Misconceptions about Islam

There's a lot of misconceptions about "Jihad". "Greater Jihad" is the struggle with yourself to be with God. "Lesser Jihad" is to defend an Islamic homeland or ally from aggressors if all other options (negotiations etc) have been exhausted, and does not condone the killing, raping or robbing of civilians unless they don't surrender until they're completely occupied, at which point they have to choose between officially converting to Islam or being executed. For that time, this was pretty modern. If it weren't for that last bit it would be like an early version of the Geneva convention, something even the USA doesn't abide by today. Not that the later Islamic conquests actually abided by those rules either, and that just goes to show that people determine themselves how their culture influences them and you can't judge them by what religion they believe in, in good or bad ways. Once people go to war, all bets are off and the beast in them is unleashed. Most of the really violent verses in the Quran are about punishments for breaking of rules, such as apostasy or blasphemy — it's not quite as bad as the Old Testament, so if the amount of violence in a Holy Book were any testimony, Jews and Christians would be worse. Instead, everyone just picks whatever verses they most identify with. It can't be denied, though, that to a fundamentalist theocratic state, the violent verses allow them to stage executions for "sins" and no one can stand up to them without risking to be accused of apostasy themselves. On the other hand, Islam was very tolerant towards other creeds once it invaded. Because of course, those countries eventually did surrender, at which point the Quran required them to be forgiven. They then weren't forced to convert to Islam, just coaxed: the indigenous temples were taxed until they could no longer compete. Of course once they'd converted, they were forbidden on the pain of death from apostasy, so it was really a clever trap, open in one direction and closed in the other, like a mouse trap — that's what made it so successful.