It came out of the Saudi desert in 622 AD via the sword. How else do you think it spread? By peaceful missionaries? The entire religion is nothing more than a pretext to legitimize normal (in the sense that all societies throughout history have them) warlike tendencies. Its genius lies in deflecting criticism that would normally be associated with secular extremism like Fascism, Communism, etc. under the guise of religious persecution.
It came out of the Saudi desert in 622 AD via the sword. How else do you think it spread? By peaceful missionaries? The entire religion is nothing more than a pretext to legitimize normal (in the sense that all societies throughout history have them) warlike tendencies. Its genius lies in deflecting criticism that would normally be associated with secular extremism like Fascism, Communism, etc. under the guise of religious persecution.Sure, but it gained prominence because of the failure of alternatives, fascism(embodied by ba'athism), communism and democracy in the ME. Only after all of those alternatives had failed to channel the national drives of the people in the ME did radical Islam take over as the radical ideology of the ME.