The history of Christianity and Islam has been a uniquely bloody one.
It began, I suppose, as all blood-feuds do: with an injustice.
By 400 A.D., the Roman Empire, in the throes of self-destruction, had become the Holy Roman Empire, split into two kingdoms--the West (what most of us today call Western Europe) which was under the authority of Rome . . . and the East (which included large swaths of the Middle East, the Crimea, and what we today call Eastern Europe) which was under the authority of a city called Byzantium. (This is the Byzantium for which the "Byzantine" Empire, as the East came to be called, was named.)
In the 400's, the West ceased to exist, as wave after wave of barbarian conquests swallowed whole provinces, and even Rome itself. In the East, however, the Empire remained relatively secure, perhaps because the mountains of the East made it harder (but not impossible) to invade. During the 500's, as the West subsided into an ever-shifting mass of Germanic kingdoms, the East managed to survive, flourish, and even (for a time) to expand.
It was within this historical backdrop that Islam came into being.
Arabs, once dominated by Christian/Roman overlords, became in the 600's a military force capable of acquiring territory and establishing kingdoms. They focused their attention on the Middle East, then northern Africa, then . . . Western Europe.
In the 700's, Western Europe was introduced to Islam for the first time--a movement of armies and languages alien to the newly Christianized kingdoms that had arison in the ruins of the Roman West . . . a movement that conquered what we today call Spain. After conquering Spain, the adherents of Islam attempted to force their way across the Pyrenees and into the heart of what we today call France--and in a historic battle that shaped the course of European history, they were repulsed.
Christian Europe saw Muslims as invaders, as threats, and what began in the wake of a battle that brought King Charlemagne to power, established the borders of what we call France, and saw the rebirth of what became known as the Holy Roman Empire (eventually to be called Germany) was a struggle for self-preservation of savage proportions. It played itself out in the consolidation of powers and principalities into large kingdoms and monarchies, in the constant defense of France's western borders, and in the interest that European nobles and clergymen began to have in the affairs of the slowly decaying East/Byzantine Empire.
In the late 1000's, after the Roman church had split from the church in Byzatium/Constantinople (later to be called the Eastern Orthodox Church), Christianity began its own offensive against Islam--the Crusades. These Crusades were largely successful only in shedding a lot of blood, establishing a weak (and eventually failed) state in Palestine, and keeping European nobles and monarchs from killing each other, but they also had more immediate conwequences in Europe--the "reconquest" of Spain as a Christian kingdom.
When the energy of the Crusades faded, the Muslims, under the authority of the Ottoman (Eastern) Turks, waged their own counter-offensive, with even more far-reaching consequences for Europe and the Middle East. Austria became the universally acknowledged bulwark against Turkey (eventually becoming the Austria-Hungary of World War I), and even though most of Spain had been "reconquered" by 1492, the fall of Byzantium/Constantinople to the Turks 39 years earlier assured that Europeans (and Christianity) would still see Islam as a threat and an invader--only this time, on their eastern borders.
In the 20th century, the dominance of Islam over Eastern Europe (at least militarily) was broken--by the fall of Turkey in World War I. The emergence of secular governments in the Middle East seemed to finally bring an end to the conflict between Christianity and Islam.
However . . . it did not.
Ladoes and gentlemen, I recite all of this history to say that I am embarassed at the conduct of Christians toward Islam and toward Muslims. It is nothing short of reprehensible that people who believe in a God-made-flesh who said things like "Turn the other cheek" and "Love your enemies" would donate only 1% of their missions/outreach efforts to the Middle East, and at the same time revel in the manufacture of guns, bombs, and tanks that are seen in the streets of Baghdad every day. And although I am not Catholic, I was personally embarassed not only by the Pope's recent comments on Islam but also by his inability to understand the need to apologize for those comments.
I have a news flash for all of you out there who are rooting for our military and echoing the sentiments of conservative Christian writers who portray the "War on Terror" as a war between diametrically opposed belief systems: Christianity and Islam have in fact been at war with each other for 1300 years, and neither has been able to "win" over the other by force.
Nothing I have seen in the past 6 years leads me to believe that situation is going to change.
