Turning points in the history of the Church - Jerusalem Council to Edinburgh

THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM

This meeting of apostles and presbysters described in Acts 15:4-9 was convoked to address the relationship of Jews and Gentiles in the church. Jewish Christians believed that Gentile believers had to submit to the law as well as their faith in Jesus. Paul, Barnabas, and others were sent to present the case. Paul, aware of the gravity of the crisis, took Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The decision of the great council was significant (Acts 15:28-29). It decided that the law, which had been impossible for Jews, should not be required of Gentiles. They need not be circumcised before eventually becoming a Christian. The principal at stake was incarnation, translating the Gospel in the mindset of the people. An example in Church history in which this principle was ignored was the spread of Christianity by the British in my country, Sierra Leone. The people resented the activities of the missionaries who were identified as part of the colonial government. The results were catastrophic. In the 1898 rebellion, white missionaries, African males (who wore trousers) and women (who wore skirts) were brutally murdered. Places of worship were desecrated. Like the Crusades, this rebellion furnishes the perfect reminder that the church can win by the message of peace and not by force. This principle was however adopted by Patrick, the Englishman captured and sold into slavery in Ireland who escaped and eventually became priest. It had tremendous impact. In the 5th century, he converted the Irish to the faith they had so freely defended throughout the centuries. In sympathy with the realities of Irish life, he was able to bring Ireland into closer relations with the rest of the western church. He planted over two hundred congregations and baptized over one hundred thousand converts.

THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON (451)

If the fathers of the 4th century quarreled over the relations between God the Father and God the Son, those of the 5th century faced the problem of defining the relationship of the two natures, the human and the divine within God the Son, Jesus Christ. The Christological controversy stemmed from the rival doctrines of Apollinaris (Word-Flesh) and Theodore of Mopsuestia (Word-Man), representatives of the rival schools of Alexandria and Antioch respectively. Word-Flesh Christology generally held that the divine and human natures were united indistinguishably. This single divine nature (extreme Monophysitism) after the Incarnation, was strongly supported by Eutcyches. Word-Flesh Christology was not in consonance with Word-Man Christology since the latter taught the two natures co-existed separately in Christ. Cyril of Antioch condemned the extreme Antiochene Christology taught by Nestorius viewing the man Jesus an independent person beside the Divine Word. Pope Leo''s Tome (response to Flavian, the archbishop of Constantinople in 449) addressed these opposing perspectives by avoiding their extremities as reflected in the teachings of Eutyches and Nestorius. He noted that Christ was fully human and fully divine, two natures united in one person. Mary conceived and gave birth to Him without the loss of her virginity. The Tome played a very significant role at the Council of Chalcedon (451) which was convoked to resolve this doctrinal controversy. Leo''s view was accepted as the orthodox doctrine of the church. His statement of the place of the bishop of Rome in the church established doctrinal basis for the papacy. Although he was not pleased with Canon 28 which dignified Constantinople, his view that Jesus was a single person with two natures has remained the standard formulation of the doctrine of Christ in most branches of Christianity.

CHRISTENDOM

Christendom, the centuries-long period of western history, which could be regarded as a medieval synthesis, fused what could be presently regarded as separate sacred and secular spheres of life. It was the era in European history when the interests of both church and society were considered to be the same. It was almost generally assumed that Christian spiritual realities were more fundamental than realities of the temporal world. The foundation of Christendom was terribly shaken by the French Revolution (a programme of deChristianization). Christendom shaped medieval Europe''s outlook on everyday life. With the exception of the most extreme Anabaptists, almost all Europeans embraced Christendom and believed it was natural for the Church'' sphere of influence to embrace every aspect of life. This was attributed to the central role of the church in the sacramental system as the agent through which the sacraments brought God''s grace to every stage of life. It shaped political life since the political sphere co-operated with the church in fulfilling its spiritual tasks. Learning was directed to be compatible with the teaching of the church. The economy was structured accordingly as it supports the church in its mission. Social conduct also imitated the patterns God has set for the church. In other words, the church offered a foundation for everything. In spite of its failure, Christendom was a powerful ideal. Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries greatly contributed to this understanding of Christianity. Its astonishing spread marginalized Christianity. Muslims moved into Spain and were stopped, as they were about to enter France. Christians were alarmed. Cities were incorporated into what became known as the Holy Roman Empire. It is fair to state that Christendom arose to control the expansion of Islam.

