It has been suggested that military reach of Islam is really no different from the military excursions of the Catholic Church during the Crusades.
Is that so? We can compare the two campaigns visually.
Version One (for the busy person, edited by me) from a presentation by Bill Warner, PhD: Jihad vs Crusades
Each red dot in the map below represents an Islamic battle from the 7th to the 17th Century (this is a screenshot of an animation that adds battles to create a cumulative picture).
In fact there were over 500 documented battles. The shaded area shows the nations absorbed into the Muslim world over this time. Note how Spain was hammered, and Sicily. Many European coastal battles were slave raids (blond women were prized in harems. In fact the entire African campaign led to a huge slave trade; again women over men, two to one. African men were typically castrated and 90% died before arrival to Arab countries). Clearly, many battles in Persia, India, and Africa are omitted from this map; but you get the idea…
The crosses in the above image show the battles of the Crusades. There are about 15 battles, more or less.
Comparing the Islamic plundering of this vast territory from India to Spain, to that of the Crusades, is there anything like what some call a “moral equivalent”?
Version Two (about 5 minutes): Bill Warner, PhD: Jihad vs Crusades. Below, Dr. Warner hosts a video account of the same information and a more complete explanation of the two maps.
Version Three (about 45 minutes): Why We Are Afraid, A 1400 Year Secret, by Dr Bill Warner. There is a lot of history in this video. It is Inclusive of the above and a real mind-blower!