Relationship?
You may think that it is obvious what the relationship is like between Muslims and Christians. Surprisingly, it is not all negative. In some nearby countries, Muslims and Christians lived fairly side by side. Not just that, even at one point in time in Jerusalem the Muslims let the Christians visit and stay freely whenever they wanted. Unfortunately, the Crusaders wanted it all to themselves. They believed that no Muslim should be able to step foot in Jerusalem or the Holy Land.
An example of how People were persuaded to join the Crusade and persuaded to believe that the Muslims were true enemies is that they told them that the Muslims were unfair and cruel to their fellow Christians and that they should want to regain the power of ruling that land and being on top of the Muslims. Basically, the relationship between the Muslims and the Crusaders was worse than the relationship between the Muslims and Christians in general (even though the Crusaders were Christians).
Different Christians had different opinions and thoughts. In Germany in 1096, the Crusaders killed many Jews. Without realising, they even killed Christians; some were black and spoke a different language so they were thought to be a different religion to the Crusaders even though they were in fact Christians.
New Europeans (known as the Franks) were arriving in Jerusalem. They were very different to the Franks who lived with the Muslims and whom were used to them. According to a Muslim-Usamah Ibn Munqidh, they were always more odd and inhuman
then the Franks who lived alongside the Muslims. Usamah tells a story of when he was praying in a Mosque that the Christian Templars were in charge of (they let him in and pray as a friend) and a Frank who had recently arrived seized him, turned his head towards the east and said, ‘That is how you pray’. Even after being thrown out he still rushed in and repeated the strange reaction. As Usamah left he saw the Frank shivering with shock since he had seen Usamah pray towards Mecca instead of facing east.
This shows how opinions of people change when they spend time getting to know each other rather than just focusing on the differences.
An example of how People were persuaded to join the Crusade and persuaded to believe that the Muslims were true enemies is that they told them that the Muslims were unfair and cruel to their fellow Christians and that they should want to regain the power of ruling that land and being on top of the Muslims. Basically, the relationship between the Muslims and the Crusaders was worse than the relationship between the Muslims and Christians in general (even though the Crusaders were Christians).
Different Christians had different opinions and thoughts. In Germany in 1096, the Crusaders killed many Jews. Without realising, they even killed Christians; some were black and spoke a different language so they were thought to be a different religion to the Crusaders even though they were in fact Christians.
New Europeans (known as the Franks) were arriving in Jerusalem. They were very different to the Franks who lived with the Muslims and whom were used to them. According to a Muslim-Usamah Ibn Munqidh, they were always more odd and inhuman
then the Franks who lived alongside the Muslims. Usamah tells a story of when he was praying in a Mosque that the Christian Templars were in charge of (they let him in and pray as a friend) and a Frank who had recently arrived seized him, turned his head towards the east and said, ‘That is how you pray’. Even after being thrown out he still rushed in and repeated the strange reaction. As Usamah left he saw the Frank shivering with shock since he had seen Usamah pray towards Mecca instead of facing east.
This shows how opinions of people change when they spend time getting to know each other rather than just focusing on the differences.