It began, I suppose, as all blood-feuds do: with an injustice.
By 400 A.D., the Roman Empire, in the throes of self-destruction, had become the Holy Roman Empire, split into two kingdoms--the West (what most of us today call Western Europe) which was under the authority of Rome . . . and the East (which included large swaths of the Middle East, the Crimea, and what we today call Eastern Europe) which was under the authority of a city called Byzantium. (This is the Byzantium for which the "Byzantine" Empire, as the East came to be called, was named.)
In the 400's, the West ceased to exist, as wave after wave of barbarian conquests swallowed whole provinces, and even Rome itself. In the East, however, the Empire remained relatively secure, perhaps because the mountains of the East made it harder (but not impossible) to invade. During the 500's, as the West subsided into an ever-shifting mass of Germanic kingdoms, the East managed to survive, flourish, and even (for a time) to expand.
It was within this historical backdrop that Islam came into being.
Arabs, once dominated by Christian/Roman overlords, became in the 600's a military force capable of acquiring territory and establishing kingdoms. They focused their attention on the Middle East, then northern Africa, then . . . Western Europe.
In the 700's, Western Europe was introduced to Islam for the first time--a movement of armies and languages alien to the newly Christianized kingdoms that had arison in the ruins of the Roman West . . . a movement that conquered what we today call Spain. After conquering Spain, the adherents of Islam attempted to force their way across the Pyrenees and into the heart of what we today call France--and in a historic battle that shaped the course of European history, they were repulsed.
Christian Europe saw Muslims as invaders, as threats, and what began in the wake of a battle that brought King Charlemagne to power, established the borders of what we call France, and saw the rebirth of what became known as the Holy Roman Empire (eventually to be called Germany) was a struggle for self-preservation of savage proportions. It played itself out in the consolidation of powers and principalities into large kingdoms and monarchies, in the constant defense of France's western borders, and in the interest that European nobles and clergymen began to have in the affairs of the slowly decaying East/Byzantine Empire.
In the late 1000's, after the Roman church had split from the church in Byzatium/Constantinople (later to be called the Eastern Orthodox Church), Christianity began its own offensive against Islam--the Crusades. These Crusades were largely successful only in shedding a lot of blood, establishing a weak (and eventually failed) state in Palestine, and keeping European nobles and monarchs from killing each other, but they also had more immediate conwequences in Europe--the "reconquest" of Spain as a Christian kingdom.
When the energy of the Crusades faded, the Muslims, under the authority of the Ottoman (Eastern) Turks, waged their own counter-offensive, with even more far-reaching consequences for Europe and the Middle East. Austria became the universally acknowledged bulwark against Turkey (eventually becoming the Austria-Hungary of World War I), and even though most of Spain had been "reconquered" by 1492, the fall of Byzantium/Constantinople to the Turks 39 years earlier assured that Europeans (and Christianity) would still see Islam as a threat and an invader--only this time, on their eastern borders.
In the 20th century, the dominance of Islam over Eastern Europe (at least militarily) was broken--by the fall of Turkey in World War I. The emergence of secular governments in the Middle East seemed to finally bring an end to the conflict between Christianity and Islam.
However . . . it did not.
Ladoes and gentlemen, I recite all of this history to say that I am embarassed at the conduct of Christians toward Islam and toward Muslims. It is nothing short of reprehensible that people who believe in a God-made-flesh who said things like "Turn the other cheek" and "Love your enemies" would donate only 1% of their missions/outreach efforts to the Middle East, and at the same time revel in the manufacture of guns, bombs, and tanks that are seen in the streets of Baghdad every day. And although I am not Catholic, I was personally embarassed not only by the Pope's recent comments on Islam but also by his inability to understand the need to apologize for those comments.
I have a news flash for all of you out there who are rooting for our military and echoing the sentiments of conservative Christian writers who portray the "War on Terror" as a war between diametrically opposed belief systems: Christianity and Islam have in fact been at war with each other for 1300 years, and neither has been able to "win" over the other by force.
Nothing I have seen in the past 6 years leads me to believe that situation is going to change.
posted by Brian Bly at 8:20 AM
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