Well, I suppose you could start with the group of Christians who got murdered by the Crusaders because the Crusaders assumed the ones they were murdering were Musliims based on their clothing.
Is that worse than if they really HAD been Muslims?
No, it’s not worse and it’s certainly not better. It’s merely an indication of the prejudice, not the religion, that was driving the Crusades.
This is completely off-topic, but I just have to say that it is quite disconcerting to see such a well-written and unflappable poster with the handle of Tamerlane. What, was Gaiseric The Vandal taken?
I’m just saying that the Crusades were no better and no worse than any other war during that era. Rape, pillaging, looting, civilian murders, etc. were pretty much standard in just about every war in just about every part of the world during that time. The Crusades were not about some effort to wipe out all the Arabs in the world, or about wiping out Islam. It was about protecting what they perceived as threats to their Holy Sites and ability to have pilgramages to them (see Tamerlane’s post), a need for a safety valve for young fighters who weren’t going to get anything in inheritance, and a good old desire for land and wealth. Prejudice didn’t have much to do with it, outside of the fact that most wars during that time (and during modern times) occured out of “prejudice”.
brujo replied to the OP: *“There has been a series of Christian bashing letters to the editor in the local paper…”
I missed this thread earlier, but can you give us a cite for this. I’m surprised that a newspaper would run anti-Christian editorials…*
Letters to the editor != editorials. Letters to the editor are unsolicited comments from readers, which are in no way expected to represent views espoused by the newspaper’s management, and many of them are indeed quite nutty.
Kimstu
I must have missed that. I usually skim letters to the editors when I read the print version of the paper. I’m gonna start paying more attention to those to see if they are as weird.
Hey, that would be a good handle :D.
A misunderstood guy, Gaiseric. Quite brilliant in his way. And the depredations of the Vandals have probably been exaggerated a bit. I believe more modern research has concluded that the most traumatic damage to North Africa occurred in the late 11th-13th centuries after the badly enfeebled Fatimids unleashed ( and gave passage to ) a number Bedouin tribes on Ifriqiya ( Tunisia ) to punish them for repudiating Fatimd rule and swearing allegiance to the Abbasid Caliph.
- Tamerlane
Mass murder and destruction in the name of a deity?
Same old shit.
How’s that for a historical generalization?
Anybody got numbers on how many people have been slaughtered in the name of which gods?
I’m betting the Christian one has the highest body count.
(even without counting the Holocaust).
When “Christians” stop telling me I’m going to go to Hell, I’ll start considering them rational and/or moral.
Too many “Christians” seem to think that evil is a virtue.
Sorry, Poly, but you do seem to be in the minority…
Well, happyheathen, with all due respect, you shouldn’t single out Christians.
Many religions have carried out campaigns to exterminate those who do not believe as they do.
Onward Christian soldiers, et al…
Is the Christian one the same as the Jewish one and the Muslim one? Or are you counting each of these separate?
[ul]You’re right Neurotik. It is quite a stupid concept isn’t it?
And you are not going to HELL happyheathen. ;)[/ul]
Who was saying it’s a stupid concept?
I was asking happyheathen how he was breaking down his stats.
I’m NOT?
Damn, and I had my little heart set…
(and yes, for those not noticing, the Christian god is not the same as the Jewish god, which is not the same as the Muslim god).
And, I was ASKING for stats, not offering them.
Yes, many religions have persecuted - the Christians were the ones with the best weapons and ships in which to transport them - tremendous advantages…
See? God was on our side.
Oops, I meant to ask you how you WANTED them broken down, not how you WERE breaking them down.
Because…technically…the Jewish god, the Christian god, and the Muslim god are all the same. So if you were counting it that way, Yahweh aka Allah aka God, etc. would have a much higher body count than if you counted them seperately.
Which “our” was that? - RCC was the largest benefactor of the technologies - used frequently against other Chrustuans - how did the “Christian” (RCC) v. “Heretic” (Protestant) body counts add up, say 1520 - 1680?