The Crusades: Unjustly Persecuted Islam

“He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Pope Urban II, 1095). Are these the words the spark that fueled a wave of destruction and unjustly persecuted Islam? Most historians consider the sermon preached by Pope Urban II at Clermont- Ferrand in November 1905 to have begun the wave of military campaigns to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control. Known as the Crusades, these campaigns, considered to be divinely sanctioned in the Christian view, were led by the desire for Christian access to the shrines associated with Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of the Christian Faith. Out of the eight to nine crusades, only the first truly fulfilled the purpose that Pope Urban II wished to fulfill. While, there were positive effects of the Crusades – such as the opening of the Mediterranean to commerce and
Thousands slaughtered, pillaged, razed, and raped the Muslim and Jewish communities under the Cross of Christ. Though such moral stains are present, the Crusades were not the unjustifiable attack and persecution of Muslims and an attempt to take their lands. The purpose of this essay is to counter the negative myths that Christianity led unprovoked aggression against a peaceful Islam World, that the Crusades were colonialism of Christianity, and that the Muslims have a good reason to the hate the West today because of the Crusades. The general portrayal of the Crusades as unprovoked aggression against a peaceful and sophisticated world is a misconception; a myth. Far from being unprovoked, then, the crusades were actually the first great western Christian counterattack against Muslim attacks which had taken place continually from the inception of Islam until the eleventh century, and which continued on thereafter. Today scholars are still trying to work out the full truth and influences behind the Crusades, but the Christians at the time were not on a campaign of intolerance and malice. There was a real threat from