Islam appealed to people in variety of societies and cultures, bringing important changes as a result of contact while often merging with the local beliefs. Islam sometimes spread to other countries because of military conquest. Muslims rarely forced people to convert to their religion, often preferring to tax the other religions instead. Islam spread through more conversions as people learned what it was through trade and missionary networks. The religion was simple as it had a set of beliefs about what to do and what not to do in order to to go to heaven and to avoid eternity in hell. First, Islam gained followers in the Middle East and North Africa, slowly to gain popularity in southern Europe. Christianity on the other hand believes that Jesus is God the Son who became a human being. People receive eternal life by believing in Jesus and following his teachings. Christianity had a major impact on the West, particularly in the arts, philosophy, and society. From 750 AD to the early 1400s, Islam was gaining territory in all parts of Europe by invading the countries in uncommon ways such as creating a cultural fusion and a pocket of Muslims that are inhabiting the area. Christianity then made it’s rise in the Americas in the late 1400s with the Spanish missionaries that forced conversion on the people. Both religions have changed over the time for the people who believe in it, but have stayed central to their beliefs.
The rise of Islam quickly created fear and hatred in Christian Europe, which identified itself as it’s rival. European crusades were called in the eleventh century to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims, though they were only partially successful. Hostility to Islam in Europe has remained a major theme to th...
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... created a significant Muslim minority, though there were a few forced conversions.
There was no Christianity in the Americas before the Age of Exploration which began in 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. In 1493, Ferdinand and Isabella sent out a second expedition to Latin America. These Christian Missionaries arrived from the Kingdom of Spain and much of this work was in the form forced conversion and enslavement as the Spanish conquest developed. The Spanish soldiers carried weapons into battle with the Aztec, Maya, and Inca peoples. They came with a desire to impose Christianity and Spanish rule on the continent and a hope for the riches that were believed to be there. There was a systematic attempt to spread Christianity through a permanent missions and they did so by converting people as well as attempting the spread their culture and influence.
Thomas F. Madden’s The New Concise History of the Crusades is an invaluable account of the crusades that bases its arguments off of factual evidence and draws from historical accounts. Although his arguments may be flawed because of preconceived biases, Madden is still able to present the history of the crusades in an interesting and professional manner. The themes he addresses accurately portray the crusades as both a religious and territorial endeavor. Overall, Madden successfully summarizes and analyzes the crusades in his historical review, infusing his own ideologies in the text while still maintaining a professional voice.
Maalouf’s main thesis in The Crusades Through Arab Eyes is that the crusades are a major part of history and have truly influenced every one of our lives. The second pa...
Among some of the largest conflicts in the world stand the Crusades; a brutal conflict that lasted over 200 years and was debatably one of the largest armed religious conflicts in the history of humankind. Since this is so clearly an event of importance, historians have searched vigorously for the true answer as to why the crusades began. Ultimately, because of accusatory views on both the sides of the Christians and of the Muslims, the two groups grew in such hatred of each other that they began to act in deep discrimination of each other. Moreover, Christian motives seemed to be driven mostly by the capture of Jerusalem, the dark ages of Europe and the common-folks desperation for land, wealth, and a spot in heaven. What seems to be continually
God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark, will cause readers to question much of what they know about the Crusades, the Crusaders themselves, and the formidable Muslim forces they encountered along the way in liberation of the Holy Land. Stark gives compelling reasons for the Crusades, and argues that readers should not be too quick in following the lead of historians who cast the Crusaders in less than positive light. Stark makes his case supported by evidence that vindicates the valiant struggles of the Crusaders who accomplished the task of keeping Christianity alive through troubled times.
Clashes between Christianity and Islam have taken place since Islam’s inception. The most recent clash is the one happening now between Western Europeans and the Muslim immigrants who began arriving in the 1960s and now make up 4 to 5% of the total population. Islam is regarded as the fastest growing religion in Europe, through the immigrations and high birth rates causing to a rapid increase in Muslim population in Europe, which will make Islam be the domineering power in the future. The recent research indicates that there are more than 53 million Muslim in Europe, 14 million of them in the European union. According to the German evangelical news agency IDEA, the number of Muslims in Europe has risen by 800.000 over the last two years (Polzer). On the other hand, the birth rates in Europeans are decreasing. Pipes states that original Europeans become extinct because in order to sustain the population in Europe each woman should bear 2.1 children. The overall rate is only 1.5 that is also falling in the European Union (262). Today Europeans still have the upper hand, and therefore many of them continue to believe that multiculturalism and their immigration policy will eventually produce an integrated society in spite of the social unrest in Europe resulting from integration problems of Muslim immigrants. These Europeans insist that dialogue will solve all problems; in that sense they suffer from what Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls the “fanaticism of reason” (78), and they tend to fall into the appeasement camp. Muslim strategists such as Yusuf Al Qaradawi recognize that Islamists can achieve a great deal by pretending to cooperate with reasonable Europeans (Vidino 38), and that his organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, can take advantage...