THE GREAT SCHISM

The symbolic date for the separation between the Eastern Church (Constantinople) and the Western Church (Rome) is 1054. Different temperament and intellectual disposition between contemporary theologians like Tertullian of Carthage and Clement of Alexandria were traits that eventually represented the views of two distinct but complementary religious cultures. The Eastern Church sharply disagreed when the Western Church introduced into the Nicene Creed the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds not from the Father alone ? the traditional view of the early Church Fathers ? but from the Father and the Son (Latin: filoque). When the Roman Empire divided into two zones, Latin speaking Rome began to claim superiority over Greek-speaking Constantinople; disputes arose over church boundaries and control, for example in Illyricum and Bulgaria. Rivalry developed in Slavic regions between Latin missionaries from the west and Byzantine from the east who considered the territory to be orthodox. Islam also strained relations. Other issues which ignited the friction related to worship and church discipline, for instance married clergy (Orthodox) versus celibacy (Roman Catholic) and rules of fasting. Tensions became a schism in 1054 when the uncompromising patriarch of Constantinople, Cerularius, and envoys of the uncompromising Pope Leo IX communicated each other. No acct of separation was considered at this time. Crusades, religious wars by Christians to rescue the Holy Land sealed the schism. The Fourth Crusade (1204) was diverted to attack and plunder Constantinople during which Orthodox Christians were murdered, and churches and icons desecrated. The Holy Land was not won. Islam was not permanently checked. The insolent action of popes in establishing Latin patriarchates in the east intensified the conflict.

EDINBURGH MISSIONARY CONFERENCE IN 1910

The ten-day Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910 ended the notion that worldwide Christianity meant reaching out from Europe and its North American extensions to the rest of the globe. It was indeed the last moment when it was equated with the Christianity of Europe and North America. Edinburgh was the beginning of a new era because it symbolized a dawning consciousness for the world wide extension of Christianity in contrast to earlier expansions involving single originating and receiving cultures. It was indeed a meeting to discuss the evangelization of the world (although only Protestants attended). It is important because of its ecumenical significance. Eight commissions or theological topics were addressed. These included carrying the gospel to all the Christian world, the church in the mission field, education in relation to the Christianization of national life, the missionary message in relation to non-Christian religions, the preparation of missionaries, home base of missions, missions and government, and the promotion of Christian unity. Missions were engaged globally and positively. The end of the conference marked the dawn of the request. Edinburgh directly or indirectly led to the establishment of the International Missionary Conference, the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, and the World Conference on Faith and Order. The last two merged in 1948 to create the World Council of Churches and the number of Christians has sky-rocketed from less than ten million in 1900 to almost two hundred million in 1997. Local indigenization is produced results. The rise and spread of Pentecostalism, the integral role of women missionaries, proliferation of Bible translations, the implications of information technology, to name a few, point to world evangelism.

70

From the perspective of the course, the above date is significant because it saw the fulfilment of the Great Commission as a result of the fall of Jerusalem. The church was ''weaned'' from Judaism as a result of the destruction of the Jewish temple and the cessation of sacrifices, an integral part in Jerusalem worship. This was a turning point because Christianity moved outward and metamorphosed from a religion shaped by the Jewish environment into a faith moving toward universal significance in the Mediterranean and beyond. It took an independent path in the Gentile world.

325

The Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church which was called by Constantine I to solve the problem created by Arianism, a heresy first proposed by Arius of Alexandria that affirmed that Christ is not a divine but created being. The absolute equality of the Son with the Father was established. It is considered a turning point because it set Christianity on a course (the addition of concerns for worldly power to its natal concern for the worship of God) it has only begun to reluctantly relinquish. This was directed by Constantine''s conversion that gradually gave way to the pilgrim reality of the church. In other words, the doctrinal declaration and the alteration of the church''s relationship with the world were unique.

451

It was at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 convoked to resolve the doctrinal controversy between Antioch and Alexandria over the person of Christ that the fathers accepted the formula proposed by Pope Leo I that Jesus was one person consisting of two natures. The significance was the more stable institutional character given to the church. It was significant because of its clarification of orthodox Christian teaching and the way in which that clarification was accomplished. The three fold triumph ? sound doctrine over the error over the error of the church, Christian catholicity over cultural fragmentation and of discriminating theological reasoning over the anti-intellectual dismissal of philosophy and a theological capitulation of philosophy ? conspire to make Chalcedon a turning point.

1054

The long-standing controversy between the Western and Eastern Church came to a head in 1054 when Pope Leo IX and the Greek Patriarch, Michael Cearularius, broke off relations with an exchange of anathemas. Although friction was ignited by events way back to the early church history and sealed by later events like the Crusades, the Great Schism of 1054 marked by the symbolic date of the separation. It was regarded as a turning point because it brought to a head centuries of deteriorating cultural disengagement, ecclesiastical suspicion and theological differences between the east and the west, symbolising the eventual isolation of the eastern churches through the centuries.

