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SCHLUSSEL: "Kingdom of Heaven," Bin Laden's Slanted Crusade Movie
DebbieSchlussel.com ^ | May 5, 2005 | Debbie Schlussel

Posted on 05/06/2005 10:24:23 AM PDT by Cool Chick

“Kingdom of Heaven”: Bin Laden’s Slanted Crusade Movie May 5, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel

Mark Twain said, “History tells us that the truth is not hard to kill, but a lie told well is immortal.”

“Kingdom of Heaven,” Ridley Scott’s extremely boring movie version of the Crusades, is Twain’s words in action. Scott is serial killer of truth—giving immortality to 1,000 lies—in this propaganda film.

The wannabe-epic is being panned for its lack of accuracy by a host of Islam experts, like Robert Spencer. Crusades expert Jonathan Riley-Smith says it’s basically “Osama bin Laden’s version of History.”

But the folks at HAMAS-front group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and ADC (American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee) just love “Kingdom.” That speaks volumes, since both groups never met an Islamic terrorist group they didn’t like.

Perhaps Scott is doing penance for having the chutzpah to make “Black Hawk Down,” about which they still whine incessantly.

But one needn’t be versed in the history of the Crusades to see that this Riefenstahl-esque drama is agenda-laden fiction.

Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version:

Christian Crusaders are crass, violent murderers. They lie, sleep around with multiple women, and father multiple illegitimate, abandoned children. They are stupid, foolish, power-hungry, and vengeful. They are boors warring for land, not principles, and kill fellow Christians—even priests—over nothing.

Muslims, especially Saladin, are honorable, devout, decent, peaceful people. They just want to be left alone and only attack when attacked upon. They are wise, honest, kind, generous, and even offer Christians safe passage.

(Excerpt) Read more at debbieschlussel.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: almohad; almuwahideen; balian; christians; crusaders; crusades; debbieschlussel; godfrey; hollywood; imadeddin; islam; israel; jerusalem; jews; kingdomofheaven; liamneeson; maimonides; matzaballcritique; mohads; moviereview; muslim; muslimcrusades; muslims; muwahideen; orlandobloom; propaganda; robertspencer; saladin; schlussel
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To: Blzbba

Islam looks at people like you as court jesters. Buffoons who are too "clever" to declare their self interests. Only a fool acts as though he has no dog in this fight of Islam vs the West.


81 posted on 05/06/2005 12:52:45 PM PDT by dennisw (2¢ plain)
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To: JBlain
Vile things were done by both sides during the Crusades

Islam's creation of the Jihadist war predates the Crusades. The site "American Thinker" has a well researched history and a link is posted in this thread. The Muslims and Saladin were brutal tyrants and murderers. The Crusaders only incorporated the concept of crusade into Christianity after the armies of Saladin laid waste to many and sowed misery in their path. Crusading is the mirror of Jihad in ideology and practice.

Read the article and tell me if you might disagree.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4467

82 posted on 05/06/2005 12:53:11 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: dennisw

"Islam looks at people like you as court jesters."


Says the guy who's entertained me in this very thread!

History looks at people like you as ostriches, for keeping one's head in the sand, rather than face fact. Facing historical fact does NOT invalidate what's going on today.

Fact: I hate Islime. Christianity may have its problems but, with the exception of N. Ireland and a few nutcases like Eric Rudolph, Christianity doesn't preach killing of others. Islime is still 1000 years behind Fred Flintstone, much less the West. It's not coincidental that the greatest Mooslime contribution to the West is the number 0. It's very fitting.

STILL, none of this erases the atrocities both sides were guilty of in the Crusades, which were resounding military failures for Christianity (except for the 1st one). Why are you in denial over something that happened 1000 years ago?


83 posted on 05/06/2005 1:01:34 PM PDT by Blzbba (Let them hate us as long as they fear us - Caligula)
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To: Blzbba
"Why are you in denial over something that happened 1000 years ago?"

Shh we don't like to talk about things. Besides if they get to rewrite history, then we should too! Yay! rabble rabble. My question is how does this movie portray a 1/4 irish 1/4 italian 1/2 german? Wait, never mind I find it offensive. *rabble rabble rabble*
84 posted on 05/06/2005 1:06:05 PM PDT by tfecw (Vote Democrat, It's easier than working)
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To: Blzbba
STILL, none of this erases the atrocities both sides were guilty of in the Crusades, which were resounding military failures for Christianity (except for the 1st one). Why are you in denial over something that happened 1000 years ago?

