History might prove you wrong, my friend.
My own opinion is not important, too easy to say I'm biased because I'm Muslim.
So I'll quote non-Muslim sources
From the Australian Parlamentary Library
Mutual Misperceptions: The Historical Context of Muslim-Western Relations
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/cib/2001-02/02cib07.htm#toleranceMuslim Religious Tolerance
Islam's conquests were undoubtedly facilitated in some areas by the remarkable religious tolerance of its followers, a tolerance uncharacteristic of both the Byzantine Empire and the barbarian kingdoms of western Europe, which-when not pursuing the remnants of ancient paganism or persecuting Jews-were zealously persecuting Christian 'heretics'. To Muslims, however, Jews and Christians were 'people of the book' and were left undisturbed in their religious lives, being made liable only to a small annual tax (jizya) not payable by Muslims. In newly Muslim Damascus, Christians and Muslims shared the same building for their respective worships, until the Muslims purchased it from the Christian community.(9) Even the Zoroastrians of Persia, though not seen as worshippers of the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims, were accorded toleration. Most conversions to Islam were unforced, though areas of pagan belief were sometimes required on pain of death to profess one of the tolerated faiths.(10) In later times there were examples of Muslim rulers practising religious bigotry, but the core of Islamic belief always required tolerance for the 'people of the book'. This is strikingly illustrated by a very early document of the Prophet's, issued in 628, confirming Christian religious and civil liberties (see Appendix two).
The Muslim policy of toleration and the persistent intolerance of many Christian factions had important consequences, strikingly illustrated by the words of no less a personage than the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, around 1173. Addressing the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I, who was contemplating a religious union with the western Church of Rome, the Patriarch said:
Let the Muslim be my master in outward things rather than the Latin dominate me in matters of the spirit. For if I am subject to the Muslim, at least he will not force me to share his faith. But if I have to be ... united with the
Roman Church, I may have to separate myself from my God.(11)
And when in 1204 the Fourth Crusade, manipulated in classic realpolitik style by canny Venetian statesmen, attacked not the designated Muslim enemy but the Christian city of Constantinople, Pope Innocent III in Rome could only record his outrage:
How can we expect the Greek Church, no matter what straits it is in, to return to ecclesiastical unity and devotion to the Holy See when all that it sees of the Latins is an example of utter depravity and the works of darkness, so that with justice it despises them as worse than dogs?(12)
Thus intolerance and cynical realpolitik among Christians, contrasted with the Muslim policy of tolerance, vitiated the defence of Europe against the Arab threat.
Here's an interesting article from Radio Free Europe, another non muslim source you might find interesting,
http://www.rferl.org/specials/religion/archive/islam-2.asp
"Experts cite historic examples where Muslim lands were a relatively safe place to be for Christian or Jewish minorities. They point out that, in general, non-Muslim communities remained intact in nearly all the areas under Muslim rule.
And they contrast that with the fate of religious minorities under Christian rule.
...
"The Koranic text itself is very rich with moral discourses prohibiting compulsion, explaining that diversity is actually an intentional act by God and that there is a purpose to diversity -- and that is for people to come to know one another," said Khaled Abou el Fadl, a leading authority on Islamic law and author of the book "The Place Of Tolerance In Islam."
"When Spain was reconquered by the Christians, the Jewish population sought sanctuary in Muslim lands," Abou el Fadl said. "Furthermore, after the fall of the crusader states in Muslim lands, the Christian populations remained and the Christians who live in the area of what today is Syria or Lebanon or Palestine, many of these families can trace their roots right back to the crusades.
"They were not forced to convert and obviously they were not eradicated," Abou el Fadl explained. "So Islam as a whole when it comes to the issue of tolerance, Islam when compared with Christianity for instance, comes out to have a remarkably tolerant record."
Here's another perspective:
http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/2004/01/tolerance_and_i.html
Can a man who has awakened at dawn to the muezzin calling over Jerusalem really say it's a barbaric religion? Can the man who has studied the Crusades really say that Islam's history is bloodier than Christianity's? And who killed 6 million in the concentration camps? Not the Muslims.
Has Mr. Morris visited the Islamic collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Has he ever listened to Koranic chants coming over the radio? Has he ever sat in a mosque and prayed, or simply breathed? Maybe because of who he is he has never experienced Arab generosity. I am sorry for him.
Such ideas are all based on fear. Thoughts of fear generate hatred. Hatred generates false ideas about the other. They're not true, of course. Every religion has its flaws. But all of them contain kernels of truth. And no people or religious group deserves this kind of sweeping condemnation. It's infantile thinking. It's reductive, and in the end it doesn't help the thinker.
An Article from the Liberty Fellowship Center:
http://spiritwork.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/1/483345.html
"Everyone's God-given human dignity must be respected, regardless of his or her faith, race, ethnic origin, gender, or social status (Qur’an 17:70). Because everyone is created by God Almighty, the Maker of all, humans must treat one another with full honor, respect, and loving-kindness.
The Qur'an states clearly that freedom of religion is a God-given right (2:256).
God loves justice and those who strive to practice it, especially toward people who are different from them in any way, including in matters of religious belief (5:8), (60:8)."
Here is an interesting comparison between Christanity in general and Islam at
http://www.religioustolerance.org/comp_isl_chr.htm
Keep to forgiveness (O Muhammad), and enjoin kindness, and turn away from the ignorant.
The Quran 7:119
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