Quoting 'verses' from the koran or repeating any one of the thousands of hadith will not answer anything - without understanding the life of mohammad, without a knowledge of his motivation, the time and place of the 'revelations' he uttered, all are quite meaningless drivel - compared to the life of Jesus for example, of whose short 'career' we know much. Sorry to make this comparison, which I understand might be odious to some, contentious to others.
Utterances, wisdom, revelations, whatever you choose to call them, must be seen in the context of the life of the 'prophet' who made them. We are entitled to know the character, and the driving force behind the words.
As an example, let me use the loaves and fishes story from the New Testament. If it were known that Jesus was an entrepreneur who received a commission on the sale of loaves and fishes, our attitude toward his actions would be entirely different.
Mohammad was, as islam itself describes him, a businessman. That's gilding the lily, he is also referred to as a merchant, but above all else, he was an opportunist, a man who, in desperate straits, sat on the steps of a temple with a band of beggars and lived on alms until he and his beggar-friends were driven out. For this, he swore revenge, and years later, returned and 'converted' the city to his 'religion' by the sword.
His 'knowledge' of God he gained from the Hebrews, allah is a corruption of al-Uzzah, the planet Venus, a planetary god worshipped throughout the ME as The Queen of Heaven.
Arabs tribes were, as they still are, disunited. Mohammad united them into a fighting force, and the rest is history. There are two issues involved; One, without knowledge of the life of the man the arabs call a prophet, 'verses' can be quoted from the koran and interpreted to suit almost anything. The koran has no chronology. It is written down short verses first, long last. There's no when, no how, no why, no where...anywhere.
And secondly, as the 'living breathing voice of allah' who spoke directly into mohammad's ear, the contents of the koran are taken to literally mean whatever mohammad did must be emulated for all future time. His 'conversations' with allah makes mohammad 'sinless and divine' ... thus did allah approve of the murder of the 800 men who were decapitated and buried in a mass grave, the women and children taken captive; for allah told mohammad 'I HAVE GIVEN THEE THEIR WEALTH AS AN INHERITANCE'
Now, wouldn't you want a 'prophet' like that if you were a nomad arab? I know I would! Plunder and booty was their 'industry'. And still is.
Please, read the biography. You can, muslims aren't allowed to. And btw, the entire book is filled, page after page, with source-notes. From ancient arabic.
"Quoting 'verses' from the koran or repeating any one of the thousands of hadith will not answer anything ..."
Hi Fred ... that's why I didn't ask you - we've gone around it a few times, but I still don't understand why you persist on saying making statements like "Their numerous threats based upon the koranic requirement that all infidels should die or don't deserve to live..." when you don't ever supply references to prove YOUR statement.
If you were to write it instead as -
" Dr. Harvey Finagle says "Their numerous threats based upon the koranic requirement...."
-it would be easy to understand that it may or may not be YOUR opinion on the matter, and you may not be asked to support the statement.