Was Islam Spread by the Sword?

WITH MUSLIMS being portrayed as blood-thirsty militants, it’s time to clear up some myths.
Non-Muslims cannot fathom the continued, astronomical rise of Islam despite all odds and with no great missionary effort.

HISTORICAL FACTS have been bent to make it seem that Muslims forced conversion to Islam.
De Lacy O’Leary writes in "Islam at the Cross Road":
"History makes it clear that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated."

CONSIDER THE following:
Indonesia has the most Muslims in the world. The majority of Malaysia is Muslim. May one ask, "Which Muslim army went to Indonesia and Malaysia?"
Similarly, Islam spread rapidly on the East Coast of Africa. Again, if Islam was spread by the sword, "Which Muslim army went to the East Coast of Africa?"
The Reader’s Digest Almanac 1986, gave the increase of the major religions from 1934 to 1984. Islam increased by 235%, and Christianity by 47%. Which war took place in this century to convert millions of people to Islam?

THE MASSACRES suffered at the hands of non-Muslims bear mention. A cursory reading turns up the Jerusalem massacre by Christian Crusaders; mass extermination in Spain and the slaughter of a million Muslims by the French in Algeria.
The truth is that Islam alone prescribes the most humane and ethical laws for even such a thing as waging of war.