100incursions in Eu rope, the persecution of Eastern
Christians, and the desecration of Christian holy
sites. And few people seem to remember that the
crusaders lost all but the fi rst of those wars.
Although the Crusades were undoubtedly an
expression of religious tribalism, the idea of holy
war is a late, peripheral, and in many ways self-
contradictory development within Chris tian ity—
and one that has almost no connection to the
life and teachings of Jesus. One can’t say the same
about the status of jihad under Islam.
Likewise, the vaunted peace of Andalusia is
largely a fairy tale, fi rst presented in the novels of
Sir Walter Scott, Benjamin Disraeli, and others
who romanticized Muslim civilization at its height.
Apart from the experience of a few courtiers and
poets, if life was ever good for Jews living under
Muslim rule, it was good only by comparison with
the most murderous periods of medieval Chris-
tendom. We can make such comparisons, as you
point out, but the general reality was of a world
absolutely suffocated by religious stupidity and
vio lence.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not painting
the West as blameless. It has much to atone for from
the age of imperialism onward— especially the
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