The Crusades were a Cash Grab

The First Crusaders were not justified in capturing Jerusalem following the defense of Constantinople.  After Byzantine defeats against the Seljuq Turks, Pope Gregory VII called for a crusade to aid their Orthodox Christian brothers. This call was ignored. 20 years later, Byzantine emperor Alexios asked Pope Urban II for aid against the Turkish, and once again the Pope responded in favor, calling for aid to the Byzantines: “This royal city, however, situated at the center of the earth, is now held captive by the enemies of Christ and is subjected, by those who do not know God, to the worship the heathen. She seeks, therefore, and desires to be liberated and ceases not to implore you to come to her aid” (Expedition to Jerusalem, Book 1). This time, however, the Popes words had more impact. The armies sent out were unprofessional and undisciplined. They sacked and pillaged as they moved toward Constantinople, killing Jews and laying Eastern Europe to waste. Once they arrived in Constantinople, Alexios saw the destruction they had caused and wished only to use the knights as a tool to defend his empire. He transported them to Asia Minor and allowed them to continue taking back territory after repelling the Turks.

I believe that following defense of Constantinople, the crusaders returned to their original goal: gaining wealth. The people leading the crusade were some of the most powerful nobles throughout Europe. They had a lot of money and a lot of it to risk by embarking on this crusade. Why would they do that? It is not simply out of kindness for their fellow Christian, but to take wealth from the Muslim Empire and establish Christian footholds throughout the Middle East. At the end of the crusade, “those who were poor there, her God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless besants” (Expedition to Jerusalem, Book III). Essentially, those who had gone to crusade became extremely wealthy and rich.

It should be clear now that the Crusades were simply an excuse for European nobles to take land from the Muslim Empire. Were they justified? According to their own beliefs with God, they were not. They claimed they were conquering the holy land in the name of God, but that is a lie they were told and that they told themselves. They say they did it to defend Christianity, but it was really to make money. ‘Justification’ of our actions is a very relative term. According to our values, ones that promote peace and dissuade conflict in the name of greed, the Crusaders were not justified. According to their values, defending fellow Christians and approval by God, the Crusaders were still not justified. No one has claim to land or wealth, people will take what they want: “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must”.

 

WC:475

 

Fulcher of Chartres. A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem, 1095-1127. Trans. Frances Rita Ryan. Ed.    Harold S. Fink. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1969

 

Christianity vs Islam

As a result of the long drawn out war against the Islamic Middle East, tensions between Christians and Muslims have increased in the West. Majority of Western Christians refuse to believe the compatibility in religions because most associate the religion with the violent acts of terrorism that have occurred since the War on Terror began. Stereotypes against Muslims have yet to crumble because of the uneducated people who continue to spread ignorance. Islamophobia continues to grow in western cultures. Putting political differences aside, the two share major ideas that set the foundation to their religions.

A significant similarity between the religions is that both believe in a long line of prophets who spread God’s words to the people on earth. “Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, and Jesus were sent by God/Allah as messengers of His word. (Sharples) Despite the line of prophets, the two religions have differing perceptions of Jesus. The Islamic religion believes that Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary, was just another prophet who carried the Lord’s word. They view Muhammad as the superior prophet because he is the “final messenger.” On the other hand, Christians perceive Jesus as the son of God. Jesus is the second of the holy trinity, therefore he is almost as equal to God because he is God’s flesh.

Both Christianity and Islam share Holy Scriptures. Christians follow the Bible while Muslims follow the Qur’an. Although there is two different books, both religions use the Old Testament and the New Testament as sacred texts and they both believe in the same God. Before this class, I automatically believed that the Qur’an and the Bible had radical difference, but that was because of ignorance and lack of research. I was surprised to discover that both books share many characters as well as narratives: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Mary, Garden of Eden, the flood, and the near-sacrificing of Abraham’s son.

Despite the surprising similarities between Christianity and Islam, the two are not mutually exclusive because of the ideologies shared with Judaism. Judaism is a completely separate religion with vast similarities in the one God, prophets, narratives, and Satan. Without research, all three religions seem completely different because of the modern day Christian, Jewish, and Muslim. Stereotypes of each religion has fogged our perception of each. Because of ignorance, each religion seems incompatible with each other, but in reality they are all vastly similar. If you brought in other religions and examined each, you would probably find surprising similarities as well.

