Posted on 09/25/2006 3:46:28 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
Two good columns in USA Today's 'On Religion / Monday Focus' series:
Golberg - Islam needs a central authority — such as a pontiff
Weigel - Pope posed tough questions that the world must answer
What a bunch of horse sh*t!
If the majority of Mongols didn't embrace Islam, Europe would have been seriously raped , pillaged, and destroyed like Baghdad was three times by the Mongols!
When the Mongols were Islamisized, they brought many great things to Europe, and it was Suleyman the Magnificent who financed the Protestant Church.
It should also be realized that not all Mongols embraced Islam, you have the Gogol Turks of Moldova who are Eastern Orthodox Christian, and of course the Kazars (read the book, "The Thirteenth Tribe")who became Jewish.
The Catholic Church feels so self righteous that it should go unchecked, this is why Napoleon is considered a bad guy a long with the French Revolution to the Vatican.
For many centuries, while Islamic Empires flourished with great participation of their Jewish citizens, the Vatican promulgated hatred and distrust towards the Jews, to the point that many genocide, inquisitions and holocausts were brought on them in the same manner to European Muslims (the ones that weren't "Turks").in Spain, Portugal, the Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia. Hugh Pope (author of , "Sons of the Conquerors") estimates, about five million Muslims, just in the Balkans!
It is sad that Euro-Christian chauvinism is still live and well, especially in those places of leadership it shouldn't be!
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P. S. In the "Battle of Kosovo" There were more Serbs fighting on the side of the Ottomans than there were Serbs defending the "Christian" wall. Basically, the Ottoman Empire was more business oriented than the Christian West, and really was only worried about collecting taxes from its citizens.
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Now, I admit to being fairly clueless when it comes to Catholic/Moslem history in Eastern Europe. I could use a rebuttal to some of the points he made.
The Catholic Church has been the only force that has consistently stood up to Islam. Islam has always exploited the divisions in Christianity to pit the sides (usually East and West) against each other; I don't know if they financed the Protestants, but it wouldn't be surprising. They also pitted Christians and Jews against each other in Spain, something that later had terrible effects. (Of course, the Muslims expelled all Jews from Muslim Spain in the 12th century, something which is never mentioned in polite circles.)
Wow. Sounds as if he really blew up over that one.
As well he would as his family was directly involved in the area's history. The more I learn about all this, the more confusing it gets. I am using some of what was just posted in a reply to him. I will be interested to see his response.
Well, the Ottoman Empire also took a certain number of Christian young men and women in tribute every year, as did all the Muslim countries, including Spain, where there are horrible stories of Spanish towns where the Muslims arrived every year and carried off all the pretty young women and the strong young men to Andalusia as slaves.
The Ottomans collected exorbitant, punitive taxes from Christians and Jews, converted all the churches into mosques, enslaved the Christians and eventually virtually extinguished Christianity in their area. But other than that, they were really groovy, and I hope we enjoy them when they get here, too.
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