The tension between the Islamic world and Western civilization was not a spontaneous incident. Rather, it would be a series of developments spanning the length of nearly an entire millennia which would eventually form today’s crisis between the Western world and the Middle East. In this presentation, I will share the key developments over history in this ongoing crisis crisis.
The concept of wars fought over differences in religion, or holy wars, is not a particularly new idea. Since the dawn of time, various groups with opposing viewpoints have commonly struggled to spread their own influence over each other. Such examples of holy war include the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and of course, the highly controversial “modern-day” jihad. …show more content…
The preeminent motive of the First Crusade was to reclaim the Holy Land of Jerusalem from Turkish Muslims.
The crusaders were successful in this aspect, yet in the process massacred vast numbers of Muslim and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem. As you may imagine, this did not fare so well with the Muslim community.
Continuing on our timeline, we arrive at the period of the roots of the Spanish Reconquista in the 8th century. Called the “reconquest”, the motive of the Reconquista was to oust the Muslim Moorish rulers from Spain and restore the Iberian peninsula to Christian rule.
Shortly after the successful Reconquista, the newly consolidated Christian kingdom initiated the Spanish inquisition in the 15th century, During this period, Muslims as well as Jews were forced to either leave Spain or convert to Christianity.
Skipping ahead, After the defeat of the Central Powers in WWI, parts of the Ottoman Empire were taken over by the French and the British. The boundaries of the newly formed French and British territories, called “mandates,” were poorly drawn without regard to differences in ethnicity and religion of the colonized
The concept of wars fought over differences in religion, or holy wars, is not a particularly new idea. Since the dawn of time, various groups with opposing viewpoints have commonly struggled to spread their own influence over each other. Such examples of holy war include the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and of course, the highly controversial “modern-day” jihad. …show more content…
The preeminent motive of the First Crusade was to reclaim the Holy Land of Jerusalem from Turkish Muslims.
The crusaders were successful in this aspect, yet in the process massacred vast numbers of Muslim and Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem. As you may imagine, this did not fare so well with the Muslim community.
Continuing on our timeline, we arrive at the period of the roots of the Spanish Reconquista in the 8th century. Called the “reconquest”, the motive of the Reconquista was to oust the Muslim Moorish rulers from Spain and restore the Iberian peninsula to Christian rule.
Shortly after the successful Reconquista, the newly consolidated Christian kingdom initiated the Spanish inquisition in the 15th century, During this period, Muslims as well as Jews were forced to either leave Spain or convert to Christianity.
Skipping ahead, After the defeat of the Central Powers in WWI, parts of the Ottoman Empire were taken over by the French and the British. The boundaries of the newly formed French and British territories, called “mandates,” were poorly drawn without regard to differences in ethnicity and religion of the colonized