Kublai Kahn kinder than Isis?

Personally, I prefer to hope that a majority of the people in the world are civilized in the 21st century.

The recent beheadings of American and British citizens by Islamic terrorists prove otherwise.

An excellent biography, "Marco Polo -- From Venice to Xanadu" by Laurence Bergreen, published in 2007 by Alfred A. Knopf points out that Marco Polo questioned many things.

Seventeen-year-old Marco Polo went from Venice, Italy, in 1271 with his father, Nicolo and Uncle Maffeo Polo to China and Mongolia. They wanted to become wealthy merchants.

Kublai Kahn was a clever and cruel ruler of the famous Silk Road and of southern China. He and his Mongol soldiers came from Central Asia.

For two decades, Marco Polo was technically a prisoner of Kublai and his army. He avoided being put to death by serving as his tax collector.

A news release this fall revealed that Christians in the Middle East were targeted by Islamic radicals. They located their homes and market a letter "N" on them. This stood for Nazarene or Jesus. They referred to them as infidels and killed them for non-Islamic beliefs.

In August 2014, displaced Christians and Yazids (Kurds) had to search for refuge in northern Iraq because radial Islamists were killing them.

Even the bloodthirsty Mongols seem kinder than the villains of the 21st century.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska