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A note on equating the Crusades with ISIS: Don't.
American Thinker ^ | 11/24/15 | Drew Belsky

Posted on 11/24/2015 3:49:51 AM PST by markomalley

Yesterday on these pages, Barry Shaw ruined a perfectly good treatment of Islamic terrorism with a dollop of vicious anti-Catholicism.

Referring to Islam's campaign against the infidel, Shaw wrote:

It is their version of the Christian/Catholic Crusades that not only set out to conquer the Holy Land, slaughtering non-believers along the way.  It also drove out and slaughtered the Jews of Spain, Portugal, Britain, and other European countries.  It conquered and converted much of Africa, Central and South America, and spread into Asia.

What was done on the name of Christ is now being done in the name of Mohammed or Allah.

There are a number of serious problems here.

-Conquering the Holy Land.  Rather, Crusaders were trying to re­-conquer it, as Muslims had been waging war and slaughtering pilgrims in the region for hundreds of years.  (God's Battalions by Rodney Stark lays out the history.)

Historian Thomas Madden puts it this way:

It is often assumed that the central goal of the Crusades was forced conversion of the Muslim world. Nothing could be further from the truth. From the perspective of medieval Christians, Muslims were the enemies of Christ and His Church. It was the Crusaders’ task to defeat and defend against them. That was all.

That sounds pretty close to what many Americans are calling for today when it comes to ISIS.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; War on Terror
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 11/24/2015 3:49:51 AM PST by markomalley
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To: markomalley

I’m glad you posted this. It is often lost in discussions like this all the Christians that were slaughtered in the first place.


2 posted on 11/24/2015 3:57:11 AM PST by sauropod (I am His and He is mine.)
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To: markomalley

Time for Crusades eductation in America.
(Along with COTUS, conservatism, capitalism and cause/effect.)


3 posted on 11/24/2015 4:15:00 AM PST by polymuser ( Enough is enough)
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To: sauropod
As for conquering Central and South America, the best source is “The Conquest of Mexico” by Bernal Diaz de Castillo. He was as foot soldier of Cortez, and describes the Conquest of Mexico from first hand experience.

It is the only first person account that exists, other than five letters to the Spanish Emperor from Cortez, and a couple of other letters.

Diaz goes into great detail about exactly what occurred. The Spanish conquered the Aztecs, against great odds. Human sacrifice and cannibalism were common and practiced throughout the area.

Researchers found records that the Aztecs alone sacrificed 40,000 humans in one year before the Spanish arrived. Diaz’ account buttresses that claim.

Not all conquests are evil. The conquest of Mexico started out as a trading expedition, that was repeatedly attacked. I found Diaz' first person account to be riveting.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Discovery-And-Conquest-Mexico/product-reviews/0306806975/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0

4 posted on 11/24/2015 4:23:47 AM PST by marktwain
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To: markomalley

One of the things that I learned in reading “The Conquest of Mexico” is that forced conversions to Christianity were forbidden.


5 posted on 11/24/2015 4:27:31 AM PST by marktwain
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To: sauropod
That's right. The Crusades were no more "offensive warfare" than was the WWII landing at Normandy. It was a desperate fight to repel invaders/occupiers who had been aggressing for Christians for several hundred years.


6 posted on 11/24/2015 4:43:47 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy)
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To: markomalley

7 posted on 11/24/2015 4:53:00 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Whoops, GMTA.


8 posted on 11/24/2015 4:53:55 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: marktwain

Thank you for this. I will buy this and read it.

FReegards, ‘Pod.


9 posted on 11/24/2015 5:51:38 AM PST by sauropod (I am His and He is mine.)
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To: polymuser

Crusades Education? Last night on Water’s World, we saw a glaring indictment of the Department of Education and the NEA and AFT.

People who didn’t know what Thanksgiving was all about, the time frame of the first Thanksgiving and even the name of the vessel that carried the Pilgrims to the New World.

The government indoctrination system is a rats nest that must be purged!


10 posted on 11/24/2015 6:18:24 AM PST by Redleg Duke (The Federal Government is nothing but a welfare program with a dress code!)
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To: marktwain
Bernal Diaz also states that when the Spanish were given women for wives the soldiers refused to marry them till the women had been thoroughly taught Catholic doctrine and converted to Christianity.
11 posted on 11/24/2015 7:23:06 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: marktwain

Lew Wallace, who wrote BEN HUR, also wrote THE FAIR GOD, a novel about the conquest of Mexico.

In it, a soldier stumbles upon the fabled underground city and converses with an Indian Priestess. As they make their way toward the exit, he tells her of the Catholic Christian religion, and by the time they find the exit, she has converted.

Unfortunately, upon stepping out into the upper world, right in the middle of a battle, she is hit with a crossbowman’s bolt and killed, a Saint of Christ the author said.


12 posted on 11/24/2015 7:29:57 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Yes, but they also took many of the women as slaves and concubines.


13 posted on 11/24/2015 7:51:41 AM PST by marktwain
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