Dear friend Partypooper,
(Our thread is lost, so I continue this way.)
If I correctly understand, you look at Islam in its historical context. In history not all is honest.
I see no reason to believe the revelation theory of the Prophet. He might have had fantasy or he did so to make his people blindly believe him and follow his activities.
Why Islam is so aggressive? All rest religions more or less lost the aggressive nature latest by 19th century and are confided to temples, where as Islam did not.
Many scholars of Islam say that jihadi terror of Chechnya or Kashmir does not correlate to the Islamic teachings. The same way many condemn historical personalities like Gorry and Ghazanavi as cruel invaders, but they are heroes and religious forefathers in Pak history.
Pls don’t ask me to go to a political forum for an answer. I cannot differentiate the religious and political status of Islam.
Rgds