[Destro]

How ignorant my fellow Americans are...do they not recall that when Hülegü's Mongols entered Damascus in 1259 they forced the Muslims to kneel before the Cross?

The Mongols were brutal but they were not anti-Christian and were extremely anti-Muslim.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

do they not recall that when Hülegü's Mongols entered Damascus in 1259 they forced the Muslims to kneel before the Cross?

Probably not, since this story is likely a fairy tale, but I'm sure some of them do recall that the Mongols adopted Islam not long after. Btw, Hulagu sacked Baghdad in 1258, not 1259.

The Mongols were brutal but they were not anti-Christian and were extremely anti-Muslim.

Even though they became muslim themselves. Riiiight.

Is it something in the Russian mindset that makes them prefer slavery to liberty? How else to explain jubilation at the thought of "forcing Muslims to kneel before the cross"? Is there something about oriental despotism, Tsarist caesaro-papism, mongols forcing people to kneel at the cross, and the sound of muzhiks groaning under the knout which invokes romantic nostalgia for Russians? How else to explain why they look upon Mongols, who destroyed Kyivan Rus, as liberators and defenders of the faith? One day they will say Stalin was a great defender of the faith.