Articles used:

https://www.onfaith.co/text/9-similarities-between-christianity-and-islam

https://www.allaboutreligion.org/islam-vs-christianity-faq.htm

https://allthatsinteresting.com/quran-bible-similarities

Word Count: 427

The “Great Crusade”:WW2

In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries Christians from various parts of medieval Europe took part in what is known as the Crusades. By order of the Pope, these Christens gathered their armies and fought to retake Jerusalem a.k.a. “the Holy Land” from the rule of the Muslim peoples. When we hear of the word Crusade today, we almost always identify it as this Holy War, however, there are often times when crusade is used as a word to describe other events throughout history. These events are about the same magnitude in terms of size and impact on history as the original Christian Crusades. In the last century, arguably the single most impactful event of recent history that can in some ways be identified as a crusade was World War Two.

With over fifty countries taking part and over 65 million people killed, World War Two was the deadliest conflict in human history. The sheer magnitude of the conflict is defiantly on par, if not greater than that of the original Christian Crusades. The war involved an axis power comprised of mainly Germany, Italy, and the Empire of Japan, that intended on taking over and inflicting tyranny upon the entire world. It was up to the allied powers to come together and defeat the axis in order to save the world from domination. When the war had started, the Nazi war machine took over almost all of Europe within the first couple years leaving essentially the British isolated, and one of the only forces capable of fighting the Nazi’s on Europe’s western front. It wasn’t until 1941 however when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, that the United States officially joined the war effort and brought in much needed reinforcements to Europe and the Pacific Islands. The allied forces however, needed to devise a plan on how they would successfully get troops into mainland or “fortress Europe” to liberate once and for all, Europe from Nazi rule. It was General Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States Army who helped to devise a plan to launch an amphibious assault through land, air, and sea, on the beaches of Normandy and begin the liberation of Europe by force. It was also General Dwight D. Eisenhower who spearheaded the assault known as “D-Day” and motivated his men by issuing a speech that dubbed the eventual liberation as “the Great Crusade”.

General Eisenhower was justified in calling the liberation of Europe “the Great Crusade” because it was in many ways similar to the original Crusades in that, a group of nations combined to fight against and liberate a foreign land from an evil force (or other nation power). Much like in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, “the eyes of the world” were upon the allied (crusading) forces as human history rested in the balance. On the morning of June 6th 1944 American and allied forces were in fact embarking on a “Great Crusade” to liberate Europe from Nazi rule much like how the medieval  Christian forces embarked on a crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim rule.

-Jacob Ramos

Modern Crusaders

Word count: 513

The First Crusade: Was it Just?

By Jonathan Gabriel

It is obvious that defending a city or a country from attacks is just, but is it just to continue a crusade after the successful defense of that city to conquer a city that those people believe to be theirs? In order to answer this question, it is important to turn to ethics and what makes a war just. St. Thomas Aquinas, a famous philosopher and catholic priest in the 1200s, claims that there are three things that make a war just; legitimate authority, just cause, and right intentions.

The first question is whether it was a legitimate authority calling for the first crusade.The first crusade was called by Pope Urban II, clearly an important person within society, but does his role as pope give him legitimate authority. Typically, it is not legitimate for a single person to declare war on another person. However, Pope Urban II sought the appropriate permission to go to war and got the permission from a legitimate authority. Thus, making his call to crusade legitimate.

The second and third aspects of a just are similar, and in this case can be combined into a single argument. If the cause is just and the intentions are in the right place, then it makes the call to war a just act. The call to crusade was initially just, because it was being done to aid others that were in trouble and restore that area to its former peace. After the defense of Constantinople however, the crusade continued to take the city of Jerusalem. The reason for the continuation of war was to take a city that the Christians believed was rightfully theirs. The cause was not just, and the intentions of the Christians was not in the right place. For a cause to be just it must be in order to protect people from a danger that is either coming or will most likely come. For the intentions to be just, the people going to war must be intending to find peace through war in some way. The Christians continued their war to take a city from the Muslims. There was no intent to find peace and there was no cause to protect their people. Therefore, the Christians had no right to continue the crusade to Jerusalem, and they were engaging in an unjust war.

The Christians believed that Jerusalem rightfully belonged to them because it was the birthplace of Jesus Christ, but the Jews and the Muslims also believed that the city belonged to them for other religious reasons. The fact of the matter is, it did not belong to any of them more than it belonged to the other. Religion does not play a factor in the right to a city or anything else. The Christians had no right to attempt to take the city, and also had no right to go war.

Word Count: 479

Christianity vs. Islam: Similarities and Differences

Christians and Muslims have been in conflict for a very long time. They have argued and fought over who deserves to live in the Holy Land and they don’t see eye to eye on matters of religious practices or beliefs. But, I think it is very interesting that these two religions, which have been so aggressively against each other’s existence, can have so much in common.

