[Valin]

Please click on source for the rest of the article

[TitansAFC]

Oh come one, I went to college.

We all know that the evil Catholic Church abused their power to send thousands of ignorant, fanatical Christians to fight for land rightfully owned by peaceful Muslims.

This guy must be one of those Catholic apologists who twist history to make Christians look good and Muslims look bad.

[TitansAFC]

Oh come one, I went to college.

We all know that the evil Catholic Church abused their power to send thousands of ignorant, fanatical Christians to fight for land rightfully owned by peaceful Muslims.

This guy must be one of those Catholic apologists who twist history to make Christians look good and Muslims look bad.

[twigs]

I am currently reading Madden's The New Concside History of the Crusades. It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it. He talks some about how revisionist historians have distorted what really happened. This sounds like a good book too. If Madden speaks well of it, then it probably worth reading.

[Jessarah]

Another good series that's out right now is The Journey of Souls by C.D. Baker. The first book is "Crusade of Tears". It takes place in the 13th century and is about the children's crusades that began in Germany. It is a fictional book based on facts known about that particular time period. Very good and easy read.

[kellynla]

and it's time for another...
and this time, we'll finish the job!

[2banana]

I know it is hard to believe, but at one point in history, the countries of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey and Iraq had large populations of Christians. These countries were peacefully converted to Christianity by word of mouth.

They were conquered by Muslim armies (along with all of North Africa and Spain) and forcibly converted to Islam by the sword (conversion or death). There were even Muslim raiding parties penetrating deep into France from the west. Muslim armies in the east put Vienna to siege in 1683. Muslim pirates and raiding parties from North Africa enslaved the populations of the entire northern Mediterranean until well in to the 1800's. They depopulated entire Christian communities as far north as Ireland and England and were only checked with the advances made in European sea power. The spread of Islam was an invasion.

What were the people of Europe to do? Wait to be fully conquered? The Crusades were a reaction to an invasion and defensive in nature. Yes, there were horrific events perpetrated by both sides but the cause and effect need to be put into perspective. It would be like trying to understand the American-Japanese conflict in WWII by only reading about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But as time, conquered Christians had more and more restrictions were heaped on them, and, although technically regarded as "People of the Book" and permitted to practice their religion in private, unlike other faiths which were given the alternative of death or conversion, Dhimmis suffered cruel discrimination. They couldn't participate in government, they were forbidden to carry arms, they couldn't testify against a Muslim, the could be enslaved while a Muslim could not, they could not make improvements on the exterior of their churches or synagogues, they had to wear a distinguishing badge marking them as Dhimmis, they couldn't practice their religion in public, they were forbidden under pain of death from converting or attempting to convert Muslims, and were subjugated to the same periodic programs Jews in Europe enjoyed.

In today's Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, other religions, even other forms of Islam, are simply and totally forbidden. So things have hardly improved.

[kimosabe31]

Good article.

[Cicero]

The best books on the Crusades are by Madden, the reviewer of this book.

[silverleaf]

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