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.
Muhammadanism or Islam [Submission] is of course a cult founded by Muhammad, built by Muhammad, created in blood by Muhammad, for the benefit of Muhammad. Cult leaders aspire to control. They desire acolytes who satiate their appetite for money, blood, sex and power. The cult is never neutral towards the 'other'. The cult constantly fights against those who do not believe in the 'prophecy' of the cult's founder, or who are not 'blessed' by the divine protection afforded to the cult by the founder's 'deity'. Hence jihad, plunder, rape and murder in the name of Muhammad. If you read the Koran carefully you will know that Muhammad is bigger than Allah, or at the very least conflated with the idea of God. The 'prophet' of 610 AD mumbling gibberish he picked up from the Kabaa shrine and from Jewish texts, morphs by 630 AD into god himself. Witness this 'prayer':
Muhammad Ki Ghulami Hay Sanad Azaad Honay Ki. Khuda Kay Daman-e-Tauheed Mein Abaad Honay Ki. Muhammad Ki Muhabbat Deen-e-Haq Ki Shart-e-Awwal Hay. Agar Is Mein Ho Khami Tow Sab Kuch Na Mukammal Hay.
Slavery of Muhammad is the guarantee of forgiveness of Allah. It is the only way to see the divine light. True love for Muhammad is the first condition of true Islam. If there is any doubt in it, nothing is complete or acceptable to Allah.
This 'prayer' resembles Catholic or Orthodox devotion to the incarnation of Christ. But Muhammad certainly was not incarnated, never performed miracles [though Moslems do their best to lie about this fact]; and does not fulfil any of the Old Testament prophecies [through Moselsm will pathetically use word games to give the impression that Muhammad is mentioned in the Old Testament]. Muhammad claimed to be a prophet in the Jewish tradition, this is of course absurd. He was neither Jewish, nor a prophet, and did not reveal any moral, ethical or spiritual verity. He was simply a brigand, politician and mentally deformed narcissist.
In my opinion Muhammad consciously chose to emulate 2 Jewish Prophets to cement his 'legitimacy'. The first was the military-political and spiritual leader Moses. The second, as revealed in the prayer above, was the instantiation and revelation of God himself in the body of Christ, a human who was divine, who suffered as we all do in our existence, but who was without the original sin and who never sinned in his life. Christ was divine and untainted by normal human or original sin. This is the important fact in his ministry and life. He led what St. Francis Assisi and others would try to imitate – the perfect life of giving yourself to the salvation of others. In this regard Christ eschewed worldly gains and pleasures. There is no evidence for instance that Christ did the following: had sex, had sex slaves, had 4 wives, traded in sex slaves, led men into battle, murdered opponents, became wealthy through plunder, hated Jews and pagans, cut off the heads of his enemies, or suffered from epilepsy, mental illusions, nor did he receive convenient and quite morbid revelations related to sex, money, power and theological control.
Islam is and was a sham and a scam and the Meccans, the pagans, the Jews and the Christians of 7th century Arabia all knew it. Muhammad was no more a prophet than any of the other many hundreds or thousands of bandits, robbers, charlatans or quacks who populated the Near East circa 610 AD. He was perhaps cunning in uniting pagan symbols and veneration’s into 'one' Lord or ilah and demanding complete obedience to it. But it does not make Islam a religion or Muhammad a prophet. Chinghis Khan for instance was neither a prophet nor a divinely inspired leader, though he united the Mongols under the aegis of the Sky God with himself as the agent of that god's 'plan'. I doubt that even Mongols would consider Chinghis much more than a very successful and quite bloody warlord.
Voltaire was wrong on many things [in particular the so-called Dark Ages]. But he was right about Islam. Voltaire's play 'Mahomet' performed in 1742 and dedicated to Pope Benedict XIV, presents Muhammad as he truly was – insane, sex-addled, ignorant and illiterate, an imposter as well as a tyrant. Voltaire (1745) described the play as, '… written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false Prophet'.
Before cultural Marxism and post-modern theology became standard and accepted philosophies, Muhammad was ridiculed by any who had studied Islam and the life of its founder. This includes many Arabs, Persians and Berbers. Persia was conquered in the 7th century by the Arabs and it took about 300 years to fully convert the population to an Islamic society. During this time many Persians who could think, and who were literate, laughed and mocked Islam and its Koran. Muhammadanism was viewed simply as Arab imperialism and totalitarianism, a form of mental illness and stupidity.
An example of this free-thinking in Persia is one Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865 – 925). He had studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and literature and challenged all tradition and authority in every field to which he turned his attention. His general philosophical attitude was that no authority was beyond criticism. He was a true humanist and had boundless faith in human reason. Al-Razi argued (cited Hecht, 2004, pp. 227-30),
'On what ground do you deem it necessary that God should single out certain individuals [by giving them prophecy], that he should set them up above other people, that he should appoint them to be the people's guides, and make people dependent upon them? If the people of this religion are asked about the proof for the soundness of their religion, they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, and strive to kill their adversaries.'
Excellent questions. How can a cult like Muhammadanism be religious when Moslems do not allow archaeology, enquiry, study or questioning about anything to do with their cult ? If Islam is 'true' why the objection to investigation ? If Muhammad really is a 'prophet' why the rioting and bloodshed if you say otherwise based on facts, evidence and real history ?
The intolerance of Moslems to Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus is only matched by their own ignorance of Islam, Muhammad and Arab-Koranic imperialism. Further it is only superseded by their inability to think, rationalize and debate all facets of their cult with outsiders. If Islam is 'the word of a god' reflected in the life of Muhammad and the 'uncreated' book called Recital, then why the absolute disinterest in free-will rational discourse and scientific investigation ? The answer is obvious. When Islam is analyzed it fails. When Islam is forensically analyzed it reveals itself to be just another Bronze and Iron age inspired cult of fanaticism, supremacism, violence and plunder.