“Christians feel guilty about the Crusades, so much so that the very term has become politically incorrect, and the irreligious bring them up often. There are certainly events in the Crusades that no Christian could possibly defend, but they were preceded by Jihad, and the unwillingness of Muslims to admit any error is revealing. Islam spread by conquest and most of the territory they conquered had been Christian.”
[From One Eternal Day: Jihad and Crusade]
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yes because the crusades had to do with holy reasons and to take back the holy lands from the infedil muslim dogs. How about Islam spread from most of the middle east and the rest of the world peacefully? most people converted to islam in order to have access to the ulama therefore having the benefits of being a muslim, meaning at that time part of arguably the greatest civilizations in the world. And christianity has had its roots soaked in blood more than any other religion. lets think about the spainsh reqounquesta hmmm? after hundreds of years of religious peace with jews and christians living under muslim rule in spain and placing that country as the most advance in europe bloody issabella and ferdinand burnded and force converted all the muslim and jews. or the americas? as i recall 90% of the native american population declined due to the white mans greed and urge to spread the “word” of god across the world. chirstian countries were clearly the most religiously intolerant in history and today modern western countries deceptivly carry out the same habbits as done by their ancestors. for example the isreal palestine conflict. Why should a country , germany, lose the war and in order to appease the victims establish another country in another soverign country/ territory of a completly different ethnic groups. GREAT IDEA!!! and just to piss them off lets say that country never existed and force the residents out. thinking back i know that if the muslim jihad is mentioned than maybe just maybe you should think how awfully tolerant the christian faith has been
p.s use your brain next time you type
I thought about deleting this comment. It certainly violates the discussion policies severely enough, and there’s fair warning in there that this kind of thing will be deleted (see the link below). I’ve decided to leave it here for now at least, though, because there’s something going on here that might be worth thinking about together.
Let me re-phrase that as a question to the commenter: what really is going on here? When I see writing like this with no caps and hardly any punctuation I get the sense the writer is in too much of a hurry to bother. In this case it feels like anger pushing you. What brought that on so severely?
You told me to use my brain next time I type. I respectfully submit to you that I was using it, and that you made an unsupportable assumption when you concluded, on the basis of this one quote, that I was not.
I am by no means going to suggest that you weren’t using yours–I have more respect for my fellow human beings than that. (One point of the comment guidelines is a call for commenters to display respect.) But you missed more than grammar and spelling. You missed where the passage I quoted in here acknowledged that Christians did not do right in the Crusades.
Your first sentence has a “because” in it that doesn’t relate in any sense to what I wrote. None of what you wrote actually addresses what I said. (The establishment of Israel as a nation is way off topic.) That, too, seems like anger, and it’s certainly about something other than what I wrote, so I’m still wondering what brought that on so mightily?
Regarding other sins of which you accuse Christians, much of what you say is true, and I acknowledge the errors. I think you have them out of proportion, though, and that you are not acknowledging the good that Christ has accomplished through his followers through history; but maybe you’re not aware of how, down through the centuries, Christianity has led the way in helping the poor and needy, caring for the sick, establishing hospitals, founding universities, even (though you won’t believe this because you likely have a very limited view of the relevant history) establishing women’s rights and freeing slaves.
None of that excuses what we’ve done wrong. Our only forgiveness is through Jesus Christ’s grace. But if you were to study and discover the truth, you would find that our errors and aberrations are not the whole story.
If you personally have been hurt by a professing Christian, that too is a tragedy. I urge you not to reject Jesus Christ just because someone who wasn’t really following him did something wrong. Christianity should be evaluated first on Jesus Christ himself, and second on people who really are making their best effort in his grace to follow him.
P.S. I’m interested in a respectful dialogue, and I have responded to you in that way. I ask you to do the same.
First and foremost you said “There are certainly events in the Crusades that no Christian could possibly defend, but they were preceded by Jihad, and the unwillingness of Muslims to admit any error is revealing” this immediatley brings to mind the fact that instead of admitting the many errors of Christians you seem to instead blame the Muslims for their mistakes. It is almost ignorant the think that no one faith has ever commited horrible acts in history and to say that the Muslims created mistakes first seems to play the name game. You push aside the sins commited by Christians and instead portray Muslims as the root of evil. However you should understand that during that time period a territory conquered by jihad allowed religous tolerance whereas one conquered by the crusade resulted in death for non christians regardless of civilian status. Take for example the seige of Jerusalem. Its is said after the crusaders conquered the city, you had to wade through blood. There was a completley different result once Jerusalem was later reconquered by the Muslims. You also stated previously that Islam was spread by the “sword”. This also seems to be a comment posted through prejudice. It is commonly accepted that most of the converted did so because of the religious tolerance, and the acess to one of the worlds most productive economies at that time. The examples I listed, I believe, were not exaggerated, rather they were as severe as the connotation one gets. These facts of history are not just limited to Christianity, I will be the first to acknowledge the wrongs that muslims have done and will acept the enormity of the consequences. My point being is that the crusades were in dead massacres that so frequently occur in hisotry and that Christians should accept that fact. This does not imply that Muslims or any other religious followers are without a dark history rather that it seems irresponsable and unproductive to blame one people for the actions of another. Instead through mutual acceptence and ammends will humanity truly progress. You also stated that many of the territories siezed by Islam were Christian. This too is not always bad (see my example of moorish spain in my above comment). Another example would be the conquest of Constantinople (later called Istanbul) a city that later became one of the richest in the world. Regarding my last comment the examples I stated were examples of Christian sins that you seem to ignore. However I realize that they didn’t immediatley relate to the debate at hand so I apologize. I also apologize for my apparent anger and rudeness, which was in part due to the fact that once I read your post it seemed to be one influenced by rasicm and deneying ones of fualts. From this point onward I will try to show you the same respect you have shown me.