[polemikos]

This granite permanence is a most striking thing, and worthy of serious consideration by all those who meditate on the spiritual, and, consequently, the social, future of the world.

A fatwa on "heretics" and "defectors" is a powerful tool.
Death threats have a way of focusing a follower's mind.
There can never be a "moderate" Islam because of this.
Moderate words with double meanings (as we have seen), perhaps.
"Moderate" political agreements that are repudiated at their convenience.
All in all, Islam sounds more like the mafia than a religion.

[Aquinasfan]

All in all, Islam sounds more like the mafia than a religion.

I think you hit the nail on the head. It's a mafia-like religion. Islam means "submission," not "peace."