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Christian Jihad: Two Former Muslims Look at the Crusades and Killing in the Name of Christ | 
 enlarge | Author: Ergun Mehmet Caner
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $12.99
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 350995
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 2.8
ISBN: 0825424038
Dewey Decimal Number: 270.4
EAN: 9780825424038
ASIN: 0825424038
Publication Date: September 25, 2004
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Product Description
Two former Muslims examine the impact of Christian atrocities on modern personal and cultural interaction, question popular views of just war, and challenge us to face our past and redeem our future. (20060601)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Inaccurate research of the Crusades April 19, 2008
A. Solman (Europe)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Former Muslims Look at the Crusades and try to tell their story.
No such thing as Christian Jihad only Christian defence from Islamic aggression.We all now that Crusades have been reaction on Muslims killings
of many Christian pilgrims and aggression motivated by ambition for land in 11th century.Let's not forget that Spain had already been swept over by Islamic aggression by the time of the First Crusade..
 Christians VS. Christians March 21, 2008
Jae-cheon Jung (TX, USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Christian Jihad : unfinished tasks.
"Do not predict the ending from the beginning." It was true for this book I read. Yet found not only true for this book but for everything in nature we never know how God is going to use what and how the means for His purpose.
I started off thinking, `Isn't Crusade a history? Does it really have a valid story to tell more about it in retrospect for our age?' I was totally wrong it is not only containing the valid story but also the very task, which was misunderstood and thus miscarried in Jesus' own name, is still carried by so-called, we-Christians. And the retaliation from the opposite is definitely acting and reacting on behalf.
"Hoc est corpus meum." Today is the Good Friday. Remembering His sufficient blood shed and crucified body for the salvation of all. Although standing over the shoulders looking out is clear it must have been confusing to them even to the very early Church Fathers; while Tertullian said Christians to participate in the military is to have a dual citizenship, serving Ceasar with Christ. However Origen thought it can be a lawful thing, argued isn't the spiritual battle more brutal?
Some acts of your forefathers you hated often you realize that you eventually doing the same. Chapters two and onwards show that how Christians has been persecuted by different means, especially governments. And soon when the Constantine empire embraced Christianity; church-state oneness, no Christian found necessity of dying for their faith. Easy-believism came along.
"Deus Volt Deus Volt" This is one very thing really triggers my mind to look up the bible even in my day of my very life. So many times this has been used to justify their act and even more often used out of context. Unban II's fascinating preaching gathered all the troops to go for the Holy Land. How plausible it is. Yes, that's true I despise the liberal theology, not the men. Some little flaw or one little tiny chasm and even jot of tittle of compromise for God's truth and His true meaning background in professing the ultimate authority of the Scripture can really be spread into something you never intended. The brutality of the crusade made millennial impression about Christianity and even Bin Laden's speech makes so much sense and justice to the fanatics.
Yet it was interesting how the authors used Anabaptists as one of the attempt to recover form the wrong impression about easy believism and state-church brutality in sixteenth century. It just came short handed that time. (However we have many trained in that fashion in SWBTS so we still can have optimism in Him) The story goes on for the 150, 2,500 people who went on to the regions of those brutality of Crusades one millennium ago.
As finishing the book, I questioned what really Salvation is. How could all those brutality carried on in Jesus name and eventually one generation has to apologize for the act. Not saying they were all bad and we are all good. I am saying how can we please pursue the truth knowledge of the Gospel and bear the faith and keep the faith Jesus intended.
I want to conclude this review with one question. Tolerance and persecution are both two edged swords in my perspective. Authors seem to profess that the liberty of any religious acts should be tolerated and never be persecuted unless they broke the law or peace; of course this is very hard to define as well like the "hate-speech" vs. "freedom of speech". But in this fashion, I believe, we all came up with all kinds of ecumenical and perverted "love and embrace all" kind of Christianity. In some church, you witnessed, invite imams and monks to listen. We should definitely be either cold or hot, hot if possible, but not into to extremes please.
