Teach me about Islam.

My apologies for the late response. I have been inundated with work and projects lately, so I have not had as much time to spend here countering the anti-American hatred on the forum as much as I normally do.

There is no misguiding in the verses I noted. They are very well written, translate very well through various islamic scholars and they mean exactly what they say.

The verse stands on it's own. The quran was invented by a man who was illiterate...could not read or write. As such, it does not need a Masters degree to understand it.

mohammads purpose was clearly to take over and convert through violence. He did "initially" try through less violent methods, but it wasn't working. I bolded the important part above. You make a good argument here...that in islam, you do what is imposed upon you, or you die. This is not "for the good of all" but for the good of islam. islam does not care about what others want, it cares about what it wants to impose upon others.

This is incorrect. Jizyah is an infidel tax. Non-believers (in islamic countries where non-believers are actually allowed) were second class citizens called dhimmis. In order to not be killed, they paid a special infidel tax. As second class citizens, they had few rights, could not run for offices, could not participate in leadership roles. They could not openly practice their faith and were forced to abide by islamic rules. There is no glory in this tax. It's racism at it's finest.

Really? So why are there no Jewish bistros in Meccah? Do Christians and Jews freely practice their religion in Saudi Arabia? How many Christians and Jews "freely" practice their religion in the palestinian territories?

Jizyah is extortion money paid by infidels for protection living under barbaric islamic regimes.

Let's look at it's first use:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/the_truth_about_islamic_crusad.html

Extortion. Convert, pay the infidel tax, or die.

This is a complete white washing of history. muslims, including mohammad, raped, pillaged, stole and fought through violence to spread it's religion. They were not victims, but aggressors.

muslims were not defenders. They were aggressors. History shows this. The verses in the quran I pointed out, run parallel to how islam spread and how islam went on rampages of murdering and stealing from others in the name of their new "God."

islam is always at war. As long as the world is not subjugated to islam, then it is at war. In islam, it is no appropriate to transgress war upon others without first offering a da'wa. A da'wa, in most cases, being an open invitation to convert to islam. Rejecting this da'wa is grounds for war. Iran's president issued a da'wa to Bush (I believe it was last year).

Incorrect. It's clear from the verses that muslims ARE to fight against the non-believers. They will convert, pay the jizyah (if allowed to pay extortion money) or die.

To even suggest such, as bolded above, is a completely dishonest argument. The quran and hadith are filled with violence (which you are currently trying to defend) that instructs muslims to not befriend non-believers, kill non-believers, fight non-believers until they are subdued. There simply is no comparison to the Bible (which you are trying to do here, to mask the violence of islam). Nothing in the Bible tells us that we have to kill anyone. Sure, in the Bible, there were times when God uses certain people for his purpose at certain times, but it was an event in time, not a command from here to eternity. These "here to eternity" commands are very much part of islam.

If anyone wants to see islam in action, just visit the religion of peace website.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/052.sbt.html#004.052.177

Kind of puts things in perspective, no?

Let's take a look at the rest of early history where muslims were supposedly just "defending" themselves:

War, violence, spread through the sword and conquest. These are not "defensive" manuevers. Let's not rewrite history.

 

One thing that really amuses me, is that some extremely radical preachers of Islam, some possibly key figures in some Islamic organisations, (Yes I'm talking about the bad guys. So don't accuse me of racism or something) despise atheists more than Jewish and Christian followers. Hah, makes me feel so special