Jaladhi good points

Submitted by Maggie4Life (Australia), Sep 26, 2006 at 20:19

Jaladhi, you have made some excellent points about intimidation and bullying. There is a point where people feel that they have to hit back. This is the real reason that the Crusades were called in the first place. It is the reason behind the Spanish Inquisition.

The only problem with hitting back is that the people doing the hitting back go to the opposite extreme. When Queen Isabella instigated the Spanish Inquisition she did so because of the threat of Islam to her country, Spain. One of the concerns of Queen Isabella was the behaviour of a small group of Jews (not all participated in this action) who, desiring the possibility to control Spain, sponsored the activity of the Moors. Some of these Jews converted to Christianity, pretending that they saw the light, and then after their baptism, they had a private unbaptism. It is this group who were targeted by the Spanish Inquisition. If there were others who felt the impact, then that is also due to human nature, especially jealousy of others. Thus, we find that some innocent Jews were unfairly targeted during the period of the Spanish Inquisition.

During this time the French and the English were moribund. They did nothing to stem the tide of Islam. The Spanish needed to defeat the Moors, otherwise the whole of Europe would have been overrun by a bunch of savages. Prior to the Spanish Inquisition, the French had to deal with the heretics known as the Cathars. Whilst I use the ephitet of heretic for the Cathars, the real problem with them was their anarchy. They were a real menace in the towns where they lived. They were not innocent of any crimes at all.

There are people who will give a real bleeding heart history of the Cathars, and who will take a swipe at the Catholic Church because of the way in which this people were "eliminated". Well we need to take religion out of the equation, even though during that period, the church and state were not separated. The Cathars were anarchists, and they caused such foment in the towns that the townspeople were prepared to take matters into their own hands prior to the arrival of the Inquisitor.

Usually, when the Inquisitor arrived, order was restored to the town. The Cathars were dualists, that is they believed in a God of Good, and a God of Evil. They acted with deceit, pretending to be Christian. They practiced a number of things that pointed to the fact that they were not real Christians, including their refusal to marry and bear children, and they believed in a form of euthanasia as being their ultimate sacrament. In some towns the Cathars also practised homosexuality, and since they did not believe in marriage, babies were born out of wedlock, if they were allowed to be born. All, the same, the real evil, was not the denounciation of the Cathars, but of those who were innocent of any wrong-doing, but were denounced by their neighbours who had a grudge against them.

There were wrongs committed during those times. An apology was offered to those concerned by the late Pope John Paul II. However, some will never accept the apology because to do so would force them to check out the real facts, rather than relying upon revisionists who have embellished the truth. Since I do not know the truth about the Knights Templar, I can only refrain from even offering an opinion at this point in time.

All bullies do that which is evil. That is why I do consider the practice of Islam by the extremists to be evil. Unfortunately, the moderates are not making a good case because their silence is evidence against them.

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