Mostly yes, but to be fair, the initial Crusades in particular had a lot more to do with war politics than religion - tho' in that era, in those cultures, there wasn't necessarily all that much difference between the two. The expanding empires of the southern Mediterranean coasts and middle east had made a lot of headway towards (and into) Europe, and while the various European armies and involved nations certainly had Papal blessing and encouragement, the opposite side generally had the same sorts of blessings. Then everybody has "god on their side" and nobody behaves well.
I'm not sure what my point is except that the Crusade terminology has come to mean essentially that one side was bad in behaviour and started it (European) and the otherside was peaceful and didn't do anything (Arabic/Persian/etc; all the middle easterners) which is, well, entirely not true. So I dislike/avoid the term as example. La la la.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-10-10 05:23 am (UTC)I'm not sure what my point is except that the Crusade terminology has come to mean essentially that one side was bad in behaviour and started it (European) and the otherside was peaceful and didn't do anything (Arabic/Persian/etc; all the middle easterners) which is, well, entirely not true. So I dislike/avoid the term as example. La la la.