A Comparison of the History of Islamic Jihad vs. the History of the Christian Crusades

This video shows a timeline of battles fought and territory acquired by Islam from 620 – 1880, and it also shows the same type of battle and territory timeline for the Christian Crusades which lasted from 1080 – 1100.

The video shows that the Crusades were a relatively minor occurrence compared to the overall Islamic expansion since Muhammad’s death.

The following is a partial transcript from the video:

“Now we can talk about some facts.  Yes, there were Crusades, but they ended centuries ago, but Jihad is being practiced today.  Jihad has been with us for 1,400 years.  There is no comparison between Jihad and the Crusades, certainly not a moral comparison.  And when you are looking at Crusades, remember in one sense all crusades were defensive wars.  Why?  As we saw in the first Jihad map, it was Islam that came out of Arabia and conquered the middle east— a Christian middle east.  And so the Crusaders were trying to free their Christian brothers and sisters from Jihad.  So there is no moral comparison at all.  The motivation of the Crusaders was to free Christians, and the purpose of Jihad was to enslave the Kaffir.  So the next time you hear someone talk about those ‘dreadful Crusades’, you’ve seen some facts about the matter.  Why don’t you pipe up and tell them, ‘you know, you don’t really know the matter’.”

This list of battles is linked to on the video page.

Also see this article about the issue.