During the years 500-1500, was Christianity a terrorist organization?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition

Answer 1

Why are you stopping at 1500?

Answer 2

no, the Crusades were not a unilateral invasion of a peaceful power, Christian nations everywhere had been under attack by the Islamic State since the creation of Islam in the 600s, The Muslim hordes conquered, killed and/or converted most of Byzantium(Egypt and Palestine), all of Spain, Portugal, much of Southern France and southern Italy(christian), Persia, Northern India, much of Central Asia, and North Africa, The Caliph had repeatedly threatened to destroy Rome(much as Abenajhad threatens Israel today). The inquisition is pretty much indefensible, although the muslims probobly gave the Roman Catholics the idea with their forced coversions in Spain.

And an important point that was made above is that Christianity has modernized in the 600 years since then, Islam (largely) has not.

Answer 3

A case could probably be made... But, the same could be mad of the Jews with the Baal. Bottom line, the Zealots forgot the teachings of Christ (Love thy neighbor). As for most of the rest, it could (and should) be said that it was self defense. Mohammad came some 600 years after Christ, proclaimed himself a prophet and declared Jihad on all Christians and Jews (chapter 9 of the Qu'ran). Conversion by sword. They overran most of Europe wreaking havoc and destruction, reaching all the way in to the lower regions of Spain before it (they -- the muslims) were stopped. And, during around that same period, the Catholic church was feeling its pains with a "Pope" serving in the Vatican, in France and in Vienna, all at the same time... Call it the great schism.
Do you base everything you know on wikipedia, or do you study and view more than one source? Wikipedia is not the end all. It's kind of like The History Channel...

Answer 4

During the years 632-2007, Islam has been and is a terrorist organization, spreading their religion by the sword and executing those who disagree with them.

And no, Christianity wasn't a "terrorist" organization. Those in control of the Roman Catholic Church used their power to destroy political enemies and those who challenged their power.

The Crusades were actually response to 400 years of Islamic aggression against -originally- Christian lands, such as North Africa and the Holy Lands (Palestine). The Christian brethren had been intensely persecuted for four centuries while the Muslims terrorized their homes and churches.

Edit: as Heather C pointed out, the people being persecuted were actually Christians during the Inquisition...

Edit: Don W -- If a terrorist organization is defined as I have said it, then the ACLU and plenty other political and scientific organizations are terrorist organizations as well. And I don't respect your generalization that all Texans are stupid and ignorant.

Answer 5

No. The tenets of the faith of Christianity have never included the actions sometimes taken by the Church or independent nations in the name of Christianity. There is nothing in the New Testament that supports any of the horrific actions taken by some in the name of Christianity.

OTOH, there are specific passages in the Koran that do support the bloody violence that has been taken in the name of Allah.

There is a big difference to people able to discern the truth of history.

Answer 6

No. The crusades and inquisition were lead by nations, with Christianity as a cover for the actions. I notice you cited wikipedia, which can't be taken seriously as anyone can write anything.

Answer 7

I would never go as far as calling Christianity a terrorist organization. its true that people have killed other under the name of religion, but keep in mind that just because someone has calmed he/she is a christian doesn't mean that they really are. A real christian doesn't go around killing others because they believe differently from them. My point is just be cause one man or one group of men go around killing people calming its all for god, doesn't mean that the man is really following what our god is really asking of us to do. its not Christianity's fault, its the man claiming hes following god when he really isn't.

Answer 8

That's an interesting way of looking at it. During the time period given, Christianity exerted a lot of influence over the world but I would say they were more authoritarian and totalitarian than terroristic. Terrorism usually implies guerrilla tactics, where the tactics employed by Christianity were quite overt.

Answer 9

The crusades were about Christians taking back palestine from the invading arabs.

The Catholic church doesn't need to be defended because they did plenty of wrong to their own during this time. However, you can't compare their tactics to the ones being used by arab terrorists today. They didn't send children to commit suicide and kill thousands of innocents. They did their own killing in battle with men, not women and children.

Answer 10

The argument could be made we were. The difference is... we STOPPED.

Besides, using the term 'terrorist' to describe anyone from that era or before is pretty hard to accept. Technically, anyone that engaged in armed conflict without representing a nation or wearing a uniform would be a 'terrorist' by modern definitions. For instance, were the men who slipped into Troy inside that horse terrorists? By today's definition they were. You just can't compare eras like that.

At least the Knights involved in the Crusades were bound by the Chivalric Code, and by and large left women and children alone.

Answer 11

Christianity is a product of the very Middle East where Muslims now predominate. And they predominate because they invaded the region and imposed their religion and their government on Christians.

Muslims frequently refer to The Crusades as some open wound for which every real or imagined opponent should have to admit responsibility. But as ugly as aspects of The Crusades most certainly were, they were merely a European reaction to Islamic expansion into the Christian heartland. The Crusades were, in fact, a counterattack, an attempt by Christians to recover the lands and peoples that had been wrested from them during the Muslim conquests 300 years earlier.

However, I as a Christian will apologize for the crusades. Will Muslim extremists apologize for the Muslims attacks on Catholic priests in Turkey in the past year, including the murder of Fr. Andrea Santoro?

Apologize for those Muslim leaders who compared the Pope to Hitler and promised to kill him.?

Apologize for the massive persecution of Christians in Egypt, including kidnappings, rape, murder and beatings?

Apologize for the churches in Pakistan and Iraq that have burnt to the ground, for the beheading of Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia and for the arrests of Muslims who wish to convert to Christianity?

Apologize for the sermons in some mosques that compare Jews to monkeys and pigs and call for the Jewish people to be slaughtered?

Apologize for those Muslim countries that make television dramas claiming Jews kill gentile babies so as to drink their blood?

Apologize for those Muslim leaders who declare that Spain and Portugal have to be "retaken" by Islam?

Apologize for the invasion on the Christian heartlands of North Africa and the Middle East hundreds of years ago, just as Pope John Paul apologized for crimes committed against Muslims and Islam during the Crusades, the European response to this expansion?

Apologize for the murder of three of the translators of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, for the murder of Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh and for the murder of Daniel Pearl?