Lost in and among all the talk of the Crusades are two things:
1. What were the Moslems doing in the Holy Land, anyways? After all, I think that Mohammad was from Medina, not Jerusalem...
2. If the Crusaders were from such an inferior and barbaric land, why was it that it was the Crusaders who managed to send an army 1,000 miles away from home, deep into enemy territory and that after centuries of fighting, the highly civilized and superior Moslems only barely managed to hold on to what they had at the start?
William Manchester, writing on the subject of how history should be viewed and discussed, said that one has to free ones mind from cant - in the matter of the Crusades, cant is about all you get these days.
Dean:
"It is very, very important that we see the Crusaders as evil and repugnant.
Nothing else will do, you see."
It is very, very important (to some) that we see the West as evil and repugnant, and Islam as the Religion of Peace.
Mark Noonan:
"1. What were the Moslems doing in the Holy Land, anyways? After all, I think that Mohammad was from Medina, not Jerusalem..."
Originally, he was from Mecca. When his fellow Meccans refused to renounce their ancient Gods and Goddesses and to damn their own ancestors to Hell (as Muhammad had), he left and went to Medina where he took over by force, slaughtering many Jews there in the process, established his Calvinist-style theocracy, and then led an army back to Mecca and forced the Meccans, at the point of a sword, to accept his God as the only God, and Muhammad himself as the ultimate Prophet of that God. Muslims date their calendar from this political takeover (the "hejira", 622 AD by our calendar). It is as if Christians had dated their (our) calendar from Constantine or Justinian rather than Jesus.
I thought I was the only person in the world who ate spinach....next you'll tell me you're a fellow lima bean eater....
Anyways...
Yep; some religion of peace...in the name of peace, I don't go too far into my views of Islam...far be it for me to question another's deeply held religious convictions...but the more I hear about how lousy my religion is, the less determined I am to avoid giving offense...sometimes, its almost as if some people want those of us who believe to stand upon our religion and make it the guide not just of our personal lives, but also of our political actions...
pretty funny how the brotherhood included Jews, no? I mean, who needs a bunch of guys in the alliance without an army, especially after most of them were killed.
Lost in and among all the talk of the Crusades are two things:
1. What were the Moslems doing in the Holy Land, anyways? After all, I think that Mohammad was from Medina, not Jerusalem...
2. If the Crusaders were from such an inferior and barbaric land, why was it that it was the Crusaders who managed to send an army 1,000 miles away from home, deep into enemy territory and that after centuries of fighting, the highly civilized and superior Moslems only barely managed to hold on to what they had at the start?
William Manchester, writing on the subject of how history should be viewed and discussed, said that one has to free ones mind from cant - in the matter of the Crusades, cant is about all you get these days.
Dean:
"It is very, very important that we see the Crusaders as evil and repugnant.
Nothing else will do, you see."
It is very, very important (to some) that we see the West as evil and repugnant, and Islam as the Religion of Peace.
Mark Noonan:
"1. What were the Moslems doing in the Holy Land, anyways? After all, I think that Mohammad was from Medina, not Jerusalem..."
Originally, he was from Mecca. When his fellow Meccans refused to renounce their ancient Gods and Goddesses and to damn their own ancestors to Hell (as Muhammad had), he left and went to Medina where he took over by force, slaughtering many Jews there in the process, established his Calvinist-style theocracy, and then led an army back to Mecca and forced the Meccans, at the point of a sword, to accept his God as the only God, and Muhammad himself as the ultimate Prophet of that God. Muslims date their calendar from this political takeover (the "hejira", 622 AD by our calendar). It is as if Christians had dated their (our) calendar from Constantine or Justinian rather than Jesus.
Steven,
I thought I was the only person in the world who ate spinach....next you'll tell me you're a fellow lima bean eater....
Anyways...
Yep; some religion of peace...in the name of peace, I don't go too far into my views of Islam...far be it for me to question another's deeply held religious convictions...but the more I hear about how lousy my religion is, the less determined I am to avoid giving offense...sometimes, its almost as if some people want those of us who believe to stand upon our religion and make it the guide not just of our personal lives, but also of our political actions...
pretty funny how the brotherhood included Jews, no? I mean, who needs a bunch of guys in the alliance without an army, especially after most of them were killed.
Then there's Mel Gibson's The Passion.
Scott: Arabs good...
Gibson: Jews bad...
What's up with these guys?
LIMA BEANS! Dammit, now you made me hungry. And no lima beans to be found...