Religious Comparison of Christianity and Islam
Religious Comparison of Christianity and Islam
You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and Kosovo were all about. That conflict proved that the war between Christianity and Islam has never ended. Over the ages, it simply took on different forms.
Because we live in such a highly secularized society, we cannot believe that America could ever become involved in a religious war in this day and age. Yet ferocious religious wars have been going on all over the place: in Northern Ireland, Israel, the Balkans, the Sudan and Russia. But history is a very harsh taskmaster and refuses to let us Americans escape into our secular fantasies and hot houses for long.
Thus, it is vitally important for us to reconnect with the human race's never-ending history of religious struggle. That a group of Islamic terrorists, living in a remote, war-torn, famine-ridden, hell-hole in Asia could organize the kind of mind-boggling attack against America that took place on Sept. 11, means that America is not only not exempt from history, but has been dragged kicking and screaming back into the middle of it.
Back in 1588, Christopher Marlowe, master of historical drama, wrote his famous Tamburlaine 2. In it, there is a fascinating scene in which the Christian King Sigismund of Hungary and Orcanes, the Muslim King of Natolia, both former enemies, decide to establish peace between them in order to join forces to defeat Tamberlaine the Great, the cruel, pagan conqueror of Asia.
Both men confirm their commitment with an oath. King Sigismund vows: "By Him that made the world and sav'd my soul, The Son of God and issue of a maid, Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest and vow to keep this peace inviolable!"
King Orcanes vows: "By sacred Mohamet, the friend of God, Whose holy Alcoran remains with us, Whose Glorious body, when he left the world, Clos'd in a coffin mounted up the air, and hung on stately Mecca's temple-roof, I swear to keep this truce inviolable!"
But as the story goes, it was King Sigismund who later broke the truce and was defeated and killed by the Muslims.
While the history of the struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of Europe was for a time settled after the Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, and driven back from the gates of Vienna to Asia and Africa, the Islamic enclaves that remained...