Prabhu Guptara said:  
>It was not the Christians who were harassing the Muslims.  It was the  
>Muslims who were moving as conquerors from the 7th century onwards into all  
>parts of the world from Arabia to East Asia, Africa and Europe, with the  
>crescent as their banner (that is why these wars of global expansion are  
>called the Crescentades).  
  
  
And, the savage irony of the Bush administration is that its wars of  
conquest and occupation have apparently strengthened the "pure" Islam  
factions and improved their recruiting efforts by placing the U.S. in the  
position of appearing to be a threat to Islam in general.  
  
Samuel Bostaph