Islam peaceful or belligerent?

[passionate]

I am extremely confused regarding the methods of Islamic spread at its beginning, as every Muslim I know tells me that Islam spread through peace, wisdom and love yet all the history books I have read both western and eastern say other wise so I am merely seeking the truth on this matter as I will educate you on how Christianity spread from Judea to fill the entire world as it is today through love and tranquility for those are the hands of god our lord, never steel and war for those are hated by the lord.

Christianity existed several centuries prior to the birth of Islam, and by the time Islam had begun Christianity was well established at its center in Europe. Christianity originally sprouted in the Middle East after Christ’s resurrection in A.D. 30. The church began in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and it initially preached the Gospel only to the Jews. It grew quite rapidly for a time—in fact; the book of Acts records the conversion of 3000 Jews in a single, extraordinary day. During this early period, however, Christianity did not expand far beyond Jerusalem and its vicinity. That would soon change, after the first few years of relative peace for the church; a terrible persecution broke out following the stoning of Stephen. Jewish leaders hunted down the followers of Jesus and threw them into prison. At this time many in the church scattered to the surrounding countryside of Judea and Samaria. Christianity’s worldwide expansion was beginning. The followers of Jesus Christ continued to teach those things that he had taught them. They taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for. Many people throughout the Mediterranean accepted these teachings, and became known as Christians. Mean while in Rome: Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ who was entrusted with the administration of his church after he died. Traveled to Rome where he is believed to have established a Christian community before he was martyred. All popes are, then, successors of Peter not only as leading the Christian community in Rome, but also as leading the Christian community in general, and they maintain a direct connection to the original apostles. For the next 300 years, Christianity was practiced by many city dwellers in private. Roman officials viewed Christians as a threat, and often had them killed. Christians continued to establish churches, and to spread their religion, but they did so discreetly.
In A.D. 312 an important Roman general by the name of Constantine was converted to Christianity through a spiritual experience he had on the battlefield. That same year, Constantine was made emperor of Rome. Under his leadership, Constantine offered protection to Christians, allowing Christian churches to be built throughout the empire, and allowing Christianity to spread more quickly. By A.D. 392 Christianity had become a powerful force in Rome. It was practiced from border to border. In this same year, the emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the state religion, and outlawed all other religious practices. Christians began to organize their church into parishes, which were overseen by priests. Several parishes formed what was called a diocese.

This was a brief scroll in the early Christian history and as you people can see there was no such thing as wars, blood or violence on the behalf of the holy apostles or the Christians instead they sacrificed every thing they had to spread the word of Jesus Christ our lord who did for their sins and mine, they were being crucified, tortured and abused but that didn’t stop them from spreading the word of the lord. And for over 300 years Christianity was spreading without using blood shed! Truth, love and faith were the weapons of those holy men whom died to spread the words of our lord Jesus Christ.
Now here are my questions regarding the spread of Islam during the early phases of Muhammad and his followers:
-You people say that Muhammad didn’t like the spilling of blood then why do I read in history books that he led 27 battles in which 9 of them he fought him self or so say some of the Arabic history books I have read? Is it possible to fight in 9 battles and not kill one man and hate violence?
-I don’t understand how you people say that Islam is such a peaceful religion and your prophet who is every Muslim's idol fought 27 battles in less then 12 years. Please explain this to me I find my self in a dark room surrounded by voices that I can't understand!
-Did he or did he not order the complete annihilation of an entire Jewish tribe in Medina that had a population of 700 men who were slaughtered like sheep in one day?
- Did he or did he not send over 60 raids after appointing one of his followers to raid and pillage from other none Muslim tribes?
-Why did Muhammad fight only the Christian orthodox Roman Byzantines and not fight against the heretic Persians who were Zoroastrians?

That’s all I have to ask regarding Mohammad now I would like to ask about those who came after him the 4 caliphates (some books say that there were 5 caliphates others say 4 as I am not certain about this I hope you excuse my deficit in historical knowledge) :

-Wasn’t it the caliphates top priority to recruit armies and send them to rage wars on Persia and the Byzantines?
-isn't General Khalid ibn al-Walid considered one of the brightest Islamic idols? Considering that he engaged over 50 battles and never lost making him one of the most ruthless killers of all time.
-didn’t the Muslims fight in numerous battles after Mohammed's death such as the yarmouk and al-Qādisiyyah epic battles resulting in over 200 thousand casualties of troops only not to mansion countless enslavements? In which they conquered all the lands from Morocco west to Pakistan east and Georgia north to Sudan south?

-Why do you Muslims consider what the holy crusaders did to the Muslims in Jerusalem when they first entered city at 1099 A.D an evil massacre, When the Muslims had killed far more Christians in their self raised battles?

Another frontier I would like to discuses;
Why do you Muslims claim that you are the origin of all modern science, when the short Islamic scientific revolution had begun after translation of Greek, roman and ancient Asian scrolls into Arabic for your brightest to study and develop? It was pretty much you feeding on the knowledge of the nations you had conquered and built over it which was mostly Greek philosophy and roman science.

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

As far as I can view this, Muhammad lived in harsh and utterly barbaric times. I do not think of him as a monster (necessarily), but merely a man of his time. Now that does NOT mean I condone everything he did — indeed, I condemn plenty that took place during his ‘revelatory period’. The mistake, however, I think comes from those who wish to emulate and imitate his actions 1400 years later.

I think I read this in a Karen Armstrong book, but she (or someone) stated that we should view those times more like the era of King David. ‘Arabs lived vicious cycles of vendettas and counter–vendettas, they had scant resources and resorted to Biblically–flavoured punishments for the smallest of transgressions (eye for an eye, etc.) but conducted these against entire families, not simply the guilty party.

I consider it a serious error of judgement to think that we must imitate the actions of others without considering why we do such a thing for ourselves. We also need to take into account the morality of everything we as people do.

Islam represents the thoughts and actions of a man who lived centuries before us. Christianity does the same, as does ‘Judaism’ (a series of various cults overlaid repeatedly upon each other until they merged into one confused whole). Once we take them out of their earthed, grounded context and hold them up as eternal and immutable absolutes sanctioned by God we run into serious problems…

[MikeH]

This idea that “Christians can exist peacefully within any government. Islam cannot because it is tied to the state”, I found to be mistaken in part, a large part.
This means Christians can exist peacefully within an Islamic government. So what is the problem? The Islamic government makes certain demands of its citizens, and the Christians comply.
Isn’t that what you tell us?
Have I missed something?

Sorry to take so long to respond. I was not on the board throughout the holidays. Yes, a Christian could live peacefully within an Islamic government. But it that the government you would choose to live in, risking your life everyday for your beliefs, if you had the choice to live in a free society where you could worship without fear?

[BeHereNow]

MikeH

Hope you had a peaceful and pleasant Christmas season.

You have not convinced me Christians would peacefully live within an Islamic government.
Here in the States we have a free society, yet many Christians feel compelled to insinuate their beliefs into the daily life of the remainder of the citizens. They are not content to post "In God we Trust" on their bedroom walls, they insist it be on our money, which Jesus taught is not the lords domain, but rather man's domain.
They desire to insinuate their religion in all of our laws.
Religion leads to militantism, Christianity is no exception.
Or so I would argue.