Posted on 09/03/2014 8:40:33 AM PDT by high info voter
The article below was written by one of the worlds foremost experts on the Crusades. I saw it over at Shoebat.com and was so impressed by it I wanted to post it here. It kinda long but it is written very well and is an easy read. I would deem this as a MUST READ and I’m sure many of you will.
With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during the annual bacchanalia we call the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, of all places), poring over musty chronicles and writing dull yet meticulous studies that few will read. Imagine, then, my surprise when within days of the September 11 attacks, the Middle Ages suddenly became relevant.
As a Crusade historian, I found the tranquil solitude of the ivory tower shattered by journalists, editors, and talk-show hosts on tight deadlines eager to get the real scoop. What were the Crusades?, they asked. When were they? Just how insensitive was President George W. Bush for using the ....
(Excerpt) Read more at therightscoop.com ...
Ping for later.
Ping.
Even with just a smattering of historical knowledge, the Crusades are very simple to understand.
Just imagine present-day ISIS descending from their rural mountains, invading pro-western, peaceful christian and jewish nations that had existed for 700 years, with whom Western Europeans had traded and travelled peacefully for centuries.
Then multiply the chaos and slaughter by 100X. Even in irreligious, modernist, relativist West of today, the reaction would be shock and horror. The strategic and military balance of power had been destroyed. Even the ultimate secularist weenie Obama is forced to do and say something. What did the West do when Saddam (a pussycat by comparison) invaded Kuwait?
So why are people now so incredulous that the peoples of Europe at the time reacted as they did?
I bookmarked it to read later. With all the brutality happening in the Middle East I have heard more than once about how we, as Christians, have nothing to complain about because the Crusades were the same thing - only Christianity was the agressor.
The Crusades were a COUNTER ATTACK.
Free Anatolia for the Greeks!
For later........
still are and still is
“...except during the annual bacchanalia we call the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan”
Good times! 3,000 medievalists in one place. Presentations ranging from the very serious and erudite to the silly, bizarre and downright funny. The best part was often the parody papers that were delivered toward the end of the conference. I can’t remember the name of the session, but it was often hilarious. Professors would deliver papers on completely made up topics using the lingo currently en vogue with academics to show what silliness much of academia had become.
Only thing the Crusaders did wrong, in the big picture, is get distracted and not finish the job.
I’m surprised Bam-Bam hasn’t visited mecca (may dog-crap rain upon it) yet.
hes hasnt done so publicly...
given the Cloak of OPAQUENESS and the Shroud of Silence that surround this regimes actions AND INTENTIONS...I wouldnt be the least bit surprised if he hasn’t made his own Private Pilgrimage at least once on the fast 6 years!!
the First Crusade was hampered by the lack of Nuclear Arms.
The session used to be called “Societa Fontibus Historiae Medii Aevi Invendiendis - Pseudo Society”.
A “serious” session with a title that made me laugh was “Jousting without a Lance” - lesbianism in the Middle Ages. Liberals have really hurt the Kalamazoo conference in the last 25 years with their garbage.
Interesting read. Thanks for posting. Wonder what we are going to do about this current crop of Muslims?
Whoever called Islam “The Religion of Peace” should be sued for false advertising. Not sued, imprisoned. Not imprisoned, beheaded.
Islam was founded in war and spread by the sword. Everything else I needed to know about Islam I learned on 911.
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