I think it is fairly clear historically that Crusade borrowed from Jihad almost exactly as a religeous doctrine. It is a historical fact that Jihad predated Crusade and that it was the teacher to the Christians.

Having said that, Christianity learnt from its mistakes and outlawed Crusade. If Christians are guilty of atrocity, then they have long paid for their sins. Islam, on the other hand, has yet to remove Jihad from its ideology and does not look to be doing so any time in the near future.

85 posted on 05/06/2005 1:07:39 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Blzbba

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4467 Try this one on for size. This fellow is scholarly enough


86 posted on 05/06/2005 1:18:38 PM PDT by dennisw (2¢ plain)
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To: One Proud Dad; tfecw

Actually, I don't know if Orlando is an atheist. He attended St. Edmunds School in his native Canterbury. He is also part Jewish, and he joined the Nichiren Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai Int. People hear things, but they aren't always true.


87 posted on 05/06/2005 1:39:09 PM PDT by Jacob Kell (Bush 3:16: He just whooped Saddam's a$$!)
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To: Alouette
For some reason, I wasn't anticipating the revisionist history of Islam as much as I was expecting the film to pretend the Crusaders were swell guys and ignore the part about slaughtering the Jews. As Barbara Tuchman said in "Bible and Sword": "By the time of the Third Crusade in 1190 the association of Crusade and pogrom was automatic, and the killings began immediately on Richard's coronation, though not at his order."

Because I like Orlando Bloom and loved "Gladiator" I was hoping this film would work out somehow. Too bad.

88 posted on 05/06/2005 1:43:53 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl (OMGIIHIHOIIC ping list)
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To: Jacob Kell
Nichiren Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai Int.

That's a cult, the Buddhist equivalent of Scientology and Kabbalah ala Madonna

89 posted on 05/06/2005 1:45:17 PM PDT by Alouette (The truth is not hard to kill, but a lie told well is immortal. -- Mark Twain)
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To: Eagles6
Why is that revisionist history? I'm currently reading Sir Steven Runciman's classic three volume History of the Crusades, which makes the explicit point that the Crusaders were after land, wealth, and power, at behest of the Catholic Church and the declining Byzantine Empire, and at the expense of the Caliphs and Seljuk Turks. Throughout the various Crusades, French, German, and English knights engaged in all kinds of brutality. The worst incidents occurred in Germany in 1096, when the Teutonic crusaders committed several infamous massacres against German Jews while marching for the Holy Land. They believed that the battle against Christ's enemies ought to begin at home, and acted accordingly. However, the Muslims were by no means united, and indeed committed a number of atrocities of their own, often against each other. But AT THAT TIME, their culture was generally more advanced than that of Europe and they were far more tolerant of Christians and Jews than Christians were of Muslims and Jews. Likewise, the great Muslim cities of Cordoba, Cadiz, and Baghdad far surpassed anything in Europe, including London and Paris, in terms of culture and beauty. This is just a historic fact, as any Western Civilization textbook will tell you. Like I said, I'm no apologist for the modern Islamic death cult, but I'm not so blind to history as to not understand that it was not always like that. A lot of folks are letting their modern feelings color history that happened over 1,000 years ago, and that is unfortunate.
90 posted on 05/06/2005 2:00:11 PM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
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To: Cool Chick
I think we ought to make an epic no holds barred movie on the life of Muhammad and another one on the spread of Islam. Show the battles, arson, rape and slavery of the Holy Jihads. If you were to show the truth of all this the Muslims all over the world would flame out.
91 posted on 05/06/2005 2:09:18 PM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
In fact, the Muslims at that time had saved much of the science and mathematics of ancient Greece which had heretofore been lost to Europe.

Caliph al-Hakim... He put together quite a collection. Too bad the Berbers didn't appreciate all that he had collected. He was the same guy that the ordered destruction of synagogues and churches in Jerusalem in 1010. He didn't much like astrology either & astrologers had to promise to stop gazing at the stars.

