The Barbaric Crusades

Submitted by Robert (United States), Apr 12, 2016 at 17:02

Dear Mohammed Waza Khiddif id'Ullah,

About the year 1,000 (1,000 years ago or so) it was the Christian Europeans who were "uncivilized";
everywhere where Islam was, was where "high culture" existed. Although Europe was backward, from some economic reasons its population exploded, and it was a Roman Catholic cleric who came up with the idea of retrieving the birthplace of Jesus - the Holy Land - from the Muslims. And the Popes in Rome approved of the idea. So many, many, Christians began to take up that journey.

Furthermore, it was about the year 800 (200 years earlier) that Charlemagne defended the West against all enemies of Christianity, and so he was crowned by the Pope and his royal heirs acquired what eventually became the Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation); I'm omitting much here.

But by the year 1,000, it was the relatively "Barbaric" West which commenced its onslaught on the Islamic world.

But after 500 years or so Europeans did not abandon their war-like, military, ways of conquest; what they did accomplish is known as the Protestant Reformation; this was a major revolution against the dominance of Rome over the religious life of its Western subjects.

What we see now is a struggle over the nature of Islam among subjects and citizens of Muslim majority countries; nothing like this exists in the West now; but we shouldn't forget the Holocaust which end in 1945 over the Jews in Europe. This was not only a struggle over the non-Christ Jews as to their Religion, but also over their status as a Race. And three years later, in 1948, the Muslims of the world refused to recognize Jews as a Nation in Israel. But Shia Iran wants Israel of the face of the map; while Sunni Saudi Arabia wants a Peace Treaty between Israel and Palestine on pre-1967 terms (the Six Day War).

So things are quite complicated.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".