Religious Conflicts: The Crusades

There have been many conflicts between different religions throughout history. This is an important matter because wars relating to religion have impacted the world around us and imposed many different ideas or opinions that people, still to this day, debate about. A series of wars that occurred during the 11th and 12th centuries over opposing religions, known as Christianity and Islam, are called “The Crusades”. While individual soldiers mostly fought in the Crusades for religious reasons such as being rewarded with eternal life and granting God’s wishes, those in power mostly started the Crusades for political gain, like in the case of the Pope who desired power over Jerusalem. Long before the Crusades started, the Christian Empire was split into two groups-- The Byzantine Empire and the Roman Catholic Empire, this was called “The Great
Crusaders wanted to be rewarded with eternal life and they wanted to grant God’s wishes, which played a role in starting the Crusades. People in power, such as the Pope, had a huge influence on the start of the Crusades because he desired power over Jerusalem. Over the years, Christians and Muslims have had many conflicts. For example, recently, there has been a war in Central Africa where Christians and animist militias formed a group called “anti-balaka” after the Seleka (islamic rebels) took over the government and attacked non-muslim villages. Moreover, this conflict still goes on today. Clearly, there is still bad blood between Christianity and Islam. Leaders around the world from ancient history and today have promised things that necessarily aren’t true, like Pope Urban II that manipulated crusaders into fighting his battles with the promise of eternal life. Don’t let those in power influence your thinking and don’t believe everything they say, for not everything is