MUSE LOG: Crusades    
 Crusades4 comments
picture13 May 2004 @ 13:07, by Tom Bombadil


"Of all the wars waged in the name of God, none has ever matched the arrogance and conceit of the Christian Crusades. For nearly two centuries (1095-1291), this medieval "holy war" variously raged, sometimes so spiritually misshapen by rapaciousness, murder, and political greed that to think it all had to do with Christian faith is absurd. (...) To understand the effects of the Crusades is to understand much of today's religious geography, and Mr. Jones and company can fairly lay claim to having helped set the record straight." — Jamie Friddle, Editorial Review (Amazon.com)


Clearly, the time of crusades is not over, and if we want to understand the troubles of our own times, a good place to start is with the troubles of the past. This documentary gives us a very clear idea of the darkest aspects of crusading, and may give us Americans pause as we hear calls to invade and occupy ever more Islamic nations in the Middle East.

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"I bought the DVD set Crusades about six months ago in order to supplement my reading of Karen Armstrong's fantastic book, Holy War. I was pleased as punch to find that Karen Armstrong is herself one of the experts interviewed throughout the course of this documentary. This connection makes this documentary an excellent companion to Holy War."


In 1095 Pope Urban II summoned Christian warriors to take up the cross and reconquer the Holy Land. Thus began the holy wars that would focus the power of Europe against a common enemy and become the stuff of romantic legend. In reality the Crusades were a series of rabidly savage conflicts in the name of piety. And, as Armstrong demonstrates in this fascinating book, their legacy of religious violence continues today in the Middle East, where the age-old conflict of Christians, Jews, and Muslims persists.

"I'm sure I don't need to tell you why I've been reading about the crusades. We are, unfortunately, in a time of holy wars. America is attacked by extremists who justify their acts by invoking the name of their god. America in turn attacks other countries, as its president invokes the old idea of the divine right of rulership. George W. Bush claims that in his deliberations about whether to go to war, he talks the matter over with God, and Bush also states very clearly that God is on his side. Bush has even stated that he regards his wars as a crusade.


Warrior of God?
At the same time, the primary spiritual counselor to President Bush is Franklin Graham, a man who has inherited a profession of sponsoring mass religious rallies known as Crusades. Mr. Graham also runs an organization that intends to send missionaries over to post-war Iraq in order to convert people there from Islam, a religion that he describes as wicked and evil.


Clearly, the time of crusades is not over, and if we want to understand the troubles of our own times, a good place to start is with the troubles of the past. This documentary gives us a very clear idea of the darkest aspects of crusading, and may give us Americans pause as we hear calls to invade and occupy ever more Islamic nations in the Middle East.

In the West, we often think of the crusades as romantic escapades connected to Robin Hood. We have collectively forgotten what this documentary so ably shows: pogroms against the Jews [the crusaders didn't bother to differentiate between Muslims and Jews], looting, pillaging, raping, torture, and even cannibalism—all in the name of a virtuous struggle against a supposedly evil enemy."


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Books about the crusades



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4 comments

20 May 2004 @ 16:01 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : Killing in the name of Christ
seems like a sick farce! The cry of those who supported the Crusades became "Dieu li volt!" (God wills it!)  The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" was changed to only include Christians—making killing Moslems acceptable.  Urban also promised that anyone who died in battle would be forgiven all their sins and would go straight to heaven.

When the Crusaders arrived in Northern Turkey, they captured and looted the town of Lycea, where, as it so happened, most of the inhabitants were actually Christians.  The rampaging continued into the Holy Land and in June of 1099 they reached Jerusalem, which was captured in July.  The Crusaders slaughtered both Jews and Moslems in their places of worship.

Massacres in the predominately Christian cities of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Antioch alone saw more Christians killed by Crusaders than all the Muslims and Jews in all those wars combined—excluding the genocide following the capture of Jerusalem (which also included Christian victims.) Crusaders burned the synagogue, in which the Jews had taken refuge, killing about 6,000 Jews, and stormed the mosque, butchering an estimated 30,000 Muslims. They left a legacy of fear and contempt in the Muslim world.

{link:http://www.brighton73.freeserve.co.uk/firstcrusade/Overview/Overview.htm|The story of the First Crusade}  



26 May 2004 @ 12:47 by Sellitman @69.33.46.10 : The Sack of Constantinople
And with the Fourth Crusade all pretenses of "noble" motives died—the Fourth Crusade was encouraged, financed, and controlled by Venetian merchants for commercial reasons.

The consequences were immense, but they didn't have anything to do with the reconquest of the "Holy Land." Instead, the Crusade resulted in the brutal {link:http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/sack.stm|Sack of Constantinople}, the richest Christian city in the world. The great eastern Christian Byzantine Empire was fatally weakened as a result, and eventually collapsed shortly thereafter.  



26 May 2004 @ 21:22 by Aiden @69.33.46.10 : Bush's blunder—or was it?
Throughout the Middle East, people's memory of the "Crusades" is of marauding thieves who oppressed the local population, which was then (as now) a mixture of Muslim, {link:http://www.msainfo.org/clopcont.asp?id=172&subject=24|Christians} and Jews.

Did Bush know nothing of the meaning of the word "Crusade" or of what happened when the "Crusades" took place?

To be fair, chances are that he may never even have heard of the sack of Constantinople—a sad commentary on Bush's education, background and fitness for office.

Or did Bush know better and decided, very deliberately, to use the word "Crusade" anyway and hit a new trifecta by (1) casting himself as the archetypal "champion of good vs. evil," (2) gathering support and momentum for his war from the religious right, and (3) igniting the fires of Arab and Muslim humiliation and anger throughout the region, a possible calculated provocation—it's no secret that there are "modern crusaders" in Bush's entourage, who for a variety of reasons, think that a "war of civilization" would not be a bad thing and are actually welcoming such a war (and actively encouraging it, even).

Meanwhile, for many in the Middle east, sadly, this has been seen, yet once again, as a direct confirmation to them that America is "{link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5040834|anti-Arab}." Al-Qaeda must be pleased.  



2 Aug 2007 @ 06:16 by taner @61.9.136.101 : this shiz
crusade? amerika take over muslim pop? hahahaha pleaaaase. us muslims and middle easerns are doin fine. all the "crusades" have got is Iraq. please try n take more... try turkey... we will show u sad fuks that are blinded by greed.
Fuck tha world...  



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