Okay so this week was a mental rollercoaster for me when digging into chapters 11-13. Not only did my trust for Karen Armstrong's unbiased analysis waver strongly but my affection for the Christian religion has fallen to an all-time low upon reading about the treachery of the Crusaders and their war on religion that they brought to the Middle East. In other news, Muslims are awesome!!
Not too far into chapter 11, Ms. Armstrong presents the reading audience with a statement, "Not only was Muhammed a spiritual genius, he had political gifts of a very high order." Wait a minute is she actually speaking highly about a prophet? Jewish figures like Abraham and Moses reap no favorable attention in the earlier chapter "Israel" and Jesus, symbol of the Christians, is presented worse with words such as "provocative" and "apocalyptic" followed by her conclusion at his death, "that should have been teh end of that matter." Personally, I am catching some undertones that she is biased in her attempt to show other Christians what she has discovered on her journey away from sisterhood. And even though I find that this is needed especially in the United States' Christian-dominated society, for this reason I also cannot call her unbiased.
Yet, these feelings of an unbalanced writing style were slightly reversed in the next chapter when she recites an acount of Muqaddasi. She talks about how he writes of Jerusalem as beautiful, intellectuallty stimulating, and almost paradise... yet, she points out that he is a little off in his synopsis saying that some places were filthy, expenses were heavy, and the "Christians rude." Although she continues to belittle the Christians, it shows me that she really is doing her research in checking her sources before she includes them as 100% accurate. This is nice.
Surprise, surprise! Yet another chapter where Armstrong bashes the Christians of this era. But seriousldoes anyone disagree with her questionable outlook on the Christian faith upon reading this chapter? It makes me sick to even call myself a Westerner after learning about the ethnic and religious cleansing that they fullheartedly engaged in. Why haven't the Muslims and Jews of today directed more of their anger towards the Christian sector of Jerusalem? Once again though kudos to the Muslims who have been generally very moderate during their reign over Jerusalem. I am starting to see why many of the Muslims of today could be defenisve of their territory because of how they have been treated in the past.
Yeah Rob, i talked about my disagreement in choosing the word "crusaders" because Christianity about peace and loving, and for foreigners to declare war on certain population at a specific region in the name of the Christ or the Cross is not acceptable.
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