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What the History Channel Leaves Out With the Crusades (News/Vanity)
Mid-day.com ^ | November 7, 2005 | Prasad Patil

Posted on 11/07/2005 7:55:59 AM PST by Wuli

“It will help people to understand why the world is the way it is today,” said Richard Bradley, founder of Lion Television, which has produced The Crusades: Crescent and The Cross — a documentary series that will premiere in 130 countries on The History channel on November 13 and 14.

The Crusades: Crescent and The Cross unfurls two centuries of war about two cultures impassioned by belief. The series will be an epic of human drama against the back drop of the holy.

It was a collision of two great faiths and of two of the the world’s most enduring and powerful religions. These religions fought for nearly two decades seeking control over what each claimed as the rightful holy lands of their people.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: christianity; crescentandcross; crusades; cultureclash; hc; historychannel; islam; leftistrevisionism; trop
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To: Wuli
A dominant Christianity with a minority of Jews and various pagan sects held eastern and western branches of the former Roman empire,

This is just about sects - everybody tells lies about sects - isn't it time to move on?

21 posted on 11/07/2005 8:31:52 AM PST by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Wuli
The real point of course is not who started what and who ate who, but who is still fretting about 1000 year old history and who is trying to force their will on the other side? The very fact that Muslims still obsess about the Crusades today, while baning other religions and beheading the infidels shows where the problem lies.
22 posted on 11/07/2005 8:40:48 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: JustAnotherOkie

You do know that the Crusades weren't a US affair, don't you?


23 posted on 11/07/2005 8:43:15 AM PST by lugsoul
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To: Wuli

Just more propaganda from the Revisionist History Channnel...one reason I NEVER watch.


24 posted on 11/07/2005 8:43:23 AM PST by who knows what evil? (New England...the Sodom and Gomorrah of the 21st Century, and they're proud of it!)
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To: VOA

Bang on as a general disclaimer as to the accuracy and OBJECTIVIVITY in their presentation.

Propaganda is a wonderful tool isn't it even if it is by the HISTORY channel. Denial of the Halocaust is nextweek.


25 posted on 11/07/2005 8:51:18 AM PST by jackson29
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To: VOA

ROME on HBO is better


26 posted on 11/07/2005 8:53:01 AM PST by avile
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To: SittinYonder

History Channel Crusades ping


27 posted on 11/07/2005 8:59:32 AM PST by eyespysomething
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To: who knows what evil?

The Crusades were Bush's fault.


28 posted on 11/07/2005 9:08:49 AM PST by JusPasenThru (http://giinthesky.blogspot.com)
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To: lugsoul

See my other replies.

The USA came hundreds of years later. The same principals still apply however. When you paint the Muslims as hero's and the Christians as villians you feed the propaganda machine.

They are just too PC to discuss the Muslim philosphy, political structure, and goals in any detail. I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around but it is not presented that way at all.


29 posted on 11/07/2005 9:33:01 AM PST by JustAnotherOkie
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To: pro610
The Saint of the Day

Blessed Urban II, July 29

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Biographical selection: Urban II, Pope from 1088 to 1099, defended the liberty of the Catholic Church continuing the work of St. Gregory VII. He called the First Crusade. The principal aim of the Council of Clermont was to discuss this Crusade.


Urban II preaches the Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

The people were eager for the announced expedition and finally the Pope attended to their impatient requests. He sat upon the throne that had been prepared specially for that occasion. At his side was Peter the Hermit. Below him was an enormous multitude: Cardinals, Abbots, priests, monks, knights and the people.

After the speech of Peter, who described what he had seen in Jerusalem, Urban II addressed the crowd with these words:

Go, brothers, go with hope to the fight against the enemies of God, who for so long have dominated Syria, Armenia and the countries of Asia Minor. They have already committed many outrages: they have taken the Sepulcher of Christ and the marvelous monuments of our Faith; they have forbidden pilgrims to set foot in a city whose worth only Christians can truly appreciate. Are these facts not sufficient to upset the serenity of your faces?

Go and show your worth! Go, soldiers, and your fame will spread over the entire world. Do not fear to lose the Kingdom of God because of the tribulation brought by war. If you will fall prisoner to the enemy, face the worse torments for your Faith and you will save your souls at the same moment you will lose your bodies. Do not hesitate, most dear brethren, to offer your lives for the good of your neighbor. Do not hesitate to go because of love for your family, your country, or your riches, since man owes his love principally to God. You will have the greatest happiness one can have in his life, which is to see the places where Our Lord spoke the language of men.

To these words the faithful answered unanimously: “Deus vult" [God wills it!]

Urban II added:

Such a cry would not be unanimous if it were not inspired by the Holy Ghost. Let this be, then, your war-cry to announce the power of the God of Hosts.

And whosoever will undertake this journey shall carry on him the form of the cross. Let you, then, bear the cross upon your sword or your breast, on your weapons and standards. Let it be for you either the sign of victory or the palm of martyrdom, and also the symbol to unify the dispersed children of Israel. It will continuously remind you that Jesus Christ died for you and that for Him you should die.

The date of the Crusade was fixed for August 15, Feast of the Annunciation.

Comments of Prof. Plinio:

You see the great beauty of this scene.

First, you have a saint on the See of Peter. What a wonderful thing! The light in the candelabrum to illuminate all the peoples, the focal point irradiating virtue, a saint sitting in the cathedra whence truth and good should be taught.

He was addressing the ranks of warriors of Our Lord and Our Lady to lead them to the fight against their enemies. This man, like an Angel, was filled with zeal for the Holy Places. He could not tolerate that infidels should possess the Holy Land.

