why matamoros, crusades

[Karen Mallory]

And, as recently as October,  the American troops were doing what? to
Islamic prisoners?????  I think, historically,  it has gone both ways.

----- Original Message -----
From: "claudia castellani" <claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM>
To: <GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 9:52 AM
Subject: Re: why matamoros, crusades


> I sincerely admire your courage for sustaining such non
politically-correct
> views!
>
> In Otranto cathedral, Salento (South of Italy), there is one altar built
> with the bones of 800 innocent people slaughtered by muslim pirates during
> their very frequent pillages of Italian coast cities. Men, women and
> children were regularly kidnapped and sold in the Middle-East
slave-markets,
> thousand of people were slaughtered every year, and commerce in the
> Mediterranean rapidly diminished, causing economic recession. It is not by
> chance that Columbus discovered America after the Crusades and immediately
> after the Spanish Reconquista. In 1492 the last city hold by Muslims -
> Granada - was re-conquered by the Spanish and in that same year America
was
> discovered.
> A Bulgarian friend of mine told me that after the continuous attacks by
> Muslims and Turks - who used to impale "the unfaithful" - the Bulgarian
> authorities were obliged to call immigrants from nearby countries to
> re-populate entire regions of Bulgaria, as people there had been
> .....completely destroyed.
>
> I have often tried to remind these "uncomfortable" and "politically
> uncorrect" historical truths when talking to my friends or acquaintances,
> but when I realized the extent to which historical truth has been
distorted
> in our Western minds during the last 200 years, I stopped even trying to
> convince them. I may seem too pessimistic, but I think it is useless
trying
> to awake the West (I am talking about Europe which I know very well. I
> cannot speak for other Western countries) if the West refuses to see the
> truth!
>
> The problem is that this lack of memory of our past has created a new
"false
> truth" which has now become the Official Politically-Correct History of
the
> West. Basing itself on this invented history, the West (Europe) has
started
> feeling superior to the non-European Western countries and cultures but
> utterly inferior and guilty towards the rest of the world.
>
> This newly created world history prevents us from deeply understanding the
> mentality of a Medieval Christian pilgrim (to Santiago, to Rome or to
> Jerusalem) who had no doubts about the basic truths of his life and, in
> particular, firmly believed Christianism to be the true faith. To avoid
> quarrels, I am only describing their mentality and not giving my own
> opinion. The Medieval history of the three rings, for example, shows
> candidly what they believed (three knights have three identical silver
> rings, which represent the three monotheistic religions, but one of them
is
> a golden ring.....).
> Trying to soften history (by censoring some parts of it because it can be
> too painful or too politically uncorrect) and cultural and artistic
> expressions in order to modernize them and make them more acceptable for
us,
> means we didn't grasp the history and - going back to our topic - the true
> historical meaning of the Camino.
>
> Claudia
>
>
>
>
> >From: m j anderson <mjayceeaWORLDNET.ATT.NET>
> >Reply-To: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
> >To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
> >Subject: Re: why matamoros, crudades
> >Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 07:18:54 -0400
> >
> >Karen Willmus wrote:
> >
> > > I'm a little surprised in this "Matamoros" discussion on a "Christian"
> >list
> > > that no one has brought up the obvious:
> > >
> > > Historical references such as the Matamoros, the Crusades, ... you
name
> > > it...are things that we as Christians should point out as examples of
> >how we
> > > sin --
> >
> >Some have pointed out that this is not a "Christian list" but isn't the
> >full
> >resonance of the Camino is missed if its Christian context is ignored,
> >reduced
> >to sentiment (rather than doctrine & action) or if its history is
rewritten
> >for
> >the comfort of modern seekers of all stripes?
> >
> >Below is a commentary on the crusades that I think is worth thinking
about.
> >The
> >Crusades were not wrong, though some individual crusaders were
> >dispicable---this
> >is the condition of humanity--in every grouping, there are good and bad
> >examples. But let us remember that the context of the crusades cannot be
> >discarded if one has a genuine desire to understand Camino history.
> >
> >Ultreya!
> >MJ Anderson
> >* *
> ................................
>
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