[beef]

I am going to watch this.

[CMB_polarization]

Well, the Byzantines lost much ground to Islam, it stands to reason that it took many years for Christendom to recover those regions. How can the Crusades be faulted by any standard?

[gasport]

“Preceding the premiere on Wednesday, October 8, airing at 8 p.m. ET is a special episode of EWTN Live, with EWTN staffer and Middle Eastern scholar Father Mitch Pacwa interviewing Stefano Mazzeo, writer, producer, and host of The Crusades, and Madden, author of A Concise History of the Crusades.

In advance of this, on Sunday, October 5, at 10 p.m. ET, EWTN airs Franciscan University Presents Myths About the Crusades, with commentary from Dr. Paul Crawford, professor of medieval history at California University of Pennsylvania (located in the Pennsylvania town of California, near Pittsburgh), along with host Michael Hernon and panelists Dr. Regis Martin, professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio), and Catholic convert and theologian Dr. Scott Hahn.”

[tob2]

Going to watch this. I hope it sheds light on the seemingly perpetual conflict in thhe Middle East.

[Sherman Logan]

But in the Middle Ages, kings and knights of Christendom set forth to push back against the inroads of Islamic forces into majority Christian areas in the Holy Land and beyond.

Not exactly. This implies resistance against attack, whereas the actual Crusades were a long-delayed counter-attack.

Jerusalem fell to the Arabs in 638, to the Crusaders in 1099. That's 461 years.

To put it in modern terms, 461 years ago it was 1553.

Thus this is approximately the same as if England were to push back against France by invading to retake Calais, lost in 1558.

I quite agree that the iniquity of the Crusades is wildly exaggerated. But a 500 years delayed counter-attack simply cannot be described as a "pushing back" against "inroads." By that same definition al Quaeda is merely pushing back against Christian inroads in Spain.

[a fool in paradise]

America, it is often said, is a nation of immigrants.

Yeah, that meme is going around England, France, Germany, Australia, Sweden, and Holland these days. Things aren't working out so well for them as the new citizens don't care to merge into the society, they'd rather stake out colonies to settle there.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Tell your friends.

[tob2]

Going to watch this. I hope it sheds light on the seemingly perpetual conflict in thhe Middle East.

[BeauBo]

This miniseries on the Crusades will start in just a few minutes on the EWTN channel.