15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains….21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be…
Matthew 24
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, governments invested billions of dollars in pro-Islam messaging and propaganda, usually telling direct falsehoods about Islam, and creating a false image of Islam. Christianity in particular was blamed for the attack on the Twin Towers and of the worldwide surge of violence because we had not respected Islam, and we had a history of lack of worship respect for Islam, dating back to the Crusades. It pushed two messages: (a) it was our fault that Muslims were attacking people in the West, and (b) those doing the attacks weren’t true Muslims.
A school textbook, Humanities Alive 2, for Year 8 students in the Australian State of Victoria, carries the anti-Christian/anti Western argument further:
Those who destroyed the World Trade Centre are regarded as terrorists. Might it be fair to say that the Crusaders who attacked the Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem were also terrorists?
But it was all a lie. In reality, after the Dome of the Rock was completed, persecution against Christians intensified. This was prophesied by Jesus, that there would be a great tribulation after the Abomination of Desolation was set up in the holy place. Islam caused the Crusades by their extreme violence towards Christians and Jews. The Islamic persecution of Christians specifically, but of people generally has never been equalled in all history. Christians became almost non-existent in Islamic lands, but they were not wiped out entirely.
Michael the Syrian, the 12th century Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, reproducing earlier contemporary
sources in his famous ‘Chronicle’, summarised the prevailing conditions for Christians in Palestine, as
follows:
As the Turks [Muslims] were ruling the lands of Syria and Palestine, they inflicted injuries on Christians who went to pray in Jerusalem, beat them, pillaged them, levied the poll tax at the gate of the town and also at Golgotha and the [Holy] Sepulchre; and in addition, every time they saw a caravan of
The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam,1996, p. 292-293.
Christians, particularly of those from Rome and the lands of Italy, they made every effort to cause
their death in diverse ways. And when countless people had perished as a result, the kings and counts
were seized with [religious] zeal and left Rome; troops from all these countries joined them, and they
came by sea to Constantinople [First Crusade (1096-99)].
The first Crusade in 1095, 463 years after Muhammad’s death, was a response to the pleas of Christians in the Holy Land. The Christians, who had once been a majority now found themselves as oppressed minorities. Given that Muhammad died in the year AD 632, it is worthwhile looking at the intervening years to see how Christians, Muslims and Jews managed to peacefully co-exist.
Non-peaceful co-existance
As Muhammad lay on his death bed, he commanded his followers to expel non-Muslims from the Arabian Peninsular 1. No exception was made.
The Caliph Umar is famous for his Pact of Umar which details, amongst other things, instructions for
humiliating and degrading Christians and Jews if they refused to convert to Islam. The pact was based
on Sura 9:29 and 9:5, commands from Allah and his prophet Muhammad.2
‘Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya (protection money) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.’
Sura 9:29
‘Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.’
Sura 9:5
The states along the edge of the Mediterranean, from the death of Muhammad to the first Crusade, endured 463 years of bloody incursions by Muslim forces intent on booty (precious stones, metals and slaves), the spreading Islam and the destruction of churches and Christianity. They overran Syria, North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and most of Spain. They had regular incursions into France and Italy and much of the Adriatic.
Historian Dr Paul Stenhouse lists the following Muslim conquests prior the first Crusade in 10953.
Death of Muhammad (A.D. 632)
633 Mesopotamia Fell
635 Damascus
638 Jerusalem
645 Alexandra
649 Cyprus
673 Constantinople was attacked
693 Whole of Christian North Africa conquered
711 Invasion of Spain
721 Sargossa fell
732 Poitiers
734 Avignon
743 Lyons
813 Port of Rome was sacked
826 Crete (till 961)
837 Naples was sacked
838 Marseilles
842-859 Sicily
846 Rome was sacked again
870 Malta
223 years away from the first crusade
878 Syracuse fell (9 month siege; very few survivors)
889 Toulon (North Italy)
902 Sacked and destroyed Thessaly, in Central Greece
In 921 a large band of Englishmen, on pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles in Rome, were crushed to death under rocks rolled down on them by Saracens in the passes of the Alps.
935 Genoa was attacked
976 Fresh expeditions into Italy
1010 Cosenza (Southern Italy) fell
1015 Sardinia
In 1017, Mujahid bin ‘Abd Allah (Muslim ruler in Sardinia) sent the Pope a message saying he would attack in the Spring. Rather than waiting, the Pope took the battle to him and when Benedict arrived in Sardinia he found Mujahid crucifying Christians. Mujahid fled.
Up until now, there was no small or widespread revenge attacks on Islam. For 463 years, Christian city after Christian city was attacked, it’s citizens brutalised in unspeakable ways, sold into slavery, and it is only in AD.1095 that the first crusade is mounted.
As you can see, the notion that Christians, Jews and Muslims lived in harmony under Islamic rule is a
lie. This list is just a small sampling of events during the “Golden Age of Islam.” Muslims continued to battle non-Muslims after the first Crusade in 1095, culminating in the battle at the gates of Vienna in 1683. This shows how far the Muslim armies had advanced; they did not conquer these lands in peace; there was no peaceful coexistence. And even after the crusades stopped, Islam continued to genocide Christians throughout Islamic lands, even up to the Armenian genocide in Turkey immediately prior to the abolishment of Ottoman Empire.
The Caliph Umar instructed ’Arfajah, a commander in his army:
“Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept it from them, (assume their conversion is genuine) but those who refuse must pay the Jizya (poll tax) out of humiliation and lowliness. If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency. Fear God with regard to what you have been entrusted.”
The History of al Tabari, The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and the Conquest of Syria and Palestine (vol. 12). [2383] p.167.
Some peoples (such as the Christians in Egypt) did welcome the Muslim forces, for they saw them as
a better alternative to their Byzantine (Eastern Roman) oppressors. They were soon proved wrong. In
many places, the Jizya (protection money) payable by non-Muslims was up to 80% of their income
(Muhammad imposed 50% on many conquered peoples) and the Pact of Umar was enforced with
irregular brutality.
As previously mentioned, the first Crusaders were not bent on destroying Islam. They often passed
through Muslim territory and even provided armed escorts to Muslim traders because their goal was
to secure their Holy Sites in Jerusalem, not attack Islam. And although parts of the Crusades were
brutal and even severely criticised by Christians themselves, they did not match the ferocity that
Muslims had shown in the previous 500 years.
The Muslim armies were merely following Allah’s revelation that Islam will conquer all other religions 4. Christians had followed the example of Jesus, turning the cheek, until it became too much to bear.
Muhammad is well known as the ‘Prophet of the Sword’ (he fought and planed 81 battles) and commanded the use of the sword, forcing people to become Muslims, even though Allah hates people
who only pretend to be Muslim. Muslim armies killed and conquered in obedience to Allah and the
Qur’an; Christians killed and attacked in disobedience to Jesus.
Ironically, the first crusade is widely regarded as the only successful crusade. All the others were deemed failures, some not even reaching the holy land.
This is not to suggest that what the crusaders did was always good; the crusades even turned against anyone not Catholic. The saying “kill them all and let God sort them out” was said by a monk at the massacre of Béziers (in France) in 1209. It justified the massacre of Catholics sheltering in churches, by Catholics. This massacre wasn’t against Muslims and the crusade was confined to small areas of southern France.
This post is one of a larger explanation of the Tribulation Islam brought on the world and Christians in particular. Soon there will be a post about Islam’s treatment of Christians and how it meets the criteria of the Great Tribulation.