1521

Would the ''wild boar'' recant at the Diet of Worms in 1521? Bound by the Scriptures and with the conscience captive to the Word of God, Luther did not. What a significant moment in the history of Protestantism when Europe and the church would never be the same. Luther''s life and main doctrines, including the theology of the cross, were very crucial. This was not because of his spiritual credentials but rather the vision of God which gripped him to communicate through sermons, tracts and treatises. In other words, 1521 or related events represented a turning point as a result of Luther''s work in the broader social and cultural changes in the work in the 16th century. Although some aspects of his life were not illumined by the Divine Logos, Luther''s vision of God was timely and correct.

1534

Caesaropapism (doctrine of state control over the church) was evident when the English Parliament passed an Act of Supremacy, the significance of which could be seen in the lasting alteration of the situation of the Church of England. As the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England, Henry VIII''s marriage with Catherine of Aragon was annulled, enabling him to marry Anne Boleyn. The break from Rome effected by the support of the archbishop of Canterbury and the English Parliament was a turning point because of the general effect of England in particular and Christianity in general. There was an evident rise of self-consciously local, particular and national forms of Christianity. Although it was not the intention of the first Protestants to break up western Catholicism, there were small-scale alternatives to the universal Catholic Church. In other words, protests against the Catholic Church led to the Protestant churches, which subsequently opened various roads to reform eventually bringing a multiplicity rather than a unified voice against Catholic error.

1540

The founding of the Jesuits in 1540 could be regarded as significant because it was the most remarkable factor in the Catholic reform and worldwide outreach. The role of the Jesuits in winning Protestant regions back to Rome and solidifying those who swung like a pendulum in their loyalty to the Catholic Church cannot be overemphasized. The enduring effects of mid 16th century reform of the Catholic Church, the founding of the new orders, redirection of the papacy and Council of Trent could be regarded as branches of a major turning point because of the lasting effects on world Christianity. Catholic reform inspired a wide range of practicalized steps that ushered in a translation of the world wide potential of Christianity by restating the Christian message in the custom of the people.

1738

The conversion of the Wesleys in 1738 is significant because it was the most dynamic force in transforming the religion of the Reformation into modern Protestant evangelicalism. It is evident that Pietism (a movement originating in the Lutheran Church that stressed personal piety or reverence for God over religious formality and orthodoxy) and early Methodism were part of a larger movement of renewal. This new piety was a turning point because doctrines of God''s grace that had grown stale in the English church were renewed or revamped. This renewal or revitalization gave rise to modern evangelicalism out of the legacy of Reformation Protestantism.

1789

The secular event, the French Revolution of 1789, is significant because it ushered in actions which struck at the very privileges of status of the Roman Catholic Church. In attempting to remodel the world, the National Assembly passed ambitious laws which faded the supernatural God in French life. It was a turning point because it embarked on a programme of violent deChristianization signalling the gradual decline of Christendom (the period when interests of church and society were regarded as the same in Europe).

1910

Even though Catholics were not invited, the significant ten-day Edinburgh Missionary Conference (a faith for the entire world) could be regarded as the beginning of the twentieth century ecumenical movement, a high tide of western missionary expansion. It was a turning point because it symbolized an awakened consciousness concerning the worldwide extension of the faith. Never again would ''world wide Christianity'' be equated with the Christianity of Europe and America. Earlier expansions of Christianity generally involved single originating and single receiving cultures. The trend became indigenization of Christianity in countless regional cultures.

AUTHOR SIGNATURE
Oliver L.T. Harding, who obtained his GCE O & A Levels from the Sierra Leone Grammar School and the Albert Academy respectively, is currently Senior & Acting Librarian of Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He is a part time lecturer at the Institute of Library, Information & Communication Studies (INSLICS), Fourah Bay College and the Extension Programme at the Evangelical College of Theology (T.E.C.T) at Hall Street, Brookfields; Vice President of the Sierra Leone Association of Archivists, Librarians & Information Scientists (SLAALIS); a member of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). His certificates, secular and sacred, include: a certificate and diploma from the Freetown Bible Training Centre; an upper second class B.A. Hons. Degree in Modern History (F.B.C.); a post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Library Studies (INSLIBS, F.B.C) a masters degree from the Institute of Library, Information & Communication Studies (INSLICS, F.B.C.) and a masters degree in Biblical Studies from West Africa Theological Seminary, affiliate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he won the prize for academic excellence as the Best Graduating Student in 2005. Oliver, a writer, musician and theologian, is married (to Francess) with two children (Olivia & Francis).

