Clearly, the museum at Housesteads (Vercovicium) is merely describing a point in history… when it tells visitors that the Roman Empire never extended beyond the Rhine or Danube rivers!

The Romans DID cross the Rhine. Starting with Julius Caeasar himself, who did several times. The great crushing of an entire Roman army centered around three elite legions happened, under Augustus, in the extreme north of Germany, where the last rolling hills and forest meet the (what used to be the northern) swamp. An army led by Germanicus visited the battlefield, a few years later.

Much of the richest part of Germany (Cologne region, and east of that; and the entire south of Germany), nearly half of it, was Roman for centuries (before being invaded; the Romans living in Germany did not revolt, they were victims of invaders!) Control was lost as Xtianism gripped the empire.

The Pagan Caesar Julian, at the head of his Franks and Parisians, won an important DEFENSIVE victory in Strasbourg in 357 CE (or so). 150 years later, the Franks counterattacked, sweeping the Alemani all the way through Bavaria.

What is true is that the Romans never succeeded in a great extermination and control war. (Caesar was assassinated as he was to leave just for such a war, with the best Roman army ever!)
Augustus advised his successors against it, a huge mistake.

But the Franks, who viewed themselves as the Romans, discarded Augustus’pontificating, and did succeed to conquer all of Germania, and beyond (roughly the existing EU minus the Baltics). They took three centuries to finalize it, and, as I have said many times put Christ’s sword to good (if cynical) use.

About the Qur’an you may want to read my (shocking!)
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/some-violence-in-holy-quran/
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Les tueries Americaines, comme celle de Norvege, sont du a l’acces aux armes de guerre. A Denver l’arme principale du tueur, qui tenait un hargeur de 100 balles, s’est enrayee. Sinon il y aurait eu beaucoup plus de morts. De plus la police est arrivee massivement 2 minutes apres le debut des hostilites, un delai tres bref.

Pas d’armes de guerre, beaucoup moins d’ effets de la psychopathie. Le fou criminel de Denver etait completement drogue’. En plus, il voyait un psychiatre. Des gens pareils devrait etre sur une liste interdite d’armes a feux (pour commencer).

L’usage du cannabis mene a la folie, le fait est bien connu, et demontre’. Certains individus sont tres sensibles. J’ai vu plusieurs cas, de tres pres, avec plusieurs deces de morts violentes (suicides, mais aussi tentatives d’homicides, et meme kidnapping!). Pourtant, si on mentionne le fait scientifique que le pot rend (certains) fou, on est vu comme ringard. Je suis pour la legalisation, a petite dose, comme l’absynthe…
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As for Islam, the BBC did a recent 3-part series on the Life of Muhammad, which I really enjoyed. I was particularly fascinated by the ways in which M was initially excluded from his ancestral community and sought peaceful co-existence with both Jews and Christians… but in the end the blood-lust took over and he or his followers started slaughtering people just like their ancestors had always done in order to solve problems… The BBC also did a recent series on The Crusades – massive amounts of autocratic mind games (i.e. promises of eternal salvation conditional on doing what someone else wants you to do) and blood-lust on both sides…

At the end of it all, sadly, I was even more convinced than I had been before that all you really need to know about M is the name of the supernatural being he says told him to write… (very probably the same one that spoke to Joseph Smith and Charles Russell and many others like them)…

And indeed the fact is that the ‘four founding doctors” of Xtianism (Ambrose, Augustine, etc.) pushed for the fact the Bible ought to be interpreted (that’s all what the Jews do with the Thorah). They had little choice: the Franks, who were the sharp edge of the Roman army, were deeply hostile to Xtianism, and breathing down the necks of the bishops. Thus they had to give in on important points. An important consequence was the separation of secular and religious law, that Justinian decided to impose circa 540 CE. There too, he had little choice. He wanted to reconquer the Western empire, and he could not afford to antagonize the Franks, as he fought the Goths. By then, the Imperium Francorum had pretty much united Francia and (most of) Germania.

It goes without saying that, after Ali and Aischa’ s defeat circa 660CE, allegorical and metaphorical interpretation of the Qur’an, to make it more progressive, was never a strong point of Islam. (Aischa had been very explicit about that, especially in connection with women lib.)
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Please don’t leave comments on my old Falsifiable Theology blog – I am not even sure i could reply (even if I wanted to).