The main problem with islam is that it was founded through blood and war, rather than convincing people they conquered them and taxed them untill they converted, sometimes taxing then in human beings taken from their parents, this is the original sin of islam that you cannot run from,(reply>), @Sky Leonidas Political entities have often took advantage of religion, but faith is ultimately person and the expression of faith for all was something preserved by Islam, Jews didnt have to hide their identity nor fear worshiping, syriac Christians didnt have a roman syste, of oppression forced on them, hindus, budhists, animists and polytheists all lived in lands governed by muslims where they experienced an enormous increase in standard of living, a lifting of exhorbetent taxes, a safety of their property and a justice system which later was embraced by nepolean making up 75% of his law which he spread across europe and inspired the american constitution,(reply>), @Sky Leonidas the expansion you refer too was done mostly by bedouins and oppressed people with no serious military experience taking lands from the byzantine and persian empires, the two superpowers of the day. People of other religions had unprecendented rights of worship living within the muslim lands, the romans persecuted christians in the middle east and destroyed their churches, almost wiped religious judaism off the face of the earth. Why do you think christians in the land of Jesus faught side by side with muslims, Jews died fighting alongside the prophet Muhammad PBUH, taxes for christians and jews was often less than what was obligatory for muslims to lay and they had no obligation to defend in warfare but often chose too. In spain Judaism had a scholarly resurgence which french rabbis say saved the religion, the safety under muslim rule saved some of the oldest sects in christianity from being lost to history,(reply>), @AJay Religion and politics is very much one and the same in my opinion, the catholic church is basically one big country within other countries and in islam it is undeniable, most of its most prominent religious figures where also political figures,(reply>), @AJay Well, it is undeniable that the extreme success of islam is heavily tied to the early muslims conquering like very few had conquered before taking lands from spain to pakistan, you could argue that these conquests where defenseve but then you'd have to argue that all wars are always defensive, you dont defend your way to one of the largest empires in history. Also, yes everyone taxed their people but muslims used their military power to tax other peoples of the book and make their life difficult in general to the point that most of them converted, this is in contrast to christianity which spread in spite of the romans trying to exterminate all christians, that is the main difference, one religion had the backing of a huge empire which expanded with the explicit purpose of spreading islam and the other expanded within another empire wih explicitly opposed it,(reply>), also seperate the religion and the political history, if we tie christianity to the roman empire or the crusades do we get an accurate picture of christianity?