Email: oltharding@yahoo.com
Mobile: 232-2233-460-330

Christian cross - history

The Christian Crusades' history has been highly influential in Europe and throughout the world. It managed to eradicate many Christians for about two centuries and directly affected the lives of the surviving Christians. The Christian Crusades' history had eradicated an estimated 6,000,000 Christians during their reign. The estimates actually ranges from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 based from various estimates and references in history. The Christian Crusades' history had been quite a disorderly and horrifying experience for the Christians. The Christians suffered much from the hands of the Crusaders, not to mention the loss of wealth and the traumatic suffering that they experienced. The elements of war such as tumultuous scenes, crime, disturbance in people's way of living, taking hostages, and other traumatic events often accompanied the holy war between nations and regions. However, most holy wars would result to something good that could last forever. The lessons and the pain that they left behind became the most popular lessons to remember in the history of any nation, sect, or related religion. The Christian Crusades' military campaigns and sanctions highly influenced the following

·       Role of the Catholic church

·       Power of the Catholic church

·       Progress or economy of affected civilization

·       Impact on the politics of the nation

·       Impede social improvement

·       Intellectual development

·       Commerce and feudalism structure

·       Material development including voyages relating to discovery

The Christian Crusades greatly supported the power of the Papacy as well as highly contributed to the wealth of the Catholic Church. The Popes therefore gained more power and influence over the people and the land including the economy when the Crusaders transferred the resources and the armies to their hands. The people eventually adapted the system endorsed by the Crusaders and the Papacy being their new leaders. The wealth of the Church increased immensely because the norm for sale of properties is usually a fraction or a small percentage out of its actual market value. People usually sell properties before they go for expeditions. Most people give lands or properties as a token or a gift in return for the blessings and prayers that they asked from the Popes. The people highly valued the pious benedictions of the Popes done for their behalf.

           

Across time, crusaders who had failed in their explorations and wars sought for asylum on cloistral retreats. The crusaders who sought the help of cloistered retreat houses brought and offered goods and other wealth. The crusaders appreciated the peace they found in cloistered retreat houses because most of them returned home with problems in health and carried or were mending broken spirits. However, the religious enthusiasts or the fanatics endowed the church with amass wealth and gifts. The gifts of piety significantly augmented the wealth of the church while the religious fervor of the people largely increased the power of the Popes. The wealth of the church and the Popes increased enormously across time.

           

The Impact of the Christian Crusades History on the Trade and Commerce

           

The most significant contribution of the Christian Crusades on the people and of the places that they had conquered was trading and commerce. The Christian Crusades themselves created demand on supplies for war and food, transportation for their men, building of ships for their numerous voyages, and trading of the eastern wares and goods across the continent of Europe. During their numerous voyages, the Crusaders brought the goods and other products of the cities of Mosul, Cairo, Damascus, and other known cities across the seas of the Mediterranean. Most of these goods landed on the seaports near Italy where traders transported them to other parts of Europe for trading. The Oriental art and beauty of their tapestries and silks enchanted the Crusaders. The elegance of the Oriental precious stones, ivory, and pearls as well as the spices and scents or perfumes truly enchanted the Crusaders. Their beauty and art captured the hearts of the Crusaders that they called the place as the vestibule of paradise.

   

The Crusaders and their Impact on the Land's Feudalism Practices

           

The Crusaders affected the lives of many Europeans. Western Europe improved their feudalism practices through the help and support of the Crusaders. Several knights, barons, and other royalties contributed to their crusading expedition. They even sold their lands to support the expedition. In Syria, the commoners experienced failures and difficulties that they reverted to the old practice of royalty. Private warfare and feud between clans eventually died out when the feudal lords departed from the Holy Land. The departures and the increased of the power and authority of the royalties were more evident in France history of commerce, which was the old home of the Christian Crusades movement.

The influence of the Christian Crusades Movement on the Nation's Politics

           

During the Crusaders era, most nations adapted the feudal aristocracy. This made the life of the commoners a bit difficult. The Crusaders affected the politics of a certain nation when they help break the feudalism structure. The nobles who participated to the Crusaders expedition were not able to return to their homes, thus, leaving their wealth under the responsibility of their heirs. However, their heirs were not able to keep the properties. The properties and a big part of the noble Crusaders wealth were escheated back to the King for payment of taxes and other liabilities. Most of the crusaders lost their wealth because they sometimes used their own funds to meet the cost of the expedition.

           

The cities that the Christian Crusaders visited during their expedition greatly benefited from the expeditions of the noble princes as well as the barons. They gained much political advantages from the activities of the Crusaders that, in a way, supported them in increasing their political power. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the burgher or middle social class mostly had the privilege for access on ready money. This special privilege is given by the landlords or the suzerains to the burgher class in return for the borrowings as well as the contributions that they had given to them. The Christian Crusades' history had delayed the fall of Constantinople as well as the conquering activities of the Turks for about three centuries or maybe more. The delay of more than three centuries was enough to make the Germans prepare for the anticipated invasion of the Mohammedan group. The Mohammedan group invaded Europe in the 15th century. The Christian Crusades' history had a wide influence on the social lives of the people.  The Christian Crusades showed the Western people an opportunity for a romantic adventure. This became their major influence for Chivalry. The Crusaders' knowledge and exposure with the Eastern culture provided the West a great deal of influence. This is the greatest refining influence of the Crusaders to the West.

