Islamophobia is Only a Phobia if there is Nothing to Fear – Is Islam Truly a Religion of Peace?

Let’s start the discussion we should have had long ago.

Is Islam a religion of peace? Yes or no

And

How do we know? What is the basis for our conclusion?

A rational civil discussion. 

Insults and crude language will be removed from comments. 

Islamic Terror is Old News Happening to New People – The 3rd President of The United States of America Thomas Jefferson and His War on Islamic Terror

USS Philadelphia burning at the Battle of Tripoli Harbor during the First Barbary War in 1804

“All new news is just old news happening to new people. ”
~Malcolm Muggeridge~

Things certainly are getting sporty on the world scene. Islam is increasingly in the news to where you can’t escape from it.
And I have a friend who is ex-Muslim and a Doctor, so I already knew more than I wanted to know about Islam.
One thing that we should know is in our history. It was about the year 1800.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams asked the Ambassador of Tripoli why they were attacking U.S. merchant ships and enslaving the sailors without provocation from the U.S.

Thomas Jefferson then wrote a letter to John Jay that read:

“The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman [Muslim] who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

This is loosely based upon the Qur’an’s teaching from Surah 47:4 which reads,

“Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens. Thus (are ye commanded): but if it had been Allah’s Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah,- He will never let their deeds be lost.”

This cycle of violent and unprovoked oppression started with Muhammad and has been repeated throughout the 1300 plus year history of Islam, having at one time conquered and held 3 times as many square miles as the ancient Roman empire.

Islam is not a religion of peace. Even Shia and Sunni Muslims have been in conflict since Muhammad died. To be fully devoted to Islam means militant aggression against all infidels.
Moderate Islamic people flee devoted Islamic people and seek refuge in predominantly Christian countries, only to have the devoted eventually follow.
Islam demands Muslims fight to advance Islam until all the world submits. They believe this will end war even though Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims have been in conflict since Muhammad died 1300 years ago.

Read more at http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/05/barbary-wars-how-thomas-jefferson-led-americas-first-war-on-terror/#UcF5FuEAbbeh0SYR.99

Other books on the Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World, by Frank Lambert (2005);Jefferson’s War: America’s First War on Terror 1801–1805, by Joseph Wheelan (2003); To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and Marines, by A. B. C. Whipple (1991, republished 2001); and Victory in Tripoli: How America’s War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation, by Joshua E. London (2005). Most recently, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, the Israeli scholar Michael Oren.