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The Crusades Reconsidered

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
August 11, 2013
The Crusades Reconsidered
By Mike Konrad

One of the idiocies passed off for decades among Western historians is bemoaning the Crusades as evil. The Islamic world -- the Ummah -- has disseminated this imaginary charge against the West, and like fools, we have absorbed Arab lies and taken the blame to heart. But the most superficial reading of Western history should put that canard to rest.

Shortly before he died in June 632 AD, Mohammed ordered Muslims to prepare to wage war against the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

Upon his death, Mohammed's successor, Abu Bakr, planned to fulfill those instructions. Plans were also made to conquer Zoroastrian Sassanid Persia.

This vainglorious troop of bandits should have been easily dispatched,

However. Persia and Byzantine Rome had just come out of a savagely vicious war which ended in 628 AD. Emperor Heraclius had finally imposed the total defeat over Persia that had eluded the earlier Roman Republic and the Caesars -- but Byzantine Rome, though victorious, was severely mauled. Persia was reduced to a state of anarchy; and forced to pay indemnities to Constantinople.

The Persian and Eastern Roman empires were attacked almost simultaneously around 633 AD, while both were still licking their wounds. So frightening were the Islamic advances that these former blood enemies made a sadly futile alliance. By 644, Persia fell anyway.

By 634 AD, Byzantine Palestine and Syria were being attacked. The Battle of Yarmouk in August 636 AD would see Eastern Roman forces beaten. Emperor Heraclius, the victorious warrior, a mere 8 years earlier, would have to sneak out back to Constantinople in a boat.

Farewell, a long farewell to Syria, my fair province. Thou art an infidel's (enemy's) now. Peace be with you, O' Syria -- what a beautiful land you will be for the enemy hands -- Emperor Heraclius, after the defeat at Yarmouk.

Roman-held Jerusalem was besieged in November 636 AD, and surrendered by the following April.

By 674 AD, the Muslims had taken Egypt and much of Anatolian Turkey, and were besieging Constantinople. The Byzantine Romans, unlike the Persians, still had some fight left and managed to lift the siege using Greek fire, a fearsome weapon similar to a flamethrower.

By 709 AD, all of Christian North Africa had fallen to Islam. Though it took the Muslims centuries, eventually all of Christianity was eliminated in the Maghreb.

In 711 AD, the Muslims invaded Spain, again taking advantage of weakness caused by internecine wars. It would be 781 years before Spain would be free. Among Islamic Andalusia's contributions to civilization were the demanded tribute of 100 white virgins every year to staff their harems. Every other contribution was plagiarized from other civilizations the Muslims had plundered.

By 732, the Muslims had advanced to central France, where they were finally repelled by Franks at the battle of Tours. Western Europe had been temporarily spared.

Sicily fell under Islamic rule for almost two centuries, until finally liberated by Norman Franks around 1091 AD.
According to tradition, Malta fell to Islam in 870 AD. Islam's contribution's to local culture was piracy. Malta became a staging point for predatory raids on Southern Europe.

After two centuries, Malta was finally retaken in 1091 AD.

Later on, historians would blame the Dark Ages on the Germanic Tribes, but the Goths and Vikings readily Christianized and embraced the higher civilization of the lands they conquered. The reality is that Islamic raiding is what produced the Dark Ages. Trade and the economy collapsed under the Muslim threat, plunging Europe into stagnation.

In 1095, after centuries of Muslim aggression, Pope Urban II finally had enough, and called Christians to war. He did so after the Byzantine Empire, now broken away from Roman Catholicism, appealed for fraternal help from the Western Christians to save them from Islam. After over 4 centuries of war with Islam, the Byzantines were on the verge of collapse. Most of Spain was still under Islamic tyranny. Malta and Sicily had only been recently freed.



One may condemn the atrocities of the Crusaders, but what infuriates the objective student of history is that the far greater crimes of Islam are ignored.

The Crusades was Christendom finally fighting back, not always honorably, but against a foe which had plunged Europe into darkness for centuries.


Instead we allowed our students to be brainwashed, and force fed an Islamic line that we have to feel guilty. The Muslims invaded Southern Europe, yet somehow we Westerners are labeled the imperialists.

Islamic aggression did not end with the Crusades.

The reason Columbus headed West was because the Muslims had blocked all trade routes to the East. Yet, we are never told this.

Up until the 16th century, Italy was regularly invaded by Islam. Otranto was taken by the Turks in 1480, and held for only 10 months. Yet, it was time enough to behead over 800 Christians who refused to convert.

Piracy and kidnapping was so common that Catholic Churches in Southern Europe had donation boxes where the faithful could contribute to ransom hostages.

One could go on and on. The Islamic subjugation of Greece and the Balkans. The kidnapping of hundreds of thousands of Christian boys, over the centuries, to be forcibly converted to Islam, and compelled to serve in the Ottoman Army as Janissaries.

