I do blame Islam, but not necessarily Muhammad, for some ugly aspects of Jihad, immediately after Muhammad’s death… the methodology of figuring out who was Muslim and who was not was rather nasty and stupid, but I technically can’t blame Muhammad or the Koran for this, as this came postmortem for Muhammad. It is a product of shitty, shortsighted logic, and not of Just War Theory. Koran doesn’t direct Jihad is to be militant dickheads in all things when in doubt, you could just as easily use wisdom and foresight, political means and compromise, limited force when it doesn’t contradict the koran and be just as Muslim. All too often that’s not the case in Islamic history.
I’m also not a big fan of how Muhammad handled the Jews and Christians in Medina. They were stupid for agreeing to let an outsider cultist to run their show, but hey… their mistake, they died for their stupidity. This control over these populations in Medina’s Valley hardly includes christians and Jews outside of it, Muslims have zero right to dictate the beliefs of others, especial emphasis on Christians and Jews who never signed up under Muhammad’s political compact, outside that valley. If a idiot Muslim tried doing it to me, bones would be broken, I have zero tolerance for fools imposing themselves upon me. You can walk around shouting whatever slogans you want, but don’t you dare lay a finger on me, my ancestors never lived under the yoke of the crescent and I am quite insistent on my independence and continuation of my beliefs. They come from God, and will suffer no trespass from any backwater fool trying to force me otherwise.
This being said, this forum is full of a bunch of idiots who hate all Muslims, Christians, or Jews, or Black People… it is a very liberal crowd. Think they should have knowledge on the topics they speak on before denouncing it. Islam is a favorite punching bag, far more than it should be. Most here don’t understand it. True, the propaganda that “Islam = Peace” is clearly bullshit by now, everyone knows it, but at the same time, the religion isn’t as bad as everyone thinks, and has far more redeeming qualities than bad. I won’t say it works that well though, and has evident faults. I like reformist like Gulen who went back to the philosophical classics, studied other religions, and examined Islam in this light. I’m not scared of the enlighred Muslim, but the closed minded one. I’m also afraid of closed minded anyone, of any creed, or apparent lack of creed. Leads to needless repression and violence. Wahabbi has this in spades.