What you said in post #3 was that all religions were brutal. There is precious little evidence of this in antiquity. People may have been brutal but they were not motivated by religious zeal.
On a very small scale the jews were the first to demand conversion when they conquered Galilee in the late 2d century BC. Two things happened to forestall that process. First, it was not terribly popular among their own people. { THEY aren't "real jews" like us! }. Second, the Hasmonean kingdom which started that process soon dissolved into dynastic squabbles and civil war and ended up overrun by the Romans.... who granted the jews religious toleration as was their custom.
Several centuries later as various xtian factions either obtained or lost imperial favor they used that power to oppress groups which were not with them, be they xtian or pagan. They perfected religious oppression. Eventually the muslims learned much from them but it was hardly immediate.
On a very small scale the jews were the first to demand conversion when they conquered Galilee in the late 2d century BC. Two things happened to forestall that process. First, it was not terribly popular among their own people. { THEY aren't "real jews" like us! }. Second, the Hasmonean kingdom which started that process soon dissolved into dynastic squabbles and civil war and ended up overrun by the Romans.... who granted the jews religious toleration as was their custom.
Several centuries later as various xtian factions either obtained or lost imperial favor they used that power to oppress groups which were not with them, be they xtian or pagan. They perfected religious oppression. Eventually the muslims learned much from them but it was hardly immediate.
