The crusades were NOT response to muslim aggression. Go read a history book, ffs.
Originally Posted by shanm
.
Maybe you are the one who should read a history book. Syria, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia, northern Africa, Spain - all were Christian and for hundreds of years before the Muslims invaded and conquered. The proximate cause for Pope Urban to declare the crusade was a letter from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requesting western troops to repel an invasion by Seljuk Turks. It was the beginning of the 1000 year rollback of Islamic conquest that eventually freed Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Crimea, Georgia, Armenia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro from Muslim rule. The Muslims are still pissed about it - Bin Laden bemoaned the loss of Al-Andalus. Add to the list the return of the indigenous people to Israel (though they never completely left) and you have every Muslim who believes in the complete superiority of Islam with a psychic wound that only the destruction of Israel and the reconquest of former Muslim-controlled territory can heal.
Or do you consider the condoning of slavery, colonialism, papal blessings of countless holy wars as also a response to muslim aggression?
Umm...the whole idea of a "holy war" (jihad) was borrowed from Islam. No such concept occurs in the New Testament, but there is plenty of "kill the infidel and take his wives and daughters as slaves" in the Koran. And you do realize that slavery was outlawed in Saudi Arabia only in 1962 under intense external pressure, right? Meanwhile Daesh is bringing slavery back, with theological justification. I challenge you to find a single verse in the New Testament that condones one person buying and selling another, or raping women prisoners of war, even though those were commonly accepted practices in the first century.
Here is a bit of text from
The River War, written by a keen observer of the human condition, Winston Churchill. And remember that he saw the Nazis for what they were when most "educated" people were just pussy-footing around and not trying to offend Herr Hitler.
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.