As far as surprising similarities go, both of these religions are monotheistic, they give a lot of credit to the same major historical figures, they both believe that their religious books were divinely inspired, and they believe that the Archangel, Gabriel, is God’s/ Allah’s choice angel to deliver important messages to the human race. But, while the similarities are many, there are a  few differences, and they are quite major. Some of these major differences have to do with historical religious figures’ roles.

In Christianity, it is believed that Jesus Christ was the son of God. He was both fully man and fully God at the same time. While this is very hard to wrap your head around, it is the Christian belief. In Islam, Jesus was a very important figure, but not a deity. They believe that Jesus was just a prophet sent by Allah. They believe him to have a played a large role in their religion, but he isn’t believed to have been Allah’s son and he wasn’t sent to save us all from our sin. Muslims think that it is outrageous for Christians to believe that Jesus was fully God, fully man, as well as the son of God. Christians are so adamantly in opposition because their whole religion is based around the fact that Jesus (God) was sent down to die and save us all from spending eternity in Hell, as long as we believe that this actually happened. So, yes, Jesus is important in both religions, but his role is drastically different.

Another major difference is the lineage in which the religion came from. Muslims believe that Ishmael, Abraham’s first born, was the line that Allah favored. Christians believe that God’s chosen people came through the line of Isaac, who was Abraham’s second son. The story is that Abraham was promised a son, by God. Instead of being patient, his wife gives him her slave, Hagar, as a mistress to produce a son. This is how Ishmael is born. Then, Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and Isaac is born. This is why Christians believe that Isaac is the promised son. He was the miracle. So, yes, both religions believe that Isaac and Ishmael came from Abraham, but they have conflicting views on who was favored in the eyes of God/ Allah.

So, it is true that these two religions have a lot in common. It just so happens that the few disagreements they do have are major in the eyes of both religious groups.

 

Word Count: 485

Blind to the Resemblance

In many cases when someone grows up surrounded by a single religion for their whole life, it becomes an essential aspect of their culture. They accept it to be valid and certain, because it has always been a part of their life. In today’s society, Christians will believe that Christianity is the only answer, and shut down any other religion. This is common for most followers of any religion. However, Christianity actually shares some similarities with the religion of Islam. Most people have had the wrong interpretation of Islam due to popular culture beliefs and media. On the other hand, Christianity and Islam actual share many basics in their religions.

Christianity and Islam both share holy scriptures with each other. When you think of Christianity, you immediately think of the Bible, and when you think about Islam, your mind goes to the Qur’an. While this is true, both religions find foundation in the Old Testament, and Islam regarded the New Testament as sacred texts. However, Islam had their own twist to certain beliefs, “while acknowledging the importance of the Old and New Testament, Muslims also exalt the Qur’an and the Sunna” (Sharples, Chloe). Islam followers acknowledge the importance of texts in the Bible, but hold their Islamic texts to a higher priority.

Prophets are known to be outgoing people who spread the word of their religion to wherever they traveled to or where they were sent to by God. Christians and Muslims believed that Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, John the Baptist, and Jesus were brought to the Earth to be messengers for God. But the difference was that “while Muslims believe that Jesus was simply another prophet in a line of prophets (along with Muhammad), Christians consider Jesus to be the Son of God (and God himself), rather ‘than just any old prophetic messenger” (Sharples, Chloe). Both religions believed that Jesus existed and how he was a prophet. However, while Christians viewed Jesus to be divine and the son of God, Muslims saw Jesus as a prophet sent by Allah (God), born from Virgin Mary, but not divine. For Islam, the prophet Muhammad had the most significance, as he was known to be “the final messenger of God who came to earth to clear up false teachings and to present the world with the final, correct teaching” (Sharples, Chloe). Mohammad was claimed to be the founder of Islam, just as Jesus was the founder of Christianity.

These surprising similarities between Christianity and Islam are not mutually exclusive, as both religions share some ideologies with Judaism. Judaism is another religion that believed in the same God found in Christianity and Islam. The Jews believed that they were chosen specifically to set the standard for holiness and proper behavior to the world. Although these religions may seem very different, they all come from very similar sources and ideas. If compared with even more religions, I believe that you will find some aspects of Christianity or Islam in other ideologies.

 

Works Cited

Sharples, Chloe. “9 Similarities Between Christianity and Islam.” OnFaith. November 11, 2016. Accessed November 04, 2018. https://www.onfaith.co/text/9-similarities-between-christianity-and-islam.

