Prof.  Hasan Yahya

Everywhere, in the aftermath of 9/11 waves of shock, grief, fear, and anxiety reverberated not just through New York and Washington but throughout the United States . Due to the unpredictability and massive scale of the violence of terrorism, the trauma symptoms it causes travel well. Among majority of Arabs and Muslims,  Unfortunately,  911 was privately applauded. For a simple reason, the slogans of freedom, economy and politics were attacked. That was unbelievable event in modern times. While doubt remains about inside helping hand, the success brought world attention, a proverb says in Arabic: (the mosquito can make the lion’s eye bloody. ) Islam is a slogan, cannot be destroyed or demolished easily as a reaction for 911. Unless justice prevails. And Islam has to be respected. The millions of faithful, do not apprehend this wave against Islam from some intellectuals who had certain purposes to achieve in the western world. Some of them may be sincere to change wrongs committed against Muslims and Arabs in recent years. The new Muslim generations have to be given the benefits of doubt to be protecting human rights on mutual respect, when people loose their dignity, beware of their offspring.            

What was amazing that after the pope speech. Something startling happened. Thousands of knights swear that they see the clouds part and an image of the Holy City appear in the sky. They fall to their knees in wonder, knowing the certain that God wills the Crusade. And the waves of Crusade began.  

Was it true? Sins of nobles and knights will be forgiven?  Who played the role of God in that time to grant such forgiveness? He was the pope Urban II. This is not strange, because Compared with Khumeini  of Iran who played the same role in 1980. as the pope, by making fatwa for martyrs young people in the fight with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Paradise was guaranteed according to Khumeini.

Returning to the book title: People are no idiots, of course. They know the Crusade was  a war between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. However, these bloody conflicts raged over centuries, under changing circumstances, making the whole story difficult to follow.

You don’t have to don armor and cross deserts to relieve the Crusades! In The Complete Idiot’s Guide, which is a website, for the Crusades shows why these wars began? why they continued for so long? and how their impact on the world still resonates. ? This Complete Idiot’s Guide as they announce show much of the dark ages and the Renaissance, and why the Pope Urban II would grant absolution to anyone who reclaimed the Holy Land for Christianity.

George W. Bush and the Crusades an article by Alan Woods Begins with this statement: 

 ”On the eve of the war in Iraq, George W. Bush talked about a “crusade”. He was obviously quite pleased with himself for having thought of such a catchy phrase. But he was quickly silenced by his advisers, who pointed out to him that the word “crusade” has very unfortunate associations for the Moslem world. After that, the word was quietly dropped from his vocabulary. ”

 For most people – including the Bush Administration in the White House,   ” were something one vaguely remembers from the movies, where they are presented in a glamorous and romantic light, as the highest expression of Christian chivalry. The reality was rather different. ”

 Dr. Wood’s book is interesting, he  explained what were the crusade, the Crusades and the Jews, The Crusades in Jerusalem, the religious-military Orders, the Economic interests, then Saladin and Richard (The Lion Heart), plus many interesting historical facts. What is interesting is what he brought. Some comments of the crusaders about the Jews made in  N. Cohn, book: The Pursuit of the Millennium, p. 70. ) he brought this quote:

 ”We have set out to march a long way to fight the enemies of God in the East, and behold, before our very eyes are his worst foes, the Jews. They must be dealt with first. ” And again: “You are the descendants of those who killed and hanged our God. Moreover [God] himself said: ‘The day will yet dawn when my children will come and avenge my blood. ‘ We are his children and it is our task to carry out his vengeance upon you, for you showed yourselves obstinate and blasphemous towards him . . . [God] has abandoned you and has turned his radiance towards us and has made us his own. ” (p70)

Hasan Yahya is a professor of sociology and a culumnist writer at worldfuture, Malaysia and TINA International News Agency, Chicago.