Muhammad’s proclaiming “open season” on all non-Muslims. Even the forced conversions at Mecca and elsewhere cannot explain everything. The truth is found in pre-Islamic Arabia. The pagan Arabs, like many other barbaric peoples, believed in shamans (kahin) or what we call today “witch doctors” or “medicine men.” These “prophets” were revered as having magical powers over the forces of nature and over the spirits that inhabited trees, rocks, ponds and streams. Muhammad presented