SESSION 5: PART 5: JIHAD OR THE CRUSADES? TWO DIFFERENT HOLY WARS

 SESSION 5 

PART 5: JIHAD OR THE CRUSADES? TWO DIFFERENT HOLY WARS 

Chapter 17 "The First Crusade" 

1. How did President Bill Clinton advance the growing popular understanding of the (first) Christian Crusades to take back the holy land? 

2.Why was the 9/11 attack in 2001 a very difficult experience for patriotic American Muslims? 

3. Contrary to the popular view, how could Crusade scholar Thomas Madden write, "The crusades were in every way a defensive war"? 

4. Why does Nabeel confess, "Considering the historical realities, the common Muslim perspective of the Crusades-the perspective l inherited-is a modern invention"? 

Chapter 18 "Comparing the Traditions of the Founders" 

1. What did you think when Nabeel asked a Muslim friend at a conference in Washington, D. C. on July 4,2009,"So if we were in a Muslim country right now, would you kill me?" and the friend responded,"Yes, I would kill you right now. It is the command of the Prophet (SAW)"? 

2. Why does Nabeel write, "But in order to follow a peaceful Islam, one has to ignore or reject vast swaths of traditions from Muhammad's life as well as virtually the entire history of Islamic jurisprudence"? 

3.What was one of Augustine's contributions to the Christian understanding of war?

4. What do you learn when you contrast Muhammad and Jesus regarding the use of violence? 

Chapter 19 "Questioning Christian Peacefulness" 

1. What did Nabeel do in Hyde Park in 2009 when a Muslim man pushed a Mennonite woman's hand down as she was holding out the Bible? 

2. How did Nabeel's actions show him that "in a very microcosmic sense, defending victims with violence is a natural reflex. But throughout the Gospels, Jesus teaches us to forsake our natural inclinations for his otherworldly teachings"? 

3. Why does Nabeel write,"There is absolutely no room for exulting in violence for the follower of Jesus"?