Is there more evidence for Islam being a "religion of peace and
tolerance" or for Islam being a "religion of violence and conquest"?

Note that I am not trying to be incendiary: this is a question I?m
trying to answer for myself.  You hear some Muslims say that Islam is
a peaceful and tolerant religion, but then you see (like now) all of
the violence, riots, and killings because someone drew a cartoon that
offended them.

I?ve done a little reading on the matter, and was very concerned when
I heard one teaching that said that Muslims should offer infidels only
3 choices: conversion, subjugation, or death.

One of my best previous managers was a Muslim.  In talking to her
once, she seemed to say that a basic belief of Islam is that everyone
should eventually be converted to Islam.  She didn?t rule out Jihad or
forced conversions.  I was quite taken aback at this belief from a
very bright, well-educated person that I respected.

The question I want answered is the first line of this message.  As
evidence for or against, you may want to use answers to these
subsidiary questions:

What are the Muslim teachings regarding tolerance (from the Koran, not
just some Imam?s opinion)?

What are the Muslim teachings regarding spreading the faith (again,
from the Koran)?

Are there examples of Muslims and non-Muslims living together, long-term, in peace?

Do present-day majority Muslim countries treat non-Muslims as full
citizens or as second-class citizens?

Are there any examples of Islam tolerating different religions when it
wasn?t forced to by circumstances?

An acceptable answer will be an OBJECTIVE analysis of the situation. 
Obviously biased positions, either for or against, are not what I?m
looking for.  A politically correct answer is also not what I?m
looking for.

Dear JH963, 

What are the Muslim teachings regarding tolerance?
What are the Muslim teachings regarding spreading the faith? 

Before I will give you some relevant passages, I would like to make a
point. Asking for quotes ?only from the Qur?an? is in fact missing the
point. To base Islam only on the Qur?an is something like basing
Judaism on the Old Testament only (without reference to the Talmud and
to rabbinical literature). Islam is a religion that bases itself on
teachings of traditions and interpretations. In fact, there are four
major streams in Sunni Islam (and there are streams that are not Sunni
? first and foremost Shiite Islam, but also Ahmaddiya, Yazidi Islam,
etc.) and each has its own legal tradition and interpretations of the
?law?. The Haddith, the chain of stories and sayings relating to the
Prophet, is very central to the faith.

However, as you requested, I will refer mostly to the Qur?an. There
are different passages in the Qur?an that contradict themselves
regarding the treatment of other religions and the spread of Islam.
This allows for different interpretations. On the one hand, there are
verses like:
?Let there be no compulsion in Religion." (Sura 2:257).
"If they shall dispute with thee, then say: I have surrendered myself
to God, as have they who follow me. Say to those who have received the
Book, and to the common folk, Do ye surrender yourselves unto God? If
they become Muslims, then are they guided aright: but if they turn
away -- thy duty is only preaching; and God's eye is on His servants."
(Sura 3:18-19).

On the other hands: 
"And kill them wherever ye shall find them, and eject them from
whatever place they have ejected you; for civil discord is worse than
carnage: yet attack them not at the sacred Mosque, unless they attack
you therein; but if they attack you, slay them. Such the reward of the
infidels...Fight therefore against them until there be no more civil
discord, and the only worship be that of God: but if they desist, then
let there be no hostility, save against the wicked." (Sura 2:187-189).

"War is prescribed to you: but from this ye are averse." (Sura 2:212).

"O ye who believe! when ye meet the marshalled hosts of the infidels,
turn not your backs to them: Whoso shall turn his back to them on that
day, unless he turn aside to fight, or to rally to some other troop,
shall incur wrath from God: Hell shall be his abode and wretched the
journey thither!" (Sura 8:16).

"Say to the infidels: If they desist from their unbelief, what is now
past shall be forgiven them; but if they return to it, they have
already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them
till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.  If
they desist, verily God beholdeth what they do..." (Sura 8:39-40).

"And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods
with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them,
and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall
convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let
them go their way, for God is Gracious, Merciful." (Sura 9:5).

It should be mentioned, that I am discussing here only the aspect of
tolerance towards other religions and the question of how Muslims
should convert others (by the force of the sword or by persuasion).
Not the question of tolerance towards homosexuals, women, etc.

So, does the Islam tolerate other religions or not? 

Further Reading
--------------------
The Qu'ran's attitude toward the Jews?
< http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=266036> 

What the Qur?an Says ? Religious Tolerance
< http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/says_about/religious_tolerance.html> 

Are there examples of Muslims and non-Muslims living together, long-term, in peace?
Yes, there are. Under the auspices of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922),
Jews and Christians were acceptable, and moreover, except for paying
extra-taxes were usually not persecuted. Paying extra-taxes seems to
be the least of the hardships suffered by Jews under Christian
governments at the same time.