Intellectual progress and the Crusades - History

           

The Christian Crusaders learned a lot from the culture and knowledge of other people from the different lands that they had visited during their expedition, which serve to liberalize their minds. The nobles and princes went out of their homeland, far from their families, and far from the familiar scenes of their cities so they can explore and complete the mission of their expeditions. The other objective was to see strange lands, unfamiliar faces, experience the way of living of other people, look at the architecture of their homes and palaces, and see their dress codes or dress styles. The Crusaders enjoyed the elegant manners and customs of the East. During those times, the East had surpassed the civilization of the West and the experience of the Crusaders with the East greatly influenced Europe's intellectual development. The Crusaders returned with new perceptions and broader ideas on a lot of things about life, people, and commerce. They also developed wider sympathies on people.

           

The Crusaders brought with them new materials, new ideas, and carried new perceptions about other people. This opened a new dimension of life for them. The Latin scholars were greatly motivated with the knowledge that the Crusaders shared. The expeditions of the Crusaders and the knowledge that they brought with them back home awakened Western Europe's mental activities. The shared knowledge finally triggered the period of the Renaissance and initiated the Revival of Learning in Western Europe.

Material development and the Christian Crusades - History

           

The Holy Wars triggered the material and economic growth in Europe. This paved way to the growth of the business enterprises in the continent. The economic development was very evident among the Italian cities. Most of these cities benefited from trading with the Crusaders needs for their expedition. Genoa, Venice, and Pisa economy significantly grew during the expedition, which included opening up some trade with the East. The Crusaders often sailed across the Mediterranean, Syrian coast, and several ports in Europe. In addition, the Crusaders new knowledge opened up another way of thinking towards artworks, inventions, and other manufacturing activities in Europe. The rich culture and arts of the East influenced the material development of the European people. The influenced were obviously evident in the artifacts showcased by the modern museums in Europe.

Voyages, Discovery, Impact of the Christian Crusades History on Civilization

           

The interesting news that the Crusaders brought back home after their expedition ignited the interest of some known voyage discoverers such as Sir John Mandeville and Marco Polo. The Italian, Marco Polo, and the Englishman, Sir John Mandeville, travelled to Asia's remote areas and explored the islands. This includes the expeditions of Columbus and Magellan, which the Crusaders interesting news about the Eastern arts and trades awakened. The interesting expedition of the voyager Vasco de Gama could be ignited by the interesting knowledge on geographical matters shared by the Crusaders.

The Influence of the Expeditions

           

The various sections of the middle ages history contained interesting topics and information about the great travels of the known voyagers in the world. In addition, there were important events in the medieval times that any reader would really appreciate learning. This included the impact of the expeditions made by the noble princes and barons during the era of the Christian Crusades history. The sitemap history could provide all the needed navigation in locating crucial facts and information during the middle ages.

Catholic Church, Wealth, and Power - History

           

The power of the Popes and the wealth specifically properties of the Catholic Church experienced a remarkable growth during the Christian Crusades' history. The Popes role as well as authority extended to trading and commerce involvement, resources for the spread and sustenance of Christendom, and authority over the armies. In addition, the Pope's involvement with the people's social public sphere and public life as well as their intellectual development increased their influence and authority over the commoners. The community regarded them as powerful guides and brilliant leaders. The Crusaders also sold a big part of their land to the church when they were about to start their expedition. This increased the wealth of the Catholic Church tremendously.

           

The society in the middle ages perceived the church as a place where they can regain their confidence, heal their broken spirits, and restore physical health conditions. The belief of the people that the Popes prayers could help them gain more wealth and good health remarkably strengthened the position of the Popes as leaders and authority on most matters of their lives. This amplified the Church authority over the people even before the start of the Christian Crusades' long history.

Europe's Intellectual Growth - Crusades History

           

Although the Christian Crusades History expedition and shared knowledge influenced most of the intellectual growth in Europe, other cultures also contributed to its development. Europe became liberalized when it opened its world through trading and travel with other cultures. This enlightened and improved their civilization. The Crusaders experienced different cultures, noted strange lands, and met new people during their expedition. This made them perceive other cultures in a different way. Their understanding about other people's way of living became broader, which made them more patient and flexible with the practices and ways of other cultures. The Crusaders voyages stimulated a group of Latin intellectuals. This led to an intellectual explosion with lots of translations on Arab texts, Roman literature, and classical Greek. This intellectual explosion was popularly known as the period of the Italian Renaissance or the Revival of Learning.

