Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople.
Constantinople was first sacked by Crusaders in 1204. This was one of the most shameful events in the Christian history of the West for which Pope John Paul II made special apologize during his recent visit to Athens. The Crusaders incited by a rapacious Doge of Venice plundered the Christian capital, sacked its magnificent churches and palaces, and raped nuns. Most beautiful works of art and holy relics were stolen from Constantinople which never fully recovered its glory. The second sack by Sultan Mehmed in 1453 marked the end of the Christian Capital and the Empire.
http://www.logoi.com/pastimages/crusaders.html
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197003/the.castles.of.the.crusaders.htm

I have always been interested this subject, the history of the crusaders. History sure repeats itself.

Killing in the name of Christ
seems like a sick farce! The cry of those who supported the Crusades became "Dieu li volt!" (God wills it!) The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" was changed to only include Christians making killing Moslems acceptable. Urban also promised that anyone who died in battle would be forgiven all their sins and would go straight to heaven.

When the Crusaders arrived in Northern Turkey, they captured and looted the town of Lycea, where, as it so happened, most of the inhabitants were actually Christians. The rampaging continued into the Holy Land and in June of 1099 they reached Jerusalem, which was captured in July. The Crusaders slaughtered both Jews and Moslems in their places of worship.

Massacres in the predominately Christian cities of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Antioch alone saw more Christians killed by Crusaders than all the Muslims and Jews in all those wars combined excluding the genocide following the capture of Jerusalem (which also included Christian victims.) Crusaders burned the synagogue, in which the Jews had taken refuge, killing about 6,000 Jews, and stormed the mosque, butchering an estimated 30,000 Muslims. They left a legacy of fear and contempt in the Muslim world.


http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/lionheart.htm
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/sack.stm

My sister and I were talking about this the other day. It is amazing what people will do in the name of God!!!

Shameful!

Absolutely! There's nothing worse than fanaticism. How can people kill one another and justify it saying that God in his never ending love wanted it, or, that they kill others for their own sake. Over the centuries religions have served as an excuse to rob, kill, suppress and discriminate. That's why I think religions were created to support power. And money is power. Although Christianity lost its medieval attitude, it still influences countries in ethical matters like abortion or euthanasia. The only good thing about nowadays Christianity is that they don't go for suicide bombings if people don't do what they're told to...