[Skybird]

No matter what the religious argument was (and it dominated in the first time, and certainly for the only successful crusade there ever was: the first one), and if the religious argument later was hijacked by ambitions for material gains, or not, one thing must be clear: that the disputed territories once were Jewish and Christian dominated, as a conseqeunce of the Roman empire, and that they got attacked and conquered by Islamic armies, which makes the crusades not a war of aggression, but a war of defence, trying to win back what had been lost in ground to an invading aggressor. The cruelty of some crusader'S acting, the killing of prisoners, for example, was not always a result of barbarism, but of military thinking: the europeans had no reserves, no ressources left, low man numbers and very, very thin supply lines, they often simply could not afford to supply prisoners in huge quantities (a story from Richard's part in the fight). However, before Richard after one battle had killed all Muslim survivors for this military reason, Islamic leaders had massacred even more Christian survivors of a battle, too, but on what they claimed to be their own ground and in a much better supply situation and with a numerically superior force in place, the excuse of not being able to feed them or having not enough men to guard them is not available for them. Where Richard acted out of military needs, they killed the survivors of that Christian army, to send Europe a clear message: "This is the best fighters and knights you have? Look what we do with them! Hahahaha!" It was an act of terror, so to speak, to pour horror into the heart of the europeans so that they may shy away from trying to win back for Christianity what originally was land of their religion. - An example just to illustrate that Muslim acting was not less brutal and violant then sometimes that of the crusaders - but not for reasons of need, but other, less manadatory needs.

The reconquista was a (successful) attempt to win back territories that had been lost to Muslim invasion, and to kick the aggressors out of Spain as well as Sicily, Italy, Greece. Which was acchieved in Spain, after the Islamic attackers had commited terrible atrocities over centuries and caused a tremendous share of pain and tragedy for the original people of that Spanish territories, suffered mass killings, slave harvestings, discrimination, plunderings, destroying major cities, etc. Some Spanish cities suffered progroms and complete destruction not only once, but several times from Muslim hands. The faery-tale of wonderful tolerant coexistence in Cordoba - is a myth. Never forget that Muslim tolerance means humiliating, discriminating supression of those people that suffer the questionable honour of being tolerated in this state of socalled dhimmitude. Repeatedly , Muslims in Spain also fought amongst themsleves, and then called then Christian kingdoms in the North for help - which usually was granted, out of fear that denying that help suddenly would lead to a unification of the rivalling muslims who then would turn against the Christian kingdoms in an act of this typical Muslim fury over the offense of having been rejected when they demanded something.

And one major difference between Christianity, basing on and following the explicit teachings of Jesus (without whom their wouldn'T be anything called Christianity). Christians who act with violance and intolerance, and who start wars of aggression to conquer new land, are violating the explicit teachings of Christ. Muslims who start wars of conquest and act violantly against other cultures and faiths, are following the explicit teaching of Muhammad and the Quran. The age of imperialism in Europe was a violation of Christian religion. The ongoing history of imperial conquest in Islam is because of it's religion. And this should teach everybody an important knowledge.

If anyone thinks it needs armies nowadays to spread Islam , he better thinks twice. After being militarily defated on european soil repeatedly, now manipulation of mass media and public opinion has proven to do a much better job for Islam in modern times, and tailoring politically correct thinking to it's needs. It gives them access to the West supoerior technology and weaponry. Then there is oil, then there is the weakness and downfall of western cultureand it's values and the lack of unity amongst europeans, and finally there is the unforgiving impact of demographic pressure, and the "fast breeding program" of Muslim colonists who already have moved to the West. where original europeans nowadays have 0-1 children, Muslims tend to have 3-7 children, and more. Stealth Fighters and GPS-guided bombs will not help us against these new enemy tactics. And if we do not find a stronger answer, we will become slaves of Islam inside of what once has been our own house. It will also mean that Islamic world control, if it manages to acchieve that in congruence with it'S ideological teachings, demands and proclaimed and written down demands and intentions, will in fact put an end to human history and evolution for terrifying long times to come. The standstill of any mental evolution - for me this is a vision of bleak horror.