Kostya

Yes, and like I said, this act was not one that is condoned by Islam, thus, it is the misconceptions of the offender that are the problem not his religion.

I'm sorry, where did I claim that?

Please don't misconstrue what I say into something else denim. Yes, I will agree with you that the Crusades did happen, I am well aware of this historical fact. However, as you yourself said they were backed by the 'Popes' of their time. Jesus wasn't riding out in front against the Saracens screaming 'HOLD THE LINE' was he. Surely you must know by now that what a Church does in the name of Chrisitianity is rarely what Christianity is about. Thus, once again I reiterate to you that Jesus was unequivocal and absolute in his opposition to violence and murder. Moreover, since you brought them up, I believe the Crusades illustrate a very pertinent example.


Christianity arrived in Europe wholesale around the time of the conversion of the Frankish King in about the seventh century. Yet despite Jesus' vehement rejection of violence and war, nothing changed, people still went to war, slaughtered and tortured each other. The Merovingian Dynastic mechanism was one in which all legitimate sons of the King recieved a portion of kingdom, and thus rivalry between sons, uncles etc gave way to large amounts of regicide, fraticide, paricide, infanticide and so on. These actions are not Christian in any sense of the word. The fact of the matter is that despite the message of Jesus, the preexisting cultural values of the Franks subverted the universal message of peace preached by Jesus. These people could be called Christian, since that is what they would have called themselves, but quite clearly they are not acting in a way that would have been acceptable to Jesus. Similarly Islam was subverted by preexisting cultural values in the middle east.