For the past 30 years or so, the world has been held hostage by radical Islam. From the 9/11 terror attacks to the siege in Paris, it appears that there is no place the terrorists will not go and no action they will not do. So the question must be asked. Is Islam a religion of violence? Yes, but by similar standards, so is literally every other religion.

In the most simple aspect, no, Islam is not inherently violent. Yes, there are some verses about killing, but those are strictly to be in self-defense. As for religious compulsion, the Quran takes a like-minded stance to the Founding Fathers in claiming that religious conversion cannot be forced and it must come from within. Such quotes are as follows: "There shall be no compulsion in religion" (2:256) or "Say to the disbelievers [that is, atheists, or polytheists, namely those who reject God] 'To you, your beliefs, to me, mine'" (109:1-6).

All of this makes sense when you think of the history behind it. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism come from the same religious family. We have the same God, the same prophets, the same angels, and the same history. The only things that differ the Abrahamic Trinity are our interpretations of the message, and it is through misinterpretation that everyone who commits violence in the name of their faith gets their justification. Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I want to make something clear about warfare.

No war in human history has been solely fought over religion. I repeat, NO WAR IN HUMAN HISTORY HAS BEEN PRIMARILY FOUGHT OVER RELIGION. Do you know how hard it is to go to war? Even in modern times, with such a disparity in power as with the U.S. and Iraq, it still means thousands of people leaving their families, mobilizing millions of people, and expending a great deal of resources, money, and time. It was even more difficult in the Middle Ages when things like infrastructure, sanitation, and not starving to death were fond memories of the past. So if you're going to war, you better have a damn good reason, and things like "they pray in a slightly different fashion" have never really cut it for most people.

Let me put it to you like this. You're a medieval knight whose Lord has called him up to war, and you need to decide if to go. Leaving would mean abandoning your family, leaving your land undefended against neighboring rivals, and expending a lot of your personal resources. You ask your Lord why you're going to war, and he says, "There are some dudes over there who pray funny. We're going to kill them." Even for a medieval human, does that sound worth it? On literally any level?

Now, don't get me wrong. Religion can definitely be used as a rally point and motivator to fight in a war. Nearly all of the Crusaders were drawn to battle through religious fervor, but that doesn't change the fact that the wars weren't fought for religious reasons. They were fought because Emperor Alexios I Komnenos of the Byzantine Empire asked Pope Urban II to help him reclaim territory he lost to the Seljuk Turks. The Lords of Christendom gathered, followed a mob that pillaged and killed more Christians than the Turks did, then created their own Crusader Kingdoms instead of returning former Byzantine territory. Even the most cited religious war in history was political, which leads to my ultimate point. EVERYTHING IS POLITICS, RESOURCES, MONEY!

The simple fact of the matter is that people have been killing each other for centuries and using whatever crazy excuse they could to justify it. You're mad because the Muslims conquered Spain in the name of their God? Christians conquered the Western Hemisphere in the name of their God. Buddhists cut a bloody scar across Asia and Hinduism turned half the Indian subcontinent into a slave state. Now, don't get me wrong, none of those religions truly advocated the actions and all the results were political. But if you are going to blame Islam for her conquests, then it is only fair to give the other faiths their fair judgment.

"But," you might be thinking, "who cares if the Christians conquered stuff 500 years ago. The Muslims are killing people know. That's why we need to ban them and monitor them!" Which, to be fair is a true statement. Ignoring the Lord's Resistance Army, which is using child soldiers to cut out a Christian nation in South Africa, or the Myanmar Buddhists, who are lynching Muslims, there is a lot of violence committed by Muslims, specifically ISIS.

If I may jump back to Muslims for a second, I would like to openly address Islamophobia, and if I had to answer what the root of Islamophobia was, I would say arrogance. Do you know how many Muslims there are on this planet? 1.6 Billion, most of whom live in the third world. Do you really think that you are so important, you're so special, that some Muslim man living in India is more focused on killing you than feeding his family or staving off disease? Do you really think Muslims in the Philippines are more focused on subverting democracy or living peacefully in their democratic nation? If the 1.6 billion Muslims on this planet were truly dedicated to destroying everything that wasn't Islamic, trust me, we'd be a lot more aware of it.

90 million Germans started a World War, and you think we're currently living in a world where 1.6 billion people want to kill you? If 1.6 billion people wanted to do anything violent, we'd be in a lot worse situation than 100 dead in Paris.