           

The influence of the other culture in terms of art, geography, and astronomy initiated the intellectual growth of the Western Europe. Europe also gained much knowledge from other cultures about sugar refining, math, alcohol refining, and papermaking. Although the Crusaders failed the European armies during the Muslim invasion, the Arabs paid by psychologically suffering from their own warring activities. This seems to be more than the material and human loses that the people and the lands they invaded suffered.

Life before the Christian Crusade - History

           

The Turks and Mongolian army reigned in the Middle East before the Crusaders came to influence their power. The invasions made the Arabic countries realized to keep and preserve their culture. When Europe was on the process of developing its civilization, the Arabs resisted the change. This resistance put them in a disadvantage position with the modern times. This problem still existed even today. The Arab still finds it difficult to adapt and accept the concept and benefits of modernization.

The Impact of the Expeditions - History

           

The influenced of the Crusaders over the people weakened the forces of the Byzantine Empire. Although the noble princes and barons failed to recover Anatolia from the hands of the Turk army, they had successfully defeated the Byzantine power in 1204 along with the fall of Constantinople. The state only serves as a buffer state for the convenience of the Turk army. The Byzantines initiated the idea of putting a buffer to inhibit and protect the empire from the Europeans in 1300. The Turks found their relationship with the Byzantine Empire useful because they serve as the Turks' point of contact for the West. However, when the empire's usefulness was fully exploited and consummated, they overtook the Byzantine Empire in 1453. The most significant contribution of the Crusaders in Europe was the shared culture, knowledge, and trade that they gathered from their various expeditions. Most Europeans who joined the Crusade had either known or seen some of the Crusaders march or gone during the expeditions.

           

The nation of Palestine became a place that most people go for refuge. The Bible reflected Palestine as a quasi-mythical place. The Crusader set up their forces in the land of the Palestinians and contacted their families in Europe for importing and exporting of goods. The trading system initiated the development of banks and creation of accounting techniques. This stimulated the trade and commerce between the Mediterranean, East, and Europe. Most of the merchants or intermediaries came from the northern part of Italy if the Crusaders were originally from Germany, France, or England. The Crusaders greatly influenced the economy in the main cities of Europe such as Venice or Genoa. However, the cost of the expeditions as well as their desires to trade through importation and exportation of goods weakened the forces of the Crusaders. The need for more funding that could help finance their expeditions and their commercial activities weakened the noble princes and barons but made the merchant classes stronger, which paved way for their independence.

           

The Christian Crusades' history greatly influenced the development of the cultural institutions during the medieval times. The knights of the Christian Crusades used emblems and many geometric designs as their identity symbols because they cannot read and write. Most of the knights were illiterate and the designs greatly aided their forms of communication and means for identification. The symbols evolved later into coats of arms or heraldic emblems. The romantic literature also developed during the Christian Crusades' history. Most of the skills and knowledge of Europe about masonry and construction of churches and castles with heavy stones came from the Middle East. The transfer of knowledge includes related activities of tunneling, siege, and sapping technologies.

           

The tunneling technology served to build sappers for warfare. Sappers refer to sap enemy fortifications. The technology was later used for mining. The Churches also used steeples that were inspired by the minarets during the Christian Crusades. The trend of the technological development ultimately came from the East and transferred to the West by the Crusaders. This included cultural development. During this time, Europe was not able to give much in return for the technological as well as the cultural development that they gained from the East because their civilization was still underdeveloped. However, the Muslims perceived the expeditions and the activities of the Christian Crusades negatively. The Muslims lost their appreciation and deep regard on the army of Europe that they influenced the Turks to become hostile with the Balkans. The Moslems were known as very conservative when it comes to religion or theology. The Crusaders were flexible enough to tolerate the conservative culture of the Moslems but slowly avoided any confrontations by traveling back to the West. It was then that the Mongols invaded the Moslems.

           

The Muslims had complete control over their Holy Land before the expedition. The Holy Land, known as Israel, is the core of their monotheistic type of religion. The believers of Islam, Christianity, and the Judaism regarded the Holy Land as a very important place that captured most of the important events of their religion's history. The other name of the Holy Land is Palestine. The Muslims controlled other religious sites before the expedition such as Bethlehem and Nazareth. The strong control over the known religious places happened during the Caliphate of Omar. The Caliph refers to a very strong political but also religious leader in Islam.

