It is ignorant to say that Christians are responsible for the crusades when it was actually the Muslims?

Question

The crusades were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense. What say you?

http://www.crisismagazine.com/april2002/cover.htm

Answer 1

I don't really know much about the crusades. That was an interesting article - thanks.

Mike

Answer 2

Why do you think the Muslims started the Crusades. Saladin was trying to get his country(Palestine) back from the Muslims. The Christians were the ones who wanted to slaughter innocent men, women, and children "Heathens"(Jews and Muslims) in their quest to steal the holy land from the Muslims. The Christians kicked out the Jews from Jerusalem or did this fact slip your mind. Don't forget that when Saladin and his army took back Palestine and Jerusalem he allowed the Christians to go free and even gave them animals and food so they could go home and spared the innocents who weren't fighting from death. He also let the Jews come back into Palestine after the Christians were defeated. The Christians always blame their problems on other races and religions. If anything Christianity is the most intolerant religion. Even today they call Jews and Muslims and every other religion "cults" and worshipers of the "Devil". After the Crusades when the Muslim empire was established the Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived side by side in peace for 700 years.

Answer 3

Maybe you meant "Is it ignorant" rather than "It is ignorant." The former is a question, the latter an assertion.

To respond to that question: It could be a difference of opinion rather than a lack of knowledge. Assuming the historical facts are true as you state them (and I don't know whether they are), the issue of who is "responsible" is somewhat subjective, don't you think? For example, one could say that, even if they were provoked, it was the Christians who decided when and how they would respond.

Answer 4

Do you believe everything you read? Nevermind, I just answered that question.

Answer 5

By using your so-called 'logic' above, I can write ' that’s only fair to kill Christians whom have invaded Spain and claimed it their own! For thousand years the pagan stayed there and ruled but the holy mother church must have forgotten that Spain was pagan land never Christian never Christian but pagan land! Where pagans lived and died before Christians invaded Spain'

Have you forgotten history? History tells us how people of Spain ask Muslims to defeat the Spanish regime that the people of Spain did not like. The people of Spain also helped Muslims to fight the regime they hated very much.

The so-called 'Holy' Inquisition that was ordered and supervised by the so-called 'holy' church caused violent antisemitic and anti-Islamic persecution and many Jews, Muslims and Protestants etc were forced to convert to the Catholic faith or fled. Muslims and Jews were terrorized, tortured and massacred by Catholics and church officials. Muslims, Jews, Protestants etc were falsely charged and tortured by church officials to obtain the confession of the accused Muslims, Jews etc. It was applied without distinction of sex or age, including children and the aged. Severe punishments existed, among them long sentences to jail or the galleys, and the confiscation of all property. Also physical punishments existed, such as whipping. Burning at the stake was frequently applied to impenitent heretics and those who had relapsed. Execution was public. If the condemned repented, he was garroted before his body was given to the flames. If not, he was burned alive.

It seems to me that the church officials, priests and Catholics were a bunch of sadistic and brutal criminals who terrorized, tortured and massacred innocent Muslims, Jews, Protestants etc in Spain. These barbaric criminals did not respect the religious freedom of Muslims, Jews etc.

On the contrary, Muslims who ruled Spain tolerated non-Muslims and they respected religious freedom of non-Muslims. They allowed non-Muslims to practise their own beliefs.

Before Muslims came to Spain, Spain was an uncivilized country that was ruled by a cruel king that caused the people of Spain to ask Muslims to overthrow the king. When Muslims ruled Spain, Spain became a civilized and advanced country. There were no riots! When Spain fell into Catholics hands, Christian leaders and nobles caused many riots.

Yeah it was shameful to know that the Christians priests and their pope were the warmongers who invented lies and fairy tales to trick ignorant Christians into attacking, invading and occupying Palestine and terrorizing, raping , torturing and massacring innocent and defenseless Muslims, Jews and Eastern Christians. What a shame! Yeah only God knows the brutal and sadistic heart of the barbaric Crusaders who terrorized, raped , tortured and massacred innocent and defenseless Muslims, Jews and Eastern Christians in Palestine.

Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
Over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning, the crusaders murdered almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem. Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians were all massacred. Although many Muslims sought shelter in Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Jews in their synagogue by the Western wall, the crusaders spared few lives. According to the anonymous Gesta Francorum, in what some believe to be an exaggerated account of the massacre which subsequently took place there, "...the slaughter was so great that our men waded in blood up to their ankles...". Other accounts of blood flowing up to the bridles of horses are reminiscent of a passage from the Book of Revelation (14:20). Tancred claimed the Temple quarter for himself and offered protection to some of the Muslims there, but he was unable to prevent their deaths at the hands of his fellow crusaders. According to Fulcher of Chartres: "Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet coloured to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared"

The Catholic Pope, priests, church officials, kings and their Crusaders were a bunch of sadistic, brutal and barbaric liars, thieves, murderers, robbers, criminals etc.

It always amazes me how many times this God of the Bible orders the killing of innocent people even after the Ten Commandments said “Thou shall not kill”. For example, God of the Bible kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3). He orders another attack and the killing of “all the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses” (Joshua 6).

In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife! Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody! In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered.

The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).

This type of criminal behavior should shock any moral person. Murder, rape, pillage, plunder, slavery, and child abuse can not be justified by saying that some god says it’s OK