WE REALLY MUST THINK ABOUT THE MORALITY OF THE CRUSADES
For the last 10,000 years guys have gone on invasions, pillaged at whim.
It's what men do. You want to argue with how things are? Everybody
did it! Hitler emptied Europe of paintings. Bush emptied Iraq's museums.
Get with the program. We CRUISE and we SADE!The Crusades were during the middle ages.There were nine Crusades and they occurred from 1096 to 1270. The most famous was King Richard the Lionhearted, and the third Crusade. The Crusades resulted as a reaction to Muslim aggression against the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople or Istanbul, Turkey. Then it was the new Rome as Rome had fallen. The new center of Christianity.
If there is one thing that everybody knows about the Crusades, it is that they were a Bad Thing. In the eyes even of most Christians, let alone others, the Crusades were a crime against humanity, one for which apologies are due, especially to Muslims. President Bush’s early reference to the war on terror as a “crusade” was seen as a catastrophic blunder, justifying the accusations of Osama bin Laden and other Islamists who habitually refer to their enemies as “crusaders,” with all the negative connotations the word now possesses.
Condemnation of the Crusades is based on the premise that they were a barbaric, unprovoked war of extermination and conquest, waged against a superior and incomparably more tolerant civilization—in brief, an archetype of Western imperialism. Today, when the very idea of a holy war is utterly alien to Western sensibilities, it is the United States that is identified by its critics, especially in Europe, with the religious fanaticism and military rapacity of the crusaders. The Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Gunther Grass, writing soon after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, decried the “religious fundamentalism,” “moral decline,” and “organized madness” of the United States, and proposed that Pope John Paul II, “who knows how lasting and devastating the disasters wrought by the mentality and actions of Christian crusaders have been,” issue a formal apology to the Muslim world. Kingdom of Heaven, the Crusade movie by Ridley Scott released in the spring, reflects many of these same attitudes. Is this the truth? " At that point Commentary makes you subscribe or get lost. So, we move to --
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Good and bad are matters of opinion. The Crusades were launched because of religious intolerance, and helped destabilize the middle east. The pope ordered a holy war against the rising muslim empire and effectively ended the muslim renaissance. That area of the world has never recovered. I personally think they were bad, but its really up to you to make that decision.
On the bright side, it did helped to open up trade between Europe and the Mideast. The technological advancements of the Muslims and the knowledge they kept from Greek and Roman times became revealed to the Christians and all of Europe. It boosted trade since the luxuries of the east became high in demand across Europe, prompting trade and with it, more communication between the West and the East. The knowledge gained from the Muslims helped propel Europe into the Renaissance.
Yeah, but you want to know something? The Muslims never got over it. They feel pillaged, raped, violated, attacked for no reason, they all lost family, sure it was a long time ago but they have talked about it day and night for centuries and Christians are on their shit list forever, so get with that program.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crusades_(film) CECIL B. DEMILLE film with Loretta Young 1935http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/ 2005
Read THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and its sequels, A chronicle of the life and love of Ansiau & Alis in 12th-century France. Set in the time of the Third Crusade, Zoe Oldenbourg's novel (a translation from Belgian language, (first published 1946). Fairly readable. Paperback, 509 pages won Womens' Nat'l Book Ass'n Award isbn# 0786704896 (isbn13: 9780786704897) Carroll & Graf Publishers (NY)
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