Still, he was disturbed by the materialism that had invaded Mecca. Being a Libertarian, you might not have a problem with this. That is your prerogative. But I suspect that the left-leaning forum might genuinely appreciate Mohammed's concern. This is where I get really surprised. He railed against it. He fasted. He meditated. He was concerned by the rampant alcoholism, the mistreatment of women and children, and the corrpution of officials. Again, I don't expect a Libertarian to be particularly concerned with any of this, but I mention this for the sake of completeness. No man can read the mind of another, and particularly one who has been dead for a millenium and a half, but Mohammed seems to have been genuinely concerned for the people of his nation.
Plenty of homicidal dictators have had concerns for their people both ancient and modern. We don't apologize for them. I'm not sure why an exception should be made here (other than we have religion in the mix). I also think that there are people in history who you cannot separate from their deeds (e.g., Hitler) and the violence they both committed and spawned in the name of whatever banner they were running with.
But anyway, the above quote is a very strange argument to try to make. First, I'm left wing and I'm 1) secular and 2) materialist in the broad application of the term. I can't relate to people who claim mystical, other-worldly experiences, I don't seek those experiences, evidently those experiences do not seek me, and frankly, I don't believe in them. There is through the Middle Ages a long history of pious hoaxes as well. I assume there are other leftists like that also.
Anyway, Muhammad the man? We could talk about mass killing, slaving, sex slaving, the possibility of mental illness, and delusions, of course (many of his critics during his time considered him mad). People in those days were susceptible to delusions and so forth like today, there was just no explanation for them. If a person took a seizure and ranted and raved about angels visiting him and telling him things, it was taken more at face value than today.
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