The Case For The Crusades

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, it became fashionable to speculate as to why such attacks would be perpetrated against the United States.  In the search for a motive to these atrocities, much of the media and academia identified the Crusades as the culprit for much of the animus that Muslims have towards the West.   

Such speculation had a particular attraction to those on the political left, as they are forever searching for ways to blame the West for any perceived injustice alleged by other cultures. But many self described conservatives also parrot the same assumptions embraced by the left concerning the motives fueling Islamic terrorism.  In his new book titled,"God's Battalions", Dr. Rodney Stark asserts that this is simply not true.  Dr. Stark argues persuasively that the Crusades were NOT unprovoked, nor did they represent an early foray by Europeans into colonialism. They were in fact a belated response to Muslim aggressions into historically Christian lands that had been occurring for centuries.  

 The Crusades began with Pope Urban II, outside the French city of Clermont, urging soldiers of Christ to aid in the restoration of the city of Jerusalem.  What is conspicuously absent from this narrative is the fact that Jerusalem had been overrun by Seljuk Turks.  The Eastern empire of Christendom, and its capital city Constantinople where also under constant threat from the rising Turkish onslaught. Dr. Stark's, "God's Battalions", makes clear that the Crusades simply cannot be used as a justification for the Islamic terrorism that the Western world is grappling with today. This tomb is an excellent guide for exploring the forgotten history that preceded the Crusades and helps to clarify its real causes.