JC (Mt6;33)
The Crusades were not carried out by Christians March 4, 2007
Molly (New York)
2 out of 20 found this review helpful
A Christian is someone who seeks to follow Christ. The Crusades were carried out by the Catholic Church which is NOT a Christian orginazation!
Roman Catholics follow man-made rules and worship men. The Bible, which is Jesus in Word, since He is the Word made flesh, explicitly tells us not to follow man-made rules over God's, or to worship men, (see Matthew 23). Islam was created by the Catholic Church, and their plan back-fired on them. See the testimony of Alberta Rivera at chick.com, who was a Jesuit priest and escaped the order, but lived to tell about his experiences before the Jesuits succeeded in killing him. He told of seeing the early writings of the Jesuits who made-up Islam, and incited them to hate true Christians. Muslims fell for the worship of a virgin queen without realizing that true Christians only worship God in Trinity, and do not worship statues of a virgin. Even Jesus'es mother, Mary, knew that she needed a Savior and would have abhored anyone worshipping her (see Matthew 1:47).
Caner needs to realize the vast difference between Catholicism and Christianity. Catholics follow the Pope and Rome and don't read the Bible. They are like robots repeating the same thing every mass. Christians read the Bible and follow Christ. They've been set free from the clutches of the anti-Christ, and his ways. They aren't robots who kill when Rome tells them to kill. Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco were all Catholics in good standing with the Catholic Church, but they were not Christians.
Christian Jihad December 31, 2006
Starrider7777 (Oklahoma City)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am nearly finished with this book and have found it very enlightening and thought provoking. In other reviews here I have read that there is no such thing as a Christian Jihad. Although that may be technically true with regards to semantics- I would challenge the idea that there is no such thing as a Christain Jihad in spiritual or ideological terms, as an American Indian and Christian who is well versed in history, politics and foreign policy. Christianity itself may not be completely responsible for the acts of Western Statist powers, but often we Christians have both enabled and condoned atrocities and war crimes in the name of patriotism. The dropping of atomic bombs on civilian populations in Japan and the holocaust of the First Nations of the Americas are two quick examples. With regards to the Mid-East we have signed off on policies that have both created and enabled the growth of terrorism for the last several decades. These would include the arming and enabling of Saddam, the brutal reign of the Shah in Iran and the eventual reaction to it, the arming and training of the Mujahideen which became al Quaeda, the enabling of the Taliban, the Iran-Contra scheme and so-on. The West has actively sought for the last 40 years to squelch secular nationalist governments throughout the Mid-East and thus allowed a space for radical Islam to grow in. Again, these things may not be the responsibilities of Christaianity per se...but inasmuch as the U.S. and many of her allies are considered "Christian Nations" with high concentrations of "Christians" in the populace as well as the leadership- the message of the Caner brothers is right on point and very important- if we wish to see a more peaceful and Christ-like world.
As Christians, we are supposed to be outside of and above the worldly mechanisms that help perpetuate the self sustaining cycle of violence, death and revenge. That is what is supposed to be different about us. Our signature message is supposed to be about universal salvation- not about empire building and ridding the world of evil-doers. The Caner brothers offer a fresh and poignant perspective on this.
Cont. I am finished with the book now.
I have noted that the jacket of this book has an endorsement from none other than Ann Coulter. This is actually based upon her endorsement of the other book the Caner brother's wrote entitled "Unveiling Islam: an Insider's Look At Muslim Life and Belief."
I find this to be very interesting and ironic. It seems Ann coulter, and I suspect many other "Christian" political types, jumped on the bandwagon because the book verifies many of the current fears concerning Islam. It talks about how the radicals belief in Jihad, violence and so forth has produced such horrific results. What strikes me as funny is that in this second book the Caner brothers reveal themselves as pacifists which would put them squarely at odds with the ideology of Ms. Coulter- some of whose quotes below will explain my vexation:
* Ann Coulter stated in her December 21 column that "I think the government
should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo." (this is about as un-Christian as it gets- but wait there's more)
* Commenting on radio host Melanie Morgan's assertion that if New York Times executive editor Bill Keller were convicted of treason she "would have no problem with him being sent to the gas chamber," Coulter said, "I prefer a firing squad, but I'm open to a debate on the method of execution." She later suggested that Times staff members should be "executed."