Various Expeditions of the Crusaders - History

The biggest and most essential forms of expeditions happened during the 11th until the 13th century. There were nine Crusades recorded by the Crusaders as numbers 1 to 9 under this category. The smaller crusades happened within the European continent such as Austria and Germany, which continued until the Renaissance in the 16th century. The definition and context of the Christian Crusades is holy war of the Christians. The term came from the word cross. The holy war of the Muslims is called Jihad. Members of the Jews, Christians, or Muslims were all firm believers of their respective religions. This strong belief about religion and the differences in some of their teachings made most people unable to understand and accept other people's practices. The differences triggered several holy wars between the members that were sometimes incorporated with political agenda. The missions of the Jihads and Christian Crusades' history resulted to illogical loses in terms of human lives, properties, and economy. The conflict that is happening today between the big religions partly came from the old conflict between the Jihads and the Christian Crusades. The Christian Crusades expeditions expended many lives, which influenced the perceptions of the world.

Cultural and Political Influence of the Christian Crusades - History

           

The influence of the Christian Crusades on Europe's cultural and political development during the Middle Ages was enormous. Most of Europe were united by the Pope during the 14th century. Centralized bureaucracies also developed and spread throughout Europe during this time, specifically on the nations of Burgundy, France, Spain, England, and Portugal. The Crusaders partly influenced the spread of the centralized bureaucracies through their various expeditions across the continent, which became the modern state's foundation for the government and politics.

           

The Crusaders transferred knowledge from the Islamic to the West especially medicine, architecture, and science. However, Europe's exposure to the culture of the Islamic was also influenced by their Sicilian and Iberian contacts. The designs of the castles in Europe were also influenced by the Crusaders experiences specifically their military activities. A good model of their military influence was the Caernarfon Castle located in Wales. The fortresses portrayed the styles that Edward I noted during their expedition and fights. The Christian Crusades' history introduced the culture of the Europeans as they traveled across the world especially Asia. The most important achievement of the Christian Crusades' history was the establishment of the traffic from the East to the West. The traffic between the two continents triggered respective developments on their civilizations, economy, art, and politics. The sharing of the trade, technology, and other scientific discoveries were made possible because of the traffic. The sharing of knowledge included the refinement of their engineering methods and equipments, optics, and algebra.

           

The Polabian Slavs lost many lives during the Northern Christian Crusades. However, they did not totally oppose the colonization of the Germans. However, the German invasions stopped the spread of the Lithuanian state that could possibly organize all of the tribes of the Baltic nations. Lithuania was a small nation pressured and forced by the problems of war with their German Crusaders to expand and look for resources to other probable places like the East. The Germans eventually assimilated the Polabian Slavs except the Sorbs. The initial expedition created a long organized war and violence against the Jewish people in Europe.

Trading and Commerce - Christian Crusades History

 

The needs of the expeditions such as transportation, food, gas, and other supplies needed to support a large army triggered the trading and commercial activities to anywhere the Crusaders would land. The unused roads gained significant traffic when the traders began to travel and expand their trading activities. The reason for the bustling commercial activities was not only for supporting the needs of the Crusaders, but also because most merchants would want to travel to the Middle East after they had seen their interesting products. This started the Italian Renaissance. Europe gained much from the activities. Goods were brought to Europe for trading, such as spices, diamonds, jade, and ivory. They also gained from the shared knowledge of glass manufacturing technology, making of gunpowders, and growing crops such as oranges and apples. These things were considered as rare and very expensive among the Europeans.

 

The Christian Crusades, for the naval and maritime historians like Archibald Lewis, was considered as macrohistorical event that enhanced the spheres of the European and Eastern civilizations. Europe slowly recovered its civilization from the boundaries of the Dark Ages in 700 to 1000 AD. The Italian city was able to drive away the Islamic pirates at the Adriatic Sea with the help of the Byzantine Empire. The joined forces reduced the Islamic forces at the Mediterranean Sea as reflected in the Byzantine and Muslim war in 1030 to 1035. The Italian cities of Pisa and Genoa helped the Normans in taking over Sicily. They overpowered the Muslims in Sicily during the period 1061 to 1091. This weakened the forces of the Muslims over the Mediterranean. This led to the growth of the Western European trading over the Mediterranean. This also led to the rise of the naval power of the Italian cities of Genoa, Venice, and Pisa including the Sicilian Normans.

           

The main regions for trading by the Western Europe were the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The Europeans enjoyed the trading and commerce at the core regions during the 11th century. However, during the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire of the Turks invaded the core regions. The Western Europeans contested and the Maritime Republics of the cities of Pisa, Venice, and Genoa allowed the Western Europeans to trade again. The control of the Maritime Republics on the Black Sea and of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to the return of the Greeks as well as the Romans ancient knowledge including the East Asian products. The Western Europe and the Mongol Empire successfully traded with the Eastern Asian Merchants. The extensive trading distributed the products to some controlled ports, such as the Kaffa, Acre, and the Antioch.

