Christian Crusades: The Islamic State In Iraq And Syria

In 1999, The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was formed. Since then, this group of radicals has grown both in size and strength, having gone from small scale acts of terror to large, highly organized acts of terror such as the 2015 Paris Attacks. It is widely believed that the ideals that ISIS enforces are newly invented, but on close examination of the Christian Crusades of the middle Ages, it can be observed that the Christian Crusaders and the Islamic State in Syria share most of the same ideals. In my opinion, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria can be compared to the Christian Crusades because they both wanted to convert others to their religion, they both committed mass genocide to convince non-believers to follow their ideals and they both performed mass ethnic cleansing to remove non-believers.

During the Middle Ages, Christian Crusaders wanted both Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity in order to make Europe a fully Christian continent. In recent times, The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has declared that they are a worldwide caliphate, and has expressed their wish for the world to convert to their version of Islam. According to an article by www.bbc.com (2015), ISIS has demanded that both Muslims and Non-Muslims across the world swear allegiance to their leader. Both of these militant groups wanted people to convert to their religion, but on close observation it can be noted that in the Middle Ages Christians wanted everyone to convert to Christianity, and in the 21st century, Muslims want everyone to convert to