Crusaders were Christian Extremists

Today Bill O'Reilly had a confrontation with the women from the TV show The View. While on the show promoting his book Pinheads & Patriots Mr. O'Reilly mentioned that it was Muslims who attacked us on 9/11. This drove Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar to angrily storm off the stage. The reasoning behind their anger was that Mr. O'Reilly did not specify that the attacks were done by extremists. They felt that he was painting all Muslims with the guilt of 9/11. In his defense, Mr. O'Reilly stated that 10 years after the attacks we should no longer have to specify that the attackers were "extremists."


This event has led me to ask one question. If we have to call the attackers of 9/11 "Muslim extremists," then why aren't the crusaders called "Christian extremists?" For nine centuries now Christians have had to bear the guilt of atrocities that were done by a few Christians. Additionally, it is common for Muslims to cite the Crusades in order to justify their hatred of Christians and Westerners. In fact, Muslim extremists believe that they are just revenging what was done to their ancestors during the Crusades. It is common for even moderate Muslims living Christian countries in use the atrocities of the Crusades in order to gain sympathy for their causes. It has also been used to eliminate or reduce Christian influence in those countries. For example, the soccer team Inter-Milan was threatened with a lawsuit by Muslims because the team’s jerseys reminded them of the uniform the crusaders used to wear. In England, is prohibited in some situations to wear the national symbol, the St. George's Cross, because England's Muslim population see it as a symbol of the Crusades. So here we are 900 years after the last Crusade and Christians are still being blamed for the actions of what were Christian extremists.

Now it can be argued that it was all of Christianity because the Crusades were called for by the Pope and other Christian leaders. But this argument can also apply for the 9/11 attacks. It cannot be denied that for at least three decades many Islamic leaders have called for a Jihad agianst the West.  Most terrorist attacks in Western Europe were in response to those calls.  Additionally, it must be recognized that the Crusades occurred during an era when kings had absolute rule over their subjects. So although many of the knights who led the Crusades were volunteers the average Christian soldier was often conscripted off of the estate the knight belonged to. This is quite contrary to today's Muslim extremists who kill by their own volition. It is true that the crusaders did receive support from the Christian nations of Western Europe but so did the 9/11 attackers. While Afghanistan was their home base, the majority of the attackers were Saudis and it is not implausible that their organization, Al Qaeda, did not receive financial and/or the logistical support from Iran, Syria, and others.

So if political correctness means that we must specify that it was Muslim extremists who attacked us on 9/11, then we should demand that Muslims and their multiculturalists allies stop referring to the crusaders as Christians. We should demand that they start using the term "Christian extremists" and that they shall no longer force the Christians of today to pay for the crimes Christian extremists committed over nine centuries ago.