by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Hudson New York<\/em><\/p>\n In his manifesto, Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the Norway massacre, wherein some 80 people were killed, mentioned the Crusades and aspects of it as an inspirational factor. Predictably, Western elites \u2014 especially through the MSM \u2014 have begun a new round of moral, cultural, and historical relativism,some<\/a>\u00a0even conflating the terrorist with former President Bush, who once used the word “crusade.”<\/p>\n The fact is, there\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0important parallels between the Crusades and Breivik’s actions \u2014 but hardly the way portrayed by the media. Rather, this terrorist attack, like the historic Crusades themselves, was influenced by the very doctrine of jihad.<\/p>\n While some are cognizant that the Crusades were a retaliation to centuries of Muslim aggression (see Rodney Stark’s\u00a0God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades<\/em><\/a>), few are aware that the idea of Christian “holy war” \u2014 notably the use of violence in the name of Christianity and the notion that Crusaders who die are martyrs forgiven their sins \u2014 finds its ideological origins in Muslim jihad.<\/p>\n As historian\u00a0Bernard Lewis<\/a>\u00a0puts it, “Even the Christian crusade, often compared with the Muslim jihad, was itself a delayed and limited response to the jihad and in part\u00a0also an imitation<\/em>.” How? The popes offered forgiveness for sins to those who fought in defense of the holy Church of God and the Christian religion and polity, and eternal life for those fighting the infidel. These ideas \u2026 clearly reflect the Muslim notion of jihad, and are precursors of the Western Christian Crusade.<\/p>\n Still, Lewis makes clear some fundamental differences:<\/p>\n But unlike the jihad, it [the Crusade] was concerned primarily with the defense or reconquest of threatened or lost Christian territory.\u2026 The Muslim jihad, in contrast, was perceived as unlimited, as a religious obligation that would continue until all the world had either adopted the Muslim faith or submitted to Muslim rule.\u2026 The object of jihad is to bring the whole world under Islamic law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If the Crusades find their ideological origins in jihad, arguably, so too does much of modern day terrorism. For instance, the medieval Hashashin \u2014 archetypal terrorists who gave us the word “assassin” \u2014 were a Muslim sect that pioneered the use of fear and terrorism for political gain during the Crusading era (circa. eleventh-thirteenth centuries).<\/p>\n Because much of this is missed by the media, ironies abound. For example, many point to Breivik’s fascination with the Knights Templar, a Crusading order, as proof that he was motivated by the Crusades. Yet, as one\u00a0AP report<\/a>titled “Norway suspect wanted European anti-Muslim crusade” correctly asserts, “The Knights Templar was a medieval order created\u00a0to protect Christian pilgrims<\/em>\u00a0in the Holy Land after the First Crusade in the 11th century.”<\/p>\n How exactly a military order devoted to protecting Christians inspired someone to kill innocent children in Norway is left unanswered. As\u00a0one historian<\/a>\u00a0put it, the original Knights Templar, a “very devout people,” would be “horrified” to be associated with Breivik.<\/p>\n Even more ironic, the Knights and Crusaders in general were frequently on the receiving end of the Assassins’ terror; that is, far from being inspirations for terrorism, they bore the brunt of one of the earliest manifestations of Islamic terrorism.<\/p>\n In short, Breivik’s actions are more inspired by the Jihad than the Crusades, by the Assassins than the Templars, by al Qaeda \u2014 “which he cherishes great admiration for<\/a>” \u2014 than the IRA. Even CNN’s\u00a0Fareed Zakaria<\/a>\u00a0correctly states that in Breivik’s view, “the Knights Templar resembles nothing so much as al Qaeda.”<\/p>\n The parallels are evident: Medieval Europe, in an effort to retaliate to an expansionist Islam, articulated a means that was influenced by the jihad \u2014 “holy war,” the Crusades; today, modern Europeans like Breivik, in an effort to retaliate to an expansionist Islam, have articulated a means influenced by al Qaeda \u2014 jihadi-style terrorism.<\/p>\n Some may argue that there are non-Muslim terror groups for Breivik to draw inspiration from. Even so, in a globalized world where Islam has by far the lion’s share of terrorism \u2014 where nonstop images of jihadi terror have metastasized in the media, and thus the mind \u2014 it is clear where Breivik got his inspiration.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York In his manifesto, Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the Norway massacre, wherein some 80 people were killed, mentioned the Crusades and aspects of it as an inspirational factor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,99,230],"tags":[686,192,685,1015,1028,687,1044,30,684,162],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Dl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2676,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-history-channels-distortion-of-the-crusades\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":0},"title":"The History Channel’s Distortion of the Crusades","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch I\u00a0recently taped and am watching a documentary, \"The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross,\" on the History Channel. While it is more or less historically accurate \u2014 names, dates, figures \u2014 it suffers from two weaknesses, weaknesses that often take center stage whenever Islam is discussed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2494,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/oslo-and-the-dangers-of-moral-equivalence\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":1},"title":"Oslo and the Dangers of Moral Equivalence","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The revelation that the perpetrator of the terrorist attacks in Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik, is a self-described Christian and conservative is sure to provoke an outburst of the moral equivalence favored by apologists for jihadism. Ever since 9\/11, those unwilling to confront the theology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5475,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islamic-apologetics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":2},"title":"Islamic Apologetics","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ignore history and focus on platitudes of peace and love? by Raymond Ibrahim National Review Online Islamic apologist extraordinaire Karen Armstrong is at it again.\u00a0 In an article entitled \u201cBalancing the Prophet\u201d published by the Financial Times, the self-proclaimed \u201cfreelance monotheist\u201d engages in what can only be considered second-rate sophistry.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5495,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fighting-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":3},"title":"Fighting Faith","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Is Judeo-Christian violence the same thing as Islamic violence? by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Since the terrorist strikes of 9\/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered in defense of the religion.The fundamental premise of almost all of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11999,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/book-review-sword-and-scimitar-fourteen-centuries-of-war-between-islam-and-the-west-by-raymond-ibrahim-da-capo-press-2018-pp-297\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West by Raymond Ibrahim. Da Capo Press, 2018. Pp. 297","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please\u00a0read\u00a0this\u00a0book\u00a0review\u00a0from\u00a0my\u00a0colleague Terry Scambray \/\/ New Oxford Review Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West\u00a0by Raymond Ibrahim.\u00a0 Da Capo Press, 2018.\u00a0\u00a0 Pp. 297 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We judge individuals by what they say and what they do.\u00a0 We judge cults, religions and ideologies the same way; that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2648,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/are-judaism-and-christianity-as-violent-as-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":2439,"position":5},"title":"Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Middle East Quarterly\u00a0(Summer 2009) \"There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2441,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}