[cuban leaf]

Several months ago I started calling Muslims “Klingons”. It is a conversation starter when someone asks what you mean or why you said it.

It is literally a culture clash between two cultures based on completely incompatible core values. They can not coexist.

[cripplecreek]

As far as I'm concerned Turkey needs to be booted out of NATO. I'm having a lot of trouble seeing how different Erdoğan is from Ahmadinejad.

[agere_contra]

This article is rife with sleazy moral equivalence.

The Crusades were a defensive war against Islam. The Muslims had taken vast amounts of Christian territory before the First Crusade.

If nothing else, the Crusades stopped Jihad in its tracks.

[Sam Gamgee]

Which is why Sobieski, Charles the Hammer, and Vlad the Impaler (as imperfect as he was) will forever be heroes for me. The West owes a lot to the East (Poland, Romania, ect) that basically kept us safe (and ignorant at times) from the threat banging at our door.

Islam took advantage of the downfall of the Roman Empire, and the constant fighting between Byzantium and Persia. Persia was quickly overwhelmed and conquered by Mohammed's successors. The Ottomans (thankfully) made an error siding with Germany in WWI, as it lead to the final downfall of the caliphate. In the depths of their hearts Muslims want their caliphate to return.