Why couldn’t he bear this? Because of the offense to the glory of God it represented. Those places are the places par excellence where true worship should be offered to God.

Second, he had called for a council to assemble for this reason. It was the Council of Clermont, a city in France. The scene permits us a glimpse – in small proportion – of all the beauty of the Catholic Church.

You have the Pope, Blessed Urban II, who commanded as head over the council; then you have the conciliar Fathers surrounding the Pope, all moved by an authentic zeal for the glory of God – an attitude similar to Angels surrounding God.

After that, you have the multitude of the faithful filled with piety and enthusiasm, in whose eyes shone the spirit of fight and sacrifice. Whole families were present, the women and daughters were there to give the men – their sons, husbands, and brothers – their full support. They understood that to liberate the Sepulcher of Christ they should offer the sacrifice of their loved ones leaving for the Crusade.



Crusader knights take Antioch on the First Crusade.

Third, I ask you to consider the thinking of Pope Urban II: “The Holy Sepulcher is in the hands of the infidels. Catholics can not go there to duly venerate it because it is in the possession of the enemies of the Church.” Then he asked: “Who can maintain a serene face before such a crime?”

Today one sees many serene and tranquil faces in the street, people looking for the good life, enjoying themselves, ready to tell the latest joke. And even when some of these people have concerned faces, their concern is normally for their private interests. Who really cares about the cause of the Church?

In that time men were different. When the Pope challenged them, asking them if they would maintain their serenity or go to fight for the Church, they did not hesitate. They were true servants of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They had the Catholic Church alive in their souls. They were willing to give up the peaceful life, even though it was legitimate. They arose as one man to take the cross and place it on the hilt of their swords, on their standards and shields, and on their breasts, and they made up that invincible avalanche that went forward to regain the Sepulcher of Christ.

How different things were then from our times!


Above, The knights in the First Crusade liberated
the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Today's fight is even greater - to liberate the Holy Church from the progressivist usurpation.

Fourth, Blessed Urban II said something that should enthuse and encourage us to face our difficult situation today.

He affirmed that the unanimous voice of that multitude which called out its decision to take the cross and liberate the Holy Sepulcher proved that the Holy Ghost was acting there. He had the presupposition, therefore, that the Holy Ghost is present in heroic decisions of ensembles of peoples in Christendom.

Today, based on that same presupposition, we can ask for and hope that the Holy Ghost will come again to help Catholic warriors to liberate the Holy Church from the progressivist usurpation. The fight we are facing now in many senses is more important than the one to liberate the Holy Sepulcher. So, even if we are weak and sinners, we should ask Our Lady to obtain for us a new coming of the Holy Ghost, in a way similar to His descent on the multitudes at the time of the Crusades to prepare the people then for that fight.

We should ask her to obtain from Him the grace that we need to transform us into true Apostles of the Last Times, making us able to restore the Catholic Church in all her splendor and to install the Reign of Mary, as Our Lady predicted at Fatima.

30 posted on 11/07/2005 9:34:15 AM PST by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: Wuli

"It took me a long time to realize just how much a student of medieval history could gain from observing the Arab." General George S. Patton


31 posted on 11/07/2005 9:36:43 AM PST by Patriot Hooligan ("God have mercy on my enemies because I won't." General George S. Patton)
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To: Wuli

I watched the History Channel show "Shootout" all weekend.

I really liked it.

The Crusade show just didnt interest me.


32 posted on 11/07/2005 9:44:05 AM PST by wallcrawlr (http://www.bionicear.com)
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To: AntiGuv

Absolutely! If the Coptics had been treated right, they would have never surrendered Egypt to the muslims.


33 posted on 11/07/2005 9:45:27 AM PST by nuke rocketeer
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To: lugsoul
I do believe Okie answered the question.

(Even though I understood perfectly well what he was saying the first time. Basically, that by tearing down the West and portraying the Muslims as innocents in the documentary, this helps to effectively tear down the West's efforts today i.e. the US.)

34 posted on 11/07/2005 9:52:05 AM PST by Siena Dreaming
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To: JustAnotherOkie

I thought the most bias one of all hit it perfectly on the head when he said that Muslims hear stories of the Crusades and think of it as happening just yesterday. It's the explanation for why they keep trying to attack anything Western. They are still holding a grudge. I wouldn't be surprised if they were holding a grudge against the US because of the Babrbary Pirates.


35 posted on 11/07/2005 9:53:45 AM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: HungarianGypsy

To top it off the things they complain about now are the acts and behaviour of Lib's.


36 posted on 11/07/2005 10:02:38 AM PST by JustAnotherOkie
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To: Wuli

[[It was a collision of two great faiths and of two of the the world’s most enduring and powerful religions.]]

Doesnt he mean one great faith and a death cult?


37 posted on 11/07/2005 10:05:30 AM PST by Buffettfan
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To: Wuli

The History Channel seems to be producing more entertainment at the expense of accuracy these days. Too bad...I am running out of quality tv programming. Even TCM is starting to show movies from the 1970s.


38 posted on 11/07/2005 10:10:12 AM PST by Kokojmudd (Outsource the 9th Circuit Court to Walmart for better customer service!)
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To: bboop

I have a Greek Orthodox friend who has nothing good to say about the Crusaders and their motives.


39 posted on 11/07/2005 10:12:59 AM PST by kms61
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To: AntiGuv

And the wars with Persia. Both the Greeks and the Persians were worn out from a generation of fighting.


40 posted on 11/07/2005 10:22:08 AM PST by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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