This question is important not simply for academic and eristic purposes, but also for the purposes of public policy and national security.  Notice that the tile of this paper is a question about the nature of Islam, a religion, and not necessarily about the character of Muslims qua Muslims, the followers of Islam.  One might conclude that the majority of Muslims is peace loving, or even that a super majority is peace loving, say 95%, I do not know.  It would be difficult to know such a thing like that.  The best current polling that we have on the attitudes of Muslims from countries around the world, though, is not all that reassuring for non-Muslims.  Nevertheless, one can believe in the irenic outlook of the vast majority of Muslims and still believe that Islam itself is not necessarily a religion of peace.  The focus of this effort then is on the nature of Islam.

    This paper is divided into two parts.  In the first part I probe the beliefs and practices of Muhammad and the founding generations.  This will involve looking at the primary documents, the Qur’an and the Hadith reports.  In all, this early period will take us up through the first three generations, after which some conclusions will be drawn.  In the second part, I examine how Islam has been assimilated and practiced in certain periods in history up to the present, and then present some final conclusions. ...