To start with, you have to quit mixing and matching the Old (Jewish) and the New (Christian) Testament. The actual teachings of Christianity are rather peaceful with one of its major tenants being the admonishment to love your neighbor as you love yourself. The foundation (Old Testament) of the Christian religion is rather bloody and violent, but that is where the Christ comes in, and changes basically everything.

That being said, there are a bunch of ass-hats coughWestborocough out there who claim their religion is Christianity and do highly offensive things. HOWEVER, they do not (in the modern day) run around killing people, starting riots, or blow up buildings killing thousands. They especially do not do these things on a weekly or monthly basis. Those who which to argue this distinction often point to anti-abortion activists, or the IRA; however, the analogy is not really accurate. Anti-abortionist (who may, or may not be, Christian) are fighting against a specific thing (sanctioned murder, as they define it, of innocent life). There objection to the action may be rooted in their religion; however, their religion is not what is telling them to do it. The IRA vs. England conflict, through often described as Catholic vs Protestant, is really a political fight between Irish loyalist/nationalists and the English.

Islam, on the other hand, does in fact condone and call for violence against any who do not adhere to their faith. It sanctions virtually any and all actions against those people. Yes you can find parts of the religion which specifically call for peaceful relations wit other faiths. However, the vas majority of those passages are from the early parts of the Quran. There is a specific teaching of Islam, and I forget the word that encompasses it, but unlike with the Christian Bible, if 2 passages of the Quran contradict, the newest passage holds precedent. This means that if on page 2 it sys to treat everybody nice, but on page 50 it says to kill them, well it sucks for you cause you are gonna die.

With all that said, can a Muslim be a good person and lead a life in harmony with everyone around them? Yep they sure can, and many, perhaps even most, do. Unfortunately, they do so in silence. Let’s revisit our old friends the Westboro church for a moment and think about the VERY vocal public reaction they receive from the rest of the Christian community, and then compare that to the vocal Public reaction that groups like Al Qaeda receive. Have you EVER seen a major Islamic religious figure publicly condemning acts of violence against another faith? When was the last time you saw a Million Muslim March for peace? Yeah, you will occasionally see someone on MSNBC or some other US news network mouthing some platitudes, but NEVER on Al-Jazeera. Even when they do appear on US news their statements are usually something along the lines of "what a tragedy, Islam is a religion of peace, Its a shame the US did "X" and made them so mad that they anally raped your ambassador, killed him, and drug his body through the streets"

Islam CAN be a religion of peace, but only when the practitioners of it publicly rise up AGAINST those who would have it be something else and make it be one. Unfortunately, they have never done this, and I seriously doubt it will occur in my lifetime.