Not for two and a half centuries after the sacking of

Not
for
two
and
a
half centuries
after
the sacking of
Rome
did
the
counterattack
begin.
In 1095,
at
a
church
council
in
Clare-
mont,
France,
Pope
Urban
II
rose
to
preach
the
First
Crusade.
Its
goal:
Jerusalem
and
the
Holy Sepulcher
that
had
held
the
body
of
Christ.
"Those
who
deride
this as
a Christian objective
have
lived
too
long
in
books
and under
lamps,''
writes Catholic
historian
War-
ren
Carroll.
Real
men
and
women,
as distinct
from
scholarly
abstrac-
tions,
have
homes which
they
love.
Jesus
Christ
was
a real
man.
He
had
a
home.
He
loved
it.
His followers (and)
wor-
shipers
who came
after
Him
loved the land
and
places
He
had
loved
and
trod,
simply
because
He
had
loved
and
trod-
den
them.
Utterly
convinced
that
He
is
God,
they
could
not
believe
it
right that
any
people not recognizing
Him
as
God
should
rule his
homeland.
In 1099,
led
by Godfrey
of Bouillon
and
Raymond
of Toulouse,
the Crusaders captured
the
Holy
City.
Offered the
title
"King
of
Jerusalem,"
each
refused
to
wear
a
crown
of gold
in
the
city
where
Christ
had
worn
a
crown
of
thorns.
Muslims
regard the crusades
as
wars
of Christian aggression.
But
a majority
in
Palestine
was
probably
still
Christian
in
1095,
and had
as
much
right to
the
land
as their
conquerors. "[T]he
common
assumption
that the
Crusades were an
act
of
unprovoked
Christian aggression"
is
false,
writes
Carroll.
Before 1095,
*
all
the
aggression
had been Muslim.
The Muslims
were
the original
and
continuing
attackers
and
conquerors
of
Christian
territory."
The
First
Crusade was
"a just
war
conducted
for
a
deeply
spiritual
pur-
pose though
often
seriously
flawed
in
its
execution."

I
Is
Islam
the
Enemy?
[
67
]
If
Mecca
were
overrun
today
by
infidel
armies,
would
not
Mus-
lims
be
justified in
conducting
a jihad
to
liberate their
holy
city?
Would
devout
Muslims
be
ashamed
of
such
a war, or
apologize
for
having
waged
it?
No
RECORD
REMAINS
of Urban's epochal
address.
But
it is
said that
this
former
monk
from Cluny was
extraordinarily
elo-
quent
in his native
French
as
he
rallied
the
martial
spirit
of
his
au-
dience
to redirect
it
from
feudal
conflicts to a
nobler cause.
The
pope
spoke
of a holy
war
to
reunite Christians
and
recapture
a
land of milk
and
honey from
Seljuk
Turks
who
preyed
on
Christian
pilgrims.
Perhaps
Urban
saw
in
this
first
crusade
a
way
to
end
the
schism
that
had
lately
separated
the eastern
church from Rome.
To
all
Crusaders
who
died repentant.
Urban
offered
a
plenary
in-
dulgence.
When
he
finished speaking, the congregation stood
as
one
and
roared,
"Deus
vultl"
—
God
wills
it!
Volunteers
for
that
First
Crusade
far
exceeded
papal expecta-
tions.
Another view
of the
Crusades
is
held
by our
multicultural
elite,
who
charge
that these
were
wars
of
Christian
aggression
whose
signature
was
pillage
and
massacre.
Speaking
at
his
alma
mater,
Georgetown
University,
ex-President Clinton suggested
that 9/1
1
may
have
been payback
for
the crimes of
Godfrey
and
Raymond.