Naturally, one can also point to the fact that under the rule of the
Soviet Union, Muslims and non-Muslims lived together in peace. This
was not only because of the political and personal price that one
would have to pay for expressing fundamentalist (or religious)
sentiments; this was also due to the indoctrination and the
socialization in the Soviet system ? many Muslims who live today in
ex-Soviet (or ex-Communist) countries are ?secular? Muslims, and in
any case away from any persecution of non-Muslims in the region.

Some ex-Soviet or formerly communist countries are today independent
Muslim countries, where minorities are tolerated and not persecuted.
Turkey is a ?secular? country since 1922, and there are Jews and
Christians (as well as Alawites, Alevis, and other groups). The
Turkish state is of course no paradise if you?re a Kurd, but this
hasn?t got to do with Islam. Until the foundation of the State of
Israel, Jews lived relatively without any persecution in most Muslim
countries. The current King of Morocco has a Jewish advisor, and there
are Jews in the country today.

Jewish Cultural Heritage During Islamic Classical Period
< http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=287881> 

Do present-day majority Muslim countries treat non-Muslims as full
citizens or as second-class citizens?
Depends which ones. I have mentioned the ex-Soviet Muslim states in
Central Asia, Morocco and Turkey in my answer before. Unlike Turkey,
Morocco is not a secular country. In fact, the King is Amir
al-Muminin, the religious chief, and is claimed to be descendants of
the Prophet Mohammed. This is part of his authority.

On the other hand, you have other Muslim countries, where minorities
are not tolerated or live very unhappily. For example, Saudi Arabia.
See:

How many synagogues are there in Saudi Arabia? 
<http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=353796>

Are there any examples of Islam tolerating different religions when it
wasn?t forced to by circumstances?

Yes, see the example of the Ottoman Empire and its treatment of Jews
and Christians; or that of Morocco (obviously, the secular Turkish and
Soviet regimes ?forced? integration). However, it should be mentioned,
in any case, that Islam?s tolerance of other religions is limited to
Judaism and Christianity. Buddhism or Hinduism are not monotheistic
religions and do not get equal treatment (although, in practice,
Hindus were tolerated in part of the history of the Mughul Empire);
the Baha?i Faith receives even harsher treatment in most Muslim
countries, perhaps because Baha?ullah was a Muslim, and his teachings
are seen as ?betrayal of Islam?.

I don?t know if one could conclude anything from the two questions
regarding the level of tolerance in Islam, because of the difference
faces of Islam. Some Jews are die-hard Zionists, some are die-hard
anti-Zionist (the Jewish state should be built until Messiah is
coming, some say), and some are ambivalent. Could one talk about the
?Jewish stand? in relation to Zionism? I know that there are people
who do that, but this would be hardly clever, given the variety. The
same applies to Islam.

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it. Search terms: various
search terms to find quotes of the Qur?an and other specific points in
my answer.

Good job answering my question, with a little "reading between the lines".

It would also be helpful to point out that the contradicting verses of
the Qur'an in regard to the treatment of non-Muslims are resolved when
you take into consideration the chronology of the Qur'an.  The Qur'an
was not written based on chronology, but rather the length of the
Surahs (Chapters).

When the Qur'an is organized chronologically, the verses such as there
is no compulsion in religion and any others that appear to deal mildly
with infidels corresponds to the era of Muhammad's life prior to his
religion Islam being rejected by "the people of the book" (Jews and
Christians).

Muhammad took steps toward winning Jewish and Christian converts to
the new faith by doing things such as mandating prayer be made in the
direction of Jerusalem (later changed to Mecca) and referring to
himself as an apostle.  The Jews and Christians, however, saw that
Muhammad could not be a messenger from God considering the fact he had
recently allowed idol worship to appease the officials of Mecca (who
profited from the idol business) and rejected both him and his new
religion.

This infuriated Muhammad and he gradually became more and more hostile
to all non-Muslims, especially Jews.  Find a site that organizes the
Qur'an chronologically and compare that to a timeline of the events in
Muhammad's life and you can see the reason for the conflicting verses
on how to treat non-Muslims and conclude that as Muhammad left Islam
for subsequent Muslims, no, it was not intended to be a religion of
peace, but of revenge, submission to Islam's god and Islam's Muslims
who bear the sword in his stead.

Hello Politicalguru_ga,

I'm actually jh963.  Something happened to that account (perhaps due
to the fact that the expiration date on the credit card was obsolete?)
and I couldn't accept your answer, rate your answer, or ask for
clarification.  (I've sent email to google_answers to try to
straighten it out.)  I had to create a new account to be able to
respond.

I appreciate your answer and your work, and wanted to thank you for
it.  While you didn't DIRECTLY answer my main question (and I can
understand why you would approach it gingerly), you did supply enough
information and links for me to make up my own mind.

