You listed only a portion of Jesus' message about the referenced commandment

"With this being said, the first Commandment, and the most important according to Jesus, commands that you love God. Now, this seems strange to me because it essentially negates the fact that God allows us to make our own decisions and does not force man to comply with his demands."

That's only a portion of Jesus response to a lawyer (Pharisee, one who lives by a multitude of laws and rules) who was trying to trip him up.  The full segment from KJV is:

Matthew 22:35-40  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Notice that the second commandment is like (equal to) the first, and is to "...love they neighbor as thyself."  There are several things here but will only mention a couple.  Loving your neighbor, regardless of who he/she is, is equal to loving God.  That includes loving Muslims, atheists, liberals, conservatives, women, men, transgenders, and everyone in between.  The next thing I'd like to point to is that if you don't love yourself, it is impossible to love your neighbor.  In fact, when one finds fault with others they are in fact finding fault with themselves.  And finally, these two little commandments are equal to the entire bible, which in Jesus' day was the law and the prophets.  And it was probably even broader than that because much of the law and the prophets of his day were eliminated when the Old Testament was codified by both Christians and Jews long after Jesus' day.

God is love.