[For good overview on how Islam did this over a 1,000 year period from Spain to North Africa to India and the extent of their slaughter and enslavement (which is astonishing), watch Dr. Bill Warner’s talk Why We Are Afraid, A 1400 Year Secret starting at 15 mins. ]
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/diodorus/alexander-sacks-persepolis/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)#Destruction_of_Jerusalem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Britain#Before_1066
https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/power-and-aristocracy/slaves-and-thralls/
There’s a tendency to lump all Muslims into one group. For over a decade after 9/11, that was my tendency. I still think Islam is a rival to the ideologies of the West, but it’s clear that most Muslims are not our enemies. We’ve allied with the Ottomans to resist Russia’s world-conquering ambitions. The Crusaders allied with weak Muslim kings against men like Saladin who wanted the whole enchilada. The Castilian kings allied with the Muslim rulers of Granada against the al-Mohads pushing up from Morocco. And in time, we will ally with the Muslim rulers of the countries near China to resist its territorial expansion.
Very good point. If the Muslims were the sort of monolith too many FReepers take them to be, they’d be a very dire threat. The trick is to keep them divided (easy - it’s sort of natural for them) and increasingly keeping the really bad ones busy fighting each other without a lot of US getting killed (tricky)... and... not allowing any more nukes into their hands. (The Paks having nukes is bad enough.)