Is Shylock a justified villain?

When I read Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, I really loved Shylock's character and, in a certain way, I justified his actions of cruelty. I believe that maybe the same has happened to other people too, and that this is why it has been so difficult for critics to define him.

Even though I know it is hard to pity him, I think Shylock's hatred was a result of years of harassment, constructed by people around him. People like Antonio who discriminated him for being a Jew and not a Christian. The city thought of him as an outsider and even his daughter left him alone without a strong justification, as she said that her father did not mistreat her and asked for forgiveness through a letter, as it is shown at the end of the play.

In my opinion, Shylock can be blamed for making a living by taking advantage of people who were in a poor economic situation and came to him asking for loans, but not for his desire of revenge against Antonio. The deal they made when Bassanio aked Shylock for a loan was accepted for the two of them; Antonio and Shylock. Antonio was not forced to accept Shylock's proposal of paying with a pound of flesh if the money was not returned within 3 months. He knew from the beginning what would happen to him if the loan remained unpaid.

Shylock spent years being insulted and trash-talked by Antonio who was a Christian. This is other point that called my attention. In the play, Christians are defined as religious people whose principal values are love and mercy. But I think Christian characters in this novel, as Antonio and Portia, showed no mercy with Shylock when they deceived him in order to save Antonio’s life. In other words, I consider Shylock a victim of intolerance; nevertheless, he had to pay a high cost for his revenge plan. Did not he only lose his money, but also his identity by being forced to convert to Christianity.

Did you have the same sense of empathy towards Shylock when reading the novel? Do you think his forced conversion to Christianity was fair? Was it a sort of Antonio's revenge?