ipl-logo

Differences And Similarities Between The Crusades And Jihad

1936 Words8 Pages

Since the creation of the twenty-four hour news cycle, the globe has witnessed a multitude of political spectacles and history altering events. Such events include the Apollo 11 moon landing, evacuation of the U.S. Consulate in Saigon, and in more recent history the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Since this act of terrorism, the number of destructive events undertaken in the name of Allah has risen drastically. This holy war, or jihad, has been compared to the Crusades undertaken by Christians back in the early 11th through the 13th centuries, with the United States President Obama saying, “Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.” This comparison between the two holy wars is inaccurate and deceptive. To understand the illegitimacy of this comparison, the history and motivations of the Crusades and jihad must be assessed and contrasted. Only through this type of examination can these holy wars be accurately compared with one another. To acquire a comprehensive understanding of the history of the Crusades, it is imperative to examine the history of Europe in …show more content…

As head of the Catholic Church, Urban was responsible for the spiritual well-being of all people in Latin- Christendom . With Orthodox Christianity about to succumb to Islamic forces, Pope Urban II saw an opportunity to unify the two factions of Christianity under one leader. By saving eastern Europe from Islam, the Pope could unify Christianity under one Holy Father and place himself upon the throne. This would have given Pope Urban II power and dominion over all Christianity within European states as well as European colonies and territories. However, Pope Urban II had motivations other than his thirst for power for beginning this religious

Show More
Related
555 Words | 3 Pages

By doing this the pope would also be able to refute the governmental of feudalism that when against his aim of unifying Europe to eventually become stable enough to expand the government. This would have brought them closer to being an established empire with a solid culture. Collectively these political drive for stability and power were the predominant motivations that Pope Urban the II had to support the Christian crusades, The desire for power was a motivation for the crusades to each their goals of full power in and out side of the Empire. Pope Urban the second was encountering an ordeal of the struggle of power with the Political officials of the Holy

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

In this research paper I am going to talk about three issues,which are Dar al-Islam,West Africa and Europe. I am going to explain what happened during the 15th and 16th century with the three of them and how they interacted with each other. The interaction of dar al-Islam and Europe led to many important occasions including the discovery of the Americas,its colonization and the beginning of the slave trade. I will discuss the exchange, clashes, and what happened between these two "universes" that in the end affected West Africa and the whole world. Dar al-Islam is a term that refers to “the home of islam”.

Read More
1663 Words | 7 Pages

Stark compares European colonialism across the world and the Islamic fury due to Crusades as a motivation for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists (Tristano). European colonialism can be found in both the times of the Crusades and today. During the time of the Crusades, many of the Crusaders set out to spread Christianity; therefore, leading to the spread of Christianity. During the time of the Crusades, “the crusaders marched east not out of idealism, but in pursuit of lands and loots; that the Crusades were promoted by the power-mad popes seeking to greatly expand Christianity though conversion of Muslim masses” (Stark, 4). Whereas the United States is primarily Christian county (because of European colonialism), the Middle East is still primarily Muslim, leading to the next points of pursuit of land, loot, and power, as well as, and crime in need of atonement (Tristano).

Read More
230 Words | 1 Pages

The Crusades changed the medieval world by implementing new political, social, and economic changes and the beneficial events that were caused by them. The relationships that were created between each of the three crusades and the places that were negatively and positively affected were also major parts of the changes the Crusades had on the medieval world. After the Crusades ended, the most recent effect was the change of power between European countries. There has been an increase in the power of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa. “The Muslim world was itself divided into various Muslim sects and beset by political rivalries and competition between cities and regions.”

Read More
1247 Words | 5 Pages

The speech of Urban II at Clermont in 1095 was the special moment, when he promised and guaranteed that any person who will join to the campaign would get Holy land and place in heaven. At that time believe in God and Holy land was very popular, so Urban II mostly affected on moral of the people. The effect was stunning; people from all parts of Western Europe started to think that moving to Jerusalem is their duty. Actually the main purpose of Urban II was to unite all Christians in Europe and to achieve his aim completely he reminded people that their lands are poor, while Muslims live in Holy lands under good conditions. Citizens were now strongly motivated and ready to invade irreligious opponents.

Read More
1018 Words | 5 Pages

The Crusades involved not only knights and warriors, but also commoners of both genders. Helping the Byzantine emperor Alexios meant protecting the citizens of Constantinople from falling under Muslim rule. Jihad, often thought of as a synonym for terrorism - recurrently thought of as acting in the name of Allah, means an internal moral struggle. Like a Jihad, the Crusades were postulant expeditions in the name of God, to protect the Holy Land from the Arab Muslims. Later on, the Crusades became a substantial excuse for Christians to fight anyone who was supposedly a threat for their religion.

Read More
328 Words | 2 Pages

With the break out of World War I in Europe, the Sheikh-ul-Islam declared a Jihad against the following countries; Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro.1 The call for Jihad was directed to all Muslims around the world to stand up against their Christian temporal rulers.2 In 1914, there were 270 million Muslims around the world with only 30 million being governed by Muslims and the rest governed by other predominantly Christian nations.3 Even with the threat of “the fire of hell”, the call for Jihad was not as successful as expected. Strachan writes, “Islam was universal in its appeal, while nationalism was particular. ”.4 Muslims remained divided and did not fall under one calling for Jihad and many remained loyal to their temporal rulers.

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

In the Primary source, “Three Accounts of the Battle of Tours, 732”, we see how war is viewed from three different perspectives. The war is between the Franks, led by Charles Martel, and the Arabs, led by Abdul Rahman who is also known by the name of, Emir Ebd el Rahman. This document is about how the Arab army was conquering much of Spain and was preparing to continue its conquests in northern Europe but was stopped by Martel who had gathered an army and marched south to take the Arab force by surprise. The religions of Islam and Christianity each have very strong religious beliefs, and they each believe theirs should be spread across to other nations.

Read More
259 Words | 2 Pages

In this article the author studies the beginnings, believes and principal arguments of Religious terrorism and questions them based on analytical assessment traditions. It evaluates the legitimacy of the concept and its effects for research and policy practices. It argues that the distinctions typically drawn between nonspiritual and religious terrorism are problematic, both theoretically and empirically, and that in its usual assumptions, the term is misleading about the intentions, foundations and behavior of groups classified as ‘religious terrorist’. In particular, it shows that the diversity of those labelled “religious terrorists” is so mixed, and often so indistinguishable from their ‘nonspiritual’ equals, that the term has little meaning without further limitation, while simultaneously darkening key characteristics of both ‘religious’ and ‘nonspiritual’ violence. It then goes on to illustrate how the term, rooted in a particular historically situated understanding of religion and a particular set of power structures, serves as a disciplinary device to domesticate ‘political religion’, delegitimizing certain actors while legitimizing a number of highly contentious counterterrorist practices designed to deal with those described as ‘religious terrorists’.

Read More
1753 Words | 8 Pages

The Roman Empire, one of the largest, most influential, dominant empires for over 500 years was suddenly deteriorating, becoming vulnerable and susceptible to barbaric invasion when its capital gets relocated to Constantinople. The rise of the Roman Catholic church and their orthodox theocratic rule, drive this already vulnerable empire into the dark ages, with their oppressive power, hindering innovation and progress while also becoming responsible of holding the warring states together under one religion. In giving evidence for the languish of this great empire, I will also establish how a very strong Bedouin tribe in Arabia unites, in the name of Islam, to become a strong political force, patronizing medicine and innovations, encouraging

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

When the planes struck the Twin Towers in the early morning of September 11, 2001 it was an unimaginable event. Nevertheless, it was not just the collapse of the Twin Towers or the attack on the Pentagon that made this event internationally significant. The aftermath of 9/11 in regards to the United States’ response to the terrorism attacks that occurred had a monumental impact on the international system and made it a major event in world politics. The book “The War on Terror in Comparative Perspective” (Miller, Mark, & Stefanova, Boyka) presents an in depth examination of the War on Terrorism at an international and domestic level and explains the political impact of the United States security relations directly following the events that

Read More
1244 Words | 5 Pages

Islamic fundamentalists are waged in a war which they call the ‘holy war’ or ‘Jihad’ against the West or as they call ‘evil enemies’. It can be argued that the hostility to the West from Islamic fundamentalists come from the threat of modernity and the political and economic domination of the Middle East. It can be argued that many conflicts that have occurred in the Middle East have been due to the involvement of the West and their

Read More
2287 Words | 10 Pages

Qur’an says: “And Allah calls to the abode of peace, and leads whom He will to a straight path” (Qur’an, 10:25). The word peace in its different forms appears in around one hundred and thirty-eight places in the Qur’an(Ahmed 2015). In the same vein Badawi, (2015) adds, the Qur’anic Arabic Term Jihad has been commonly mistranslated as “Holy War”. The Qur’an was revealed in Arabic, not in English. The Arabic equivalent of the English expression “Holy War” is “al-Harbal-Muqaddasah”, an expression that is not found anywhere in the Qur’an or in the authentic sayings of the Prophet of Islam.

Read More
1143 Words | 5 Pages

Through these processes, the groups supporting different cultures and ideologies attempt to create a new world order that is favorable to the dominant ideas of their own culture or ideology. For this purpose, such groups are not ashamed of the methods through which they attempt to achieve such an order, as these methods are justified in the name of the only true religion and God, to whom they are accountable. Such terrorist groups do not deny responsibility for their terrorist acts and are not open to discussion or negotiation . Of particular

Read More
523 Words | 3 Pages

In a crusade, good and evil are seen in black and white, without consideration of what is gray. As we all know, very few things in life are black and white, and it is very difficult to divide reality into pure good and pure evil. This is a very extreme position to take at the cost of human life in the name of religion. As our case study points out, Osama was also a crusader, a Muslim crusader. His followers believed they were under obligation to fight a holy war (Pg. 73).

Read More

More about Differences And Similarities Between The Crusades And Jihad

Related Topics

Open Document