Islam! What makes it tick?

I know,I am choosing the most non- politically correct topic possible in a Secular and liberal world.I am slowly coming around the view that the so called intellectual and liberal elite whether they are in India, continental Europe or US find it very uncomfortable to speak and talk about. They keep on talking about the values like, Equality,Right of freedom of speech, Religion and so on and so forth, However they are also dumbfounded to explain the phenomenon called Islam. I keep on watching Liberal, left influenced intelligentsia, I mean the likes of Barkha dutt secularists so passionately take the topic of perceived or real discrimination against Muslims.
I recently read a topic on Hindu woman marrying muslim man and the columnist was heaping praise on their courage. What and absurd topic and think of a newspapers like Times of India to publish it. How many Muslim woman marry in other religions and why they force the man to convert? If the relationship is based on Love then what does it need apart from that? One thing I want to say that these Liberals are speaking all this only in secular and predominantly non muslim countries and instead of thanking the majority they keep on spewing anger against the minority treatment. Muslims also, see al this closely and talk about the freedom of speech and religion in secular and liberal democracies but surprisingly they forget about all these values in islamic countries - Saudi or pakistan or even Malaysia. Not her religion can have a Temple, Church, Synagogue In Arab world.
The danger which the masses in Europe have woken up to now is real. Still i would add the danger is not from Islamists, It is from the liberal intellectuals.
It is indeed funny that the new found oil wealth of Arab world is bailing out European and American banks and organizations. They have the money and as per the last estimate Saudi investment in US economy is staggering $900 billion, That is around 8%+ of American GDP. Even more funnier is that an Athiest like me is talking about Religion. The reason for me to write is that in my quest to understand Religions i found Islam one of the most mystical. I just cant expalin the phenomenon why so many people are willing to kill others.
There is no wonder the religions of the world are called faith as they are based on gullibility and illogic so they dont want people to question them. I find that an insult to my intelligence, anyway the topic is islam and i have some questions today hope somebody hasthe answers.
Ever since the Attack on America on September 11, 2001, we have heard a never-ending chorus of voices from government, academia, and the media assuring us that the Islamic terrorists who attacked the Trade Towers and the Pentagon are not repre­sentative of “true Islam.” We have been likewise assured by spiritual leaders — even some Christian spokesmen — that Islam is a religion of peace, and that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews.

“Our war is not against Islam,” we have been told repeatedly. “Our war is against terrorism.”

Central Questions
Well, what about it?

Are Muslims the spiritual brothers and sisters of Christians and Jews?
Do we all worship the same God?
Are the Islamic holy scriptures, known as the Koran, inspired by God?
Is Islam another path to God by which one can attain eternal life?
Are the Islamic fundamentalists representative of true Islam, or are they a terrible aberration of an otherwise peace-loving religion?
Is our war really a political one against international terrorists, or is it a spiritual battle against a demonic, intolerant, militant, and imperialistic religion known as Islam?
An Historical Perspective on Islam
Let’s begin our consideration of these questions with some historical background.
Muhammad, the man who dictated the Koran and gave birth to Islam, was born in Mecca in the Saudi Arabian peninsula in 570 A.D. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was raised first by a grand father and later by an uncle.
Muhammad was illiterate throughout his life. Until the age of 25 he worked in caravans. During his extensive travels, he encountered many Christians and Jews. Through his conversations with them, he picked up bits and pieces of both Judaism and Christianity.
His life was radically changed at age 25 when he met a wealthy widow 40 years old who fell in love with him. Their marriage enabled Muhammad to live a life of leisure from that point on.
Muhammad’s Call
Fifteen years after his marriage, at age 40, Muhammad had a visitation from a spirit. Supposedly, this spirit told him that he was called of God to be a “prophet” and an “apostle.” It is in teresting to note that there was no tradition in Arabian religions of either prophets or apostles. These terms were obviously used by Muhammad to appeal to Jews and Christians.

Muhammad continued to have spirit visitations. They would throw him into a trance, and his utterances during the trances were written down by scribes. These ethereal statements became the Koran, but they were not compiled until after Muhammad’s death. When the compilation was made, the utterances were not organized either chronologically or by subject matter. The result was a jumble of disorganized and often incoherent sayings which are frequently contradictory.For example, the Koran1 gives four conflicting accounts of Muhammad’s call to be a prophet [the word, Sura, means chapter]:

Suras 53 and 81 — God, or Allah as he is called in Arabic, personally appeared to Muhammad.
Suras 16 and 26 — The call was from the Holy Spirit.
Sura 15 — Angels issued the call.
Sura 2 — Gabriel was the one who appeared to him.
Muhammad’s Revelations

At the time Muhammad received his initial visitation, there were over 300 gods being worshiped in Mecca by pilgrims who came there each year to pray at the Ka’aba, a small cubic building that housed a black meteorite and effigies of the various gods. One of those gods was Allah, the moon god.

Muhammad decided to proclaim that there was only one god — and he selected Allah as that god. That’s the reason the crescent moon became the symbol of Islam. Muhammad also proclaimed that he was the prophet of Allah.

Initially, Muhammad expected both Jews and Christians to receive his new revelation. Thus, early passages in the Koran speak admiringly of “the people of the Book.” These are the passages that Muslims in the West love to quote in their effort to prove that Islam is a tolerant religion. An example is Sura 5:82 which says, “You will find that those who are nearest in love to the believers [Muslims] are those who say, ‘We are Christians.’”But when Jews and Christians rejected Muhammad, he turned fiercely against them, and later passages in the Koran speak of them disparagingly:
Sura 5:51 commands Muslims not to take Jews and Christians as friends.
Sura 9:29 commands Muslims to fight against Jews and Christians until they either submit to Allah or else agree to pay a special tax.
Sura 2:65-66 and Sura 5:60 contain references to Jews as “apes and swine to be despised and rejected.” (Think of that! You can be sure that such a statement did not come from the true God of this universe who selected the Jews to be His Chosen People.)
Jews and Christians were not the only ones who rejected Muhammad’s new revelations. The people of his own tribe, the Quraysh, also rejected him. In response, Muhammad succumbed to the temptation to appease his tribe by announcing that it would be okay for them to worship the three daughters of Allah — named Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Ma nat.

This declaration led to the infamous “Satanic verses” of the Koran which were later deleted when Muhammad reverted back to monotheism. Muslims have tried ever since to cover-up this diversion from the faith. You may remember that in 1989 Salman Rushdie brought up this taboo topic when he wrote a novel entitled, The Satanic Verses. The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran condemned him and called for his assassination.
The opposition to Muhammad in his home town of Mecca continued to grow until he was forced to flee 250 miles to Medina where his message was received. The Islamic calendar dates from this year when Muhammad fled to Medina and found a receptive audience, resulting in the formal establishment of Islam as a religion. It was the year 622 A.D., and that date represents year one of the Muslim calendar, which is a lunar calendar. The year 2001 is the year 1422 in the Muslim dating system.

After the death of his wife, Muhammad married at least 11 other women (some sources place the total as high as 16). He also took several concubines. He married one girl who was only six years old and had sexual relations with her when she was 9.2 According to the Koran, only the prophet could have unlimited wives. All other Muslim men are limited to four (Sura 4:3). What kind of man would do that marry a 6 year old and have sex with a 9 year old ? They are called pedophile

Muhammad died on June 8, 632 A.D. in Medina at age 63. He left no successor, and Islam soon broke into warring sects such as the Shiites and the Sunnis.
I guess the post is getting too long and the rest is history. Some day i will talk about ' Sanatan Dharma' but as of now let me hide lest some zealot announces some reward for my head.