Why is the Taliban wrong when the Crusades was the same movement, just for a different religion?

Question

Everybody is going on and on about how the Taliban is evil and all, but didn't our Christian forefathers do the same thing durring the Crusades and the Spanish inquisition? If it's ok for us to do it then why not them? Don't get me wrong, I'm very patriotic and I love my country, I even had an uncle die in 9-11. I just wanna know what the difference between their actions and the actions of our ancestors is. In fact wasn't the Crusades what started this whole thing, the war between the middle east and Christians? I'm just out to get a good answer that makes sense, unlike my town leaders' answers of "because this is the way that God wills it". God, or whom ever you pray to, wants us all to get along, as it says in just about every religious text. So why all the wars in the name of religion? Anyways, sorry for the ramblings, and any help in my confusion would be much apreciated.

Answer 1

The Crusades weren't right either. It wasn't okay for Crusaders or Christians to kill people for their beliefs or lack of piety, and it's just as wrong for any other group to do it.

I do think there is a slight difference between the Crusaders and the Taliban. The Crusaders didn't really know anything other than ignorance, superstition, and zealotry. The Taliban saw and knew about tolerance, modernity, and moderation. They knew that a society could exist where people of different faiths or lifestyles COULD get along peacefully...but they still chose the way of violence and oppression.

Answer 2

Why does everyone forget that the crusades were a counter-attack that was trying to push back the Muslim invaders who were over running the christian Byzantine Empire, conquering Spain, invading Italy, invading France, and overrunning Eastern Europe? What makes everyone think that the Crusades, even if unjustified, were somehow unprovoked? We really need to start teaching history in high school!

I'm not trying to justify or condone the Spanish Inquisition, but wasn't it an attempt by Ferdinand and Isabella to consolidate power by making the remaining Muslim Moors in Spain recognize their power after throwing out the previous Muslim overlords of Spain?

In short, it might change you view of history if you keep in mind the context of the times. Were the Christian Crusades any worse than the Muslim crusades that they were intended to repulse?

BTW, if you agree that the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition were a mistake, then the what the Taliban are doing now also must be a mistake since you said that it was the same thing.

Answer 3

The Crusades were a religious/military response by the Catholic Church to religious/military attacks on traditionally Christian lands by the Muslims. It is important to understand that Islam's goal from the beginning was to convert the world to Islam by preaching or by sword. It began encroaching on traditionally Christian lands as early as the 700s AD sweeping up North Africa and into modern Spain. Only a little luck and a single army kept Islam from taking over western Europe completely. The Muslims turned their advance to the Holy Land after that. For the next three centuries the Byzantine Empire fought a losing battle against Islam until much of Judea, Galilee, and Syria were taken from them. They issued an urgent plea to the Pope which set off the Crusades. The Crusades are a belated defense of Christian land and peoples against Muslim aggression. They started the war. The only way it will end is when one side is destroyed. Not because we can't stand to live with Muslims, but they cannot stand to live with us (and remain pure according to the Koran).

Answer 4

The Crusades were not at all equivalent to the Taliban. The purpose of the Crusades was to take over "The Holy Land" from the infidel Muslims (and allow Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem). The purpose of the Taliban was to create a totalitarian religious dictatorship that controlled every aspect of the citizen's lives. Though bloody and greedy, the Crusaders were not control freaks like that.

Answer 5

Don't forget, during the Crusades the Jews and the Orthodox Christians were also attacked by Western Christianity. That is just one of many reasons why I do not believe in organized religion. As for the Taliban, with Bin Laden as its leader their goal is religious purity. Just as the Nazi attempted to control the world through racial purity, the Taliban is attempting to control the world through religious purity. They will attack not only Christians and Jews, but Hindus, Buddhist, and anyone else including liberal Islam if it does not correspond to their ideology. So in my opinion the Taliban and Bin Laden wil use religion to foster their cause, but in reality it is about controlling the world and having people bow to their will.

Answer 6

I've honestly never heard a Christian leader defending the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades.

Answer 7

The word Taliban means two students, they are a controlling regime, they are very cruel especially to women, didn't you see the documentary that an Afghan woman smuggled out of Afghanistan. they would not allow women to work, if they had no man to support them and their kids, the women were forced to beg in the streets, they were covered form head to toe and their faces, they were beaten in the streets if their head was uncovered, they could not see a doctor, Little girls were not allowed to go to school. only boys, the women had no rights at all they were not to speak unless spoken to. the Crusaders were wrong but they were not controlling to women. You could look up the Taliban on the net.

Answer 8

Because there WAS no difference. HOWEVER, the Christians went through the Renaissance, reformed, and people began to have individual rights. The Muslims have not reformed or changed and are still like the Crusaders.

Answer 9

All religion is wrong. God is the end result of a failed search for truth by a very shallow mind, provided that any search was made at all instead of swallowing the pile of delusional bilge that was spoon fed to you as a child

Answer 10

It is similar but it is also different in the aspect that society has changed. The laws and rules have evolved to religious freedom but the concept remains the same.