Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Islam and violence" in English language version.
The Koran is not a squeamish document, and exhort the believers to jihad. Verses such as "Do not follow the unbelievers, but struggle against them mightily" (25.52) and "fight [those who have been given a revelation] who do not believe in God and the last day" (9.29) may originally have been directed against Muhammad's local enemies, the pagans of Mecca or the Jews of Medina, but could be redirected once a new set of enemies appeared.
Stereotypical views which portray Islam as an inherently violent religion, a 'religion of the sword' and an increasing global threat have thus been reinforced and even extended over recent years.
Seventeen derivatives of jihād occur altogether forty-one times in eleven Meccan texts and thirty Medinan ones, with the following five meanings: striving because of religious belief (21), war (12), non-Muslim parents exerting pressure, that is, jihād, to make their children abandon Islam (2), solemn oaths (5), and physical strength (1)
All the negative connotations of factionalism, social dissension, blasphemy, and their logical conclusions conspiracy, military confrontation and damnation - are captured in the title of this sura, al-Ahzab (The Confederates, Book 33)
Shi'i writers make a further qualification, that offensive jihad is permissible only in the presence of the expected Imam-and thus not under current circumstances.
In hadith collections, jihad means armed action; for example, the 199 references to jihad in the most standard collection of hadith, Sahih al-Bukhari, all assume that jihad means warfare.
The religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has described Islam as a"violent religion that wants to 'dominate and then, if need be, destroy'."