Actually, Islam shares a lot of these fundamental principles with Christianity. It makes sense since 1) they are good ideas for keeping a society together, and 2) Islam stole much of itself from Christianity and Judaism anyway. How the country operates mainly depends on the motives and culture of the people interpreting the book.
Islam is 600 years younger than Christianity; if I were to go to a Christian state of 600 years ago I'd be afraid for my head, too, even if I were a devout Christian but just of the wrong denomination. Actually, I'd be afraid if I went back just 300 years in certain places.
This is a good point and one that hadn't really occured to me before. Islam today is where Christianity was about 400-600 years ago in it's struggle for relevance, cohesion, and dominance. If you're curious about this look at the draconian steps the Christian church took in the middle ages to ensure compliance with its beliefs - stonings, beheadings, buring at the stake, and anything else deemed necessary to stamp out dissent.
It eerily mirrors Islam today and followed a similar timeline in it's development.