During that ten years Islam spread in the Arabian society peacefully since Muhammad’s preach met a demand of Manuel II and Benedict XVI. Muhammad reasoned righteously and spoke nicely and earnestly. And Islam that time wasn’t a kind of (if to use modern terms) “totalitarian sect”. Because Muhammad answered essentially all vitally important questions, which Islam followers as well as others asked him. However not everybody liked that, what Muhammad taught.
But Manuel II and Benedict XVI as well haven’t remembered about the morality: neither generally nor concerning specifically those morals, which are cultivated in the society by each of the historically formed traditional religions. And all theological talks and preaches become a kind of atheism without such specification. This is so because God himself has His own morality[29], and every man who wants to be in harmony with God should follow Gods own morality ignoring (or even breaking) historically formed cultural traditions. And this is a meaning of man becoming like God[30].
And though one can agree with what Manuel II Palaiologos wrote: “For assuring a sensible soul, there is no necessity to use neither one’s hands, nor weapon, nor another meaning of threatening a man with death…” – he had told nothing about how to defend against aggressive, “not sensible and imprudent souls” which don’t accept the “assuring preach”. And indeed, Muhammad and first Muslims faced exactly such problem: not everyone who disliked Muhammad’s teaching remained passive and sluggish.
Originally peaceful spread of Islam in the Arabian society met an armed opposition just because enemies of Islam had nothing to object to Muhammad neither during dialogues and public disputes nor fabricating arguments beforehand; and their attempts to bribe him for stopping his preaches were futile. Their resistance to spreading of Islam appeared as a trade embargo of first Muslims (it was an attempt of economical genocide) and as several murderous assaults at Muhammad. It made Muhammad and his followers to leave Mecca (recognized centre of Arabian culture) for provincial city of Medina where he could continue his preach from. And only after 10 years of the peaceful preach the first jihad was started as a defensive war for Islam against the aggressors. It wasn’t a motiveless Muslim aggression for seizing and conquering the rest of the world.
Muslims won that first jihad in the history. And for many of those, who fought against them with great obstinacy, that victory became a conclusive proof of that God and Rightness-Truth were on the side Muhammad and Muslims and not on the side of their enemies. After it many former opponents of Muslims sincerely adopted Islam. And those who rejected Islam were let to go away. There were no repressions of former enemies.
With all this Koran makes numerous warnings to those, who justify their aggressive and predatory actions with religious motives like “jihad”. Particularly:
“O, you who believe! when you go to war in God's way, make investigation [be careful to discriminate], and do not say to any one who offers you peace: “You are not a believer” seeking the chance profits of this life [so that ye may despoil him]. But with God there are abundant gains; you too were such before (i.e. you too were not believers – our explanation when citing), then God conferred a benefit on you; therefore make investigation; surely God is aware of what you do (i.e. you can never deceive God – our explanation when citing)”. (Sura 4:94 based on translations of Shakir and Pickthal; in square brackets are notes by Pickthal).
“And if one of the idolaters seek protection from you, grant him protection till he hears the word of God, then make him attain his place of safety; this is because they are a people who do not know (the Truth – our explanation when citing)”. (Sura 9:6).
Thus following Koran one founds that the mission of teaching the idolaters is supreme. And as referred to Koranic teaching, extermination of ignorant folks who don’t know the truth is a great sin. And it is a sin all the more when under slogans of jihad – the holy war for defence of the religion and the Rightness-Truth – one destroys ignorant people, whom the Koranic afflatus hasn’t been given to, or wages aggressive and conquering war. Naturally an irreproachable namaz[31] made five times a day will not save against “karmic” and religious retribution for such actions. It is said in Sunnah[32] that God’s servant gets from the prayer only what he had understood. And if he wants to understand nothing, his life’s sense is far from one given in Koran, and there are not perspectives for such “Muslim” save the worst ones.
As you can see, if to know the text of Koran, understand its sense and compare it with the life (including the history of forming the Muslim culture as well), Benedict XVI himself could reproach the Muslim world in general and its creation – terrorists-extremists – personally with renouncing the precepts for Muslims given in Koran.
And nothing, save his own misunderstanding of Koran and maybe some esoteric order discipline, prevented Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from telling all this and something more from U.N.O. podium and from saying it to George Bush’s face during their personal meeting.
However there is none of this. And an impression arises that “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie (first published in 1988), caricatures on prophet Muhammad in the European press (autumn 2005) and artificially inspired hysterical reaction of Muslim world for Pope’s lecture in on September 12, 2006[33] are the links of one chain. It seems that they are included into the long termed attempt to waken a new World War – the global conflict between bearers of the historically formed biblical culture in its different modifications[34] and followers of the historically formed Islam. And it seems more and more evident that hierarchies of both cultures either understand nothing or are interested themselves in saving prerequisites for the conflict.
Benedict XVI, being a man who has devoted his life to the theology (which cannot be separated from the history of mankind and each of the nations), had to know it not just by his lecture in Regensburg but much more earlier – by taking the cardinal’s order[35].
Nevertheless, this is not an answer to the question whether the Koranic teaching is true. This just shows that Muhammad was convincing in his preach and was one of the most prominent practical politicians during the history of our global civilization. And such words are not about the vast majority of Muslims after Muhammad. And of course not about the extremists, who use Islamic slogans only for hiding real aims of those global policy bosses who manipulate with them (it is objective, i.e. it doesn’t depend on declaration of those extremists).
The West in general (and especially followers of its traditional religions including the Russian Orthodoxy) for centuries is sure of its permanent political rightness and the global civilizing mission towards all nations of other regions of the Earth. And as a consequence of this, Muslim world, which rejects such civilizing mission, seems for western intellectuals to be very aggressive without a cause. However, naturally the West doesn’t want to understand not just Koran but as well the Bible, which all its culture (including Russia that is the West and the East at once) is based on. The West doesn’t want to know the matter of its civilizing mission! It fears to face the truth. Let’s turn to Bible: