An accursed race. A race absolutely alien to God has invaded the land of Christians. — Pope Urban II, 1095 AD
Holy men do not posses those cities, nay base and bastard Turks hold sway over our brothers. — Pope Urban II, 1095 AD
Pope Urban II launched the Crusades with a speech in the French town of Clermont Ferrand. The Christians of Europe were to go to the occupied lands, seize them back and kill any Muslims they found there. It was to be a Holy War. The Knights were offered salvation through slaughter.
Chroniclers of the Crusades were chronicling God’s work, a continuation of God’s work as recorded in the Bible. Jerusalem had to be cleansed of Muslim pollution
To the West, the Crusades are history. Islamists believe they are still fighting the Crusades today.
Tags: Christianity, Holy Land, Islam, religion, The Crusades
Keithpp's Blog 
November 25, 2011 at 6:36 am |
The Greek word for Crusade is Σταυροφορία = Carry the Cross. In the name of the Cross and Jesus Christ the Knights Templars and the Western Church decided to march against all the people living in Jerusalem and in the countries on their … way. Their excuse was to liberate the Holy Land but their ‘aim’, as even happens today, was to loot and steal all the wealth from these countries. A … Holy War is the ‘mask’ and in the name of Jesus Christ is ACTUALLY in the name of Satan/Power/Evil, the … Gods of the material World. This is my … humble opinion! We have many ‘traces’ here in Cyprus from the Crusaders.
November 25, 2011 at 6:27 pm |
You have got this totally wrong. They went to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim pollution. It was a Christian Jihad. On the way they looted which is why they were feared in Constantinople.
The Byzantine Christians saw a Holy War as a monk fighting the devil in the cloisters, Very much the true meaning of Jihad in the Koran, it is an inner struggle.
It was a war waged by Western Christians, not Eastern Christians.
For us in the West it is history, not for Muslims in the Middle East.
Following the illegal war on Iraq mounted by war criminals Blair and Bush, many American evangelicals followed in their wake as modern day carpet baggers. It is these Christian fundamentalists who have caused a problem for Christians living in Iraq, a Christianity much older than Western Christianity.
The knights who conquered the Holy Land, also conquered Cyprus. They imposed a feudal Norman system on the population, forced them to practise Western not Eastern Christianity. The Ottoman Empire tolerated greater religious freedom.
http://www.heureka.clara.net/cyprus/history.htm
November 25, 2011 at 6:51 pm |
You have got this totally wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keith, you are always ‘rude’ whenever you make a remark and answer to us! I know history and you know the history you want! I did not answer to your comment last time about the reasons I did not go to Paulo Coelho’s party last March in Constantinople …. YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHY I DID NOT GO AND IT WAS NOT A MATTER OF NOT BEING BRAVE AS YOU HAVE PUT IT BUT A MATTER OF PRINCIPLES AND ETHICS! If you spend a little time watching and reading what is going on in Cyprus, you may have realized that Suphi and the Turkish Embassy In London were referring about the so called ‘Democracy of Nothern Cyprus’ and the Greek Administartion! No other country in the whole World has recognized the illegal Turkish state in the occupied area except Turkey!!!! Pleasa do not send me any more links. I have my principles and you can write what you want!
November 25, 2011 at 7:10 pm |
Not being rude at all, merely taking the time to correct what was wrong. Sadly you let prejudice and nationalism get in the way of facts. I know all too well what what is going on in the north under Turkish occupation, it seems sometimes better than many Cypriots. The occupation could have been resolved many years ago had there been the will.The fact Suphi may have got it wrong, does not make you in the right. Ignorance and prejudice on both sides. Not that this has got anything to do with Crusades!
November 26, 2011 at 2:58 pm |
Of course it has nothing to do with Crusades!!! But given the opportunity to express myself regarding your ‘unfair’ comments… You are a ‘typical’ English man! You do not answer on the point, regarding the ILLEGAL State on the Occupied part of Cyprus, you do not answer why you have said about ‘bravery’ !!! And we both know too well whose politics is ‘Divide and Rule’! Regarding fanatism in any way and for any matter, I am the first who is against it, especially on Religion! I hate killings, wars, authorities, lack of kindness and deprivation of HUMAN RIGHTS! Be well and please find somebody else to ..teach him the history of Cyprus! I am old enough…
November 26, 2011 at 8:42 pm |
I have written extensively on the illegal occupation of northern Cyprus. But sadly you are abusing the comments section of this blog with your rants that have got nothing to do with the topic of Crusades. I can sympathise with Suphi as I can see why he may have felt obliged to block your comments. You fail to see the difference between appropriate comments and censorship. I have probabaly been too lenient here in allowing your rants.
There is a loose connection between Crusades and Cyprus. Richard I on a return from a Crusade, got a bad reception on Cyprus and so seized the island. He did not think it worth keeping and quickly got shot of it.
The Crusades were religious wars, not imperial conquests. The knights saught salvation in slaughter. On killing everyone they could find, they walked into the church in Jerusalem drenched in blood seeking their reward from God. It had nothing to do with wordly wealth. Indeed the Knights Templar renounced wordly goods.