Steps Toward the Crusades

“The popular misconceptions about the crusades are that these were aggressive wars of expansion fought by religious fanatics in order to evict Muslims from their homeland, and force conversions to Christianity. However the historical record does not support those assertions.” (source)

The Crusades to most people are seen as the mean European Christians trying to convert and remove the Muslims. However, this view is wrong just as the quote expresses; in reality the Muslims had used their tradition of jihad to convert many people which includes violence towards the innocent civilians. This is breaking the idea of Just War and as a defensive move the Europeans retaliated. (source) (source Google Books) (source Google Books)

“It was, moreover, the successful exploitation of the Jihad ideal which removed the alien presence of the Crusaders from Muslim soil” (source Google Books)

This explains the efforts of the Muslims. There are various situations that show how the Muslims were misusing their traditions of Jihad. They had already forcefully converted two thirds of the Christian world. They had kidnapped many other Christians in Caesarea and killed others from Amoriem. In 789, the Muslims beheaded the monk in Bethlehem and in 937 they went on a rampage on Palm Sunday setting fires to many Christian churches. As you can see the Christians and Jews were living under numerous threats for years and years because of the Jihad tradition. (source) (source)

“The crusaders were reacting to over four centuries of relentless Islamic Jihad, which had wiped out over 50% of all the Christians in the world and conquered over 60% of all the Christian lands on earth – before the crusades even began .“ (source)

The Crusades were in an effort for Just War. The odds were completely in opposite for the Europeans, some even say it was the different of David and Goliath. The Europeans were so offended by the attacks made to their religion that the felt it was needed to stop or at least prolong the massacres. The effort of just war on the European side is evident because they were not expected to “win” and they went in to the war on a basis of defensive efforts. (source) (source) (source Google Books)

The definition of who “won” the Crusades is essentially non-existent. The efforts of the European were to make the Muslims become in a defensive mode and not and attacking one. This goal was accomplished. While the Muslims did not lose the Crusades because there was not a definite win. (source) (source Google Books)

The Crusades were a defensive measure. This defense was a result of the misuse on the Muslim part of the tradition of Jihad. They Muslims had killed, tortured, and destroyed people and cities. This was not keeping the theory of Just War and the Europeans kept this theory and retaliated in an effort to prevent the efforts of Jihad.“Without the Crusades it is questionable whether Europe or American would even exist.” (source) (source Google Books)