[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]The Crusades weren’t solely a result of Christians attempting to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land, they were also an attempt to resist the decades of predations and invasions that Christians had suffered at the hands of Moslems.
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Jerusalem was conquered by the Muslims in the year 638. The Muslims started expanding their territory and attacking the then Byzantine Empire. Throughout this time there was many attacks on the clergy by Muslims and also a tax was issued on non-muslims (as required by the Koran). There was a lot of back and forth between the Muslims and the Byzantines until finally the Byzantine emperor appealed for help from the Pope. Pope Urban II issued the call for the crusades in 1095.
So it’s not decades of attacks. It’s centuries.
There is a law in Islam that if land has passed from muslim hands to infidel hands, it is required that muslims wage war to reclaim it. That is the crux of their argument against Israel. That is why many muslims are unwilling to accept the existence of Israel because it goes against their religious law. While they may negotiate, they will always break their agreements because of this principle.
It’s also interesting because the popular perception of the Crusades is that the Christian world was waging an unjustified war of conquest and subjugation against the muslims, when the truth was exactly the opposite. It certainly sounds familiar.
