The Crusades

by Richard Gunther

The general impression is that “church” equals intolerance, and murder and mayhem, and slaughter of innocent people.

When I was at school I heard about the Crusades. I may have not been listening hard enough, but as I recall the general idea conveyed to me was that the church of Rome encouraged a lot of brave men to go to Palestine and attack the Muslims. I was told that this was a wholesale massacre by “Christians”, and it seemed to cast a slur against ‘the Church’ – as if Christianity was the ‘bad guy’ and the poor Muslims were not really bad at all – just faithful followers of a peaceful religion.

After I left school, I watched the odd movie in which I remember seeing hordes of gallant knights charging into battle against Muslim armies, (in the Robin Hood story king Richard was hardly ever in England because of the Muslim battles), and the general principle was reinforced, thanks to Hollywood, that ‘Christianity is blood-thirsty and war-mongering’. If anyone had asked me, when I was a boy, what was the outstanding war of the past I would probably have said “The Crusades’.

I remember seeing hordes of gallant knights charging into battle against Muslim armies

But since leaving school I have read a bit more widely, and learned a few stats that put the Crusades in perspective.

For example about one million people died in the Crusades, but compare this to the Spanish Inquisition, which estimates some 350,000 people died. That was another church of Rome effort, and quite horrible, but the numbers are significant.

And then compare this to witch hunts, which may have killed some 100,000 – yet another ‘religious’ war, with ‘church’ connections.

The general impression is that “church” equals intolerance, and murder and mayhem, and slaughter of innocent people. But what is left out of the picture, in the first example anyway, is the REASON for the wars against the Muslims. Why did so many men from Europe even want to fight them? The answer is very important and we will come to it later.

For now, keep that figure of one million (the Crusades) in your mind, and look at how many died under the regime of the Mongol Empire: about 30 million. Yes thirty million! and then compare the Crusades against how many died under pre-Mao Chinese purges: about 33-34 million.

Now look at the killing rate under Islamic regimes: Ottoman Empire: two million.

Persian Empire: two million

How about the number who died under Marxist China: 77,277,000!

How about Soviet Russia? Some 62 MILLION!

How about Nazi Germany? About 21 MILLION!

These killings make the Crusades look like a picnic, so why are they constantly held up as one of the greatest crimes of the Western world’s history? Could it be there’s a deliberate attempt by people behind the scenes, to make the Western world feel guilty about them? And why was I not taught at school, as far as I recall, about the other much larger massacres?

While we in the West are made to feel bad about some comparatively minor offences in our own Western countries, we are not told about the roughly ONE HUNDRED MILLION Chinese killed over the last century or so – by the Chinese authorities.

The reason why is simple…

People in positions of power and influence, in politics and the media and education, HATE CHRISTIANITY.

This is why, at every opportunity, the National Radio program interviews people who either promote Darwinian evolution, or criticize Christianity. This is why Radio Live also slags off at Christianity, mocks it, and flungs insults at it. This is why people in the media almost delight in declaring that they are “not Christians”. Its a badge of honor to unbelievers to stand in the company of atheists and their kin.

But getting back to the Crusades, here are some important stats:

During the 20th century roughly 262 million people died in genocide, and 40 million died in battle. More people were slaughtered under Nazi and Marxist regimes in the 20th century, than in all human history.

This makes the Crusades look like an afternoon stroll in the park.

…they completely miss the ongoing massacre of innocent lives in their own hospitals.

Now let’s move on to another stat which the schools seldom teach. Forget the Crusades!

500,000,000 children who were ABORTED. That’s FIVE HUNDRED MILLION. If you put this stat into the time frame of ten years, you get 137,000 children a DAY, or 95 children every MINUTE. (Over 20 years the total rises to about 800,000,000 dead children.)

In the Western world, about 1 in every 3 babies will be killed before its born. Odd that while people in the West protest about small but bad things in their own country and overseas, injustices, in equality, and so on…, they completely miss the ongoing massacre of innocent lives in their own hospitals!

Compare a million dead through the Crusades, to more than 800,000 by the doctor’s scalpel.

Its a badge of honor to unbelievers to stand in the company of atheists and their kin.

But returning to the question about why the Crusades even happened, we need to go into the beginnings of the Muslim religion.