(Suspicion must always fall on those who attempt to silence their opponents.
~Ian Buckley)
* Coulter said of the media: "Would that it were so! ... That the American military were targeting journalists."
* Coulter suggested that Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) is "the reason soldiers invented fragging," -- military slang meaning the intentional killing of a member of one's own unit.
* Coulter argued that the national debate during the Monica Lewinsky controversy should not have focused on whether former President Bill Clinton "did it," but rather "whether to impeach or assassinate" him.
* Coulter said of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: "We need somebody to put rat poison in Justice Stevens's creme brulee.''
* Fox News host Sean Hannity* asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter how she would propose to end Iran's nuclear activities if she "were president." Coulter replied: "How about we just ... carpet-bomb them so they can't build a transistor radio?" As Media Matters for America recently noted, Fox News host Neil Cavuto similarly wondered how a "President Ann Coulter" would view certain diplomatic overtures toward Israel from Hezbollah's leadership. Coulter noted that her "first act in office ... would be to deport all liberals" and then "deal with Israel."
* Hannity's response to this was jocular.
Chapter 1 of Christian Jihad contrasts Ms. Coulter's approach sharply. The 1st chapter is entitled "We Shed No Blood But Our Own". In it the Caners quote many of the early church fathers and theologians and assert that the only legitimate weapon a Christian disciple may wield is prayer.
They back this up not only with Biblical text- but also the sound reasoning of many early church fathers.
The Caner brothers explain in the book how it was that the pacifistic nature of Christianity is what attracted them and brought about their conversion. This story calls into serious question the attitude among MANY Christian Americans that there is simply no negotiation, no way of reaching Muslims. This contradicts the belief that Muslims are beyond reason, that they are irredeemable and the only thing that they respect and respond to is force and strength and dominance. This story calls into serious question the West's entire approach to the problem of radical Islamic fundamentalism and terror tactics. This story likewise calls into serious question the foreign policy approach that our government stands by even as we speak.
I recommend this book highly.
I must mention that someone with whom I have regular debates about Christianity and violence and warfare was recently promoting this book to me because they had seen a show about the Caner brothers and had latched on to the negative things the Caners had to say about Islam. He was apparently quite unaware that In Christian Jihad- the Caner brothers next take on Christian fundamentalism and its ties to violent expression. When I told him about the concept they had offered that stated the only legitimate weapon for a Christian was prayer his eyeballs nearly did a 360 in their sockets. Forgive me for finding this somewhat amusing.
At any rate this is an excellent read.
p.s.
Also, it is worth noting that by the end of the book the Caner brothers express support for both the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I wonder if they feel the same way about it a few years and a river of blood later.
Compelling and Factually Based April 25, 2006
Eric Etheredge
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have read other books by the Caners and each one sheds a new light on the subject of Isla-. I picked this particular book to see which stand the Caners opted to take on what has become a more touchy subject over the years. First, it is factual that the Crusades were a huge human tragedy in the annals of history. Unbelievers were tortured, mutliated and murdered. The Pope's call for the Crusades indicates the blind obedience that we give to other people who seem to act as though they are G-d. The Caners reveal to the reader that the Crusades did nothing but ostracize Christianity to the remainder of the world. It even divides the world today. The Muslims, Jews and other "non-Catholic" believers were persecuted and that is a fact.
Crusdaers would ride into towns and villages and regardless of the cries for mercy, they would impel young children and women on the ends of their swords and even torture anyone who tried to defend themselves.
Picture if you will, the carnage that engulfed the European and other parts of the Mediterranean on the way to Jerusalem. After realizing that I do not want to be associated with that image, I have become a Messianic Zionist and I know that the Yeshua (Jesus), that I have come to better understand does not receive any glory for the actions of extremists no matter what their religious beliefs might be.
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