The problem with the declaration, "Islam is a religion of peace," can be made in good conscience and complete sincerity by a Muslim, but only because the Mohammedan conception of peace is defective. In human affairs, Islam knows no peace between Muslims and non-Muslims, there can be at best a truce, a hudna, which the Muslims feel free to abrogate at any moment when it is to their advantage. In spiritual matters, the peace promised by submission to Allah is not at all like the peace which passes all understanding that Christ promised us, but like the peace between master and slave, between conqueror and vanquished. Anyone who does not understand the ways in which the Islamic concept of peace are defective can be easily taken in by the sincerity of the declaration.
