Is Islam a religion of peace?

Sam Harris is a Stanford PhD in neuroscience and an author publishing on religion, philosophy and neuroscience. He is cofounder and co-chair of Project Reason. He has been an outspoken critic of those in the West who seek to brand Islam as a religion of peace. He’s studied the Koran and can provide verse after verse showing where the fundamental precepts of the religion call for armed struggle, with the eventual goal being elimination of all religious dissent by conversion where possible and by the sword where conversion is refused. Here’s a 6-minute video giving Sam Harris’ take on Islam the Religion of Peace. Agree or disagree?

If you’d like to delve more deeply into this, here’s a ninety minute debate between Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan titled Islam a Religion of Peace? in which the brilliant, and dearly departed Dr. Hitchens cites the verses of violence that make Osama bin Laden’s and other current Islamic Jihadists’ views on Jihad consistent with what the Koran says.