ThePoliticallyIncorrectGuide to Islam (andtheCrusades)pray during the city's last agony. The Muslims halted the celebration of
Orthros (morningprayer),while the priests, according tolegend, took the
sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral's eastern wall, through
which they shall return to comple te the divine servic e one day, Muslim
menthen killed the elderly and weak and led the restofinto slavery.
When the slaughter and pillaging was finished, the Ottoman sultan
Meh met II ord ered an Isla mic scho lar to moun t the high pulp it of the
Hagia Sophia and declar e that there was no God but Allah, and Muham-
mad was his pro phe t. The mag nif ice nt old chu rch was tur ned int o a
mosq ue: hund reds of othe r chur ches in Cons tant inop le and else wher e
suffered the same fate. Millions of Christia ns joined the wretched ranksof
the dhimmis; others were enslaved and many martyred.PC Myth: The Muslim leader Saladin was more
merciful and magnanimous than the Crusaders
Oneof the most famous figuresof theCrusadesisthe Muslim warrior Sal-
adin , who reun ited much of the Isla mic worl d and infli cted great dam-
age on the Crusaders. In our age, Saladin has become the prototype of the
tolerant , magnanimousMuslimwarrior, historical "proof' of the nobilityof
Islam arid even of its superiority to wicked, Western, colonialist Chris-
tianity. InThe Crusades Through Arab Eyes, AminMaalouf portrays the
Crusa ders as litt le more than sava ges, even gorgi ng them selve s on the
flesh of those they have murdered. But Saladin! "He wasalways affablewith
visit ors, insis ting that they stay to eat, treat ing them with full honours,
even if they were infidels. and satisfying all their requests. He couldnot
bear to let someon e who had come to him depar t disap point ed, and there
were those who did not hesit ate to take advant age of this quali ty.One
day, during a truce with the Franj [Franks], the 'Brins,' lord of Antioch,
arrived unexpectedly at Saladin's tent and asked him toreturn a districttha t
the sult an hadtak en fou r years ear lier.And he agre ed!' Thelovable lug'
if asked, he might have givenawaythe entire Holy Land!1413