[Troubleshooter]

I went looking through the quran a little, to see what I could see and ran across these passages:

I'm not sure of the context of the placement, but it is in 4: The Women

88 What aileth you that ye are become two parties regarding the hypocrites, when Allah cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they earned? Seek ye to guide him whom Allah hath sent astray? He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him thou (O Muhammad) canst not find a road.

Am I wrong or does this say that an unbeliever is an unbeliever at the will of Allah and thusly not to be converted?

89 They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them,

Ok, so don't try to convert them, and don't be friends with them because Allah might convert them himself one day. Until that day though, kill as many as you like.

90 Except those who seek refuge with a people between whom and you there is a covenant, or (those who) come unto you because their hearts forbid them to make war on you or make war on their own folk. Had Allah willed He could have given them power over you so that assuredly they would have fought you. So, if they hold aloof from you and wage not war against you and offer you peace, Allah alloweth you no way against them.

This one is a bit confusing but I read it as saying that if they don't mess with you don't mess with them?

Now, IIRC the bible has equivalent passages. Wouldn't it seem that the only reason that people lash out from an ideological basis is because that is all that they feel they have?

It's hard to imagine Pat Robertson putting down his remote control and his cheetos and saying, "Damn those muslims it's time to go to war." It's hard to justify the sacrifice of all of the secular luxuries that we have as a society yet they have very little to give up.

In a nutshell, they have nothing to lose. We do.