Word Count: 502

Religions of the Book

After viewing, “Holy Quran Experiment”, a very eye opening video on a social experiment conducted in New York City, it was very apparent to me that Islamophobia is an all too common occurrence in the United States.  In this experiment, a Bible is disguised as a Quran, and violent verses are read to participants and their reactions are documented in the video. When asked how the passages compared to the Bible, many people claimed that the Bible was not violent like the Quran and said that this text was an out-of-date way of thinking. After it was revealed that the passages were in fact read directly from the Bible, a majority of the participants were left utterly shocked. Though no one specifically linked what they thought was the Quran to the modern Islamic religion, it was heavily implied that many participants in this experiment attributed the violence in the Quran to violence in many Muslim cultures. Unfortunately, this belief is very common in the United States and around the world. Despite a great deal of similarities between Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia prevails, promoting a deep distrust and fear of Muslims.

Despite the presence of Islamophobia, many people do not realize that Christianity and Islam are in fact very similar. One of the most significant similarities is that both religions have a perception of Jesus Christ as an important figure, however the role of Jesus differs in each. Additionally, both Christianity and Islam have a concept of heaven and hell; in both religions, salvation is achievable by following the word of God or Allah and doing good works. Another central point of both Christianity and Islam is the idea of performing rituals (Emberson). In Christianity, the Seven Sacraments are of great importance: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Marriage, and Holy orders. In Islam, comparable rituals are called the Five Pillars of Islam, which are, Shahada (Faith), Salah (Prayer), Zakāt (Charity), Sawm (Fasting), and the Hajj (pilgrimage) (Wikipedia). Each of these rituals are central to both Christians and Muslims, and certainly help to define the religion.

Although there are a great deal of similarities between Islam and Christianity, I believe that these religions are in fact necessarily mutually exclusive. Though both religions acknowledge Jesus, his role in each religion varies significantly. To Christians, Jesus is the son of God; he is completely human and completely divine. The humanness and divinity of Jesus is so central to Christian belief, that if this were not the case, Christianity would not exist as it does today. In Islam, it is believed that Jesus was only human, not divine, and was just a prophet of Allah. If Muslims did not believe this particular role of Jesus, their religion would also fundamentally change. Despite many similarities between Christianity and Islam, both “religions of the book”, these faiths are mutually exclusive.

476 Words

  1. Karim, Jovian, director. Holy Quran Experiment. YouTube, 12 Dec. 2015, youtu.be/riDlxCvFZWw.
  2. Emberson, Lain A. “Christianity, Islam and Judaism.” Comparison Table between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, Christianity In View, christianityinview.com/xncomparison.html.
  3. “Five Pillars of Islam.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Pillars_of_Islam.

Same God, Different Religion

With modern day controversy and war against the widely Islamic Middle East, it is difficult for the Western Christian to find any connections or relation to the Islamic religion. As a Christian myself, I rarely hear of anyone going to attend a muslim service at a mosque, opposed to going to church on a Sunday morning. Looking past the fact that pure ignorance is often a factor in misinterpreting what the Islamic religion is actually about, I believe recent events involving acts of terrorism  by radical muslims have twisted American views towards Islam.

Both Christianity and Islam’s foundations are set with the belief that there is only one, true God. Although the Islamic religion refers to God as “Allah,” both Christians and Muslims worship the God of Abraham, whom they both descend from. The Qu’ran even states in reference to all Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike that “…our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender…” (29:46). Both religions, and Judaism as well, believe they are descendants of Abraham. Judaism and, ultimately, Christianity came forth from Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, whereas the Islamic religion originates from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar. This initial divide created the differences in Christianity and Islam that we see today.

The basis of Christianity stands on the belief that Jesus Christ was the son of God. Jesus was both fully man and fully God, and was sent to the Earth to die on the cross and thus save mankind from their sin. If you “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).  When researching further on the Islamic religion, I was surprised to find that Muslims also believe in Jesus Christ. Islamic religion believes that Jesus was a prophet of God, but not the son of God. Jesus never died on the cross, and therefore was never resurrected. Although these can be viewed as stark differences, I feel that the belief of Jesus Christ gives Christianity and Islam enough similarity to eliminate the vast divide we see today between Christian and Muslim culture.

There are many other religions that also share similarities with both Christianity and Islam. The similarities, as well as the differences, seen between Christianity and Islam are not mutually exclusive. Judaism is another religion that believes in the God of Abraham- the same God of Christians and Muslims alike. Many cultures and the traditions that we see in modern day come from the very foundation in which three different religions were all built. Although different, they are much more similar than most ignorant followers would be comfortable with.