In short, the European Crusaders were nasty and brutish,

I need no kind of demonstration of that, because in the context or our society I would have to see them that way. One of the reasons many "took the cross" was to atone for nasty things that they had done in their lives against "Christian brothers". Dying while trying to recapture the Holy Sepulchre for Christianity was going to buy them some kind of pass, which they felt they needed.

as demonstrated by their massacre of both Christian and Jewish civilians at Jerusalem in 1099

They massacred the Jews & Muslims there. The Christians had been expelled before the siege. Sacking Jerusalem after it fell was no kind of exception during those times.

and their sack of Christian Constantinople in 1214.

The schism between East & West was like an ugly divorce. Both sides think that they should own the house & want the other party out. You have any kind of problem with anything the Turks did to Constantinople after they got their hands on it?

The whole Crusades idea started with the Eastern Church asking the Western Church for help. "Christians are being oppressed and attacked; churches and holy places are being defiled. Jerusalem is groaning under the Saracen yoke. The Holy Sepulchre is in Moslem hands and has been turned into a mosque. Pilgrims are harassed and even prevented from access to the Holy Land."

the religion itself was hardly the death cult that it has become today

When do you think the "death cult that it has become today" began?

At that time, Islam was in fact a most tolerant and enlightened religion, and Muslim civilization, which was far advanced over that of western Europe, stretched from Moorish Spain to India

I'm sure they gained that much territory without ever once forcing any of the people to convert to their religion. The religion was advanced to that wide range, just on the beauty & wonder of it's wonderful principles & teachings. /sarcasm

92 posted on 05/06/2005 2:14:02 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
and the declining Byzantine Empire,

Did he get into anything about why the Byzantine Empire was declining?

93 posted on 05/06/2005 2:16:16 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: rwfromkansas

Michael Medved said he's going to review "Kingdom of Heaven" this hour.


94 posted on 05/06/2005 2:17:58 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl (OMGIIHIHOIIC ping list)
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To: GoLightly
The Turks certainly had something to do with it.

And it was because they had overrun Asia Minor that the Byzantines asked Pope Urban for aid in the first place.

Somehow Ridley Scott skips over that part.

95 posted on 05/06/2005 2:24:17 PM PDT by The Iguana
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
Likewise, the great Muslim cities of Cordoba, Cadiz, and Baghdad far surpassed anything in Europe, including London and Paris, in terms of culture and beauty.

Good thing the Muslim masters didn't see the tiny little crosses hidden in the decorations of the buildings built in "their" cities.

96 posted on 05/06/2005 2:25:08 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: Semper Paratus
But the folks at HAMAS-front group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) and ADC (American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee) just love “Kingdom.” That speaks Muvolumes, Boy doesn't it!? The epics of today really suck. (Troy, Alexander)

Yes, they sure do, except for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy--though I am sure Peter Jackson did not mean it to come off that way.

When Aragorn said we will stand together against this evil, "MEN OF THE WEST", I stood up in the theater and said, "That's George Bush!" (then dodged brickbats and popcorn!

This makes me bloody sick. We have watched Islamic barbarians hack through the throats of innocent peoples blow up babies, bayonette children for asking for water, innocent office workers leaping to their deaths, it goes on and on. In THIS CENTURY, IN THIS MILLENIUM!

Why? Why? Why whitewash these monsters? Look how they treat their own people, especially the women? Any scenes of stoning in this moving? I doubt it, but you can find the pictures right on the internet.

I was hoping for a fair treatment of the Crusades, showing the wrong on all sides. I should have known better.

97 posted on 05/06/2005 2:29:10 PM PDT by ariamne (reformed liberal--Shieldmaiden of the Infidel)
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To: Cinnamon Girl

let me know what he thinks


98 posted on 05/06/2005 2:29:27 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=rwfromkansas)
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To: 2banana

Rambam never converted to Islam. In fact, his family fled both Cordova and Fez to escaped conversion or death, and his teacher was put to death for refusing to convert.


99 posted on 05/06/2005 2:34:19 PM PDT by Cinnamon Girl (OMGIIHIHOIIC ping list)
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To: Cinnamon Girl

Could you post a link?


100 posted on 05/06/2005 2:34:25 PM PDT by Main Street (Stuck in traffic.)
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