Was there a "moderate" Mohammed?

Kevin Graham quotes the interesting insights of Canadian Muslim author Irshad Manji and Sir William Muir. Mr. Graham responds to a previous post indicated by "==".
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== Mohammed's early revelations in Mecca are peaceful.

True.

== Mohammed's revelations in Medina are not peaceful.

Also true.

== What changed?

Do the math.

Canadian Muslim author Irshad Manji says that when Muhammed moved to Medina, "That's when the Koran's message of compassion turns to retribution."

Sir William Muir explains it this way:

QUOTE

In the Meccan period of his life there certainly can be traced no personal ends or unworthy motives...Mahomet was then nothing more than he professed to be, 'a simple Preacher and a Warner'; he was the despised and rejected prophet of a gainsaying people, having no ulterior object but their reformation. He may have mistaken the right means for effecting this end, but there is no sufficient reason for doubting that he used those means in good faith and with an honest purpose.

However, after he arrived in Medina, those suras seem to have a generally much harsher tone, often even mean-spirited and barbaric, as regarding non-believers. Muir continued the above citation, "But the scene changes at Medina. There temporal power, aggrandisement, and self-gratification mingled rapidly with the grand object of the Prophet's life, and they were sought and attained by just the same instrumentality. Messages from heaven were freely brought down to justify political conduct, in precisely the same manner as to inculcate religious precept. Battles were fought, executions ordered, and territories annexed, under cover of the Almighty's sanction. Nay, even personal indulgences were not only excused but encouraged by the divine approval or command. A special license was produced, allowing the Prophet many wives; the affair with Mary the Coptic bond-maid was justified in a separate Sura; and the passion for the wife of his own adopted son and bosom friend was the subject of an inspired message in which the Prophet's scruples were rebuked by God, a divorce permitted, and marriage with the object of his unhallowed desires enjoined. . . . As the natural result, we trace from the period of Mahomet's arrival in Medina a marked and rapid declension in the system he inculcated. Intolerance quickly took the place of freedom; force, of persuasion. "(Sir W Muir, Life of Mahomet, 1864, four volumes, vol. 1, p. 503)

Kevin Graham, FAIR Message Board, 1/12/06 (emphasis added).