Word Count: 455

References

“What Are the Differences Between Christianity and Islam?” Truelife, www.truelife.org/answers/what-are-the-differences-between-christianity-and-islam. 01 November 2018.

Qu’ran

The Holy Bible

The Modern Day Crusade Against ISIS

To go on a “crusade” means you are taking part in a major effort to change something usually for or against something. Christians went on their own crusade way back in the second century. They wanted a change in who had control of cities like Jerusalem and Constantinople otherwise known as the “Holy Lands”. They wanted to accomplish this through invading Muslim held land and killing anyone who stood in their way. There is now a new “crusade” going on around the same area but for not exactly the same reasons as the original crusades. These new crusades are also done by people from all different parts of the world and not just from one country. However, despite the differences to the first crusades, this modern day crusade has one main factor in common: they were all fighting for a purpose they strongly believed in.

People from all over the world like the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia are not just volunteering their time, but risking their lives to fight against ISIS in the Middle East. Although some of these men come from prior military experience, and others none at all, they all just want to contribute to the cause. These men have a common goal of defending the innocent and freeing the oppressed from the terrorist control of ISIS. These men even consider themselves to be crusaders, as most of them are Christian men who believe the fight against ISIS is “a biblical war between good and evil” (Duke). One of these fighters, a 37 year old US Army Veteran, named Patrick, explains why he joined the fight in an article by Selwyn Duke: “I have selfish reasons, back home I found no purpose or meaning in life, so I prayed… I prayed for a purpose and meaning in my life. Here I find myself — I don’t know how else to explain it — finding purpose and meaning in helping these people to overcome Daesh [a local name for ISIS].”

These men calling themselves crusaders and calling their fight a “crusade” is a truly fair use of the word. The word “crusade” is defined by dictionary.com as “any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc.” I believe these men are on a crusade because they fit this definition by aggressively fighting back against ISIS. These men also believe it is their duty to fight this “evil” that is ISIS, and they will not stop until their goal/cause/idea of eradicating ISIS is complete. This is similar to the Christians during the original crusades, who were not going to stop until they completed their mission of re-capturing the holy lands. Both of these groups of men had a cause for their fighting, and that is why they were both on crusades.

(416 words without quotes)

Works Cited

 

Duke, Selwyn. “Modern Crusaders Fighting ISIS.” The New American, 20 Feb. 2015,            http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/20163-modern-crusaders-fighting-isis.

The Fight for Jerusalem

The first Crusaders, motivated and incentivized by Pope Urban II, sought to defend Constantinople and spread Christianity. Subsequent to their successful defense, they marched toward the holy city of Jerusalem and captured it. Their initial religious zeal transformed into power lust and political corruption, and they used Jerusalem’s namesake and religious significance as a guise to conquer the city.

Due to the growing power of the Seljuk Turks and the Islamic caliphate, the popularity and stronghold of the Church in Arabia was very weak. Thus, when Emperor Alexius I appealed to Pope Urban II for aid against the encroachment of the Turks, Rome was very interested in helping because the Christians felt threatened by a rival religion, which was rapidly expanding. In his speech, Pope Urban unifies the Christians by identifying a common enemy: the Muslims. He claimed that through him, “Christ commands… people of whatever rank… to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. All who die… shall have immediate remission of sins”(Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont. Pope Urban also emphasizes that the Muslims “are a despised and base race that worships demons” (Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont). Pope Urban uses his ethos as the divine representative to religiously motivate the crusaders and prizes of land and money to galvanize others.

This does not justify the religious imperialism of the Christians. Similar to Rome’s initial fear of Christianity, the Christians feared the Muslims because their religion and culture was completely foreign. Their portrayal of the Muslims as demon-worshipers was misguided; in fact, both religions are monotheistic, but whereas Christians recognize Jesus as part of the Trinity, Muslims regard Jesus as a central prophet. By portraying the Muslims as murdering, evil foes, Pope Urban II was able to unite the Church and attract more crusaders. Most people simply did not understand the reality of Islam; that it is very similar to Christianity.

No one, specific religion has a greater claim to Jerusalem than the other because they all have special histories. To Jews, it is the historical homeland and setting of many stories, such as the one of Abraham and Isaac. To Christians, it is the city where Jesus was crucified and resurrected. To Muslims, it is the city where Muhammad ascended into heaven. The Crusades and capture of Jerusalem was the culmination of the clash between the expanding Caliphate and Church. Each wanted to monopolize their geopolitical sphere and assert their religious dominance, but Jerusalem happened to be the coveted prize of each religion.

 

Word Count: 425