Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

Krista has been watching a LOT of content interviewing Muslims about the war in Israel. Both Monique and Krista are working to understand the best case on BOTH sides of the discussion.
We've also been struggling to make sense of some of the claims. Krista reached out to our friend Laura Zifer Powell to see if she could help us get to the truth whether Islam is a religion of violence or peace. You won't want to miss this important conversation!
Questions discussed:
• How did you become interested in studying Islam?
• How can we differentiate between loving Muslim people and disagreeing with their religious beliefs?
• How does Islam say that conversion should happen? Is the goal truly to make the entire world become Muslim? Does it include coercion?
• Is it possible that these passages are being taken out of context?
• What does Islam teach about the dignity of humans?
• Who are the “real” Muslims? Are the so-called extremists actually extreme? Or are they just living out the principles of Islam consistently?
• Are average Muslims aware of what their holy writings say when it comes to violence?