Similarities between crusades and radical Islam?

I doubt that they even tell you the part of how those christian lands were and how they became after the muslims tried to 'conquer' them. The christians were living in the dark ages, full of the believes in magic and witches, and even used to label science and knowledge as "evil" to the public while the aristocrats and pope and whoever else kept all the knowledgeable books to themselves so they'd be 'smarter' and 'above' others. Furthermore, the public were all enslaved by the men in power, making them do menial work for the entirety of their lives for the lowest of wages possible, and even abuse them by beating and whipping and whatnot. Now, at that time, the muslim world was on top in terms of science and technology, even if you look at the history of science you'll see that MOST fundamental science was all founded by muslims, the same fundamentals that are undeniably important for your current advancement in the field. Having that said, the reason of why the muslims attacked these christian countries was for nothing but to free the people from the iron hands of greedy dictators that were ruling them with an iron fist. And they also freed them from those dark ages and brought them into the light of knowledge and science, something that changed their lives for all eternity. Also, the qur'aan teaches us to never EVER kill a single civilian in war, all who are killed or injured are the soldiers of the opposing army. And to never abuse women or children, to never soil the lands with the blood of the innocent, and to never even cut a tree or kill an animal that has nothing to do with it. Plus, the muslims didn't "force" the christians to convert, those who converted converted with their own free will. If you know Muhammed's accurate teachings you'd see that he clearly stated to never force; as enforcing things on others wouldn't make them geniunely accepting of it. The muslims lived in harmony with the christians of those countries, the only thing that was done is that muslims enforced a certain amount of tax money to be paid by those who don't convert, that is all. They weren't killed or slaughtered or abused or whatever to make them convert, all that they had to do in case of not converting is to pay some money on a monthly basis. With all of this, I hardly see any similarity to the crusades with jihad and whatnot. The fact is, when the christians started the crusades, they didn't simply stop at attacking the army folk, they plundered the villages and cities, abused, raped and killed the women and children, and even men that weren't involved with the military, they burned down houses and schools, they destroyed the libraries of the muslims and stole what was left which is why the western world is more advanced today than us; because we had to start over when they did that. They even tortured the people in the most horrific ways, cutting off their limbs before killing them, and killing them in the most atrocious of ways right in front of their children and families, and god knows what else they've done. By the time they stopped, the places that they attacked were all burnt to the ground, and the people had to spend god knows how long just to rebuild their homes that they lost. I have no idea how you can compare something like the crusades -that are still happening til today, obviously- with what the muslims did!

Strong post. I don't entirely buy the argument that this was in the Christian past, we only have to look at Northern Ireland to see the truth of the fact that Christians can still be as bloody-minded and bigoted today as they were in the days of the Crusades, or the witch burnings. And I also don't buy the Islamic argument that this current terrorism is not Islamic simply because it is not THEIR version of Islam. I sympathise with the compassionate moderate Muslims for the fact that ignorant people lump them in with the terrorists, but both the moderate and fundamentalist wings are Islamic. There are compassionate, peaceful, unbigoted Christians too, along with the rabid Christians who give all religion a bad name - like going to their KKK meetings after church, or bomb abortion clinics, and similar idiocies - but both are technically Christian groups. What all people need to realise is that all religions hold two antagonistic threads - moderate, compassionate, just and loving, and extremist, selectively compassionate, bigoted, and able to hate with a passion. Which thread one chooses is basically up to the individual, if indeed he/she chooses either, but until the moderates in all religions become loud and active in their condemnation of the excesses of the extremists, religious conflict will continue until we humans are extinct. Lash

Lets not forget that the Crusades were in response to Muslim aggression and invasion all the best urban

well, i think that there were a lot of empires that used to use the religion as an excuse to attack some other countries, BUT I WANT THAT EVERYBODY know, that the only reason of wars is especially MONEY, nothing else but money. There is no holy book whether the Torah or the Bible or the Koran that says that we should kill innocent, maybe sometimes wars are the only solution but not all the time... concerning the Bible there are some version that are a little bit similar to the Koran and the Torah for more informations concerning that topic contact me ...

i just want to say that you cannot generalize the actions of someone for a whole community. i am a Muslim and let me just say that all the killings that being done 'in the name of God', Allah doesn't order that. this is the agenda of the mischief-mongers and they are succeeding in hijacking and mocking the name of Islam. our book, the Quran, clearly states that murdering one innocent person is equivalent of killing the whole humanity. so killing in the name of God, that's just the wrong that those people spread for their own reasons, and use the name of Islam. so calling this as 'Islamic' extremism, it simply hurts me, because my religion does not teach this.

Personally I believe that each religion will go through its own cycle of violence and fanaticism. Christianity did it with the Crusades, and so is Islam with its jihad. It's a phase, though a deadly one in the short run.

True, Christians need to look at their own history before Muslims are judged. But the current conflict, I think, is not so much about Christians-Islamic thing. I think it is more of American and its foreign policy. I am not against American per se, but their policy in Middle East or Iraq or in Afghanistan is quite questionable. If US had not patronised radical Muslims to chase out the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during Cold War Taliban might have never been born. If US had not invaded Iraq on the pretext of possessing of WMD things would have been relatively more peaceful than this. Economic crisis could as well have been averted.

I can see the similarity as both are hijacked by radical elements within their faiths to advance their personal agenda. Sometimes it is quite confusing for people to differentiate between religious and extremists in respective religion, the line between both group is a very thin one.

Too bad the Crusades weren't so much Christians trying to force others into their beliefs. It was more like they were defending themselves from being forced into Islam. Like many Muslims today try to say that the Holocaust was a "myth", and 911 was done by our government. Muslims of the past have spread lies that Christians were blood thirsty killers of the past. So much so that even many Christians believe it and apologize for it.