Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
It is pretty obvious when you read the true history of the mad fascistic genius of Muhammad, and the centrality within Islam of the Koran, that Allah is really Muhammad. The two are interchangeable. That is one of the cunning and more savage of Muhammad's inventions. He is Allah, and presents himself as the only 'Prophet', the lone intermediary, and the 'most important human in history' destined to translate what the moon idol desires and wants for the human race – or at least what Muhammad wants and desires for the human race. When the Koran says Allah, it really means Muhammad.
Historically of course El-Lah, or Al-Lah was the northern Arabian masculine moon deity. The southern Arabian counterpart was Al-Rahman. Al-Manat was the wife of Al-Lah, and she was associated with the feminine and with the Sun. The moon was the giver of life in the ancient Arabian world. The Sun, its taker. El-Lah had 3 daughter goddesses, all of whom along with the Sun feminine goddess were destroyed by Muhammad as he conflated the 360 idols of the Kabah shrine into the veneration of only Al-Lah, who rather conveniently was also the patrol idol of his tribe and family. Quite a coincidence.
The Koran mentions Al-Lah 8.423 times. Usually Muhammad is also mentioned in the same phrase or verse as the Allah thing. Some examples are:
2:223 And if you (Arab pagans, Jews, and Christians) are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down (i.e. the Qur'an) to Our slave (Muhammad Peace be upon him), then produce a Surah (chapter) of the like thereof and call your witnesses (supporters and helpers) besides Allah, if you are truthful.
Notice how Muhammad is merely the slave of Allah, kind of like your alter-ego being the slave of your conscious Id. The Koran is the work of Allah because only Muhammad can reproduce or 'create' its Suras. How logical.
2:252 These are the Verses of Allah, We recite them to you (O Muhammad SAW) in truth, and surely, you are one of the Messengers (of Allah).
Allah or Muhammad, telling Muhammad that he is a Messenger of Allah. In today's parlance we call this a tautology. It usually denotes a loop of logic well known to afflict those who suffer from mental illness.
3:32 Say (O Muhammad SAW): "Obey Allah and the Messenger (Muhammad SAW)." But if they turn away, then Allah does not like the disbelievers.
Muhammad instructing the Arabs to obey Muhammad – all in the name of his alter ego.
Muhammad is mentioned over 2500 times in the Koran, sometimes under different names [Muhammed, Muhammad, Mohammed, Messenger etc.]. The normal rules of life don't apply for Muhammad or Allah's 'Messenger'. Why should they it is his cult after all ? If you make a deal you can break it. If you want to kill, murder, plunder, war, defame, torture or control others, feel free. If you want 16 or more sex slaves, then so be it. Being obese, rich and addicted to war and women is fine – since the El-Lah thing or the invention of Muhammad said so.
2:223 Your wives are a tilth for you, so go to your tilth (have sexual relations with your wives in any manner as long as it is in the vagina and not in the anus), when or how you will, and send (good deeds, or ask Allah to bestow upon you pious offspring) before you for your ownselves. And fear Allah, and know that you are to meet Him (in the Hereafter), and give good tidings to the believers (OMuhammad SAW).
33:37 And (remember) when you said to him (Zaid bin Harithah the freedslave of the Prophet SAW) on whom Allah has bestowed Grace (by guiding him to Islam) and you (O Muhammad SAW too) have done favour (by manumitting him) "Keep your wife to yourself, and fear Allah." But you did hide in yourself (i.e. what Allah has already made known to you that He will give her to you in marriage) that which Allah will make manifest, you did fear the people (i.e., Muhammad SAW married the divorced wife of his manumitted slave) whereas Allah had a better right that you should fear Him. So when Zaid had accomplished his desire from her (i.e. divorced her), We gave her to you in marriage, so that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the believers in respect of (the marriage of) the wives of their adopted sons when the latter have no desire to keep them (i.e. they have divorced them). And Allah's Command must be fulfilled.
[This verse conveniently gives a married women of Muhammad's freed Black Slave, to Muhammad who lusted after her for sex....]
8:01 They ask you (O Muhammad SAW) about the spoils of war. Say: "The spoils are for Allah and the Messenger." So fear Allah and adjust all matters of difference among you, and obey Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad SAW), if you are believers.
9:01 Freedom from (all) obligations (is declared) from Allah and His Messenger (SAW) to those of the Mushrikun (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah), with whom you made a treaty.
9:24 Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight ... are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and fighting in His Cause then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And Allah guides not the people who are Al-Fasiqun (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah).
These are but a tithe of the hundreds of verses linking Allah to Muhammad, and Muhammad's satiation of sexual lusts, wealth, power, and military-political dominance to the Allah-deity. It is as if one half of your personality was sanctioning and supporting what the other half was doing. This is hardly 'divine inspiration', nor is it much of a religion. Cults are not religions. They are the products of diseased and febrile minds, which manufacture fantasies parading as dialectical 'truths'. The main objective of the Muhammadan cult is that the 'believers' simply obey the Muhammad:
24-47 They (hypocrites) say: "We have believed in Allah and in the Messenger (Muhammad SAW), and we obey," then a party of them turn away thereafter, such are not believers.
It is not enough to say 'okay Muhammad you have the army, the terror, the violence and the power so we believe'. You must ritualise your life, prostrate yourself, pay your Moslem tax to the Moslem central administration, support the cult in all its endeavours, memorize the cult document named Recital or the Koran, and irrationally obey everything in that document. That is Islam. No free-will, no reason, no Golden Rule, no tolerance. Cults don't allow for the niceties of such concepts. The real clue to the Koran is this: Muhammad is Allah and Allah is Muhammad. In essence 1.7 billion are simply prostrating themselves 5 times daily, marking their foreheads and raising their buttocks high in the air to a 7th century illiterate Arab military-political fascist and cult founder. If you call that a religion, then so too is Scientology.