Islam is a ruthless and barbaric religion

The pleasure is all mine. I read your argument about the implmentation of Sharia in the US. Your usage of Qur'anic verses to support your theory was exceptional, to say the least. Anyway, to the argument. Though you made excellent points, Sharia is not an istantaneous thing. It takes time to implement, usually through reversion or the oppostion being killed off. Islamic history shows that the latter is the normal case, and the Qur'an shows that it is the preferable method. Now, many would seem to think that just because Islam is a religion, it is just as moral and nonviolent in it's teachings as any other. However, I have to disagree. I bought a Qur'an maybe half a year ago, and have since read it three times. I wanted to believe that the terrorists had simply hijacked a religion for their own evil ends. I read the Koran hoping to find as many verses of peace and love as I could. Instead, I was bombarded by the hatred and intolerance embedded in the Koran, appalled by the blatant violence it spewed. Consider these verses: 9:5 "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them." 9:14 "Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace.." 9:20 "Those who believe, and have left their homes and striven with their wealth and their lives in Allah's way are of much greater worth in Allah's sight. These are they who are triumphant." The "striving" spoken of here is Jihad. 9:29 "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." 9:38-39 "O ye who believe! what is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place." This is a warning to those who refuse to fight, that they will be punished with Hell. 9:123 "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness." 4:95 "Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,-" This passage not only criticizes "peaceful" Muslims who do not join in the violence, but also demolishes the modern myth that "Jihad" doesn't mean holy war in the Qur'an, but rather a spiritual struggle. Not only is the Arabic word used in this passage, but it is clearly not referring to anything spiritual, since the physically disabled are given exemption. 8:12 "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" 2:191-193 "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah." There is a good case to be made that the overall context of these verses is defensive war, however, there are two worrisome pieces to this passage. The first is that the killing of others is authorized in the event of "persecution." The second is that fighting may persist until "religion is for Allah." 8:39 "And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah" See above. 5:33 ""The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement" 2:216 "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not." 47:4 "So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners," This passage is the basis for the beheading tactic common amongst Islamic terrorists. NOTE: For convenience purposes, most of the verses were found on www.thereligionofpeace.com and I copied and pasted to save time. All of these verse were checked in my Qur'an. All the authors write the Koran with subtle differences, but all are essentally the same. So, are these the peaceful verses that Islam conveys to us infidels? Why is Islam not content to live in peace with us, as were are of them? I find it difficult to believe that these verses are metaphors or any such, due to the fact that the Koran is always read literally, unlike the Bible, which is just as much poetry and metaphors as a religious text. But, this is about Islam, not Christianity. If you had a map of the entire Islamic world, and stuck your finger on the map anywhere, you would find that none of these countries have significant minorities of any religion, excepting Lebanon, Egypt, and Albania. Why is this? Well, if we believe the Koran's teachings, infidels are only allowed to worship only if they pay the jizya, the religious tax. History shows the amount of poverty heaped upon the infidel subjects of the Islamic caliphate, and it also shows that most of them either died or converted, but a few stayed and a few fled for Christian lands. So, it is fairly unsurprising that there are no religious minorities in most Muslim countries. Furthermore, Islam's treasury ran off of it's conquered populations, resulting in what was the glory of the Islamic world. The great flowering of science in the Islamic world was mainly due to the presence of people of other religions. The Dome of the Rock in Jreusalem was built by Byzantine architects. The first medical clinic was opened by a Belgian, because Islam prohibits autopsys necessary for medical science. Arabic numerals were invented in Hindu India, although under the yoke of the Islamic calipahte. Muslims claim to have invented the astrolabe, but it was invented by the Greeks nearly 800 years before Islam. They improved upon algebra, but did not invent it. They did do well in preserving the works of Plato and Aristotle, but the Byzantines and the Catholic Church were already doing a fine job at it already, as the Byzantines were mainly Greeks themselves, and the Catholic Church was busy trying to preserve what pieces of the glory of Rome they could after the fall of the Empire. You can correllate the decline of the caliphate with the shortage of conquered infidels. As the West began to surpass the Muslims, Islam ran out of infidels they could easily sujugate and excat tribute from. From there, Islam coasted, then declined, the final collapse coming after it's defeat in World War One. More books are translated to Spanish than have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years. This suggests, at best, a very closed society. Among those they do translate: Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This suggests that Islam is not the Religion of Peace, nor the great flowering scientific achievement it's said to be.