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"all their pent-up frustration erupted and they went wild, looting the city and killing many innocent people. This behavior was totally against the promises they made at knighthood, and marred what would otherwise have been a splendid victory... Most of those who participated in the sack were excommunicated." (They were given a days penance, rather.) I am away from my desk, so cannot give a detailed reply which your points deserve. I shall write more in two weeks when I am back home. My take on the Crusades is that they were not specifically antiIslamic, but were about purging Jews, schismatics and heretics.

They did not kill many innocent people, they butchered the entire Jewish community of Jerusalem, which took quite a effort. Of course, innumerable Moslems were killed, but there was no effort to single them out. All members of the Eastern Orthodox clergy were killed in the sack of Jerusalem, because they wore beards. The Crusaders started killing Jews even before they reached the Holy Land. They laid into them in Europe, and violent antiSemitism hugely increased after that time. Many preachers urging the Crusades were dismayed, and recorded their dismay, that their congregations were willing to just kill the local Jews instead of going all the way to Jerusalem to do it. They could not imagine Muslims, the focus of their hatred was that the people who killed Christ were still in Jerusalem.

Throughout the whole period of the Latin Kingdom, no Jews were allowed to live in Jerusalem. Muslims yes, but no Jews, (see historical works by Prof J. Prawer.) They did not recover the right to live there until Saladin retook the city. You dont need me to remind you of the sack of Constantinople in 1204, and the final crusade, who was that against? The Albigensians in the south of France. They got entirely wiped out, but the Norman barons keep slowing down to kill ... the Jews, in cities like Toulouse and Albi.

When Joinville wrote his chronicle of St Louis, he described how the French king recommended, when setting out on Crusade, that they never get involved in religious discussions with Jews. As he pointed out, the only talk you should have with him, is with your sword in his belly. And be sure to twist the blade.

Wrong. They were excommunicated and it was condemned by the Vatican at the time. And yes, when people sack a city lots of innocent people get murdered--the same thing happened in Constantinople. Those two actions out of 3 wars didn't negate the just cause of those wars, and I can trace it back to the beginnings when the Moslems were attacking Byzantium if you like. WIth sources, unlike yourself.

Also, I had the distinct feeling that you were trying to pass yourself off as Catholic on several other threads. Glad I ran accross this one so that I don't make that mistake again.