The Aggression upon ... the Jihad against ... Christendom has been the Way of the Muslim, dating back to 634 CE
Perhaps you remember. Barack Obama made it sound as if the Muslims were in Jerusalem, polishing their holy holy halos, when all of a sudden, these evil evil white guys in armor came riding into town ...
... as if no Christian had even been in Jerusalem before. Uhmmmm, Christianity, as was lead by Saint Peter, John, Matthew, and rest of the crew, began in Jerusalem.
Summary & Brief History
The reality is that Muslims were attacking Christian lands hundreds of years before the Crusades even began. Those centuries of Muslim Aggression were the one continuous reason for finally embarking on the Crusades, in the first place.
Christians were repeatedly the victims of the Muslims throughout the centuries. They had to fight back, being that, time after time, Muslims invaded their countries, even into the 1500s & 1600s. Barack Obama NEVER told you this. In fact, the Muslims pirated their ship, even in the 19th Century. This included American ships.
As far back as 711 AD (or CE), the Muslims attacked Catholic Spain. Then, for 700+ years they controlled the provinces of ~Almería, ~Cádiz, ~Córdoba, ~Granada, ~Huelva, ~Jaén, ~Málaga, and ~Seville. Spain was not fully liberated until 1492.
All in all, Christianity had to either counterattack the Muslim Aggressors or completely die. On occasion, they were given the opportunity to be those second class citizens, called Dhimmi, who had to pay a submission tax, called the Jizya. That was basically protection money and/or extortion. Sometimes, it was regarded as a tribute. It was forced upon Christians and other non-Muslims, under penalty of attack.
As another example early Muslim Aggression, the Muslims were violently trying to bring France into submission as far back as the 700s, while the land was called Aquitaine. Charles Martel ... the powerful Mayor of Paris ... saved Catholicism in Europe.
Let us start with the scorecards on the Islamic Invasion of Christian Lands which began hundreds of years before the Crusades and which did NOT cease to occur. The Muslim Religion ... aka Islam ... has been a Plague of Locusts for Christendom, from the start. The Muslim Religion is an anti-Christian religion, because it's "adherents" spent over 1,391 years trying to destroy Christianity in every way possible. For the Muslims, it was a matter of attack, attack, and keep on attacking.
2025 minus 634 = 1,391 years of Muslim Aggression.
This amounted to Killing for Allah.
Then there was the matter of Muslims invading Zoroastrian lands with full military attacks. That began in 633 AD. By 651, the Muslims had destroyed the Sasanian Empire of the ancient Iranians.
For those of you in disbelief, below is a more line-itemized reality.
In addition, it was in 846 AD (or CE) when Muslims attacked the outskirts of ROME. Then, in 902 CE (or AD), the Muslims successfully captured parts of Southern Italy and Sicily. In fact, the following events of the 10th Century show that the Muslims were never nice people who believed in the motto, "Live and let live." Their message was, "Submit or die." That's NOT nice.
In addition, the Muslims did fail to occupy Constantinople in 717 AD, but they finally conquered it in 1534 AD. As a result, Russians decided to build a new city, far away from the Muslims. The Russians called that city, the New Rome. That city is MOSCOW ... "Москва." It was named after the Moskva River.
Now, in the Year 1066, the Muslims invaded and conquered Toledo, SPAIN. Then came the Battle of Manzikert, in 1071, when the Muslims once again attacked a Christian land and occupied. This was in Southeastern Türkiye.
This triggered the need for some type of Crusade which was said to have begun in 1095 CE. The reality is that the successful Crusades began in 1085, when Catholic forces liberated Toledo SPAIN from Muslim rule. This is something that Barack Obama never told you, when he was damning Catholics. The Muslims invaded & attacked the Catholic lands first ... for hundreds of years.
In the late 11th Century, the long history of Muslim Expansion was thought to be taking its course back toward Greece. After all, the Muslims already successfully attacked Byzantine territories in Anatolia, in 634. They also conquered Cypress in 649.
Then, in 717, the Muslims placed Constantinople under siege. Yet, they failed. So, Greece ... aka Byzantium ... was still a target for the Muslims. In as much, there was a correct reason for Byzantine Emperor Alexios I to ask Pope Urban II for help, even though the Greek bishops and the Greek dioceses split from Rome in 1054. That split is called the Great Schism. Schism means "the scissoring."
Now, if you capture a staging area, you prevent a major invasion. So, the motive for the Crusades was to safeguard Greece. Thus, territories in the Middle East needed to be taken away from the Muslims. This included Jerusalem. After all, at one time, in centuries prior, Jerusalem was a part of the Byzantine Empire.
... to the shores of Tripoli
In the 1780s, as soon as America gained independence from England, Algerian Muslim pirates started boarding American ships, commandeering the ships, stealing property on board, and kidnapping Christian sailors and Christian passengers alike. At the time, America could only afford to attempt to resolve the ongoing assaults, by diplomacy.
Then came the Thomas Jefferson presidency, when North African Muslim pirates, under Muslims lords, kept pirating American ships and taking American hostages, some of whom became sex slaves. This resulted in the US Marines being sent to Northern African ... in 1805 ... to liberate the kidnap victims and to subdue the power of the Kingdom of Tripoli.
All in all, at the very beginning of the United States, it was being attacked by traditional MUSLIM AGGRESSION.
