high positions.

Quote from a Sephardic Jewish history site: "Jews, Moors and Christians lived and worked together in this tolerant atmosphere. Many Christians adopted some of the Moors’ culture and became known as mozarabs. Jews similarly adopted Moorish customs, studied Arabic and the Koran while Arabs studied Hebrew and Jewish scriptures. A striking example was Hasdai ibn Shaprut. He was a famous Jewish physician who rose to become personal physician and chief advisor to the Caliph and his chief tax collector. "

Check out this sentence, coming from a Jew its weight is immeasurable: " Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Christian Europe flocked to Spain much as they did to the USA in our day." http://www.sephardicgen.com/seph_who.htm

Now compare that to 9th century London.

Much of the xenophobia of Islam today should be seen from the perspective of 19 century European colonization. If you remove Western Imperialism form the equation, your picture of modern Islam will be distorted.

Hope this helps

It’s not missing the point to realize that leading thinkers within the church interpreted the book very VERY differently for thousands of years, and only recently came to the "realization" that the global intent was peaceful. Likewise, Islamic scholars could come to the realization that the overall intent of the prophet was a religion of peace.

I honestly don’t know how you can interpret it that way. Muhammed himself led military conquests while Jesus preached against that; one of the main reasons Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leaders of his time is that he taught that the Messiah was not going to be a militant leader who would establish a Jewish kingdom here on earth. There are OBVIOUS differences in the teachings themselves that are not open to interpretation. Obviously it was wrong that Christian leaders took quite a while to come to terms with the message of peace and nonviolence, but it’s also obvious that their actions DID represent a misinterpretation of Christ’s message.

I see no such parallel with Muhammed- he didn’t tell his followers not to fight, he actually led them in battle.