The Islamic attempt to take Vienna. Twice! In 1529 and 1683.

A half million or more slaves from the British Isles were kidnapped on the high seas by the religion of peace.
It was not until the U.S. Marines took on the Barbary Pirates and the French razed Algeria that Islamic predation finally stopped in the 19th century; but all of this is forgotten. Somehow, white Christians are the only villains now.

We hear the Muslims bewail about British imperialism; but the British do not want to go back to Egypt. The Muslim do want Andulasia back. We hear about French crimes in Algeria -- which were real -- but do we remember that Islamic predation that was the real agent which caused the Dark Ages. Europeans were in North Africa for only a century, but Islam pounded Europe for 1200 years. Yet, it is the Arabs who claim victim status.

But what do our politicians do, but apologize for the Crusades. Why?! Have the Muslims apologized for 1400 years of their crimes?!

Part of this idiocy stems from a hyper-liberal view of history which views European Christianity as inherently evil. It permeates the culture of academia; and refuses to see the real evil of Islam.

Sadly, a second cause is an ancillary residue of historiography which has a tradition of exaggerating the real crimes of Catholicism out of all proportion. The Spanish call this exaggeration the Black Legend of the Inquisition; and it results in a pseudo-acquittal of Islam, by blaming the Crusades on Catholicism.

Let us not forget that it was Catholic Europe which insulated Northwest European Protestants from Islam's full fury. It was Catholic Spain which eventually broke the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It was Catholic Poland's Jan Sobieski who saved Northwest Europe at Vienna in 1683 AD. It was the Catholic French who tamed Algeria in 1830.

Let us not forget either that it was Catholic France which saved the Christians of Lebanon in 1860 while the Protestant British were arming the Druze.

The time for apologizing to Islam must end.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/08/the_crusades_reconsidered.html
 

knabe

Well-known member
islam is already the victor since history books portray them as such.

it confuses me why liberals, who hate christianity, and religion in general, are so receptive and respectful of islam.

reminds me of so much of the left before wwi and wwii.
 

Traveler

Well-known member
Too bad that this will never be taught in PC public schools. There are so many realities that children need to know. It's funny how so many things the left stands for are serious or capital offenses to Islam, yet they tolerate it and fear Republicans. :roll:
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Traveler said:
Too bad that this will never be taught in PC public schools. There are so many realities that children need to know. It's funny how so many things the left stands for are serious or capital offenses to Islam, yet they tolerate it and fear Republicans. :roll:

Most protestants have always been taught the "evils" of the crusades and the Catholic Church.
 

Mike

Well-known member
TexasBred said:
Traveler said:
Too bad that this will never be taught in PC public schools. There are so many realities that children need to know. It's funny how so many things the left stands for are serious or capital offenses to Islam, yet they tolerate it and fear Republicans. :roll:

Most protestants have always been taught the "evils" of the crusades and the Catholic Church.

On a side note, wouldn't we really like to know why the Pope burned/executed many/most of the Knights Templar?
 

Martin Jr.

Well-known member
Another foolish story about the Knights Templar.
It actually was the French king who executed the Knights Templar not the Pope. The Pope did disband the order, but later recended that.

It was the French government that needed the money and acquired the money.
 

Mike

Well-known member
I knew that King Phillipe? had borrowed lots of money from the KT and was having a hard time paying it back but the Pope did have a hand in their demise for one reason or another. We'll probably never know the whole story.
 

Martin Jr.

Well-known member
While in France the Knights Templar assets went to the French Government, outside of France most assets (as well as members) went to the Knights Hospitallers.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Martin Jr. said:
While in France the Knights Templar assets went to the French Government, outside of France most assets (as well as members) went to the Knights Hospitallers.

Interesting.
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Mike said:
TexasBred said:
Traveler said:
Too bad that this will never be taught in PC public schools. There are so many realities that children need to know. It's funny how so many things the left stands for are serious or capital offenses to Islam, yet they tolerate it and fear Republicans. :roll:

Most protestants have always been taught the "evils" of the crusades and the Catholic Church.

On a side note, wouldn't we really like to know why the Pope burned/executed many/most of the Knights Templar?

The pope did nothing to the templars other than issue an order disbanning the group. King Phillip of France was the one who had them arrested, tortured and burned. Seems he owned them huge sums of money.
 

Mike

Well-known member
TexasBred said:
Mike said:
TexasBred said:
Most protestants have always been taught the "evils" of the crusades and the Catholic Church.

On a side note, wouldn't we really like to know why the Pope burned/executed many/most of the Knights Templar?

