Hey, don't neglect the tafsirs. Ones like that of Maududi and Ibn Kathir paint a particularly bellicose picture of Islam.
Maududi essentially asserts that surah 9 contains the order for Muslims to fight against non-Muslims to bring them under the authority of the Islamic state.
Maududi on 9:29:
"28 This is the aim of Jihad with the Jews and the Christians and it is not to force them to become Muslims and adopt the `Islamic Way of Life.' They should be forced to pay Jizyah in order to put an end to their independence and supremacy so that they should not remain rulers and sovereigns in the land. These powers should be wrested from them by the followers of the true Faith, who should assume the sovereignty and lead others towards the Right Way, while they should become their subjects and pay jizyah"
"28 At first this Command applied only to the Jews and the Christians. Then the Holy Prophet himself extended it to the Zoroastrians also. After his death, his Companions unanimously applied this rule to all the non-Muslim nations outside Arabia."
You can find his tafsir at:
http://www.englishtafsir.com/As for Ibn Kathir (
www.tafsir.com):
On 48:28:
"The Good News that Muslims will conquer the Known World, and ultimately the Entire World
Allah the Exalted and Most Honored said, while delivering the glad tidings to the believers that the Messenger will triumph over his enemies and the rest of the people of the earth,"
9:29-30:
"Fighting the Jews and Christians is legislated because They are Idolators and Disbelievers"
"(and feel themselves subdued.), disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated."
-- See the pact of Umar
On 9:73 quoting from Ibn 'Abbas:
9:73 Ibn `Abbas said, "Allah commanded the Prophet to fight the disbelievers with the sword, to strive against the hypocrites with the tongue and annulled lenient treatment of them.''
On 9:123
"whenever Muslims overcame an Ummah, they moved to the next one, and then the next one, crushing the tyranical evil doers. They did this in reverence to Allah's statement 9:123"
"We ask Allah to help the Muslims gain control over the forelocks of His disbeliever enemies and to raise high the word of Muslims over all lands."
Tafsir al-Jalalayn has some pretty incriminating stuff in it too. That is, the abrogation of peaceful verses like 60:8 and defensive ones like 2:190. That is, the stipulation of not initiating fighting is abrogated according to as-Suyuti.
It's fair enough that all these tafasir were written during the Middle Ages so it's not surprising that they're so violent and belligerent. The problem is that when you discuss this stuff with Muslims they'll often just insist that you're simply taking things out of context or intentionally misrepresenting things. And they make this charge without providing so much of a shred of evidence to support it.
That's total b.s., of course. There certainly are violent interpretations of Islam, and they're not helping themselves by burying their heads in the sand.
Topic: Warmongering Islam