It started in a village in Arabia in 611 AD. A man called Muhammad decided he had a new revelation of what he called god, which he thought ought to be the most popular one, so he invited various important people around where he lived to become Muslim. His invitation was not very well received, because most people already had a few gods or goddesses to worship. The king of Persia ripped Muhammad’s letter to pieces, (sensible man), but the Christian king of Constantinople, a man called Haraclius, treated the letter from Muhammad with respect. He made inquiries about this Arab who called himself a new messiah, and soon one of Muhammad’s followers was able to have a discussion with Heraclius. The offer was made, and Heraclitus respectfully, and kindly, declined.

Islam hacked people’s limbs off and massacred all who opposed it

Muhammed was annoyed. He decided he would have to attack and subdue these Christians, who had, by the way, MADE NO AGGRESSIVE MOVE towards him, or any of his followers the Muslims or Islam.

Muhammed worked at the task, and soon he was able to build up his forces, after 25 years, he had a big enough army to ATTACK the Christians in Syria and Damascus. This happened around 636 and the Christian world, horrified by the way Islam hacked people’s limbs off and massacred all who opposed it, decided to keep a wary eye on this new religion.

From the attack on Damascus onward the blood trail continued to grow. They were encouraged by their success in Damascus, so they attacked and invaded Jerusalem.

The odd thing is Muslims claim that their religion is one of “peace”, but of course when they say the word “peace” they mean absolute submission to their religion. That’s not what Westerners mean by “peace” is it.

Having taken over Jerusalem by FORCE, the Muslims decided to ATTACK AND TAKE OVER

Constantinople. They moved against it in successive aggressive attacks, in

653 AD

664 AD

668 AD

670 AD

671 AD

672 AD

673 AD

674 AD

675 AD

676 AD

677 AD and 678 AD

A truce was called for and the Muslims agreed to it. After a 40 year truce the Muslims broke the “peace” treaty in 717 AD and ATTACKED with a force of 180,000 Arabs – a sea and land assault. The Christians fought bravely and hard, and were aided by “Greek fire” – a sort of napalm, which they flung at the Muslim armies, and Constantinople was saved – yet again.

The Muslims decided to ATTACK elsewhere. They captured Cyprus, Rhodes, Sicily and the island of Majorca. They prepared to attack Spain.

When I was taught about the Crusades at school, I do not recall being told about these 400 years of aggression by the Muslims, these 400 years of unprovoked aggression, which came BEFORE the Crusades.

Now let us come to the year 732.

We are now 100 years after Muhammad’s death. The Islamic “religion of peace” has hacked and stabbed its way right up to the banks of France’s river Loire. Its next move, if successful, would destroy France and then continue on till ALL OF EUROPE was under the Islamic religion.

The Arabs outnumbered the defenders of free Europe 2 to 1. The Christian commander Charles Martel had chosen a defensive position on a rise, with dense woodland on his flanks. His troops had no guns or cannons – only swords and spears and other simple tools. It was going to be a decisive battle, on which the whole future of Europe hung. Would it remain free, or be crushed under Sharia law?

It was a fearsome, hand-to-hand battle, a tremendous battle, a sacrifice of courage and blood on the part of the defenders of Christianity, against a cruel empire intent only on enslavement of all who opposed it. Eventually the Muslim army was broken. The battle of Tours was over. Europe was saved.

Now jump forward to today and listen to the Liberals. One of them, Richard Dawkins, proudly boasts that he is an atheist, but he fails to understand that he owes his very existence to the courageous defense of freedom by those Christians at Tours. If the Arabs had won, there wouldn’t be any atheists or humanists or secularists or evolutionists alive today!

Under Koranic law, anyone who does not bow to the Muslim god ‘Allah’ is to be put to death.

So, the next time you hear someone attacking Christianity and abusing Christianity, through reference to the Crusades, perhaps you could remind them what the Western world might look like today if those brave Christians at Tours had not prevailed.

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A word from the Editor:
Richard is the author of dozens of children’s books and is an exceptional illustrator. He has helped to illustrate hundreds of books, best known for his provocative cartoons about God, the Bible and the Christian life. He has provided daily cartoons for the blog sites of evangelist Ray Comfort, as well as illustrations for this ministry OnlyjesusSaves.com. Richard also has illustrated many Christian ministry books ray’s ministry LivingWaters.com. Over the years Richard has produced a mountain of free Christian material for people to use. He has the desire to make Jesus Christ known in all the world because he knows Jesus is the only means by which anyone may be forgiven their violations of God’s laws.

The picture left shows him with his grandson Bailey – see the category ‘The Adventures of Bailey’ for more.

If you would like to contact Richard directly, you can do so through this address.