Its rather naive to assume that something could prevail without force or sustain itself without power. Islam had to use force against the idolatrous benighted society and its patrons in order to establish One God's worship and rule. It was no easy for the infidels to submit to the will of One God whom they never could see or communicate with. So a certain amount of force was necessary to control them and keep their blades blunt. Many of you would not agree but Islam and all religions are blind religions. Its certain beyond anything that we can never ever see God with our eyes even prophets didn't see Him in His original form and we can never hear Him in our lifetimes. And seeing Him after death is only a belief, a hope. We can see no heaven, hell neither; we cannot see angels, we cannot know if our forefathers are in heaven, hell or they turned into dust and nothing else. Its sad but then if we believe what the Prophet pbuh asked us to believe and if God comes out to be true after death, we will have great rewards because we believed in Him without seeing Him, hearing Him. So no religion is for those who seek logic in everything because logic is an attribute of human mind and it is simply not applicable to all phenomenon in the physical universe let alone the spiritual world of God if it really exists. So dear all Our religion is a blind faith and we have to live with it because we either have the option of embracing it or end up being atheists. Since we are born to muslim parents and Islam does make a lot of sense and is a very good way of life so let's keep adhering to it without questions. Afterall life is very short and death is certain and after our eyes are closed forever, we will know the truth of it all.
@ Jazib! Einstein said that history shows that great minds always faced violent opposition from mediocre minds. So dear keep facing it on every thread you participate in and keep rising to the occasion because you have the power of knowledge and the sword of wit, keep incising through ignorant patches to seek the eternal light within.