re: The real hidden history of the blood thirsty spread of Islam in this world

Yeah, I gathered that. Thanks.

You are very welcome.

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And everyone of the regions I listed was taken with at least some battles, while the Germanic tribes were only pushed back and at times just beyond the Rhine

Yes but what does that have to do with Islam being a specifically nasty religious war causing religion?

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I think what he is saying is that Christianity was also mostly spread by the sword. There was no Christianity in Britain until the Romans conquered Britain and then became Christian.

The Christians usually did not resort to forcing individuals to convert at the point of the sword, but the area was Christianized due to invasions.

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blast Christendom for the crusades

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The crusades were just and right.

God bless the Crusades!

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It's never been really hidden.

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Its in the book, all out in the open and they speak openly about their intentions and purpose. I’ve never understood why the west pretends that Islam/muslims are capable of living side by side with non-Muslims.

I'm not going to argue his point, but forced conversion usually came right after big battles, but overall if you look nat the Levant and Egypt, there were always sizeable Christian minorities. Copts usually constituted about 20% of Egypt's population. In Lebanon Christians were the majority until 1975. Syria had a sizeable Christian population as well. Assad used to use them as political leverage....as a protector even.

Now, where they went overboard was in Persia where forced conversion of whole populations were the norm. In Asia Minor, the Turks begin a wholesale invasion of the place around 1100. Rape and pillaging was the norm. The Turks made the Arabs look like choir boys in that respect, especially the Seljuks.The Ottomans were pretty tolerant as it applied to their European subjects although there was some involved especially in the impressing of young men from noble houses from their vassal states. Ottomans in general became more interested in empire from a political standpoint. Example: Vlad the Impaler was brought up on the Ottoman court but never converted....although his brother did and Mehmet had no problem with it. Jews were the main guys in the Ottoman bureaucracy during the Ottoman empire and were not harassed much at all.

Byzantines were kind of the same way with conquered peoples. They very much wanted to convert them, but were kind of lenient with their foederati "mercenaries". They were less tolerant with heretics though. They HATED monophysites....although cut the Copts in Egypt a lot of slack.

The Islamic invaders were not good guys, but they were not as bad as suggested. The historical truth is more complicated.

I did not say they were anywhere close to angels. They weren't. But they did not involve themselves in intense forced conversion.

Islam was somewhat attractive to a lot of people in the Levant who did NOT live in cities like Antioch and Damascus. Christianity had a lot of b.s. involved with it and the Romans and Christianity become intertwined. Roman/Byzantines were not all that tolerant of their subjects converting from Christianity...hell, they weren't all that fond of heretics from the orthodoxy. Lot's of riots in places like Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria regularly....read about the Greens and the Blues. Read about what Justinian did to Pagans, Jews, Manicheans and other groups....he and other emperors did not broker error on a theological level. Justinian had no qualms about killing them.

Christians evolved to not be as cruel as the Muslims, but they could be pretty cruel. Where Christianity really excels though, even historically was with the role of women. High birth women had a lot of influence. Theodora was every bit the equal in terms of a forceful personality as Justinian was. Both tried to crack down on trafficking of women for prostitution, for example.

His book, Sword and Scimitar, is an excellent read. In case anyone is looking for a summer read.

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All the screaming about “white colonizers” while Islamic Arab conquest and colonialism gets a free pass.

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The Islamist came very close to conquering the entire Western Civilization. I listened to that whole podcast, and that guy knows his stuff and doesn't sugarcoat anything.