It hasnt always been this way. Muslim and Christian relations were very goo up until about 910AD when sentiment among Christians began being focused on the return of Christ at the turn of the millennia and the retaking of the Holy Land by force.
Im sure that once the Islamic radicals (as well as some of us Christians who seem to want to force a holocaust in the name of Christs return) that are still living in the Dark Ages are marginalized then Christians and Muslims were find common grounds again.
I disagree.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Presbyter
Thomas the Presbyter was a 7th century Middle Eastern Jacobite author of anti-chalcedonian Syriac writings whose manuscripsts are preserved in the British libray of Syriac Manuscripts.
The writings provide an eye witness account to the events that took place in mid 7th century Iraq.
In the year 947 (635—36), indiction 9, the Arabs invaded the whole of Syria and went down to Persia and conquered it. The Arabs climbed the mountain of Mardin and killed many monks there in the monasteries of Qedar and Bnata. There died the blessed man Simon, doorkeeper of Qedar, brother of Thomas the priest.
In January the people of Hims took the word for their lives and many villages were ravaged by the killing of the Arabs of Muhmd and many people were slain and taken prisoner from Galilee as far as Beth.
On the twenty-sixth of May the Saqilara went from the vicinity of Hims and the Romans chased them.
On the tenth of August the Romans fled from the vicinity of Damascus and there were killed many people, some ten thousand. And at the turn of the year the Romans came. On the twentieth of August in the year nine hundred and forty-seven there gathered in Gabitha a multitude of the Romans, and many people of the Romans were killed, some fifty thousand.
christianorigins.com/islamrefs.html
Maximus the Confessor (d. 662)
To Peter, governor of Numidia, then in Alexandria, letter written between 634 and 640 AD
For indeed, what is more dire than the evils which today afflict the world? What is more terrible for the discerning than the unfolding events? What is more pitiable and frightening for those who endure them? To see a barbarous people of the desert overrunning another’s lands as though they were their own; to see civilization itself being ravaged by wild and untamed beasts whose form alone is human.
Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, writing about the Saracens – dates from 6th of December in 636 or 637 AD.
But the present circumstances are forcing me to think differently about our way of life, for why are [so many] wars being fought among us? Why do barbarian raids abound? Why are the troops of the Saracens attacking us? Why has there been so much destruction and plunder? Why are there incessant outpourings of human blood? Why are the birds of the sky devouring human bodies? Why have churches been pulled down? Why is the cross mocked? Why is Christ, who is the dispenser of all good things and the provider of this joyousness of ours, blasphemed by pagan mouths (ethnikois tois stomasi) so that he justly cries out to us: “Because of you my name is blasphemed among the pagans,” and this is the worst of all the terrible things that are happening to us. That is why the vengeful and God-hating Saracens, the abomination of desolation clearly foretold to us by the prophets, overrun the places which are not allowed to them, plunder cities, devastate fields, burn down villages, set on fire the holy churches, overturn the sacred monasteries, oppose the Byzantine armies arrayed against them, and in fighting raise up the trophies [of war] and add victory to victory. Moreover, they are raised up more and more against us and increase their blasphemy of Christ and the church, and utter wicked blasphemies against God. Those God-fighters boast of prevailing over all, assiduously and unrestrainably imitating their leader, who is the devil, and emulating his vanity because of which he has been expelled from heaven and been assigned to the gloomy shades.
Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. ca. 639)
a strong and vigorous sceptre to break the pride of all the barbarians, and especially of the Saracens who, on account of our sins, have now risen up against us unexpectedly and ravage all with cruel and feral design, with impious and godless audacity. More than ever, therefore, we entreat your Holiness to make urgent petitions to Christ so that he, receiving these favourably from you, may quickly quell their mad insolence and deliver these vile creatures, as before, to be the footstool of our God-given emperors. (Ep. synodica, PG 87, 3197D-3200A [p. 69])
Obviously some of the early Christians would agree with me.
