The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and theCrusades

pe rs on al ly st op pe d th e pe rs ec ut io n of th e

Je ws, declaring: "Ask anyone who knows the

S ac re d S cr ip tu re swh at he fi nd s fo re to ld of

th eJe ws inth eP sa lm. 'N otfo r th ei r de st ru c-

tion do Ipray,' it says."" Popes and bishops

repe ated ly call ed for the mis trea tmen t of the

Jews to end.

Yet even after the sack of Jerusalem and

ma ss acr e of th e Je ws , dur in g th e Cr usa de r

period Jews in the Middle East generally pre-

fe rre dt o li ve in ar ea s co nt ro ll ed by th e

Franks, despite the undeniable hostility the

Chri stia ns from Euro pe had for them .' They

kne walltoo wel l tha t what was in sto reFo r

them in Muslim lands was even worse.

PC Myth: The Crusades were

bloodier than the Islamic jihads

Th e Cru sad ers mas sa cre d in Jer usa lem ; Sal-

adin and his Muslim troops didn't, This has

become emblematic of conventional wisdom

regarding the Crusades: Yes, theMuslimscon-

quered, but the inhabitants of the lands they

sei zed wel com ed the ir conque st. The y wer e

j u s t a n d m a g n a n i m o u s t o w a r d r e l i g i o u s

minorities inthose lands. The Crusaders, by

contrast. were bloody, rapacious, and merciless.

We have shown this conve ntio nal wisdo m to be comp lete ly fals e.

Saladin only refrai ned from massacr ing the inhabit ants of Jerusa lem for

pragmati c reas ons, and Musl im conq uero rs easi ly matc hed and exce eded

thecruelty of theCrusaders inJerusalem onmany occasions.TheMuslim

A Book You're Not

su p p o s e d t o R e a d The

Crusades: TheWorld's Debateby Hilaire

Belloc: 1937, republished by Tan Books, l992.

Belloc presents an arresting prophecy:

"In the major thing of all,Religion,we have

fallen back andIslam hasin the main pre-

serv ed itssoul.. ..W eare divi ded in the

face of a Mohammedan world, divided in

every way—divided by separate independ-

ent national rivalries, by the warring inter-

ests of possessions and dispossessed—and

that division cannotberemedied because

the cement which once held our

civilization together, the Christian

cement, has crumbled. Perhaps before

[these lines] appear in print the rapidly

developing situation in the Near East will

have marked some notable change.

Perhaps that changewillbe deferred. but

change therewill be,continuous and great.

Nordoes it seemprobable thatat theend

of such a change, esp eci all y if th e

pro ces s be pro lon ged .Islam will be the

loser,"