Thanks,
jh963 / jh1901

Politicalguru,
That was an excellent answer, I think.
ONe could also include Spain from the 8th to 15th century as an area
of toleration, which, however, allows an impression that maybe
political subjugation was involved where toleration seemed to
function.  On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire welcomed Sephardic
Jews after the Reconquista.
On the other side of the Islamic world, in Indonesia, Hindus are
tolerated by a bit of reinterpretation of Hinduism.  Since the State
accepts monotheistic religions, they and the local Hindus have agreed
that one of the two or three major Hindu gods is the primary one.
As to toleration in Central Asia, I understand that a great portion of
the Jews in Usbekistan have emigrated since the early 1990s following
the "rebirth" of Islam, which was suppressed under Soviet rule, which
only allowed a token number of Imams to be trained.

A comment on the questioner's manager's statement about Islam:
"...she seemed to say that a basic belief of Islam is that everyone
should eventually be converted to Islam."
This is correct, a logical attitude for anyone who believes that his
or hers is the only true religion, hence a certain tolerance for those
who hadn't yet "seen the light" but none whatsoever to those who
turned away from Islam.
That is indeed the problem for the BahaŽi faith, and to some extent
for the Ahmaddiya.

Christians once felt quite the same in some areas.  The treatment of
the American natives in the 16th century was often "conversion,
subjugation or death"  - maybe conversion AND subjugation or death.

Smitty's comment was very enlightening.

Regards, Myoarin

I just realized today that there are quite a lot of questions relating
to Islam here. Let's see what I can do to help around.

Re: various Quran verses, as with other sacred texts, many of these
can't be read literally. There are methods to be able to properly
understand it - which is called "tafseer"

To properly master Tafseer, one will have to study for years on a lot
of subjects - arabic, islam history, hadith, and so on.
This is why there are a lot of books on Quran's tafseer which are
aimed at layman, so they can also understand Quran without undergoing
much of those steps. However, these tafseer books of course can not be
as comprehensive and can not really replace years of proper study.

Anyway, to really sum it up, here are a few steps to tafseer /
understanding a Quranic verses:

# Check its "asbabun nuzul", its cause. Many verses were given to the
Prophet due to certain event. Knowing and understanding of this event
will enable us to get the proper context for that particular verses;
thus enabling us to better understand it.

# A quranic verse can be explained by other verse. 

# A quranic verse can be explained by hadith (saying & action of the Prophet)

# etc.

In regard to various Quranic verses which (seems to) advocate
violence; if you try to properly "tafseer" it, you'll find that indeed
Islam is a religion of peace.
Many of these "violent verses" has been translated out of context,
translated literally, and so on.

I was discussing on an atheist forum about 2 years ago, and was thrown
in quite a lot of these "violent" verses. I took time to check it
proper tafseer, and find out that:

1. some strictly discuss about the Mecca infidels - which indeed has
done much harm on early muslim. Many were tortured slowly to gruesome
death.

2. some verses only advocate violence / war when the muslims are attacked first

3. some verses advocate harsh punishments to those who deserves it.

In general, Muhammad was a very kind person. For example, there was
this blind Jewish beggar who says really bad words against him. But
Muhammad feed him, everyday, with his own hands; without telling the
beggar who he really is. When Muhammad died, his closest companion,
Abu Bakr, decided to continue this. But once he started to feed the
beggar, he complained loudly, saying that Abu Bakr is not the person
who used to feed him, since, "he used to feed me much more gently than
this". At this moment Abu Bakr can't hold his tears, and finally told
the beggar who has been feeding him all this time. The beggar,
astounded by this, then converted to Islam.

In another example, there was this person who like to throw his urine
over Muhammad whenever Muhammad passes by his house. One day, Muhammad
passed his house, but wasn't showered as usual. He asked, and was told
that the man is sick. Muhammad than took time to visit him and wish
him well. The man then converted to Islam.

Also Muhammad loves the real ahlul kitab / people of the book (jews,
christian) dearly. So much that he allowed muslims to marry their
women (while this is not allowed for pagans) and muslims to eat their
food. And Muhammad treats them very kindly.
However, to those who betrays him, especially in war, the standard
punishment applies (death). This part is what has been put in
spotlight a lot, which is pretty misleading indeed.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Hope this short writing helps you
somehow to get a fuller picture of Islam.
Thanks.

The complete answer to your question from qur'an and hadith which are
the two main source of Islam.

http://en.fgulen.com/a.page/books/a1077.html?PHPSESSID=7bbb54a3d27b0669e4e240d36090efab

This site has all answers and examples to your question. search within this site.

http://en.fgulen.com/

http://www.news.faithfreedom.org/