In the interests of a fair and balanced debate perhaps mention should be made of the atrocities carried out by Christians against Muslims.
The “Holy” Crusades spring to mind.
In the interests of a fair and balanced debate perhaps mention should be made of the atrocities carried out by Muslims against Christians during their despotic conquests:
c. 620-32 AD Mohammed starts Islam, raids Meccan caravans
632 – Mohammed dies
633 – Mesopotamia falls to Muslim invasion, followed by the entire Persian Empire
635 – Damascus falls
638 – Jerusalem capitulates
643 – Alexandria falls, ending 1,000 years of Hellenic civilization
648-49 – Cyprus falls
653 – Rhodes falls
673 – Constantinople attacked
698 – All of North Africa lost
711 – Spain invaded
717 – Muslims attack Constantinople again; repelled by Emperor Leo the Isaurian
721 – Saragossa falls, Muslims sights on southern France
720 – Narbonne falls.
732 – Bordeaux was stormed and its churches burnt down
732 – Charles Martel and his Frankish army defeat Muslims in October, turning back the Muslim tide
732 – Attacks on France continued
734 – Avignon captured by an Muslim force
743 – Lyons sacked
759 – Arabs driven out of Narbonne.
838 – Marseilles plundered
800 – Muslims incursions into Italy begin, Islands of Ponza and Ischia plundered
813 – Civitavecchia, the port of Rome sacked
826 – Crete falls to Muslim forces
827 – Muslim forces begin to attack Sicily.
837 – Naples repels a Muslim attack
838 – Marseilles taken
840 – Bari falls
842 – Messina captured and Strait of Messina controlled
846 – Muslims squadrons arrived at Ostia, at the Tiber’s mouth, sack Rome and St. Peter’s Basilica
846 – Taranto in Apulia conquered by Muslim forces
849 – Papal forces repel Muslim fleet at the mouth of the Tiber
853-71 – Italian coast from Bari down to Reggio Calabria controlled, Muslims terrorize Southern Italy.
859 – Muslims take control of all Messina
870 – Malta captured by the Muslims.
870 – Bari recaptured from the Muslims by Emperor Louis II
872 – Emperor Louis II defeats a Saracen fleet off Capua
872 – Muslim forces devastate Calabria
878 – Syracuse falls after a nine-month siege
879 – Pope John VIII forced to pay tribute of 25,000 mancuses (AUD$625,000) annually to the Muslims
880 – Byzantine Commanders gain victory over Saracen forces at Naples
881 – Muslims capture fortress near Anzio, plunder surrounding countryside with impunity for forty [40] years.
887 – Muslim armies take Hysela and Amasia, in Asia Minor.
889 – Toulon captured
921 – English pilgrims to Rome crushed to death under rocks rolled down on them by Saracens in the passes of the Alps
explain why Muslims were in the Alps at all]
902 – Muslim fleets sacked and destroyed Demetrias in Thessaly, Central Greece,
904 – Thessalonica falls to Muslim forces
915 – After three months of blockade, Christian forces victorious against Saracens holed-up in their fortresses north of Naples
934 – Genoa attacked by Muslim forces
935 – Genoa taken
972 – Saracens finally driven from Faxineto
976 – Caliphs of Egypt send fresh Muslim expeditions into southern Italy. Initially the German Emperor Otho II , who had set up his headquarters in Rome, successfully defeated these Saracen forces
977 – Sergius, Archbishop of Damascus, expelled from his See by Muslims
982 – Emperor Otho’s forces ambushed and his army defeated
1003 – Muslims from Spain sack Antibes
1003-09 – Marauding bands of Saracens plunder Italian coast from Pisa to Rome from bases on Sardinia
1005 – Muslims from Spain sack Pisa
1009 – Caliph of Egypt orders destruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the Tomb of Jesus
1010 – Saracens seize Cosenza in southern Italy.
1015 – All Sardinia falls
1016 – Muslims from Spain again sack Pisa
1017 – Fleets of Pisa and Genoa sail for Sardinia, find Saracens crucifying Christians, drive Saracen leader out. Saracens try to re-take Sardinia until 1050
1020 – Muslims from Spain sack Narbonne
1095 – The First Crusade.
Ref:
answering-islam.org.uk/Green/crusades-stenhouse.htm
This is what Muslim conquerors did. They had no right to invade lands that had been Christian for hundreds [in some cases 1,000] of years. Take Spain and France for example. Christians “lived on it and had a common identity” < – [The Muslim test]. So what makes Muslims right and Christians wrong? Christians had the land before the Muslims invaded. If we apply the Muslim test, Islam can claim no land outside Medina because it is the only place Mohammad was accepted without force.
And I am so glad you brought up the Crusades. The 463 years that elapsed between Muhammad’s death and the calling of a Crusade to free the Holy Places was not, as Islam apologists would have us believe, a time of “peaceful co-existence” between Muslims and European or Byzantine Christians. Nor was it, for Christians living in Muslim-occupied territories. They enjoyed “peace” only by keeping the lowest possible profile, paying the jizya, and accepting non-person status in lands that had been Christian before the Muslim invaders arrived. Conquered peoples converted, lived as dhimmis, or were slain. If the Christian [or Jew] under Islamic rule could no longer pay the jizya, Muslims could resume jihad against him.
These events show that Islam did not spread by Muslim missionaries knocking on doors, handing out pamphlets, nor preaching from street corners. It spread by brutal conquest. Yet, Muslims continue to deny these events even occurred.
All in the name of Jesus apparently.
To the extent that Crusaders committed “attrocities”, they did so
contrary to the teachings of Jesus; Muslim conquerors always act
in imitation of their “perfect” example of Islam’s founder Mohammed so they can gain “paradise” in the next life.
