Islam is a religion of peace.

The problem with cherry-picking the earlier verses of peace from the Quran is the Islamic use of abrogation and Taqiyya (holy deception). ABROGATION-- It is explained in the Qur’an that if two or more passages contradict or conflict with each other, the passage written later abrogates the ones written earlier. The peaceful, tolerant passages that were transcribed early in the prophetic career of Mohammad have been abrogated (cancelled and annulled) by the more violent and less tolerant, later passages (e. g. “the Muslims themselves know that such early verses as 'There is no compulsion in religion' and 'If you kill one person it is as if you killed the whole of humanity' are null, void and abrogated by the later 'Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them'. ” [0] TAQIYYA-- Muslims are permitted to lie to non-believers about the truth of Islam to further Islam. Many of them quote the peaceful verses without indicating that they were abrogated by later verses. Although I do find it funny that a religion that has it's own name based off of a word for peace is now widely regarded as violent. Islam means submission. In Arabic, words only have one root, and the root word of Islam is "al-Silm," which means "submission. ” This is accepted by virtually all Muslim scholars. [1] It is only lesser-educated Muslims and outsiders who make the claim that Islam means peace. UK Muslim leader, Anjem Choudary confirms this, “Islam does not mean peace. It means submission. ” [2] Quran 3:19 also confirms, “The Religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will): Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except through envy of each other, after knowledge had come to them. But if any deny the Signs of Allah, Allah is swift in calling to account. ” Not only does the Quran call Muslims to submit to Allah, but it orders Muslims to force people of other religions to convert to Islam until they are under Islamic rule. Quran 9:29 confirms this, “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. ” [4]It is clear here that the Quran does not advocate holy wars or unprovoked attacks on "unbelievers. " The penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. Furthermore, Allah recommends death and destruction to disbelievers:2:191 And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.2:193bBut if there are any wrong-doers around after you've killed off all the disbelievers, persecutors and aggressors, then you'll have to kill them too.2:193aAllah says that you must keep fighting until there is no more persecution and everyone on earth is a Muslim. Then you can stop killing people.4:89Have no unbelieving friends. Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them.4:91If the unbelievers do not offer you peace, kill them wherever you find them. Against such you are given clear warrant. If you look into Islamic history, it shows that the religion originally spread through missionary activities rather than violence “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. ” [5] Islam swept through the Middle East and North Africa at the point of a sword. Accusing it of being a violent religion and taking passages from the Quran out of context merely shows a denial of truth and a desperate need to affirm a preexisting bias against it. No one needs to take the Quran out of context to demonstrate that the passages are laden with cruelty, violence, and intolerance. When Saladin, the Arab commander who drove the Crusaders out of the holy land, captured Jerusalem, he not only signed a peace treaty and saved the Christians from dying but allowed them to continue to worship there. This is not to be attributed to the Quran or Islam in general, but diplomacy of a great leader. Also, you sort of have to overlook the millions of people who were killed in those wars to glean something positive out of this statement. My quote is also a question to Pro. "If Islam is a religion of peace, then why is it the only one that consistently produces religiously-motivated terrorist attacks each and every day of the year? "Sources[0] . http://crombouke.blogspot.com...[1] . http://wikiislam.net...[2] . http://www.jihadwatch.org...[3] . http://www.cmje.org...[4] . http://www.cmje.org...[5] . http://www.thereligionofpeace.com...Thank you.