No one-sided apology for Crusades?

Question

It bothers me when I see President Bush and some Christian world leaders apologize to Muslims because of the past Christian Crusades against Islam. Few know that Muslims were the first to invade Europe. The Moors conducted slave raids off the coasts of southern Italy and Spain. An estimated 1.5 million white Christians were forcibly taken to North Africa by Moorish pirates. In Eastern Europe, the Tatar (Mongol) Muslims also conducted slave raids in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Slavic white peasants were enslaved by Tatar/Mongol Muslim horsemen and taken to the slave markets of Istanbul where the Tatar/Mongols sold Slavic people to Turks. So many Slavic people were captured that even today, the term "slave" derived from Slavs. Forced race mixing occured as this result. The Moors went from black to white and the Tatars/Turks went from yellow to white. The goal of the raids was to abduct young white women and attack Christiandom. Where is the apology for that?

Answer 1

To forgive is divine.




g-day!

Answer 2

You are actually forgetting several instances where the muslims pushed into Europe. The first was the Moorish invasion of France, during the reign of Charlemagne, recounted in the Songs of Roland. The other was the continued conquests by the Ottomans after the fall of Constantinople, where they pushed all the way up to Vienna.

The East and West have always been locked in a struggle. It is two separate cultures, two ways of thinking. They are not squeaky clean innocents, and neither is the West.

Answer 3

I find no need for an apology. As a previous answer stated, the two cultures have been locked in conflict since long before Islam and Christendom were even fathomed. Persians invaded Greek city states, Carthage invaded Rome. The Saracens weren't peaceful migrants to Sicily and Calabria but conquerers who murdered and raped and pillaged coastal towns up and down the Italian seaside. They did what conquering forces most often do. The reply that states Crusading armies "ate young Muslim children in front of their parents" is an exaggeration of the executions that took place when Richard the Lionheart laid seige to Acre and, outnumbered, wished to instill fear by executing nearly 3000 Saracen prisoners. The Moors took Spain by invasion and the Ottomans invaded Europe time after time from the Balkans to Hungary and Poland all the way to Vienna at Europe's heart. The early history of the Slavs which you state is clearly a tragedy in our history books and testement that in retrospect, man is a brutal beast.

The story isn't one-sided, the Hellenic world was only expanded through conquest of Persia, Egypt, and numerous semitic kingdoms and people by Alexander, Rome subjugated her provinces in Asia and Africa as well. The Crusades were the first serious European threat to Islam since the waning of the Byzantine Empire, and the start of a slow decline, an era of prosperity that wasn't fully reached again.

It's a ridiculous notion that a president carries with him the responsibility or privilege to apologize for the events of nearly a millenium ago. Western culture is very inclined to view itself as progressive and promotes a live-and-let-live philosophy, with caveats to that of course, but in general this is the conduct we follow. To hear grievences from another culture about our own conquest-driven past unsettles us. So our leaders rush to apologize, without realizing the other side did quite the same in this long-running trade-off of invasion and conquest. The clash of cultures is a long-standing tradition of humanity, and in our lifetime we'll see it several times again. Don't hold your breath for many apologies.

Answer 4

Crusade wasnt not different a bit from Hitler's mass murder...It was an invasion led by leaders full of personal greed and ambition...supported by brainwashed commons who lost hope...

Crusades burned Muslim kids and ate them alive before kid's parents are begging for their children...I don't think even Hitler and Stalin could do such a thing.

Muslims should had unite and fight back Europe at once.(Muslims were divided into millions of small nations fighting each other). Saladin held only Egypt and Arabia but it was enought for him to beat Crusades out of the Middle East. Imagine what would happened if whole Muslims were united.
Muslim world had much more wealth, knowledge, technology, and population at the time. See what Ottoman Turks did to Europe later on.

Well, maybe Muslims deserved Crusades attack...it was Muslims that conquered southern Italy and Spain first...doesnt mean Muslims were cruel as Crusades were. Muslim Spain was the most developed European kingdom during 7~10th century.

Answer 5

This whole habit of 'apologising' for what our ancestors did or did not do bothers me. Here in the UK in the year which sees the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade many people have been jumping on the bandwagon and 'apologising' for that trade. Heinous as it was, apologies this late are meaningless. They only serve to give a feeling of self righteousness to the apologiser. There have been so many wrongs in history, often carried out by people who thought at the time that they were doing right by their own lights, that one has to ask where the apologies should end. Whilst we must learn from the past we would be better off making a better world for the present and the future, than mouthing meaningless apologies.

Answer 6

Wow aint you just 100% correct!
lots of stupid political correctness bothers me thats just a little bitty part of it.
by the way all your point sre absolutely valid and correct
Apoligizing to African Americans for slavery is a no brainer to me also
Was any present American citizen alive during that era...Nope
get over it already my ancestors were opressed too people

Answer 7

You are right in what you have stated. The Christian leaders are apologizing because they realize that Muslims were killed in the name of Christianity and from my understanding Christ never endorsed murder. Their apology was not to point whose fault it was or who started it but simply to apologize for what happened.

Sad to say that the Muslims have never said that they are sorry for what they have done. From what I have seen and heard they deny they ever did anything wrong. But any one can prove me wrong or collaborate on this.

Answer 8

I agree with what you wrote. The simple answer is that no one apologizes for doing what they think is right.