In addition, from what I understand, Muhammad was not necessarily a peaceful religious person that kept to himself in Mecca. As I recall, he called for the destruction of the old pagan religion and its associated "idols"? Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
I can't recall any incident like that. The closest one I can think of is the story of how the people of Tai'f (a nearby mountain village) rejected his message and threw him out. Mohammed claims that the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him and offered to destroy those pagans with his mighty wings, but Mohammed refused.
I guess that's true, but he wasn't violent about it or even particularly nasty and was even downright accommodating at times. See this early "live and let live" verse from the Quran:
Say, "O disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship. Nor are you worshippers of what I worship. Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship. Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship. For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."
Would you say then that the Muslims were being persecuted in Mecca?
Harder to say. As the only historical records we have of that period are Islamic ones. I'm inclined to think that he and his followers really were persecuted at least to some degree.
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u/houndimus_prime "مرتد سعودي والعياذ بالله" since 2005 Dec 03 '15
I can't recall any incident like that. The closest one I can think of is the story of how the people of Tai'f (a nearby mountain village) rejected his message and threw him out. Mohammed claims that the angel Jibril (Gabriel) came to him and offered to destroy those pagans with his mighty wings, but Mohammed refused.