In answer to the video "The Most Violent Quran Verse (Sword Verse)"
After years of warfare and the Muslims inflicting defeat after defeat to their opponents, whose obsession and concern was to prevent at all costs the free establishement of a new community and religion that threatened a corrupt order from which they benefited, the time had come for the Muslims to be allowed to freely enter Mecca and worship in it.
The Prophet sent with Ali the final ultimatum to the tribes gathering for the annual pilgrimmage from accross the Arabian peninsula and the remaining Idolators of Mecca. They were unworthy of being the guardians of a land declared sacred by God since its establishement by their forefathers Abraham and Ishmael 8:34-35,53,9:17-22,28. This is just as God, in the times of the children of Israel, declared Canaan sacred and unfit to any trace of idolatry Deut9,Lev18:24-8,20:22-3.
The Israelites consequently had to exterminate or forcefully expell from it those who indulged in it and defiled it Ezra9:12, erasing all traces of idol worship, not allowing any covenant or peaceful outcome to its inhabitants.
Similarily to Ali, Joshua, before engaging the Canaanites in battle, sent an ultimatum to the inhabitants, offering them three choices: to leave the land, surrender and declare peace, or stand up and fight. The native tribe of the Girgoshites accepted the first condition. However, thirty-one kings chose to fight and were eventually all defeated by a 40.000 strong Jewish army at the end of a 7 years struggle Josh4:13,Josh12. 14 years later, Canaan was entirely conquered and divided among the 12 tribes of Israel. In many areas however the native population was neither entirely exterminated, nor expelled as explicitly commanded and made binding on the Jews for al times to come Deut20:16,25:19. They were enslaved instead Judges1:28. This disobedience led the Israelities to gradually lose both their ethnicity through inter-mixing with the natives, and their monotheistic religion Judges3:5-7. As a result God lifted His divine protection, and the Israelites could not contain their enemies anymore, becoming themselves slaves in that very land they had been promised and which they successfully conquered previously, the land in which they were supposed to lead a pious, grateful and free life following their Egyptian bondage.
The Arabs at the time of the prophet, not only were guilty for corrupting the way of the land, but they were also preventing the righteous from it. That ultimatum was in the form of sura tawba, the most unforgiving and stern address to the enemies of Islam among the Muslim comunity itself (hypocrites), the polytheists and the people of the book. So hard it is against them, that the rahma, the perfect mercy of Allah which usually is such a manifest attribute of His that the Quran describes it as 6:12,54"written upon" Him, doesnt open the sura, contrary to all other suras. The divine rahma was to be "put on hold", in accordance with the sunna/way of Allah as regards the punishement of a nation. When a messenger with clear warnings is rejected and opposed, in addition attempting to killing him, that particular nation will be inflicted with God's retribution. This is why this sura cannot be taken as the blueprint for Islamic "foreign policy" for all times since it deals with specific circumstances pertaining to a precise and significant location, with deep and established causes, and then it provides the answer to such problems. It would be extremely difficult for the full list of causes and circumstances to reoccur, but should they do, then it would render the commands and solutions applicable.
