Cause And Effect Essay On The Crusades

Crusades were military units that began “in the late 11th century,” and was initiated “by Western Christians” to regain “the Holy Land” and stop the expanse of both Muslims and Islam. Of course, the warriors or the knights were guaranteed for a cancellation of their wrongdoings, which are accepted as sins in Christianity, and an immediate acceptance “to Heaven” as soon as they were killed in the military action. According to Douglas E. Streusand, Jihad means “holy war” as a usual usage of the word in the Islamic world. Today, this word’s meaning is fighting against non-Muslims for the most of Muslims. But, Jihad may have a meaning of acquiring maturity spiritually against devil, or a blast “against injustice” on earth. So, this blast against
injustice may show itself as a physical and militant action against non-Muslims. In the concept of Jihad, there is a belief that warriors, who fight for Jihad and get killed in the military action, will directly be accepted into Heaven like the belief in the crusades because “either one accomplishes good works or dies a martyr” will be immediately accepted into Heaven. Norman Housley mentions that a lot “of Christians and Muslims” died, dispossessed, lost “their families,” and became lifetime slaves “because of their religious faith.” In addition to this, a lot of people all over the world have suffered from the idea of Jihad. Therefore, the ideas of crusading and Jihad should be avoided because they hurt people, cause religious wars, trigger terrorism or illegal mass killings, and harm peace and harmony in the world. Hate, greediness, selfishness and biases may create violence sooner or later. One can have all of those adjectives or some of them, and he or she may sooner or later harm others with their own benefits. If this one is a leader of a religious faith, he or she would produce seeds of hate, and plant them around. After this process, hate will grow among people against the other religious faith. Respectively, this growing hate will make the people of a religious faith harm the other people, who have different religious practice. This will cause violence, death, injuries, loss of properties and money, destruction of towns and cities, and hate over hate among people. That is, the crusades were like that. Their aim was to regain the holy land, and stop the expansion of Islam and Islamic activities.
Of course, the crusades would be formed as military units with arms to destroy and kill people and ruin the livable places for their enemies. During the crusades, all those including mass killings and deportations happened. For example, Shmuel Shepkaru mentions that the European Jews “became the first casualties of the First Crusade” in 1096. The crusaders killed “thousands of Jews,” and Jews were forced to change their religion to make them Christian. Shmuel Shepkaru explains that “the massacres of the Ashkenazic Jews” were because of the greediness of illegal formations of people in the crusaders. Besides this greediness, hate also might be an answer to this massacre, which is hate against other religious faiths. This might show that there was not a concept of an understanding of the diversity in the crusaders, which is like being respectful to other religions. Today, Islamist terrorism seems they do not have an understanding of the diversity, which is being respectful to other religious faiths and avoiding killings, and moreover, they think that all members of other religious faiths must be dead to spread Islam and the idea of Jihad all over the world. Both ideas of crusading and Jihad look violent and unacceptable. These are bad seeds to plant in the world, and they then
would produce hate among people. Hate is unacceptable, and causes expensive unacceptable and bad results. Hence, the understanding of the diversity may be a remedy for hate and heal the pain and sufferings in the past and the present. Anthony Pagden mentions that a version of the diversity has showed itself again with some historical event, such as “the fall of Soviet regime,” new states joining the “European Union,” and immigrants to Europe from the less developed states. As for Muslims and their culture, there are Muslims in Europe, and they should be accepted by the European states, but Muslims and their cultures are being misunderstood because of the fear of Jihad. According to Anthony Pagden, “West Europeans” have been anxious about “Islamic traditions” and the Muslims inside Europe. This anxiety comes from a fear being harmed or even killed by individuals having the idea of Jihad. This fear emerged with 9/11 attacks in the United States, and the fear has been updated by the ISIS, today, although all Muslim communities are not terrorists in reality. Today, the Middle East and even Europe have suffered from the ISIS’ brutal attacks, such as the killings innocent Christians by the ISIS, the attacks in France, and mass shootings in California by the radicalized Muslims. The ISIS’ only aim looks Jihadi attacks that is to get killed or kill, but not every Muslim has this aim. The ISIS’ hidden aim might be to have a religious war, but not every Muslim will participate with this idea, so Christians and the European states should not be tricked by this kind of provocation. The Christian and the Muslim communities have cooperated to prevent this kind of provocative actions, for example Muslim Americans collected “money for California victims” to maintain peace and harmony in the United States. In conclusion, the ideas of crusading and Jihad should be avoided because they hurt people, cause religious wars, trigger terrorism or illegal mass killings, and harm peace and harmony in the world.