Since, there are no answers yet to my questions, let me offer one likely possibility for Question 2.
Why has islam proven so easy to hijack?
Lets draw a picture. In the wild, a prowling lion will seek out and target the weakest animal in the herd.
Now lets say that all religions are like that herd. They have some common features, yes. But under the same conditions, results will differ depending on the health, strength and soundness of the animal, or in this case the religion. Now imagine that the devil, or whatever you would want to call the power of evil in the world, is the lion. I believe that what we are seeing is the aftermath of his hunt among the religions. We all live in the same world, we are all subject to the same temptations to evil and only Islam has fallen. The rest of the fleet herd has taken off, some with startled leaps and stumbles, and are even now reorienting themselves and are working out how to deal with the new reality in a way consistent with their natures ( I see this all the time in my own Christian faith as we for the most part grow more determined all the time to solve the problem by means of winning non-combatant muslims with love and truth and always separating the person (precious) from the belief (false)) Meanwhile, Islam is helplessly devoured more and more each day, overcome without any effective resistence, overcome by mere money.
Crisis has proved to bring out the worst in Islam. I believe this is the true test of any religion. What happens when times are hard? When things dont go its way? When success turns to ashes?
Well what did Mohammed do when faced with supreme crisis? He fought. He started wars and raided and robbed to save islam. Is it any wonder that in an unprecedented time of crisis when the religion that is believed by its adherants to be the divine formula for success is clearly not successful while other supposedly backwards faiths are spiritually doing much better, that muslims would result to paranoia and conspiracy theories and resort to the most extreme measures to save their faith from destruction? Isnt that the excuse that Mohammed gave?
Whereas, Christianity really began with a failure. Our founder was gone within three years. Within years of his death, so were all of his disciples. So were many other martyrs. Christianity was founded on a peaceful response to existential threats. It can return to that example and has always done so whenever it has gone off the rails before. Other faiths also enjoyed hundreds of years of peaceful development at their foundings in spite of threats that could have easily destroyed them. They have strong foundations. Islam didnt (and so it doesnt) and so had to be preserved by resort to war to get it through its first several hundered years. Islam alone has violence and war in its foundational years. Now the foundation is finally giving way.
PS. And just to avert one very popular excuse. No, you can’t just count the first few years that islam wasnt violent as its foundational years. If it had to resort to war in order to survive then those war years must be included in its crucial formative years. If it was too weak to survive without war then it was not yet properly established. “A tree with deep roots will not be touched by the frost” Islams formative years include the wars, the raids, the killing, the murdering, the beheading and the slave taking with Mohammed making out the best of all. This is fact or else you live in lala land.
