Let me just say this: Islam is nothing more than a mould (I don't mean a
fungus). If you think it's a horrible violent desert ideology (interestingly, early Christianity and Judaism fit that idea much more, as Islam was developed in a cosmopolitan environment), that's okay. If you believe Muhammad was a
proto-feminist, that's okay too. If you believe he and the early Muslims were
socialists, that's okay too.
Don't forget that most of the things we know about Muhammad date from over a hundred to two-hundred years
after his death. What makes him interesting as a character is not so much what he did or said, but what different kinds of Muslims think he did or said.
The question "is Islam true?" is a question that only works when you're actively trying to look for the truth. Personally, I'm not interested in that at all. I would much rather look at how many different kinds of people hold vastly differing opinions about what Islam is and still all regard themselves as Muslims. Confronted with this diversity within the religious framework itself, we can't possibly say something such as "Islam is x".