The haters of Islam, Muslims, the Prophet Muhammad have been around since the time the message of surrender to the will of Allah was first propagated to the pagan Arabs and to the Christians and Jews living in Arabia.  

All the opponents banded together militarily to no avail and Islam spread (not by the sword as Christianity did in the areas of imperialist conquest or by inheritance as Judaism or Hinduism or other ethnic or racial religions). Of course, there were incidents, as in India where a Moghul emperor tried to impose it on his subjects but this was the exception for the most part as evidenced by the survival of a religion deemed polytheism or idol worship by scholars. The modern stress of Hindu scholars is that it is basically monotheistic but uses images to help the simple worshipper. The history of Muslim rule does have incidents of forced conversion and violence but much less than Christianity. As a missionary religion, it has gained converts more by peaceful means than war. The Turks who conquered the Arabs were conquered themselves peacefully by Islam and though them occupied a large portion of Eastern Europe. However,only Bosnia and Albania had large numbers of converts and only a small minority of Christians became Muslim as the church and the priests controlled the masses and used Christianity as a national identity to preserve their ethnic identity. As the Arabs and Turks gained extra income from non-Muslims because of the "jizya", the capitulation tax, that exempted non-Muslims from military service, there was not a strong campaign to convert them. The strong ethnic/racial component of the adherents of other faiths also was an obstacle in conversion.

The fighting against the unbelievers especially the pagan Arabs was against those who were aggressors out to destroy Islam or to fight Mughal imperialism as with the Punjabi Sikhs who wanted independence and became adherents of a new religion that combined Hinduism and Islam. Sikhism became a warrior religion and a minority have chosen terrorism to try to set up a separate state. Like the Tamils they engaged in suicide bombings and killed civilians.

Christendom was aggressive in trying to counter Islam and to re-conquer the Holy Land which they recently did after WW I and again by supporting the establishment of a Jewish entity there. The Jews also engaged in terrorism before the establishment of Israel and during the ’48 war where they massacred whole villages to drive the Palestinians from their land. One might ask what the Jews would have done if the Arabs had won the war and how much support they would have received from the West to regain what they lost.

After the removal of colonialist control of Muslim lands in the Middle East and Asia after WW II there was a resurgence of Islam that was suppressed by Muslim secular and nationalist rulers with the support of the West who saw a resurgent Islam as a danger to oil interests and the security of the State of Israel which continues its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands through illegal annexation and expansion of settlements..

The strategy of the West is flawed and unbalanced and seeks to avoid the unification and democratization of Muslim countries and the independence of some like Chechnya or Mindano in the Phillipines. A moderate Somali government with the help of the US and Ethiopia receives support to counter the Islamic oriented party. Arab nationalism failed and the Arabs turned to Islam but in Algeria,Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and other areas they are suppressed through intimidation, jailing, torture and with the economic and military support of the US.

The political-nationalist form of Islam grew out of this in the formation of Pakistan and its problems with India regarding the Muslim majority state of Kashmir.

Terrorism mixed with genuine freedom fighting insurgency has stained the name of Islam as a religion of peace and provided fuel for the Islam bashers to demonize Islam, Muslims and the Prophet. In one sense, Muslims must accept their share of the responsibility in failing to develop a genuine Islamic mentality and outlook in the masses. Political Islam seeks to change the society from the top down using violence if necessary especially when democratic means are blocked.

Secularism has become a religion in Turkey and Tunisia and an alternative to shari’at rule in other Muslim countries to a lesser extent. People want to see Islamic justice and a consultative rule by freely selected representatives who rule according to Islamic values based on the Qur'an and the Hadith (the example of the Prophet)

When did all this terrorism and suicide bombings begin? Like all terrorism, whether in Germany, Spain, Italy etc., it begins with a fanatic band of zealots who see no way to achieve their agenda quickly other than by force. However, in the case of Muslims, they see an enemy outside their own lands as well. Osama bin Laden saw the US as an obstacle in getting rid of the Saudi regime and acted accordingly. Though he got a religious ruling from a fanatic scholar, on the legitimacy of killing innocents, it is still considered unacceptable by the majority of scholars and individual Muslims. However, the frustration of the Palestinians and the Muslim street made him a hero in taking on the US as a supporter of its enemy, Israel. In order to capture him, the US decided to take on the Taliban, a group of ignorant but sincere Muslim zealots and support the Afghan nationalists and then to find an excuse to invade Iraq. This has caused an expansion of terrorism throughout the world leaving moderate Muslims in a difficult position of wanting to condemn all violence but not wanting to appear as if they are supporting US policy. It became the so-called yes-but justification, which is not ethically justifiable though it may be understandable.

To take verses from the Qur’an out of context to justify a perpetual aggressive war against all non-Muslims neglects the other verses which condemn aggression and advise making peace except with those who have shown that they could not honor their agreements.

There is a clear agenda on the part of fundamentalist Christians, radical Zionists and neo-cons to demonize Islam. This is to counter any influence of Muslims in the US and to maintain the special relationship it has with Israel.

Those British Muslim terrorists manifest an identity problem that is not present in the US. It does mirror the lack of identity that they have in a land where they were born.

The attacks in Spain and elsewhere by Al-Qaeeda inspired terrorists is part of the radicalization of Muslims who feel that the West is making war on Islam and preventing the establishment of any government based on Islam or seeks the re-establishment of a Caliphate that would unite Muslim states.

Muslims look back on their glorious history and feel humiliated when they reflect on their present condition, politically, economically and intellectually and feel that most of the blame is due to the oppression of the West and lately its support of undemocratic governments and Israel. Muslims must also face the deep rooted problems in their own lands and societies that have not followed Islamic principles. Exploitation of the masses by extremists that is exacerbated by the short-sighted policies of the West remains a problem for any reformation in the way Islam is taught and practiced.

The rise of the Shia state of Iran that is controlled by an ayatollah set up government is now the focus of a particularly US policy that would prefer a purely secular state that represents no threat to their hegemony of the Middle East.

I realize that I may not have been clear enough in explaining my position and some may find my conclusions to cover the goal of Islamdom to rule over the world through jihad and terrorism but I hope that some may try to be objective and read some books that can enlighten them about Islam as a religion that promotes peace but resists aggression and has shown that it has been struggling to survive from attacks by Christendom and by Western imperialism.

I am an American where Muslims can live according to Islam in a way that some Muslim countries do not allow.