The pope did nothing to the templars other than issue an order disbanning the group. King Phillip of France was the one who had them arrested, tortured and burned. Seems he owned them huge sums of money.
On 14 September 1307 all bailiffs and seneschals in the kingdom of France were sent secret orders from King Philip IV ordering preparations to be made for the arrest and imprisonment of all members of the Order of Templars; the actual arrests were to be executed a month later.[25] At dawn on October 13, 1307, the soldiers of King Philip IV then captured all Templars found in France.[26] Clement V, initially incensed at this flagrant disregard for his authority nonetheless relented and on November 22, 1307, issued a papal decree, ordering all monarchs of the Christian faith to arrest all Templars and confiscate their lands in the name of the Pope and the Church.
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
. [T]he holy Roman church honoured these brothers and the order with her special support, armed them with the sign of the cross against Christ's enemies, paid them the highest tributes of her respect, and strengthened them with various exemptions and privileges; and they experienced in many and various ways her help and that of all faithful Christians with repeated gifts of property. Therefore it was against the lord Jesus Christ himself that they fell into the sin of impious apostasy, the abominable vice of idolatry, the deadly crime of the Sodomites, and various heresies.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Pope Clement V was a puppet to King Phillip and ordered the arrest of all Templars in Christendom. The Pope later absolved the Templars but the absolution was kept a secret.

To me, that's as bad as killing them himself...............
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Mike said:
Pope Clement V was a puppet to King Phillip and ordered the arrest of all Templars in Christendom. The Pope later absolved the Templars but the absolution was kept a secret.

To me, that's as bad as killing them himself...............

October 1307: An unlucky Friday the 13th
The end began at dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307. The sealed order to Phillip's bailiffs had gone out a full month before. It was accompanied by a personal letter from the king, filled with lofty prose about how heart-rending it was to be compelled to do his duty, while detailing frightening accusations against the Templars. The letter would have had an eye-popping effect on the king's men, and their secrecy was undoubtedly assured. The sealed arrest order was not to be opened until the appointed day.

At this time, France was the most populous nation of Europe, even including Russia. And it was no tiny country either; France took up more than 40,000 square miles, an enormous area to cover from the back of a horse. Yet Phillip IV managed to carry off a stunning piece of work. Hundreds of the king's men simultaneously opened letters all over the country ordering them to converge on every Templar castle, commandery, preceptory, farm, vineyard, or mill.

It was shockingly effective, instantly chopping off the head of the Order. Phillip obviously had a hit list of the most important knights to nab. Accounts differ wildly, but the most respected ones agree that 625 members of the Order were arrested in the first wave. These included the Grand Master; the Visitor-General; the Preceptors of Normandy, Cyprus, and Aquitaine; and the Templars' Royal Treasurer.

The arrested Templars, whose average age was 41, were put into isolation and immediately subjected to the gruesome tactics of medieval "interrogation" on the very first day of their arrest. The technique of the strapaddo was common. It involved binding the victim's wrists behind his back, passing the rope over a high beam, pulling him off of the ground, and suddenly dropping him, snapping his arms and dislocating his shoulders. Stretching the victim on the rack was another favored method. Perhaps the most horrible was coating the victim's feet in lard or oil, and then slowly roasting them over a flame. Subjected to these agonies, the overwhelming majority of the knights confessed to every charge that was put to them.

The confessions
Phillip's goal was to arrest all the Templars, subject them to torture immediately, and exact confessions from them on the very first day. He knew that the pope would be livid over his actions, and that Church officials would be wary of agreeing to the kinds of interrogations Phillip had in mind, so time was of the essence. He wanted to hand Clement V a stack of confessions so damning that the pope would lose his stomach for siding with the Order.

The pope reacted just as Phillip had planned. His outrage over the arrests turned to dread and resignation as the "evidence" was presented to him. Phillip leaned on Clement to issue papal arrest warrants all across Europe, which were largely ignored or skirted by other monarchs. Very few show trials went on outside of France, and there were no cases (outside of the tortured knights in France) of Templars who admitted to the charges of heresy.

In an outburst of courage and remorse, most of the arrested Templars subsequently recanted their confessions and proclaimed to Church officials that their statements were made under the pain of torture and threat of death. To intimidate the remaining Templars, Phillip ordered 54 of the knights to be burned at the stake in 1310, for the sin of recanting their confessions.

In 1312, Clement finally decided to end the situation at a council in Vienna. Just to make certain the decision went the way he intended, Phillip stationed his army on the outskirts of the city. The pliant pope officially dissolved the Order, without formally condemning it. All Templar possessions apart from the cash were handed over to the Knights Hospitaller, and many Templars who freely confessed were set free and assigned to other Orders. Those who did not confess were sent to the stake. Phillip, ever the cheap gangster, soothed his loss of the Templars' tangible assets by strong-arming a yearly fee from the Hospitallers to defray his costs of prosecuting the Templars.
 
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