The Crusades: What Really Happened

Here's a helpful article describing the real history of the Crusades.  Some key facts:

• They were a defensive response to centuries of Muslim aggression.
• Attacking Jews was condemned by the Pope and never the purpose of a Crusade
• Crusaders for the most part were pious men who sacrificed a great deal to go on a crusade

The realy history of the crusades isn't clean, and it's a lot more complicated than the common misconception.

Historian Thomas Madden summarizes:

So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.

Comments

[Alex]

Perhaps Muslims would not have been as aggresive if the followers of the religion of peace were not being slaughtered in the millons by a genocidal "Christian" occupying military force being promised eternal bless by the pope?

[baptistthinker]

Perhaps you should reread the above, Alex.

[Jugulum]

Alex,

Sorry--what? Are you saying that when Muslims initially invaded Christian lands, it was because Muslims were being slaughtered by the millions?

[Alex]

No doubt it was a normal population migration, that christians decided couldn't be tolerated because they didn't accept their dogma.

[Shawn White]

What is the evidence for it being a "normal population migration"?

[Lynn]

Sorry, but it's well documented that Muslims invaded Spain and took the country by force around AD 711. There was an uneasy tolerance until they began to invade through Turkey a couple of centuries later, essentially flanking Europe. That's when the Eastern Orthodox Christians in Constantinople (Istanbul) requested aid from the Church in Rome. The Crusades were a series of strikes intended to force the Muslim armies to draw back and defend their own homeland.

Do a little Googling. It's not hard to validate that the Saracens attacked first.

[Daron]

Rodney Stark's 'God's Battalions' is a great read on this subject.

[Daron]

Oh, it's that article. I've had it bookmarked for years.

[Trent]

I suspect that Alex gets most of his information from anti-Christian websites.

[SteveK]

No doubt it was a normal population migration, that christians decided couldn't be tolerated because they didn't accept their dogma.

Is that similar to the normal migration patterns that some people make today into other peoples houses - where the residents decide they can't tolerate their dogma and then call the police?

[Alex]

Now that is just an intolerant based on the fact that you don't like their beliefs, calling them all criminals.

I thought Christians were supposed to love their neighbors and turn the other cheek?

[Alex]

and love your enemies.

[Ppr]

Alex, you appear to be ignoring any response to your clsims. Please defend them, or risk being ignored yourself.

[Cog]

Nice link, Melinda.

Most people seem to forget that the "religion of peace" has most often been spread by conquest.

[Alex]

Propganda to support the papal position.

[SteveK]

Alex,
I asked a question for clarification purposes. If it's not that kind of normal migration, what kind of migration is it?

Is it like the migration out West during the 1800's?. Is it like the migration of Germany into Poland? Help us understand what you mean.

[Albert]

I propose we ignore Alex until we get a response to the questions that have been presented.
No reason to continue to entertain Alex's rants.

[Trent]

Sounds like Alex thinks there were roving armies of Christian skinheads killing immigrants simply for not being Catholic enough, and that is what caused 1000 years of animosity.

So much for the atheist claim that they are the bright ones.

[Son of Adam]

Trent - let's be above reproach in our responses. Why do you think Alex is an atheist rather than a Muslim?

[Trent]

I'm assuming, and I may be wrong, that he is the same Alex that posted anti-christian responses in some earlier articles.

refer to September 20, 2011

How We've Infuriated Centuries of People

[Jesse]

After reading the article, I was left with a sense that the Crusades were just complicated.

Leaving aside the question of who did what and by what motives, Scripture is abundantly clear on how the Gospel is to be spread: by preaching the good news, not by force. Any acts of forced conversion reveal the perpetrator to have violated Christ's commands.

While many suggest the way to avoid such atrocities is to abandon religion, the truth is there would be no forced conversions to Christianity if everyone who called themselves 'Christian' actually understood and believed the words of Jesus and the Apostles.

[Cog]

Actually, Jesse, the Crusades had nothing to do with forced conversion.

Now, Roman Catholic behavior in Middle and South America is a different and much darker tale.

[John Plough]

Islam began in Suadi Arabia, Christianity began in Judea.

It is very simple, begin by looking at a map!
It will be crystal clear whom invaded who. This debate is one of "Missing the forest, for staring at individual trees".

A good secular history of the crusades is "The Crusades" by Zoe Oldenburg, I found it fascinating.

There is so much deciet in the world it is very hard to make heads or tails of many things. It may be that "Alex" is an honest person who has just been decieved. We Christians must be charitable to the lost or confused, no matter how frustrated we feel. It is very important to remember the foe we battle is not "Islam" but Satan, in just another guise.

[Les]

Alex put simply, like you do, the crusades were a response to muslim aggression that had been happening for a few hundred years. Check out
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/crusades_timeline.htm unless you have a problem with facts.

[WisdomLover]

John P.-

That is a beautifully simple argument. The map does tell the story.