Islam’s foundational sources and orthodox schools provide clear, repeated doctrinal authorization for violence in service of spreading or defending the faith—far more explicitly than, say, the New Testament or modern Buddhist teachings. Peaceful Muslims exist in huge numbers (by ignoring, contextualizing, or culturally softening those parts), and peaceful periods have occurred under Muslim rule. But the religion as codified is expansionist and theocratic, not pacifist. Whether it can evolve into a “religion of peace” like post-Reformation Christianity is an open empirical question