Christianity and Islam continue to be the two fastest growing religions in the world. Men and women, both Christians and Muslims, are now asking the question: should these two religions clash? Is there no common ground between them? Many Muslims are taught that Christianity seeks to eliminate Islam; that Christians have no knowledge or understanding of their faith; that Christians condemn Islam and hold the teachings of Islamic fundamentalism responsible for many if not all terrorist activities around the world. Many Christians are taught that Islam teaches the worship of a false God; that Islam was and still is spread by force and terror; that all Muslims are Arabs and that both oppose U.S. policies and the essentials of democracy. Millions of Christians have been taught for decades that Islam is an intolerant religion, prohibiting free choice and the practice of any religion except Islam. The vast majority of Western citizens continue to teach, repeat and believe the distortions and prejudices created centuries ago by a European civilization that viewed Islam as the “traditional enemy.” False images of Islam were formed from literary accounts and given exotically. sinister coloring in lurid tales of harem intrigue, voluptuous paradises and dangerous casbahs. Textbooks on European civilization, then and now, presented Islam as the religion that ended the ancient centers of early Christianity in the Middle East and North Africa, replaced Christian Constantinople in the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, and occupied Spain for almost 900 years. Somehow omitted and forgotten are the fruitful scientific collaboration and theological discussions that took place in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries, where Christian and Muslim scholars worked together to translate and comment on Greek philosophy and science. It omits the fact that under Nordic rule the first translation of Arabic philosophy was made in Sicily which would have had a profound effect and influence on the works of Albertus Magnus and the famous Christian scholar Thomas Aquinas. Forgotten and omitted are the myriad historical accounts of Christians and Muslims living and working together for the common good of their societies, as evidenced in the 9th century by Francis of Assisi's visit to the Mamluk sultan in Egypt at the height of the Crusades, and from 16th-century dialogues between Christians and Muslim scholars organized on the initiative of the Mughal emperor Akbar in modern India and Pakistan.