Peaceful Tolerant Islam

I was cleaning out the mailbox and I came across a few things that, rather than go into great deatail, I will link the articles and let you decide for your selves just how peaceful Islam is.

First - a couple of articles on Women's Rights in Islam

"One of the more controversial issues in Islam is the Quran’s authorization for husbands to beat disobedient wives. This is found in chapter 4, called “Women”, verse 34. Additional information on Islamic wife beating is found in Muhammad’s Traditions (Hadith), and Sira (biographical material). Many people have criticized Islam because of this harsh sanction, and many Muslims have written articles seeking ways to mollify or defend it. In review of the actual teachings of the Quran, Hadith, and Sira, Islam is rightly criticized. This command is not only a harsh way to treat one’s wife, it portrays the degraded position of married women in Islam. It will be shown from the Quran, Hadith, Sira, and other Islamic writings that this “Islamic” wife beating is physical and painful.

Please note that wife beating is not only an Islamic problem. It is a common occurrence throughout the entire world. Some cultures accept it more readily than others. However, Islam accepts the practice to an extent that Muslim societies do not see it as a problem."

"The reality, of course, is different. There are millions of illiterate people subjected daily to pressures by ignorant clerics to force women to wear the veil and, in most extreme cases, the niqab (total coverage of the woman’s body from head to toe) which is tantamount to subjugating her identity for no reason other than preserve the patriarchal society. "

"The letters are delivered in the night, dropped on the doorsteps of female Kandahar professionals. The anonymous missives warn the occupants that they will "bleed" if they don't stop working.
Other threats are more urgent. A female employee at a United Nations agency in Kandahar was warned by an unknown caller to leave Afghanistan within half an hour. More than half a dozen female government workers in the southern and western provinces have complained of death threats.
These are a few examples of the rising tide of violence against women in Afghanistan, especially in the south. Five years after the fall of the repressive Taliban regime, women -- in particular working women -- are increasingly being targeted by extremists."

Along those lines is this Der Spiegel interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali where she talks about the existance of free speech in Islam..

"SPIEGEL: Why have the protests escalated to such an extent?
Hirsi Ali: There is no freedom of speech in those Arab countries where the demonstrations and public outrage are being staged. The reason many people flee to Europe from these places is precisely because they have criticized religion, the political establishment and society. Totalitarian Islamic regimes are in a deep crisis. Globalization means that they're exposed to considerable change, and they also fear the reformist forces developing among émigrés in the West. They'll use threatening gestures against the West, and the success they achieve with their threats, to intimidate these people. "

A free press gets our attention next.

"Last week a book publisher told Nancy Kobrin, a psychoanalyst and lecturer on counter—terrorism, that they were withdrawing the publication of her book, The Sheikh's New Clothes, because they were afraid of fundamentalist repercussions, according to Kobrin.
According to Kobrin, Mary Loughrey, a vice president with the book publisher, called to tell her that "because of security reasons they feared for the safety of the staff and themselves."
he said Loughrey mentioned Muslim reaction — including calls for assassination — following Pope Benedict XVI's recent speech as part of the reason they were concerned."

Then there is this on the imposition of Shariah law on the west.

"Muslim populations in Britain and Canada are pressing for the adoption of the law of Shariah - the radically oppressive law of Islam. If the law was adopted in those countries, it wouldn't be restricted simply to Muslims. Proponents of the Law of Shariah want it not only for themselves, but for all citizens of those countries. They have avowed to enact this law by force if necessary. Islam was founded by violence. "

Do you still think that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant religion?