Ankle deep, did it flow

                Once there was fought a vicious war. On one side were a peaceful people just going about their lives, on the other were a brutal and savage people who oft-times warred amongst themselves. The religious leader of these brutes saw this, and decided to unite all his followers to a common cause: wiping out those terrible peaceful people who followed a different path than themselves.

                The armies of the savage folk gathered, now at peace with each other under the promise of untold violence and riches. Together they marched, together they sailed, all the while getting closer to the peaceful people.

                They sued for peace, those peaceful people, and the savage people threw it in their faces and slaughtered those sent.

                The savage people, once at the peaceful people’s city, lay brutal siege against it. Hurling corpses and rocks over and into the walls. All day and all night did the catapults fling while the savage people built more and more weapons of hate to take the city.

                And then the siege was over. The savage people moved their towers to the walls and their rams to the gates, and over and through they went. Their swords cut down the enemy soldiers, but not there did they stop. Their swords cut down all the women, all the children, all the old, all the sick, all who still drew breath within the city.

                It is oft-mentioned in melodrama that streets can run red rivers with blood, and on this day that statement rang true. Ankle deep did the blood flow on those lower streets as the savage people worked their deadly way through.

                They knocked down the peaceful people’s icons, and threw their own, now blood drenched, up. And once done their bloody work, once killed all who once called that city home, the savage people offered up prayers of joy and thanksgiving to their blood-soaked god, then they reveled and drank and fucked.

                I left the specific religions out of this. This is a true story from history, and now that I’ve said this many of you will be thinking that Islam was the religion of the savage people and that Christianity was that of the peaceful people. That’s not the case. This is the story of the First Crusade, when the Christian armies, under the direction of the Pope, went and took Jerusalem from the Muslim people. When the Christians took the city, they slaughtered every living person in it: Jew, Muslim, Christian, man, woman, child. Historians there that day spoke of streets running ankle deep in blood. During the Second Crusade, the Islamic armies retook Jerusalem. The Muslims let everyone live. They let those who wanted to stay in the city stay, and they let those who wanted to leave, leave. Too often we in the western world forget the atrocities the Christians have committed over time, the sheer of amount of lives that Christianity has taken, and we blame everything on Islam. Both religions have blood in their past and present. Both religions have their flaws. But if any one religion is to be blamed for the bad blood between the two, it should be Christianity. Christianity has strayed so far from the teachings of Christ over its two thousand year history, that we often forget the core tenant of the religion: Love God, and love your neighbours. Christians aren’t very good at love any more, and maybe they never have been.

                The next time you wish to get mad at the Muslim people, remember who struck first. Remember who continues to spread hate, and remember that the only way to end wars is to quit fighting. All of you who spread hate are just as guilty as those who resort to violence.