Will Durant: A Critical Analysis

Thirdly, a quick introduction of myself (if I don't come across a troll and am allowed to linger, I might follow up with a more detailed one later!): I have had nothing much to do with islam thus far in my life and I have only had limited direct interactions with muslims. Nonetheless the country I grew up in is inextricably linked with islam and its history for over 1,000 years was dictated by islamic rule; some claim American historian Will Durant observed based on islamic sources this region suffered from the bloodiest of islamic conquests; looking back now on my formative years, there were scars of such history everywhere but people mostly strove hard to put it behind them. The country I live in now is reviled globally as being islamophobic, but I have personally become more acquainted with "allahu akbar" deaths and major injuries among its non-muslim citizenry than any discriminatory attacks on muslims by the general populace (not saying the latter doesn't exist). I have
I admit I have found most of the writings to be so bombastic, repetitious, so Goebbels-like in terms of explicit messaging I have skimmed over vast sections in spite of my best attempts to pay close attention.

So why am I here? Mainly because I'm no more impressed with islam and the story of muhammed than any other ideologies and theologies and imperialistic efforts in history, though I concede the former have had among some of the biggest of impact on humanity, at least in terms of the number of claimed followers (and something which seems to grow inexplicably! what, it will be about 2 billion next year, 2.3 the year after!). I have expressed the opinion in some circles (dominated by self-proclaimed progressive liberals - Ben Affleck types - something I only came to