The Guardian (London)
November 25, 2006 Saturday

Crusades to Bin Laden: Explainer Islam v Christianity

The Christian-Muslim faultline first opened up in the decades
following the founding of Islam in the seventh century, with
conflicts in Spain and France in 722 and 732. The crusades were
launched in the 11th century by western Christians in an attempt to
curtail the spread of Islam and to take control of the Holy Land. By
then Muslims had conquered two-thirds of the ancient Christian world.

Pope Urban II called for the first crusade at the Council of Clermont
on November 18 1095 after the Seljuk Turks had taken control of
Jerusalem. Two centuries of conflict followed in which parts of the
Holy Land alternated between Christian and Muslim control.

The last of these crusades in 1291 ended in defeat for the Christians
with the expulsion of the Latin Christians from Syria. After 1291,
campaigns by Christians against Muslims continued but began to wane
by the 16th century as papal authority declined. This period saw the
fall of Constantinople in 1453, where the forces of Mehmed II wrested
control of the city from its Byzantine rulers.

Conflicts have continued into the 20th century and include the
killing of 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Turkish
authorities between 1915 and 1923. In his messages Osama bin Laden
refers to western-led conflicts in the Middle East as a
"Zionist-Crusader war against Islam". In 2000 Pope John Paul II,
sought forgiveness for all the past sins of the church, including the
crusades.