Islam is a ruthless and barbaric religion

When Islam swept through the Byzantine world, they looted, raped, and pillaged Constantinople for three days, put most of the Christians there to the sword, and sold the rest in slavery. Do not point fingers when your religion has done just as bad and worse. Muslim Spain was a different dynasty than the other Muslims to the east. They were comparably more tolerant, but the Christians and Jews there still suffered persecution and humiliation under their Muslim masters. The majority of the Coptic Christians reside in Egypt, where the church was established, and is one of the only places in the Muslim world where any religion other than Islam is in any substantial minority. Islam had no interest in destroying infidel populations while the were still profitable. They gave tribute to the state to be able to worship their God unmolested. They were the primary income for the state treasury. Islam had no interest in killing them all, only the ones who resisted their advance. Though part of the Islamic world, India was it's own dynasty, the Moghul Empire. The main form of Islam is Sufism, traditionally worlds more peaceful and tolerant of it's Shia and Sunni cousins. Infidels were treated comparatively better there due to philosophical parallels with Hindu ideology, like nonviolence and monism. Though they had their moments of brutality and intolerance, they wer all around better than the rest. The Eastern Africa is a battleground now thanks to the warriors of Islam. Conflicts in Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Ethiopia and the like are mianly due to and Islamic minority that is trying to speed up the implementation of Sharia by killing of the Christian populations there. Such cannot be said as much for nations like Madagascar, but these seem to be the exception rather than the rule. Malaysia had found Islam from India, and has been persecuting the native Buddhist populations there, though on a much smaller scale, due to the existance of mainly Sufi Islam. The same is true for Indonesia. Islam may have spread without the sword to these places, but they are quickly turning those swords on the ever dwindling non Muslims in both countries. Thomas Carlyle was right. But Muhammed found his sword quicker than most men's ideas did. In less than 200 years after the death of the Prophet, Islam had and empire that stretched from Spain to modern-day Afghanistan. Even the might of Rome wasn't that quick to rouse, and the Romans were a truly bloodthirsty people. This must be telling about the followers of the Prophet. Islam got it's sword, and when it did, they slashed violently, cutting far, wide, and deep across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and even Europe. No people, nation, or religion expanded so quickly, excepting the Mongolians. You and I both know that 2:256 was abrogated by later verses. That Sura was one of the Meccan ones, back when Muhammed was small time amogst the Pagans. he had to be tolerant, or else he'd be killed or ousted. It was his later verses, the Medinian ones, that carried the verses of hate and intolerance. Suras like 9 and 8 are the worst, and they are both Medinian verses. Muhammed had soldiers and followers by this time, and had no reason to go back to Mecca quietly. Muhammad organized 65 military campaigns in the last ten years of his life and personally led 27 of them. The more power that he attained, the smaller the excuse needed to go to battle, until finally he began attacking tribes merely because they were not part of his growing empire. Abrogation removed this troublesome verse without making Islam seem contradictory. Most of the peaceful verses of the Qur'an ended this same way. Sura 2:106 "None of our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: knowest thou not that Allah hath power over all things?" Even the power to change his mind as opportunity arises. The Sword of the Intellect sounds pretty, but every religion sounds pretty when you look at verses like this. Muhammed's idea of this was to send letters to all the leaders of the powers he knew of and ask them to join Islam. When they refused, so commenced the jihad. A lot of fat good the arguing did them, huh? If Islam was so true and so convincing, it would seem fitting that most Byzantines woul simply convert. But they had heard the stories of what Islam had done to their breathren in other areas, so they fought to the bloody end. The glorious Byzantine Empire was brought to a violent, bloody, and humiliating end on May 29, 1453. But they died on their feet as men, rather than cowards who accepted Islamic tyranny. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, but not because so many see the light of Islam. Besides, Islam grew 235% over a period of 50 years, but was comparably smaller and less advanced than Christianity, so the figures are really not as high as the percentage would say. Islamic birth rates are higher than Christian ones, because more Muslims live in places with dirt floorsm thatched roofs, and large families than Christians, one of the reasons for it's expansion. Another reason, one that Muslims should be ashamed of, is this. Let's say that you are playing chess with a 6-year-old boy. Instead of following the same set of rules, however, the child is allowed to make up rules that are preferential to him. One of the rules he decides on is that you aren't allowed to make any moves in his half of the board, but he is allowed to make moves in yours. Another might be that it is impossible for any of his pieces to be taken. Now, if the child is winning the game – which is assured by the conditions that he has imposed - is it really something in which he can take true pride? The rules that Muslims impose on the "conversion game" are almost exactly like this chess analogy. Other religions are not allowed to operate in Islam's own territory (ie. preaching their faith and evangelizing) as Muslims are in others. Neither is conversion away from Islam allowed – on penalty of death. Watching Muslims gloat over being the "fastest growing religion" is no different than watching a child delude themselves into thinking that they are smarter and better for "beating" a much wiser adult in a game played under manufactured conditions that render the artificial "victory" entirely meaningless. In matters of conversion, where faiths are given free reign to compete, like in the West, and unlike in much of the Islamic world, conversions to Christianity are double that of Islam. Islam has less of an appeal when it's not the only religion around. And I think it's sort of despicable when people idolize someone as intolerant, violent, and desrespectful towards women as Muhammed. And he was a pedophile, to boot. Most of us think there's something sick about a 54 year old man marrying a girl when she's 6 and consummating the relationship when she's 9. I'll save the mistreatment of women for another debate. Most of the time when bombs go off, it usually is some Islamic terrorist nutjob. We base things on precedent: if an Islamist did it before, it'll most likely be one next time. Somalia, Madrid, New York, Washington, London, Kashmir, Sudan, Israel and Palestine, Paris, Amsterdam, Chechnya. Wherever there's a problem, not necessarily involving bombs, half the involved parties are the followers of some fellow named Muhammed. And, unfortunately, that's normally true. raheelsoh, I want to give an enormous thank you to you for debating with me. I hope we are able to debate this further whenever we can. Just as in yourlast argument, you have shown yourself to be quite the debator. This was a GREAT debate, my friend! I'll try your thing. Salaam alaikum.