Let's get some facts straight about the Crusades

Submitted by Andreas (United States), Dec 20, 2002 at 17:04

In several of the postings on this thread, there have been references to the Crusades as if they were a period of pure Christian aggression against the Islamic world. The militant Islamic crowd in particular like to skew the historical facts to defend their murderous intentions. It is tiresome to repeatedly see modern interpretations of Crusader motives include everything from greed (for plunder and land) to sexual predation. Militant jihadis love that kind of mind-set because they can play up that ultimate PC card--victimology.

Let's try a few facts on for size. Islam came after Christianity first. Within a few years of Muhammad's death, Islamic armies took the Christian regions of the Middle East, Asia Minor, and North Africa. They raided and pillaged islands across the Med including Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Sicily. Stories of massacres, enslavement, and wanton destruction abound in history books that cover the era. Muslims beseiged Constantinople in 670 and 717 AD. By 715 AD almost all of what is today Spain and Portugal had been conquered by Muslims. They made almost halfway across France before Charles Martel stopped them cold in 732. Muslims brigands and military expeditions invaded southern France, Switzerland, and Italy. They even got as far as Rome and pillaged St. Peter's in 846 (and only left when the Pope offered a tribute of 25,000 silver coins per year). Long before a single Crusader set foot in the Holy Land, hundreds of thousands of Christians were killed, raped, enslaved, or forcibly converted and untold amounts of wealth was stripped from Europe to line the pockets of Jihadis.

While Jihadis and their apologists in the media today love to highlight the brutal treatment Muslims received during the Crusades, they have little to say about what Christians endured for almost 400 years before the Crusades were launched.

Moreover, modern Muslims are reticent about the brutalities their forefathers inflicted on Christians after the Crusades were over. Check your history books. Look at the fall of Constantinople, the conquest of the Balkans, the siege of Vienna for examples of Muslim gentility and kindness.

So before anyone slams Christians for our warts, let's have a little balance here.

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