Are you kidding me, ExpressoKid?
Islam came to be, Mohammed wrote things about not forcing people to become part of Islam, because he had 10-20 followers.
He left Mecca and found a place that was receptive to him, and then he had an army of 10,000.
Then he wrote that you shouldn't leave the heretics alive, and that everyone should be Islam.
Then, he invaded Mecca and everyone became Muslim.
So, what really prompted the violent side of Islam was the fact they had an army and that their prophet wrote to be violent.
But the MSM would tell you that it's peaceful, because they are referring to the earlier writings.
Now, if you asked a Muslim about it, they would justify it by saying that Allah gave them instruction for what was good at the time - they didn't have many followers, they shouldn't force people, they had an army, they should.
Compare that to the God of the Old Testament Bible, who took Gideon and his tens of thousands of warriors and WEEDED PEOPLE OUT until he only had 300 warriors, and then STILL won the battle, armed with pots, torches, and trumpets.
So, you've got to ask yourself, if Allah is so powerful, and was for force-conversion, why wouldn't he have been for force-conversion from the get go?
Answer: He's not powerful, and Mohammed is a fraud who used the idea of 'religion' to seize power. This shows, because he actually had power. His problem was that he put his writings above the scriptures, which made the scriptures meaningless.
Compare to Jesus - He was followed everywhere. He walked into Jerusalem to be crucified instead of crowned with his rightful title. He gave up power repeatedly. He had the followers to battle Rome, but that wasn't what he was here for. He healed. He cleared out the temple of the evil that was going on inside it. He spoke roughly to the pharisees who couldn't see past their man-made laws. Then, Christianity started, and it was okay for a while, and then persecuted horribly for many years. People still came anyway, with a sword against them instead of for them, as Islam had.
Anyway, that's probably a lot more than you all wanted to know about it.