Peace Be Upon You

How can territory in the M.E. belong to the Romans - because they captured those countries and the African Maghreb long before Islam was founded.

Just like Islam captured Christian Byzantium from the Romans - these things happened in those days. So Yarmouk was a defensive battle against the invading Arab armies - simples.

Spain - do muslims ever get over this dream that they lived in harmony with Jews and Christians in Andalusia and everything was wonderful? Non muslims were dhimmis and lived as second class citizens, they were never free to practice their religions without hard restrictions and they were never allowed equality in justice. Yes, the Spanish Inquisition was horrendous but it was there to sort out who was Jewish and who were muslims pretending to be Spanish Jews so that Spain could rid herself of all the Moors. Unfortunately the Jews got caught up in the inquisition because many of them looked like the Moors.

Boadicea was fighting for her land back from the Roman conquerors, Islam was not fighting for its land back from Roman conquerors because there was no Islam when the Romans built their Eastern Empire! The are north of Arabia was known as Sham and was where the Jewish homeland and Jerusalem was situated.

As for the Crusades - they were the Christians of Europe who were fighting for the return of the Holy Land whch had been conquered by Islam. A gory episode of life in those days I must admit but not in anyway equal to the 80 million or so Hindus killed by the Islamic invaders in their quest for loot and slaves and their intent to Islamicise the world.

Yes, there were good leaders and bad leaders, good kings and bad kings but the major point is that your historical view of Yarmouk is not gleaned from Roman History books written by those who lived in the era, but a revised history of how Islam has always been attacked when in fact it has always been the aggressor until the Europeans started fighting back. I am well aware of the Saudi push to revise the history of Islam by hiding the worst of its excesses and claiming to be the victim - we have stacks of those books in the university libraries, all donated by Islamic societies and publishers and all well known to be inaccurate and ambiguous about the truth. In fact, some contain outright lies. Muslims living in Islamic countries only have access to books which promote Islam - the number of banned books written by western historians (especially in Saudi) is incredible.

Before WW1 Serbia, Romania, Montenegro and Alabania were all European Islamic countries - but the Ottoman Empire wanted more of Europe and stupidly joined Germany hoping they would gain more S.E. European territories. But they lost, so the Holy Land and the Levant were ceded to the victors who chose to give the Jewish homeland back to the Jews who had financially helped the allies beat back Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

How can territory in the M.E. belong to muslims - because like the Romans, they conquered it. I would not argue with that but I would argue that you play by different rules. The Ottoman Empire was conquered by the Brits and French in WW1 and we gave you back nearly all of it - did you ever willingly return any conquered lands to their indiginous people? It is you who are blinkered ibcm, not me.

I did not pick up on the Crusades because I do not deny what happened! But you are denying the havoc you wreaked in India and the truth about Yarmouk.

In roman history the Byzantium Empire and the Eastern roman Empire were both used to desribe this area. Anyone who has studied Roman history knows that both Empires mean the same and do not question which desigantion is made. You obviously are not that familiar with this double usage or you would not have picked up on something that is the norm in the history books.

PS - When have the Hindus, North Africans etc. ever been treated as equals by the Arabs? Arabs still treat them as second class and inferior muslims even in this day and age.

Witness the many surname changes by the Indian and Pakistani muslims in a desperate attempt to prove they have some Arab lineage which makes them superior to the asian muslims of India and Pakistan.