"You should also remember that Muslims had invaded Spain, etc. People tend to think the Crusades were one-sided. Hardly. Expansion was on the mind of both sides. The Crusades was an abuse of the Christian religion. "Imperialization" of the Islamic religion was undertaken by Mohammed himself, and is considered a plan-of-action by people like bin Laden and other radicals today."

Except that while in areas under christian control you would be tortured or killed for being a Muslim or Jew, while in Islamic Spain christians and jews were given complete freedom to worship and even access to positions within the Islamic government. Unfortunately, theres really no denying that what people did during the middle ages "for" christianity was terrible.

"Unfortunately, theres really no denying that what people did during the middle ages "for" christianity was terrible."

Revisionist history, cwarsh. You take the actions of SOME areas of Christian Europe, and use them to damn the whole, and take the good action of SOME areas of the Islamic Middle East and use them to laudthe whole. On the whole Jews were no more safe in the Middle East than they were in Europe, and Jewish communities thrived in Europe during the Inquisition. Don't damn and bless entire regions blindly.

I find it humorous that people want to balance the bahavior with some Muslims today with the behavior of Christians 600 years ago. Regardless, more people died in Rwanda in one year during the 1990's than died during the entire Inquisition.

Why must people look at atrocity and feel the need say "See we did that too, we have no right to condemn"?. Why not just call it atrocity? You can't balance what a bunch of dead people did half a millinium ago with what is being done NOW. We are not culpable for what the medieval Catholic church did, but those who support and donate to terrorism NOW are very, very culpable.

When you point to the crusades continually, all you do is validate modern atrocity in the minds of sick people.

The Crusades was an abuse of the Christian religion.

Certainly not!!!!
It was an attempt to regain what was ours in the first place, and what we had lost. No need to be apologetic about it. Please...

Do not forget that most of the Middle East was Christian before the Arab(Muslim Bedouins from todays region of saudi arabia) Conquest. Mecca had a thriving Jewish population.

I know that Jews call the period of Islamic spain "The Golden Age of Spain" because of the freedoms that Jews (as well as christians) were allowed under Muslim rule, and the progress that was achieved during that period.

cwarsh: Yes, you undoubtedly know the worst of whatever you intend to dislike. Would you consider Spain to be one of the more moderate areas during the inquisition? There were horrible excesses on both sides, and in the end it is HISTORY, whereas the behavior of radical Islamic terrorists and terrorist states is CURRENT EVENTS.

I think hatred is not the monopoly of one religion. If human emotions go unchecked,it creates hatred and religious divide whether you are christian, budhist or muslim. But I believe,at least in spirit, Budhism seems to be the most pacific,right?

No religion teaches hatred, but the capacity for human cruelty seems to be universal,right?

" No religion teaches hatred, but the capacity for human cruelty seems to be universal,right?"

Lots of religions have taught hatred, even Christianity. The question is, do they have the ability to evolve beyond it. Islam, at least its radical varieties, believe that such evolution is wrong, so they stay in the Middle Ages, in roughly the same place the Catholic Church was when it was burning people.

You have to face the fact that the "kinder, gentler" Islam that we respect is as hated as as we are by those radical Muslims we are fighting. That modern brand of Islam rips the power from religious officials and gives it to secular authority, and that they can't stomach. When the Catholic Church, for instance, relinquished its "secular" governmental powers, and focused on the spiritual, it began to evolve. People who were power hungry and greedy had less tools to work with. Islam will be the same, hopefully.