What ifthe Crusades Had Never Happened?many ofthesemen would not have been warriors at all. They would
have beenill -equ ipp ed to rep el a Mus lim inv asi on of the ir hom e
lan d.The Crusa des then , were the ulti mate reas on why Edwa rd
Gibb on's visio nof "the interpretation of the Koran" being "taught in the
schools of Oxford" didnot cometrue,
Thi s is not asmal l matt er. Itisfro m Chri stia nEuro pe, afte r all, no
matt erhow reluctant the PC establishment is to acknowledge it, that
most philosophical and scientific exploration,aswell as technological
advancement, have sprung. We have already seen one key reason why
science developed in the Christian world rather than the Muslim world:
Christians believedina coherent and consistent universe governed by a
good God; Muslims believed in a universe governed by a God whose willwas
so absolute as to preclude coherence and consistency.Butthe implications of this all-important philosophical difference could
not have worked themselves out without freedom. Thatfreedom, was
not availableto Christians or any other non-Muslims who had the
misfortune to liveunder Muslim rule. In fact, any people whocame
under Muslim rule throughout history were ultimately reduced—no
matter how extensive their numbers and grand their achievements
before theMuslimconquest---- to the status of a tiny and culturally
derivative minority. Of course, Few conqueredpeoples have ever
escapedthisfate, The only people who have escaped Muslim
dhimmitude have been those who were successful in resisting Islamic
jihad: the Christians of Europe and the Hindus of India.
Others were not so fortunate.
Case study: The Zoroas trians
Would it really have been so bad if the Muslims had conquered Europe?
afterall, the Chris tians would still have been able to pract ice their
religion.They would just have had to put up with a little discrimination,