[VOA]

That Muhammad, according to tradition, made no clear arrangements either
for a successor or even for the process by which a successor should
be chosen indicates strongly that Muhammad’s secular role in
the community, if any, was exaggerated.

After seeing the PBS (and mostly-Saudi financed) documentary
"Legacy of The Prophet"...
I was convinced that Muhammad simply built a Bushido code that
governed a gang of thugs in a tough (desert) environment.

And that the same philosophy guides orthodox (Wahhabi) Islam to
this very day.
It just got suppressed for about a hundred years by the success
of Western Civilization/Technology.

Until some of Muhammad's successors learned how to harness some
of the technology of The Great Satan.

[Citizen Blade]

I was convinced that Muhammad simply built a Bushido code that governed a gang of thugs in a tough (desert) environment.

That's a good point. Islam, as an ideology, is well-designed for a group of conquerors. It turned a group of squabbling desert hicks on the periphery of the civilized world into a world power.

And that the same philosophy guides orthodox (Wahhabi) Islam to this very day.

Wahhabiism is a pretty recent creation- the 1700's, IIRC. It's too legalistic and burdensome to be useful for the type of expansionism that went on in the early days of Islam. The only reason we've seen Wahabbi ideology spreading lately is because the Saudis have oil money to finance that expansion.