is Islam a religion of peace? well, yes and no. it depends on a number of factors. if one is a Muslim, one can (at least theoretically) count on not being attacked by other Muslims. those outside the “house of Islam” (dar al-islam) are inside the “house of war” (dar al-harb). if one is a Christian or a Jew (people of the Book, the Injil or the Taurat), one may generally expect to be left alone (again, at least theoretically) and in fact to be taken care of by Muslims. all of this, of course, is contingent on Muslims being left alone in the first place. if Christians (or anyone else) moves against Muslims first, Muslims have the right to respond with violence (which is why some Muslims believe they are justified in attacking Western countries today, as justice for the Crusades).

for my part, the Muslims I have known have been some of the kindest people I have met. after I was injured in my job at a church, my friend Mahmoud, who owns a restaurant, often let me eat for free. the church i worked for, on the other hand, screwed me. had i not had a stronger grounding in faith, i think that it would have been extremely easy to consider conversion–not because of anything theoretically superior about Islam, but because my Muslim friends were living the Gospel to a greater degree than my Christian “friends” were.