Western Europeans loathed Muslims ruling the Holy Land, particularly of the holy places of Palestine. The saying “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” encapsulates the situation Christians in both the east and the west experienced. Both factions realized that without helping one another, they would share the same fate of falling to the Seljuk Turks. In addition to the Christians fighting for God, Europe’s ever-increasing population also needed more land to live off. Europe’s territories had to be expanded.
There were a number of Crusades fought during the 11th and 12th centuries, but this paper will only discuss the First Crusade. The First Crusade was fought from 1095 to 1099, and its initial beginning officially started with a speech that Pope Urban II gave, which inspired Europe to muster her forces for the Crusade. When most people think of the Crusades, they conjure up images of evil, bloodthirsty crusaders massacring groups of innocent Muslims who were defending themselves. Contrary to popular belief, the Crusades were a justified series of military campaigns from Catholic Europe intended to rescue and preserve the Christian holy places in the middle-east from Muslim aggression, beginning with a plea for aid from the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople.
Unlike Christians, Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad spread their religion throughout the world. Islam began in the year 610, when the prophet Muhammad started receiving messages from Allah, through the Angel Gabriel. He started spreading the word to others and that is how the Islamic faith began. The Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Saudi Arabia, Mecca. Both of his parents passed away by the time he was 6 years old and he was raised by his uncle. Muhammad’s first job was a camel driver and later he started managing caravans for many merchants. In doing so, he was employed by a woman named Khadija. They soon got married and it was said that she made his life easier because Allah was through her. When Muhammad was in his 30’s, he would go to Mount Hira to be alone and pray.One day on the mountain while in solitude an angel came to him saying he was chosen to spread the word of Allah. At first, Muhammad said he was not the right one to do this mission however, the angel persisted. He went home to tell his wife and through his wife he found the courage to follow what the angel told him. Khadija was his first follower. In the first three years, he only converted 40 people in Mecca. It was only a small amount of people but it caused a lot of chaos in Mecca. Many of his followers were sentenced to death and Muhammad was next. As persecution was rising, Muhammad found out that he had followers in a city
1. The Crusades are probably the greatest symbol of the religious enthusiasm of the age. What were the goals of the Crusades? Targets? What motivated people to go on crusade besides religious zeal? How do we account for their general failure? How were the Crusades viewed by the Muslims, as indicated by the evidence from “Listening to the Past”? What lasting impact did they have?
Since the beginning of Europe itself Muslims and Europeans have clashed over religious and cultural styles. This hatred began during the crusades when Christian Europeans drove out and killed Muslims that had begun to immigrate to their lands. Europe had been divided since into Western Christian Europe and Eastern Catholic/Islamic Europe. Even in current day the relations between the two cultures seems to have reached new peaks of instability. In Muslim culture the ideals of the West to do not sit well with them as Western Europeans are seen as blasphemous and scandalous in their eyes. From Western Europe’s perspective the Islamic culture is blasphemous and unprogressive compared to their ideals. Neither side has ever seen eye to eye
The world religions of Islam and Christianity may have their differences to the naked eye, but when you take a closer look into their histories similarities arise. They both went through transformations that had drastic impacts on the way they were controlled and the way that the religion was taught to the followers. Christianity and Islam have both experienced splits between their members due to the fact that followers thought that their beliefs were the correct way to practice the religion. While these transformations are long in the past, the splits that have occurred within each religion continue to have lasting effects on Islam and Christianity to this day.
Religious feelings were the principal cause of the Crusades. Up until 1065 the Moslems had control o...
At the first glance, Islam and Christianity appear to have nothing in common, however; as you go beyond the surface, they appear to have many similarities such as their beliefs of God, their beliefs of life after death, their holy scriptures, and their prayers. These religions, although are two entirely different beliefs, share a similar origin. Like many other religions, they both claim to be the one and only true way to God. In order to truly see and understand their similarities, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam. Throughout the course of this essay, I will compare the many facets that show the alikeness between these two growing religions.
Islam and Christianity have a vast amount of similarities as well as differences. Islam searches for guidance from the Qur’an and Christianity depends on faith in Jesus. Islamic faith believes in the God, Allah. Above anything else, all religious Muslims obey Allah and his commandments to obtain peace. On other hand, Christianity puts faith in Jesus who is the son of God. A major concept that separates both of the religions is the fact that the God of each faith has different qualities. This means Islam and Christianity don’t worship the same God. Islam and Christianity are two separate belief systems in which two separate Gods exist.
Europe in the middle Ages was threatened by the Islamic fighters from the east whom they saw as antithetical to their professed Christianity. As the dominant religion, those who professed this faith were seen to be superior to those who did not and as such religious minorities likely suffer discrimination and persecution at the hands of their Christian neighbors which would have necessarily shaped their world view and behavior.