How to Think About the Crusades

Commentary ^ | July 2005 | Daniel Johnson

[quidnunc]

Daniel Johnson, formerly a senior editor and columnist for the London Times and Daily Telegraph, is now a columnist for the New York Sun.

[muir_redwoods]

"How to Think About the Crusades"

Preaching the Gospel

With Steel

[Slump Tester]

"...it is that they were a Bad Thing"

You lost me there. I'm glad that was at the beginning before I read all that tripe.

[Slump Tester]

Nice Tagline. Is it OK if I use it?

[Americanexpat]

Crusade - Jihad. Jihad - Crusade. What came first Jihad or Crusade? I guess when you attack people they will usually attack you back.

[umgud]

Alas, the crusaders had the will, but we have the way.

[quidnunc]

Slump Tester wrote: ("...it is that they were a Bad Thing") You lost me there. I'm glad that was at the beginning before I read all that tripe.

SIGH…

READ THE ARTICLE – ALL OF IT – BEFORE YOU COMMENT AND MAKE DAMFOOLS OF YOURSELVES!

[kezekiel]

You lost me there. I'm glad that was at the beginning before I read all that tripe.

You shouldn't have stopped, because most of the rest of the piece is counterpoint.

[satchmodog9]

Read on, friend.

[muir_redwoods]

"Nice Tagline. Is it OK if I use it?"

Absolutely, I'd be honored, spread the word.

[The Grammarian]

Preaching the Gospel With Steel

I have read a fiery gospel

Writ in burnished rows of steel

As ye deal with my contemners

So with you my grace shall deal.

(Battle Hymn of the Republic, Third stanza)

[SaveTheChief]

Since so many today are keen on thinking there is no real Holy Grail, that The DaVinci Code is fact, and that the Ark of the Covenant is just an "idea", I propose the Crusades were not military conquests, but only great leaps forward in religion and our concept of God.

[Sans-Culotte]

The best tagline I've seen at FR is "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11".

[Publius6961]

In the eyes even of most Christians, let alone others, the Crusades were a crime against humanity, one for which apologies are due, especially to Muslims

You lost me right there, pilgrim.

Not in the eyes of any people, generally educated, that I have ever met in my life, 90% of whom were Christians.
I had to stop reading right there.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Contrary to the rantings of leftists, it is primarily the Crusades, and not modern capitalism and media portrayals of barely clothed women, that is responsible for the entrenched view across Arab/Islamic lands, that the Christian/Western world is the enemy.

[The Grammarian]

Forgot about the other part of that stanza...Picking up where I left off:

May the Hero born of Woman crush the Serpent with his heel

While God is marching on!

Chorus

[The_Media_never_lie]

Good post!

[Publius6961]

Why is it that the reader can make a dammfool of himself, but the writer is exempt?

Dammfool statments to make in the very first paragraph.

Counterpoint - my elbow!

[OK]

Background information:

The Battle of Tours, 732 AD.

"Although it took another two generations for the Franks to drive all the Arab garrisons out of what is now France and across the Pyrenees, Charles Martel's halt of the invasion of French soil turned the tide of Islamic advance, and the unification of the Frankish kingdom under Charles Martel, his son Pepin the Short, and his grandson Charlemagne prevented the Umayyad kingdom from expanding over the Pyrenees."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel

[Andy from Beaverton]

Where's the history of the brutal acts of the Muslims that helped bring on the crusades. They were evil and cruel, 'convert or die'. Not much different than today.