Oh, and while we are at it, let's also remember that the Inquisition was also totally ' misunderstood.' It was simply a toga party, and the ' torture' was simply the pouring of hot wax on willing subjects. The warping of the inquisition was due to Atheists and the like, turning harmless fun into something seemingly bad!
Also, the atrocities of Saddam have also been misunderstood. He was simply trying to be magnanimous to his people, it's just that in Iraqi culture people expected to be beaten if their dear leader is to show them he loves them!
As for Idi Amin and Pol Pot ....also loving people who just made the mistake of hiring bad PR people. They never did mean to kill a soul.
Finally, Al Queda. It is ...oh shucks, I cannot revise their rap sheet. However, give it some years and I am sure someone will make it seem ' understandable.' From what I hear, the Left has already given ' reasons' why the Somali pirates are taking over ships. Apparently it is due to over-fishing, and the Somali pirates are simply victims. Thus, if some of the things that used to happen centuries ago (I guess now the Catholic church then loved science and never tried to stiffle it ....and I also guess one could print the Bible without fear of, well, any number of ' offenses' ) and that the current Somali pirates are simply victims, then in a matter of time Osama and his ilk will be just a bunch of misunderstood people who were only simply trying to preach womens rights and equal treatment to the world.
Your ignorance of medieval history and the Church is remarkable. By all means, don’t let knowledge stand in the way of your opinion.
The Inquisition is misunderstood. In particular the confusion between the Roman and the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Inquistion, whose reality is more like the legend, behaved brutally for the first twenty years of its existence, and then became largely a bullying operation, trying to separate out Jews and then Muslims from authentic Christians. Neither played much a role during the Reformation. Witches were the more common victims of both relgious and civil courts in both Catholic and Protestant countries for a period of several hundred years.
Congratulations on getting the ignorant bigot post into the top ten.
Number of people put to death by the Catholic church during the Spanish inquisition? Zero!, Number put to death by civil governments? about 1000.
While we are at it which inquisition are YOU talking about?
You see there have been about a dozen or so, ten of which involved catholics being put to death by Pagan and Protestant groups. Might want to look up Diocletian.