In America, people get annoyed with evangelical Christians inviting them to Church.
In the Middle East, I was told that us non-muslims were not welcome within Mosques. I watched the muslim populations shove aside non-muslims who were present as migrant workers.
In the Garden, child, what did the Serpent do?
Was the serpent foolish? Did he tempt Adam and Eve with the grass upon the ground?
Evil is not necessarily stupid. Evil is, very often, clever and deceptive. Evil turns compassion into sadism, empathy into malice, and intelligence into savagery. There is a reason the Qu'ran has commands of exclusion, for the same reason a jealous boyfriend demands his prize remain chained to him.
Before I actually picked up and read the Qu'ran, I did believe that Islam was simply another variation on Judeo-Christian values, and that these militants were taking things out of context. I believed there was such a thing as 'peaceful Islam' and that it was possible for Islam to become part of the civilized world that believed in the freedom of religion.
It was because I read the Qu'ran that I realized this was not, at all, a part of reality.
The Qu'ran is a constitution - a set of laws for the believers of it to follow. It establishes and asserts itself as both religion and government in one; contrary to the lessons of Jesus ("Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's"). It is a book that encourages the isolation of believers from non-believers and those who 'associate others with Allah.' It is a constitution that establishes it as the duty of the believer to subjugate those around them to its own authority, with an initial 'peaceful invite' being a simple offer to avoid the war if the invite is refused.
Bin Laden sent 3 requests to Bush inviting him to Islam prior to 9/11 - which is what was believed to be the required number of requests prior to beginning hostilities (the Hadith are not entirely clear on this point, nor is the Qu'ran - there is some variation upon this).
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Surat 9, Ayah 5:
And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
6: And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah . Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know.
7: How can there be for the polytheists a treaty in the sight of Allah and with His Messenger, except for those with whom you made a treaty at al-Masjid al-Haram? So as long as they are upright toward you, be upright toward them. Indeed, Allah loves the righteous [who fear Him].
8: How [can there be a treaty] while, if they gain dominance over you, they do not observe concerning you any pact of kinship or covenant of protection? They satisfy you with their mouths, but their hearts refuse [compliance], and most of them are defiantly disobedient.
9: They have exchanged the signs of Allah for a small price and averted [people] from His way. Indeed, it was evil that they were doing.
10: They do not observe toward a believer any pact of kinship or covenant of protection. And it is they who are the transgressors.
11: But if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail the verses for a people who know.
12: And if they break their oaths after their treaty and defame your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief, for indeed, there are no oaths [sacred] to them; [fight them that] they might cease.
13: Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun [the attack upon] you the first time? Do you fear them? But Allah has more right that you should fear Him, if you are [truly] believers.
14: Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people
15: And remove the fury in the believers' hearts. And Allah turns in forgiveness to whom He wills; and Allah is Knowing and Wise.
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This section, right here, is a call to war against non-believers under the argument that they do not uphold treaties as a lead-in to the Battle of Tabouk, where Muhammad expected to fight against the Byzantines (Romans).
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What is interesting is the last two ayahs I cited. "Allah will punish them by your hands" - "and remove the fury in believers' hearts." This is, essentially, saying that the rage felt by Muslims toward non-believers is, in effect, God's form of justice. There are many references in the Qu'ran to types of people who will be given a 'painful punishment' - this set of Ayah just established that God/Allah's justice is going to be delivered through violence perpetrated by believers - and that the way in which a believer's heart will be removed of fury is through the act of fighting.
9:23
O you who have believed, do not take your fathers or your brothers as allies if they have preferred disbelief over belief. And whoever does so among you - then it is those who are the wrongdoers.
24: Say, [O Muhammad], "If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allah and His Messenger and jihad in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people."
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Here is a command to exclusion. Those who are not fellow believers are not to be trusted and not to be seen as part of the community.
I'm going to skip 9:29 because it makes things too easy, and people often forget the context that follows it:
9:30
The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah "; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah ." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?
31: They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah , and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him.
32: They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it.
33: It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance
and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although they who associate others with Allah dislike it.
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This is a command to conquest simply because of religion.
Allow me to contrast with a story of Jesus' temptations:
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" 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. "
This is incorrect. The U.S. government did not derive its legal system from the Qu'ran, but primarily from the writings of Greek philosophers and European political reformers. It was built upon the idea that the government was fundamentally limited in the authority that could be exercised over the population.
To quote some rather influential Western political figures:
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