https://www.islamicity.org/4659/can-muslims-be-friends-with-jews-and-christians/
this sheds a bit more light on the whole friends thing.
and guess what, like any other religious book, it's interpreted a million ways :)
really, anyone who needs a book to tell them who and who not to be mates with needs a good long look at themselves.
Which is why we look beyond the prescribed and observe from practice because every type of text known to man can be misinterpreted not because of the text but because of the interpreter and their inferential capacity to understand. That's why interpreting the book is left to the muftis and ulamas assigned to such roles, not self-declared.
I think it's appropriate to use one example. Muhammad's closest friend was Bilal ibn Rabah. Bilal was a polytheist and a slave to his polytheist master a high leader and keeper of idols Umayah. Muhammad befriended Bilal and he was soon exalted as the first ever muezzin in Islam history; a polytheist. Having heard Bilal leaving polytheity, Umayah the master tortured Bilal which included a series of tying and dragging him around town, whipped and beaten and burnt with hot boulders on his chest. Muhammad upon hearing this instead of physical retaliation, he instructed his aide to buy Bilal off Umayah and make him a free him. Soon as he was free, he could no longer be tortured by polytheity and was exalted as the first man to call the prayers in the history of Islam. From a slave to a dignified member of the community. This to me is one testament of friendship.
There are many others, of how the Christian king helped Muhammad in times of need, and how Muhammad being leader of the state provided alms for Christians who could not afford. He visited Abu Talib (a pagan and uncle to Muhammad) during his sickness and his death. Muhammad visited a boy from a Jewish tribe during his sickness in a time when that tribe colluded with the pagans to put poison in his food. Again, it was only that tribe. Other Jewish tribes were not recorded as having any displeasure of the state. So to paint that religion with a single brush is wrong. They did not collude because they are of Jewish faith, they colluded because they had resentment driven by materialistic and political intent. As it was, people of all faith lived in harmony. Even the polytheists were given some grace period to warm into monotheity and abandon their unlawful ways.
I do enjoy reading all these enquiries of what Islam really is. There has been a lot of misinterpretation written by the internet. Put 'islam' in the URL address and it instantly bears authority of the knowledge and the book. Trustworthiness is not only a problem faced by Islam but the internet in general which is why there has been thousands of academic articles on internet trustworthiness. This is just one study on internet trustworthiness:
People increasingly rely on Internet and web-based information despite evidence that it is potentially inaccurate and biased. Therefore, this study sought to assess people's perceptions of the credibility of various categories of Internet information compared to similar information provided by other media. The 1,041 respondents also were asked about whether they verified Internet information. Overall, respondents reported they considered Internet information to be as credible as that obtained from television, radio, and magazines, but not as credible as newspaper information. Credibility among the types of information sought, such as news and entertainment, varied across media channels. Respondents said they rarely verified web-based information, although this too varied by the type of information sought. Levels of experience and how respondents perceived the credibility of information were related to whether they verified information. This study explores the social relevance of the findings and discusses them in terms of theoretical knowledge of advanced communication technologies.
Flanagin, A. J., & Metzger, M. J. (2000). Perceptions of Internet information credibility. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77(3), 515-540.
If we really want to know the truth of information, we should not be blasé of where our sources come from. For Islam, it is the hardcopy book itself approved and stamped by a regulating authority of muftis and ulamas, and together with a person verbose not only in the Arabic language that it is written in but who has attained years long training in the art of 'tafsir'. There is nothing wrong in challenging and questioning beliefs, it is certainly even encouraged when the understanding is not nuanced.
