Islam is a ruthless and barbaric religion

The root word for Islam is "al-Silm," which means "submission" or "surrender." There is no controversy about this among Islamic scholars. Besides peace through submission to Allah is no peace at all considering what must happen for there to be peace. There is no peace until all religion is for Allah. Even if Islam meant "peace", it would still be an oxymoron. Yes, there are times when you must fight because your very survival is threatened. Christianity even allows this. However, peace must be kept without the sort of brutality that stiffens one's resolve. Criminals in America do not have their hands cut off because that was decided to be too severe in comparison to the crim committed. Every action requires an appropriate response. Murderers spend life in prison or recieve the death penalty. Thieves spend time in jail. There are exceptions to every rule, and I do not say that I support this. For me, a murderer should be automatically given a death sentence unless it was involuntary or in self defense. Otherwise, they have earned their own death. But is losing a hand appropriate for theft. If a man steals some food, he is still a thief, but is losing his hand comparative to his crime? I think not. Islam is overly violent in it's maintainance of public order, somewhat like a totalitarian dictatorship. As for fighting oppression, that is a matter of perspective. For some Muslims, living amongst infidels is oppression. For some, living in an infidel country. Oppression is not a defintion that can be stretched to meet the wants of a religion for nay reason. No where in the world is Islam truly inder any oppression. Palestine isn't a very good example, either, because they exist in the state they are in because they always rejected Israel's demands for a peace process. Yasser Arafat made no reservations about his contempt for Israel and he openly mocked the idea of a peace process. That's because the Palestinians don't want to live in peace with Israel. They want Israel gone. They want the Jews gone. No peace until there is Palestine, and Palestine only. I understand the context of 9:5. Whether it is fault of the Muslims or the pagans, it makes no difference now. Muhammed and his men slaughtered them all 14 centuries ago. What matters now is that this verse is used as a marching order, the Verse of the Sword, as they call it. Osama bin Laden uses it, as do many other terrorists. What matters is that they do not see it as a matter between Muhammed and the pagans, but between Muhammed and the 'pagans' of today. And of course Islam accepts anyone who willfully converts to their religion. Who wouldn't? Offering them peace because they converted isn't uncommon. And whether the verse was battle motivation or a standing order, again, terrorists still use it as the latter, and it would be different if there were just one of these. The Koran blatantly states that kaffirs are not to be trusted and are to be fought because we are kaffirs, because we simply exist in the same world as you do, not because we offered you insult or attacked you. That is, unless you count rejecting your religion in favor of our own an insult. Muhammed led his men against the Jewish tribes of upper Arabia and the Byzantine Chrsitians north of them. For what reason? Did the Byzantines kill a relative of his? No. Jews are especially scolded by the Islamic holy book, saying that they are kin to monkeys and pigs, something not fully human and worthy of respect. Muhammed was simply following the commandments of his own holy book. They simply refused to covert to his religion. By the way, when a general captures men in battle not only does he offer them asylum, they are taken to a safe place where they cannot harm anyone else. We call them POW camps. They get food, shelter, security, everything they need, so long as they keep quiet and realize that they are defeated men. They are no longer soldiers, now disarmed prisoners. Sure, there's the danger of being hit by a shell or being bombed, but that's different. Muhammed would have defecated himself at the sight of an airplane, and certainly had no reason to fear something that didn't exist yet. I realize that the Sharia thing was just a trial. But I did see your logic, though I was on the other guy's side.