Question

2. Again, using the textbook, discuss the impact of the Crusades on Muslim–Christian relations. 3. Discuss at some length the challenges of ‘modernity’ for some Islamic nations using the textbook.

Answer 1

1. The impact of the Crusades can be summarised in general terms as:

• an increased presence of Christians in the Levant during the Middle Ages.
• the development of military orders.
• a polarisation of the East and West based on religious differences.
• the specific application of religious goals to warfare in the Levant, Iberian peninsula, and Baltic region, in particular.
• the increased role and prestige of the popes and the Catholic Church in secular affairs.
• the souring of relations between the West and the Byzantine Empire leading, ultimately, to the latter’s destruction.
• an increase in the power of the royal houses of Europe.
• a stronger collective cultural identity in Europe.
• an increase in xenophobia and intolerance between Christians and Muslims, and between Christians and Jews, heretics and pagans.
• an increase in international trade and exchange of ideas and technology.
• an increase in the power of such Italian states as Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
• the appropriation of many Christian relics to Europe.
• the use of a religious historical precedent to justify colonialism, warfare and terrorism.

2. Muslim-majority societies and countries have been dealing with the challenges posed by modern values for more than a century now, and the increased levels of violence at this stage indicate how threatened adherents of fundamentalism and traditionalism feel, and how deep have been the inroads made by Muslims who have adopted the modernization agenda. This progress has been achieved despite tremendous setbacks, including the failure of liberalism and nationalism in the design of key states, and the rise of mafia-like regimes which, despite speaking the language of modernization at times, are more interested in transforming their countries into private fiefdoms than in real modernization or secularization as such.

Another complicating factor results from the intimate connection between modern values and Western culture. Indeed, considering the geographic and cultural realities surrounding the birth of modernity and liberalism, the process of modernization calls by its nature for a great degree of Westernization as well—a fact that unsurprisingly fosters certain feelings of resentment and inferiority among many Muslims, irrespective of their educational backgrounds. Politically, this situation has contributed to the unceremonious defeat of liberal forces at the hand of leftist and Islamist counterparts, both of which reject in their different ways modern liberal values.