The conflicts between Muslims and Christians

Student Name The Crusaders The conflicts between Muslims and Christians has been experienced for several decades. Recently, a militia group called the crusaders plotted to kill Somalian Muslim refugees who resided in an apartment in Garden City. The anti-Muslim group believed that they were responsible for protecting the American government from selling their country to Muslims. Despite stocking a large number of weapons and explosives for the attack, the group’s plans were stopped by federal agents who had been listening in and recording their plans. According to the federal agents, the militia group had planned on detonating a car bomb close to the apartment building, and shoot the Muslims with arrows dipped in pig’s blood. The group’s members believed that the acts were an act of cleansing, which focused on eliminating the Muslims who had moved into American soil and were becoming a threat to American society. However, efforts by the Crusaders to attack the Muslim refugees were futile since the group members were arrested and sentenced to 81 years in jail. Various characteristics of the militia group resemble that of the first Crusaders under the direction of popes, whereas other characteristics vary as discussed in the essay.  To begin with, both the militia group and crusaders initiated the attacks because of the fear of the spread of Islam. Before the initiation of the first crusade, the Byzantines began showing great concern about the increased popularity of the Moslem force, particularly across Persia. The growing popularity of the Moslem across Asia enabled the community to convert more Mongols, which threatened the Byzantine's control over their territory in Asia. Despite the conflicts mainly being based on territorial issues, the Europeans associated the spread of Moslems as having an impact on Christian pilgrimage, in order to get help from the West. As a result, Pope Urban reframed the extremist act against the Moslems as a war against the real enemy. Similarly, the militia that planned the attack on the Muslim refugees during the 2016 elections considered the war as a fight against Islam who had frustrated the Westerners for thousands of years. According to the manifesto drafted by the group’s leaders, Muslims have waged war against the west for a very long time, and this makes them the top enemies of the Americans. As a result, the group draws upon Pope Urban’s tactic in solving the issue of Islam in America. The two events also share similarities in terms of failed attempts. Although the crusader group led by Pope Urban managed to successfully take over Jerusalem in 1099, the group lost the city in 1187. Additionally, during the years between the formation in 1096 and 1291, the crusaders did not achieve the majority of their modest goals. Part of the reason for their failure was the ambiguous goals set by the group and lack of focus. For instance, the second crusader group began to engage in practices such as drinking and other forms of pleasure, which made them less focused on achieving their goal of conquering Moslem nations. Also, the Moslem groups and Europeans formed coalitions to defeat the second formation of crusaders, which resulted in a failed attempt to proclaim the Holy Land. Similarly, Jones explains that the militia claimed to get rid of Muslims in the country. However, the group planned to use traditional weapons and failed to carry out their plans in secret to avoid detection by the federal agents. Additionally, the group set ambiguous plans of getting rid of all Muslims in the state, which was difficult because the government was better positioned to stop their plans on killing the Muslims.    The two events also share similarities in the false promises and twisted ideologies that are spread by the leaders. During the first crusade, Pope Urban considered the attack on Moslems as a holy war. By terming the Moslems as infidels, Pope Urban associated the war as part of the Christian duty to uphold the Truce of God. The Pope believed that the war against Islam was necessary to end the war against Christians. Despite the fact that violence is hardly the right method of obtaining peace, the Pope encouraged the war based on the twisted notion of peace. Similarly, the Crusaders also had twisted ideas about the war against Islam. The group strongly believed that the attack on Muslims was necessary to save the American government from welcoming more Muslim immigrants into the country, who would heighten insecurities and bring chaos. According to the group’s belief, Muslims pose the highest threat to Western countries because of the consistent attacks carried out by Islamic extremists on American soil. As a result, similar to Pope Urban’s notion, the militia group believes that getting rid of Muslims in the country could increase security and solve the issue of religious warfare.        The two events also pose a similar idea of a non-Islamic west. Unlike other religions, Christianity is highly recognized and accepted in the West. In the West, particularly America, Christianity is regarded as a cultural possession of contemporary liberalism. This means that religion is an inheritance that is accepted even by those who do not believe its ideologies. The acceptance of Christianity in American society can be tied to its relationship with the secularized humanitarianism, which is common in the country since its system of correction is founded on the religio...