lskrvf wrote:Umer wrote:Interesting, I actually have this topic in my test on monday. I mean about the crusades, I am reading this book, I think it's by a Christian writer named John L. Esposito, I'm not sure what religion he is from but I think I read somewhere that he was Christian. Anyway, this is straight from his book. You see, you are misguided about the conquests of muslims in the middle east, they did not convert people by the sword as most western countries believe, nor did they kill everyone including children, women and elderly during their "holy wars", unlike Crusades where they did. They were merely spreading, not conquering. I will show you why, this is from his book directly.
"Jerusalem was a sacred city for all three Abrahamic faiths. When the Arab armies took Jerusalem in 638, they occupied a center whose shrines had made it a major pilgrimage site in Christendom. Churches and the Christian population were left unmolested. Jews, long banned from living htere by Christian rulers, were permitted to return, live, and worship in the city of Solomon and David..."
Next Paragraph:
"Five centuries of peaceful coexistence elapsed before political events and an imperial-papal power play led to centuries-long series of so-called holy wars that pitted Christendom against Islam and left an enduring legacy of misunderstanding and distrust."
Another quote from a scholar from this book:
"God may indeed have wished it (Crusades), but there is certainly no evidence that the Christians of Jerusalem did, or that anything extraordinary was occurring to pilgrims there to prompt such a response at that moment in history."
Another explaination of the real motive behind the Crusades:
"In fact, Christian rulers, knights, and merchants were driven primarily by political and military ambitions and the promise of the economic and commercial (trade and banking)(this is a comment by me> Trade was always promoted in Islam, especially during muslim empires which the world now realizes the importance of) rewards that would accompany the establishment of a Latin kingdom in the Middle East. However, the appeal to religion captured the popular mind and gained its support."
My teacher described it in more detail, that the muslims did not bother Christians or Jews, in fact they gave them more minority rights than Christians or Jewish rulers ever did, muslims built their own mosques, and left the churches alone for the Christians and Synagogs for the Jews. When the Crusaders (warriors of Jesus) killed ever muslim, and yes it does say that in the book and I quote, " They left no Muslim survivors; women and children were massacred."
Also the Pope back in that era gathered criminals and told them that this was a war that would cleanse their sins and they will get eternal awards for it. He also told them that if anyone died in this war would go straight to heaven, a martyr.
Last paragraph I will quote from the book.
"By the thirteenth century the Crusades degenerated into intra-Christian wars, papal wars against its Christian enemies who were denounced as heretics and schismatics (comment by me: hmm that sounds familiar). The result was a weakening, rather than a strenghtening, of Christendom. As Roger Savory has observed:
'An ironical but undeniable result of the Crusades was the deterioration of the position of Christian minorities in the Holy Land. Formerly these minorities had been accorded rights and privileges under Muslim rule, but, after the establishment of the Latin Kingdom, they found themselves treated as "loathsome schismatics." In an effort to obtain relief from persecution by their fellow Christians, many abandoned their Nestorian or Monophysite beliefs, and adopted either Roman Catholicism, or---the supreme irony---Islam.'
You see, where I am from Iskrvf, muslims don't know much about Crusades, my parents never told me anything about it, I had heard of some wars between the Jews and Muslims but never into any detail and we never thought of any Christian trying to take over since I lived in a country that had no history of Christian occupation except British of course. Now, when I look at the situation around the world, I see it differently and it all goes back to the history, that's why history is so important, it tells you a lot about the current events. The Christians were converting to Islam after the Christians slaughtered all muslims, that sounds familiar, I hope you will realize why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world even today, even after all the NAME CALLING by the Christians apparently. It was no different in the past, call them heretic and kill them all, take their mosques and change them to a church. That is why Pat Stevens or whatever his name was, when he converted to Islam, he changed his name to Yousaf Islam, a man who changed himself for the good of humankind, he now donates every penny he gets from his albums to poor and needy and what do the Christians of America do? not let him in the country, all of a sudden he is a terrorist. Do you see now why Islam is so attractive to people that have a concept of peace, because it was built upon peace, not the made up false conceptions of our fellow Christians, they are and have always been afraid of us muslims, they think we want to take over. Apparently if anyone with a half brain can think, he/she will see that there are none muslim countries that are trying to occupy a soverign country but most muslim countries are being and most will be occupied by Christians and other nations. Now you see why muslims look at the history so much? or is there anything else left that you want to say?
Maybe when you post something from a site YOU should not take away all the most important things that happend. IF what you wrote above is what you are going to take a class on, YOU should make sure you add in your report ALL.. and I mean ALL the details of the Crusades. AND make sure YOU get the YEARS right....The Crusader Period (1099-1187)
In 638, Jerusalem surrendered to the Muslims, NOT the Arab Army. THEY were Muslims. Mohammad died in 632, Six years later is when HIS HIS Islam followers stormed Jerusalem and took contral of THEIR HOLY CITY..
http://www.american.edu/projects/mandal ... muslim.htm HERE is the site YOU got all this from. I have been reading it too. REAL scrary shit isn't it?
I have been reading a bit of the Quran too and some of the Hadth. I find very disturding things in it. I am not how to say this other than just tell you how I feel since reading it. From what I gather about Islam it is a religion of the Dark Ages.
Enough about the past, WE all know the truth about the Crusades, we know who started it. Mohammad and his then new religion, they started it.
What about what has happened in the last few years. LOOK what YOUR peaceful is doing now. TO hell with the Crusades. LETS talk about a few years ago, and now. Algeria is wracked by bitter fighting between Islamic Fundamentalists and the military. Death toll, 100,000 over a ten year period!
Nigeria is in the midst of a war in which Muslims are murdering Christians and burning down their churches. Muslims against Christians. It doesn't take much to trigger an angry mob of Muslims" does it?.
Muslim opposition to the Miss Universe Pageant boiled over after a local journalist wrote that the prophet Mohammed would have approved of the contest and might even have wanted to marry one of the contestants. The ensuing riots in Kaduna left 220 dead and 400 wounded.
In Kenya the Islamic Party has declared Holy War on the government.
In Turkey the secular Muslim government is being challenged by the militant Refah Islamic Party.
A civil war rages in the Sudan between Muslims in the north against the Christians in the south. Sudan's militant Muslim regime is slaughtering Christians who refuse to convert to Islam. In recent years, more than two million Sudanese have been killed out of a population of 35 million as its government used bombings and famine in its war on its own people. The Muslims call it genocidal ethnic cleansing. The Muslim Arabs who dominate the government in Khartoum encourages armed Arab militias to ride into black villages, on horseback or camelback, terrorizing and kill unarmed civilians, kidnapping children, enslaving those they can carry away and raping young girls as young as 5 years old before leaving them for dead.
And while Americans fight on several fronts in a war on Islamist terrorism, Sudan should serve as an illustration for all of us as to just what this global war is all about. Instead, the pure evil in Sudan continues. And the world sees it not.
YEAH your religion ISLAM is REAL peaceful, ISN"T IT?
IF YOU CAN"T see what is happening across the world then you and all Muslims have turned a blind eye to all this, and you are as sick as the MUSLIMS that have done all this, and are still doing it. THE more I read all this crap the more pissed off I get at Islam's BS, and Muslims who believe in it's BS.
