we spent hours discussing the possible outcomes of alternative histories ; what if the crusader states of outremer had survived into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; what if the ottomans had been stopped at the gates of vienna ; what if ferdinand and isabella had defeated the almohads in spain ; what if the mongols had crushed the mamelukes and stormed through egypt ; what if rome had stood firm as a beacon of christian power in the mediterranean ; and always that final question - how should we deal with the bombs and the hijacking perpetrated against the civilised muslim east by these christian fundamentalists ?