Verses in the Quran are often taken out of context. You didn't mention one of the most popular ones - Quran 9:5 "Kill the polytheists wherever you find them". Now, this sounds like the Quran is telling Muslims to butcher non-Muslims everywhere, hence, Islam must be a violent religion - say Western "experts". What these experts ALWAYS forget to mention, is the very next verse 9:6, that says "And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah . Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are a people who do not know."
The Quran is elaborated upon by the Holy Prophet(SAWS)'s example. For example, the Quran only says do Namaz, it doesn't say how Namaz is to be done. Then the Sunnah/example of the Holy Prophet(SAWS) upon the example of the Prophet(SAWS), and even the Quran tells us to follow his example.
The verses of warfare were revealed at a time of war. Muslims emigrated to Madina, and the Meccans pursued them there. Before Badr(the first war between the Muslims and non-Muslims), Muslims were heavily out-numbered by the Quraish(Muslims were 1/3rd the size), and they were also reticent and reluctant to fight their own clansmen. Hence, these verses instructing Muslims to be hard against their enemy.
Look at our history. Muslims have lived and co-existed peacefully with every other group, Christian groups(especially Arab Christian) have lived in Muslim lands for over a millennium. Just about the only place the Jews weren't prosecuted, were Muslim lands - Islam makes it a tenet of religion to treat other people's places of worship as sacred(and prevent harm from coming to them). Muslims lived with athiests and polytheistic people.
We never had witch-hunts like Europe. Never "forced religion by the sword" like the west accuses Islam of. The west tried, using military might, to impose their ideology on the whole world. Completely wiped out weaker races on the battlefield and subjugated them for centuries. All over the world from the Native American tribes, to the Aborginal people who inhabited Australia, to South America where they spread diseases for which natives had no immunity, Africans they hunted like animals and enslaved. And yet, these things like forced conversions, the vanquished natives deeply cherished their values and quietly passed them from generation to generation. And even centuries later, in every single one of these places they conquered, the native beliefs still exist. The human spirit cannot be conquered by sword or guns, something which the western organisation experience amply proved.
Historian Lord Kinross writes in his book Centuries, that "European peasants preferred to be ruled by the Ottomans than by their own, more grasping, unpredictable rulers". The West always needs a "boogeyman", someone common enemy to use, to convince their population to let their governments do completely unreasonable things. Hence the US population should give their government the right to snoop through all their Internet communication, illegally tap millions of people's phones without them even knowing - using full-body scanner at machines, that see through clothes and provide a naked picture - all in the name of protecting the some terrorists hiding in a cave. Earlier, the Soviets used to be the "boogeyman", that the western world blamed for all their problems. Then it was the Jerries before them. Even hundreds of years ago, the West vilified Native Americans, painting them as "injuns" that wanted to slaughter Westerners in their culture and media, all while the West was utterly massacring those Natives and colonizing their land.
So no - Islam is a religion of peace, it's history proves this. Just because the West needs another enemy to distract from all their problems, does not suddenly make Islam bad.
I don't care what you talk about but opening up a dead thread is just inviting flame bait.
