Map Above: Europe and North Africa and the Middle East (all Christian) in 600 AD (before Islam). What alternative history might have happened if Islam had never been invented?
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I am opposed to all wrongful killing and oppression carried out for religious or secular reasons. However, because of “the fall” described in Genesis 3, I am not surprised by evil. What does surprise me is the grace of God and his loving-kindness and patience in dealing with sinners like me, and those who commit the most horrific crimes in the name of “Christianity” and other religions or secular belief-systems.
RELIGIOUS KILLINGS:
These include the inquisition, the crusades, the Muslim wars of religious conquest, the Hindu and Muslim attacks during partition in India/Pakistan, the executions carried out by Thomas Moore, the Catholic fascist genocide in WWll Croatia, the burning of witches in America, 9/11, the genocide of Arminian Christians by the Turks in WW1, and the contemporary killings (and in some cases genocide) of Middle-eastern Christians by Muslims, particularly in Egypt and Iraq. (Do have a look at the excellent recent movie “The Promise” which is a love story set primarily in Turkey during the Arminian genocide).
SECULAR KILLINGS:
The greatest number of people murdered in all of History was by Non-Religious Secular leaders in the 20th century. Hundreds of millions of people were murdered. Both right-wing and left-wing secularism lead to more intolerance and murder than all religions killings put together. Hitler is the quintessential mass-murderer – but Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot (all left-wing) murdered for more people than Hitler. Hundreds of millions of people were murdered in the 20th century by secular states.
KILLINGS BY CRUSADES AND INQUISITIONS:
First we must note that the Crusades and Inquisitions were Roman Catholic, not Protestant. There has been no institutional killings by Protestants, who returned to the Bible (“Sola Scriptura”) during the corruption of the Roman church in the sixteenth century. Moreover, Elizabeth 1 of England, a Protestant, was the first European monarch to practice “religious toleration” of Jews and Roman Catholics. Roman Catholic countries were very reluctant to reciprocate religious toleration of Protestants.
How many Crusade and Inquisition Killings, all told? Nobody really knows. All the “experts” widely disagree. 1,000,000 says John Shertzer Hittell, “A Brief History of Culture” (1874) p.137: “In the two centuries of this warfare one million persons had been slain…”) 3,000,000 says John M. Robertson “A Short History of Christianity” (1902) p.278). The various conflicts spaned approx. 236 years. Many different armies, and populations were involved. But many modern scholars think that these high numbers are impossible. William D. Rubinstein summarizes the consensus of modern scholarship: “the number of victims of the Inquisition can easily be exaggerated. Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), a fierce enemy of the Inquisition, whose Critical History of the Inquisition of 1817–19 remains the most famous early work attacking everything connected with it, estimated the number of executions carried out during the whole of the period that the Spanish Inquisition existed, from 1483 until its abolition by Napoleon, at 31,912, with 291,450 “condemned to serve penances.” . . . Most recent historians regard even this figure as far too high (William D. Rubinstein, Genocide [Routledge, 2004], 34). Henry Kamen, is one of the leading authorities on the Spanish Inquisition. His work on The Spanish Inquisition is published by Yale University Press (Fourth Edition, 2014). Kamen’s research has led him to conclude: “We can in all probability accept the estimate, made on the basis of available documentation, that a maximum of three thousand persons may have suffered death during the entire history of the tribunal” (p. 253). Kamen’s estimates may be too low, but they represent the general perspective of contemporary scholars.
Modern historians also note that sixteenth-century Spain (during the height of the Spanish Inquisition) only had a total population of around 7.5 million people (cf. John Huxtable Elliott, Spain and Its World, 1500–1700 [Yale University Press, 1989], 223). Consequently, the notion that the Spanish Inquisition could be executing tens of millions of people during that same time period seems mathematically untenable.
KILLINGS BY ISLAM
These far exceed the mass-nudes of the Crusades and Inquisitions! Here is a quote, from the website listed below, which is historically accurate, and just about sums it up:
“First, let’s see how ignorant we are about the history of political Islam. How many Christians can tell you howTurkey or Egypt became Islamic? What happened to the Seven Churches of Asia mentioned in Paul’s letters? Find a Jew who can tell you the Jewish history of dhimmitude (second class citizens who serve Islam). What European knows that white women were the highest priced slaves in Mecca? Everyone knows how many Jews Hitler killed, but find an unbeliever who can tell you how many died in jihad over the last 1400 years.”
* “Jihad destroyed a Christian Middle East and a Christian North Africa. Soon it was the fate of the Persian Zoroastrian and the Hindu to be the victims of jihad. The history of political Islam is the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. Half of Christianity was lost. Before Islam, North Africa was the southern part of Europe (part of the Roman Empire). Around 60 million Christians were slaughtered during the jihadic conquest.
* Half of the glorious Hindu civilization was annihilated and 80 million Hindus killed. The first Western Buddhists were the Greeks descended from Alexander the Great’s army in what is now Afghanistan.
* Jihad destroyed all of Buddhism along the silk route. About 10 million Buddhists died. The conquest of Buddhism is the practical result of pacifism. Zoroastrianism was eliminated from Persia. The Jews became permanent dhimmis throughout Islam.
* In Africa over 120 million Christians and animists have died over the last 1400 years of jihad.
* Approximately 270 million nonbelievers died over the last 1400 years for the glory of political Islam. These are the Tears of Jihad which are not taught in any school.”
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For a comprehensive analysis on the comparison of Islam and Christianity, etc., see the website of Mark Humphries, Ph.d. Cambridge, who is an atheist and describes himself as follows:
Dr. Mark Humphrys
Irish academic and lecturer. PhD (Cambridge).
Occasional debater. Occasional Sunday Times column.
Atheist. Classic liberal. Pro-freedom of religion. Pro-free speech. Pro-freedom of sexuality.
Pro-West. Pro-Israel. Anti-jihad. Anti-sharia.
Pro-free market. Anti-communist. Anti-Corbyn.
Pro-interventionist. Neo-con. Anti-Trump.
End tyranny everywhere. End communism. End Islamic law.
http://markhumphrys.com/islam.killings.html#politicalislam
See Also: “1,400 Years of Christian/Islamic Struggle” – An Analysis by Richard C. Csaplar, Jr.
http://www1.cbn.com/churchandministry/1400-years-of-christian-islamic-struggle
