The Truth Behind the Christian Crusades: Protect the Innocent and End Islam's Dominance

     Many in the West have been misled as to the true reason for the Christian Crusades, and tend to view Islam as an innocent victim of European conquest.  This indoctrination can only be unwound by a careful study of Islam prior to the Crusades.  Although this work is in no means an exhaustive look into the past, it will attempt to give an overview of the time and what was transpiring.

     Islam has long been called a religion of peace, which proves if you keep repeating something long enough, eventually people will believe it.  The truth is Islam and its spread was based in war and the spilling of blood.  As Bryant Wright states, "Lewis went on to note that in the eighth century, Muslims conquered Spain and Portugal.  It was truly a religion on the move.  In their minds, these continued conquests reinforced the Superiority of Islam.  They continued on and invaded France, and, as I shared in chapter 1, if France had not turned back the Muslim onslaught in AD 732, most of Europe and eventually North and South America could have easily been dominated by the Muslim Faith."  Charles Martel's great victory saved Europe, but never stopped the Muslims belief in a worldwide Caliphate and dominance of Islam.

     Long before the Christian Crusades, the Muslims were Massacring any who would not submit to Islam.  In AD 633 Khalid al-Walid, whom Muhammed named 'The Sword of Allah', captured the city of Ullay's (todays Iraq) and beheaded so many people that the canals ran full with blood.  Muhammed led his Muslim forces to 66 straight victories in his murderous spread of Islam.  At one point the Muslims even sacked Rome herself.

     Constantinople had long been the Eastern Empires capital for Christendom, but it, Jerusalem and other Christian cities in the Middle East were coming under attack by Muslims and desperately needed help from the Western Empire based in Rome.  So the main purpose for the Crusades (allowing that some acted in error of the original purpose) was to protect Christian pilgrims, save Constantinople, and retake Jerusalem. 

     Yes, some Crusades went astray from the original purpose, but that does not change the fact that it was a defensive move against the onslaught of Islam.  The peaceful religion of Islam was eventually able to sack and take Constantinople and rename it Istanbul, and at the end of one Crusade the Muslim leader in Egypt had every Christian beheaded before him, while he ate lunch...that is all the Christians who couldn't pay the bribe.  I hope this very brief article sheds light on the true conquest nature of Islam.

By Jeffrey Brandon Lee