• Prophet Muhammad was in Mecca 14 years after attaining prophethood.  When he finally migrated to Medina, he only had 80-100 followers with him.  If islam was a religion that appealed to the masses as is often claimed, then why was he not able to convert more meccans peacefully? why did he have to come back with an army to convince the meccans to accept Islam ?
• Before Prophet Muhammad, Jews and Christians, who also follow monoethism and shun idol worship, lived amicably with the pagan arabs.  How is it that the pagan arabs never tried to fight the Jews and Christians off and only persecuted Muhammad ? If the pagan arabs were really as intolerant and violent as stated in the Quran, how come they didnt kill Muhammad when he was preaching against them whilst right in their midst ? Muhammad did not have enough military might then.  It would have been easy for the pagan arabs to kill him if they wanted to, but they didnt !
• Allah himself promises eternal torture for non-muslims.  Their only crime is that they are non-muslims.  If Allah, the master of Prophet Muhammad can be so intolerant and violent towards non-muslims, how can a rational non-muslim believe that Muhammad was non-violent or that Islam preaches non-violence ?

They tried. They tried to kill him.But Prophet came to know of there plans in time, and by the command of Allah swt, he migrated to Madinah. There plan was that every person from each tribe of Makkah shud attack and kill him. The surrounded Prophet's house so that they cud pounce and kill him.

 Before that, during his stay at Makkah, these disbelievers, made many attepmts to cause harm and kill Prophet. We will look at one such incident. Abu Jahl {who was one of the uncles of Prophet, as well as bitterest enemy of Islam} sworned in the name of idols {Lat, Manat, Uzza}, these were the famous ones they worshipped, he sworned that he would kill him. Fatima RA, the youngest little daughterof Prophet,overheard them and ran to her father and told him about there plan to kill him as soon as he stepped out of his house. She innocently asked as what would happen as nothing can stop these people. Prophet {Pbuh} told her to have faith in Allah swt, as He was her father's Protector. He then got up calmly, made the ablution for his prayers and went to the House of Allah. {Kabah}. When he passed by, Abu Jahl and his freinds who were seated there, he looked towards the heavens , then turned his eyes downward. Saying that Allah Almighty would cover their faces with dust} he picked up handful of mud and threw it in their direction. These people were so taken aback and overcome that none of them cud stir from their places or speak. It was as if the fear of the Almighty had struck them dumb.

Now to the incident while Prophet was migrating to Madinah along with his best friend and companion, Abu Bakr {RA}. While the migration, they stayed for few days in a cave of Mount Thur. They planned to stay there until Quraysh horsemen gave off there search. The Quraysh horsemen started looking everywhere for Prophet. It was not long before one brigade reached his hideout in Mount Thur. There they were armed and standing at the mouth of cave., and Prophet and Abu Bakr RA cud easily see there feet. Abu Bakr ,  sensing critical danger they were in  said to Prophet, " The enemy are upon us". Prophet assured him, "Don't worry, God is with us. We are only two, but how do you rate  those two  who have Allah swt as there third companion" ? Anyways, those men , cud not trace Prophet at all inspite of being so near to them.

It was the special protection given to Prophet by Allah swt.

Can you kindly quote the verse, wherein you find that eternal punishment  is for the non-muslims ? Allah swt, is Just. He does n't punish innocent. Infact He is very compasionate and Merciful. That punishment is for DISBELIEVERS. A person, to whom the truth of God being One and Muhammad {Pbuh} is the Prophet, has reached fairly, but still he denies it and does n't embrace it , is a disbeliever. Not all non-muslims are disbelievers.

Welcome BeFair,

BeFair wrote:    How is it that the pagan arabs never tried to fight the Jews and Christians off and only persecuted Muhammad ?

Interesting queston. Apparently the Pagan Arabs did not consider the jews and Christians a threat. It may be because thier ideology did not conflct head on with that of the Pagans - nor was thier religion a drastic threat to thier lifestyle and status quo. Whereas, Islam was a drastic threat to thier lifestyle and how they ran things.

• Islam challenged the authority of the Pagan tribal leaders - who 'held the key' to the Kaaba and associated thier tribes' with custodianship of the Kaaba
• Islam challenged the ultimate power of tribal chieftains and suggested that Allah was greater and His law was superior to local customs and Chieftains.
• The Kaaba was the centre of pagan religion at the time, and was full of idols. People came from various places for pagan pilgrimage to the Kaaba - bringing trade with them, as well as offerings. Obviously, removing idolatory would put a stop to these pilgrimages - hence a dent in the pagan pockets.
• Islam introduced equality of genders and races. pagan Arabs considered themselves superior to women, non-arabs and slaves. This social re-order was not welcomed. Infact the chieftains of Mecca would ridicule/comment on how Prophet Muhammad kept the company of the poor and the weak.
• Islam began the process of abolishing slavery - and well, the economy and society was relying heavily on unpaid slave labour.
• Islam was very vocal about the evils in the society and superstitious practises of the Pagans - whereas the Jews and Christians did not voice thier distaste of such acts - hence Islam and Prophet Muhammad became the target, and not the Jews/Christians.
• Islam was new on the horizon and probably came into more notice that age-old religions like Judiasm and Christianity - which were old news by then and part and parcel of the culture.
• Islam threatened the current social order by banning female infanticide, banning forced marriages, limited the number of marriages, introducing women's rights, abolishing slavery, equality of races etc.
• Threatened the economy  by banning gambling, wine, fortune tellers,  slavery, and interest.
• Prophet Muhammad was starting to gain momentum and popularity - something that the Chieftains considered a threat, which is why they tried bribing him with wealth, power and women - but he declined.

etcetera and so forth. The Jews and Christians did not take the above drastic steps.

If the pagan arabs were really as intolerant and violent as stated in the Quran, how come they didnt kill Muhammad when he was preaching against them whilst right in their midst ? Muhammad did not have enough military might then.  It would have been easy for the pagan arabs to kill him if they wanted to, but they didnt !

We Muslims believe Prophet Muhammad was saved by Allah - because he was meant to convey his message, and thus could not die before doing that. Which is why Allah saved him on numerous occasions. Also because his time had not yet come. You as a non-muslim could consider it fate or luck? or bad planning on the part of the pagans.  

• Meccans wanted Abu Talib to hand Muhammad saw over to them to be dealt with. He refused.
• Meccans put a bounty of 100 camels on Prophet Muhammad's life. Interestingly, one of the people who tried, ended up converting to Islam
• Umar - Prophet Muhammad's closest companion, started out by trying to murder him - on his way stopped at his sister's house and ended up converting.
• A Jewess tried to poison Prophet Muhammad by inviting him and his companions for lunch - he survived, one of his companions however passed away as a result.
• Then the Meccans made a grand-murder-plan, in which a young man from each famous tribe would take part in the murder so that one particular tribe could not be held responsible. Prophet Muhammad found out beforehand and left the city with his friend.