Does Islam encourage violence?

[CHAS]

Yes or no.
https://www.whyislam.org/what-about-verses-in-the-quran-that-encourage-you-to-kill-non-believers-wherever-you-find-them/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=8704312237&gbraid=0AAAAADNJvn4nrW2cJqxf1Hb9_37CvFEEt&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5NXXBhDEARIsABAJhdJ-e975D5bS7m1GWf61g-5_Le34ALUxq8hLVaq8A9XmUsnI-eF8ghgaAt1dEALw_wcB

[jon-nyc]

Having some apologist tell you the man slitting your throat in the name of Islam is reading the texts incorrectly is probably little consolation.

I would imagine that also holds true for the Jews getting tortured by Torquemada.

[Bernard]

No. The Qur'an specifically states that self-defense is justified, unprovoked attacks are not justified. Pretty standard fare.

The fact that militant radicals, fundamentalists, and terrorists use cherry picking to justify their actions is a reflection of extremist thought. Pretty stand fare as well.

[jon-nyc]

By far and away, the frequency of such radicals in the population is the most, really the only salient fact determining how violent a particular religion is. That someone, somewhere reads the text differently isn’t really exculpatory.