Excerpts from the book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Isalm and the Crusades, by Robert Spencer, Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C., 2005. Words in brackets are [mine]. Muslims have this to say about the author, "May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brains in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen."

. . . When even his uncle, Abu Lahab, rejected his message, Muhammad cursed him and his wife in violent language that has been preserved in the Quran, the holy book of Islam: "May the hands of Abu Lahab perish! May he himself perish! Nothing shall his wealth and gains avail him. He shall be burnt in a flaming fire, and his wife, laden with faggots, shall have a rope of fibre around her neck!" (Quran 111:1-5) . . . (page 5)

. . . some Islamic legal authorities allow the killing of non-combatants if they are seen as aiding the enemies of Islam in war. (page 6)

Allah emphasized that it [plunder from rading caravans] was a reward for obedience to him: "Now enjoy what you have won, as lawful and good..." (Quran 8:69) (page 9)

Those who reject Islam are "the vilest of creatures" (Quran 98:6) and thus deserve no mercy. (page 10)

... a Jewish poet, Kab bin Al-Ashraf, who, according to Muhammad's first biographer, Ibn Ishaq, "composed amatory verses of an insulting nature about the Muslim women." Muhammad asked his followers, "Who is willing to kill Kab bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" (page 11)

He found a volunteer in a young Muslim named Muhammad bin Maslama: "O Allah's Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?" After the Prophet answered, "Yes," Muhammad bin Maslama asked him for permission to lie in order to deceive Kab bin Al-Ashraf into walking into an ambush. The Prophet granted him this permission, and Muhammad bin Maslama duly deceived and murdered Kab.

After the murder of Kab, Muhammad issued a blanket command: "Kill any Jew that falls into your power." This was not a military order: The first victim was a Jewish merchant, Ibn Sunayna, who had "social and business relations" with the Muslims. The murderer, Muhayissa, was rebuked for the deed by his brother Huwayissa, who was not yet a Muslim. Muhayissa was unrepentant. He told his brother, "Had the one who ordered me to kill him ordered me to kill you I would have cut your head off."

Huwayissa was impressed: "By God, a religion which can bring you to this is marvelous!" He became a Muslim. The world is still witnessing such marvels to this day. (page 12)...

"If God gives me victory over Quraysh in the future," he exclaimed, "I will mutilate thirty of their men." Touched by his grief and anger, his followers made a similar vow: "By God, if God gives us victory over them in the future we will mutilate them as no Arab has ever mutilated anyone." (page 14)...

A woman of the Quraysh, Umm Kulthum, joined the Muslims in Medina; her two brothers came to Muhammad, asking that she be returned, "in accordance with the agreement between him and the Quraysh at Hudaybiya." Muhammad refused because Allah forbade it. ... In refusing to send Umm Kulthum back to the Qureaysh, Muhammad broke the treaty. Although Muslim apologists have claimed throughout history that the Quraysh broke it first, this incident came before any treaty violations by the Quraysh. Furthermore, breaking the treaty reinforced the principle that nothing was good except what was advantageous to Islam, and nothing evil except what hindered it. Once the treaty was formally discarded, Islamic jurists enunciated the principle that, in general, truces were to be concluded for no longer than ten years and only entered into for the purpose of allowing weakened Muslim forces to gain strength. [Which is what Muhammad had done.] (page 17)

"When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly" (Quran 47:4) (page 19)

"Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for their (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth" (Quran 9:111) (page 21)

The relatively tolerant verses quoted above and others like them generally date from the Meccan period, while those with a more violent and intolerant edge are mostly from Medina.

Why does this distinction matter? Because of the Islamic doctrine of abrogation (naskh). ... According to this idea, the violent verses of the ninth sura, including the Verse of the Sword (9:5), abrogate the peaceful verses, because they were revealed later in Muhammad's prophetic career:  ... Another mainstream and respected Quran commentator, Ismail bin Amr bin Kathir al Dimashqi (1301-1372), known popularly as Ibn Kathir, declares that sura 9:5 "abrogated every agreement of peace between the Prophet and any idolater, every treaty, and every term .... No idolater had any more treaty or promise of safety ever since Surah Baraah (the ninth sura) was revealed." (page 24-25)