Muslim persecution of Christians today has its deepest roots in the premature death of Islam’s prophet, Abdul Qasim Muhammad in A.D. 632. At the age of 62, Islam’s “final prophet” unexpectedly died following a brief illness. This had a profound theological impact that reverberates to this very day. Muhammad had long taught his followers that any new “revelation” he gave which contradicted any previous revelations took precedence because it was Allah’s desire to abrogate and replace the older one with the new and better one.10 So, whatever Muhammad revealed last from Allah always eclipsed anything contrary which he may have revealed before. It was exactly while he was on war-footing with—well, frankly everyone—that Muhammad suddenly died. His forces were in the heat of a peninsular battle with all pagan Arabs, Jews, and even distant Christians. His final Surahs, Bara’ah (9) and Al Maidah (5) are therefore not only his concluding divine discourses but also the most militant revelations. He died with his sword unsheathed. Thereby inadvertently, and possibly unintentionally, Muhammad locked and enshrined all of Islamic theology in a militant posture, tragically abrogating all prior reasonable, tolerant, and peaceful revelations.11 That nothing has been found by Muslim theologians decisively to abrogate this final confrontational posture is, in my opinion, the greatest crisis within Islam.
http://equip.sbts.edu/publications/j...ure-1-cor-412/