You know what, the "American Taliban" is #1 in the world in terms of power and generosity. We can have guns. We can talk trash about our leaders. We have all these rights (whether you agree with them or not, everyone, that's not the point).
1) You don't get to be #1 in power unless you're doing something right.
2) The "American Taliban" (a disgusting phrase to me personally) has given more money to other countries, the citizens of those countries, and charities than most other countries combined. Before you get into the argument of "well, we're just doing it to increase our empire," remember this: if we weren't doing it, people would be screaming that we were being selfish with our great economy and don't care.
As far as the religion of Islam goes, Islam is not a peaceful religion. It can be practiced peacefully; just because you know someone who is a Muslim does NOT make you an expert on the matter. There are three levels of Islamic practice: Common, Fundamentalist, and Extremist. Common is the layman practice; Fundamentalist is the brutal side of Islam. Most Arabic countries are ruled by a fundamentalist Islamic statehood. That is using the Koran as a complete guidebook, and no mercy for crimes, but does not support unnecessary killing of anyone. The last one, extremist Islam, is practiced by terrorists, where they are to "slaughter the infidel at every chance," and make them submit to the supreme will of Allah (I say Allah here to show that there IS a difference in the characteristics of the Judeo-Christian God and the Islamic Allah).
However, more fascinating than that is that the Qur'an alternates itself in a parallel pattern to that of historical record; Mohammad was a general and a prophet of Islam. Historically, when his forces were strong, he would march on and make war, writing in what would become the Qur'an that Allah has inspired to him what he should do; and when his forces were weak, outnumbered, or ill-supplied, he would declare a temporary truce, and write that "the Jews and Christians are the neighbors of Islam, and friends as close to a Musselman as one can be" ("Muslim" is a modern compacting of the original "Musselman").
Lastly, a belief system's ideals attempt to stay true to the founder's beliefs; Buddhists listen to the teachings of Prince Siddharta (later to rename himself Gautama, and eventually Buddha), Christians attempt to imitate Jesus Christ (and fail, granted, but that is their objective), etc.
The Harper Collins Concise Guide to World Religions (authored by Mircea Eliad and Ioan Couliano, (c)1991 HarperCollins) says "Along with leadership in prayer and ritual, he was occupied with dozens of raiding expeditions against enemies of Medina and his opponents in Mecca. Caravan raids escalated into something of a war between Mecca and Medina, accompanied by negotiations toward the conversion of the Meccans." Regardless of what they now call Islam, a religion of peace, Islam spread under the sword.