           

The 5th as well as the 7th Crusade during the periods of 1248 to 1254 were made to secure the control of the Western Europeans over the Red Sea region trading center. The attempts were directed against the armies of Egypt, which was the main support of the Mameluke and Ayyubid. During the 14th century, the Mamelukes ended the trading activities of the Europeans with the Asian merchants. The Mamelukes successfully invaded the states of the Middle Eastern crusaders. The Mongolian empire trading with Asia also ended during the 14th century.

The Caucasus - History

           

The Khevsurs, believed to be the descendants of the crusaders lived in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. This is a remote place located in Khevsureti. Many believed that the Khevsurs got separated from the large crusaders' army. They stayed isolated in the highland region and kept some of the culture of the crusaders. The Khevsurs passed down to their generations the weaponry and armor relics including the chain mail technique. The knowledge and the weapons were still used by the communities even in the 20th century.

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The contour of the violence of the white nonviolence Vs blacks in American history.

Introduction

Various dissatisfactions may result in protests in a community or a society. Religious, economical, societal and political concerns are amongst the most important factors which provoke different groups and classes to counter act against the status quo. In most of the time such displeasures end in some political gained grants, trivial or general reformations in current law and mechanism and compromise and returning to pre-challenge era. But in some occasions the depth and level of discontent is in its extreme thus the protestors are looking for a fundamental reformation or in other words revolution and subversion. Overthrow can be done by civilians or servicemen, in societal level such a protest is known as a movement. In deed, social movements are acts and processes in which some (most of time minorities but certainly not always) seek their own wills.

From one aspect movements can be divided to violent and nonviolent. Many of social movements are peaceful at start, but different events may lead them to violence; and off course in some cases their first intended shifts to a major one and may be revolution. Reading history since 19th century shows that such procedures in China, Russia, France, Czechoslovakia, Iran and etc had been caused to revolution and regime change.

In China peasants were against high tax which they were obliged to pay to Emperor, but the mismanagement and not tolerating of their claim, led to emerging of Marxist beliefs and Chinese masses movement led by Mao Tse-tung who was a communist teacher. Some campaigns caused to ousting the last emperor of the Qing dynasty and establishing the People's Republic of China.

In Russia the workers were against their low wages, but the Emperor's police violently killed 5 of them, and that was the beginning of toppling Romanov's Empire. 1917 February was the time to say good bye to Kremlin, just in 8 months form then the first communist government announced by Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

In France people had some criticisms on Empire, but neglecting their demands and treating with them brutality, expanding the bourgeoisie in state convince the people for democracy rather than dictatorship. If so this regime change took a 10 year struggle but at last people got what they want.

In Czechoslovakia as well harsh communist environment, encouraged people for a Reform, which off course soon changed to a movement for Velvet Revolution (which was coin thereafter for revolutions with reformative apparatuses). That was the beginning of so called Color Revolutions, nonviolent regime changes in ex-soviet states.

In Iran off course the main demand was on religion rather than economy, but people chose to have theological based democracy rather than living under Pahlavi's dictatorship. So they decide to change and thus drove out the 2500 years kingdom in Iran and replaced a democratic Republic government.

As it's obvious form previous lines most of social movements which had been enlarged to a national extend changed to a revolutionary movements, but in America there is an exceptional case.

Social movements in America which had been known from 1960s have a longer history; it dates back to the first days of American Revolution. Since then various and different actions, rebellions and movements flourished and diminished. Each of these events had led to a reform even a minor one.

So interesting it is that despite of numerous opponent beliefs and opinions none of them were looked for revolution. All Americans believe in America as a benevolent Empire, which have been bestowed them their rights and may be it can be called "democratic empire", which is a self contrary term as Empire and Republic are binary opposites.

Blacks' movement in 1960s in spite of all Ku Klux Klan violent actions against them was nonviolently supporters of America as well. Off course in a short period Black Power shifted to violence under leadership of intellectuals like Malcolm X, but still was supporter and fan of America.

Women', Students' and Indians' movements have been supporters of America too. This is the exceptional identity of American social movements which despite of all different heterogeneous bona fide beliefs the overall activists are unanimously supporters of status quo and by that I mean America.

Entering of Blacks into the American Scene

"Violence is as American as cherry pie."

H. Rap Brown (1943 - )

Africans entered into the "West Indies" a short after Europeans did. At first they weren't "slaves" but servants whom could buy their freedom; but as days were gone more need for worker was felt, thus the servants enslaved and that's all. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated total of 12 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas.

Slavery

The new discovered land seemed to be a "promised land" full of fertile lands, but much land were there, fewer men were present. Whites started to bring Blacks to there, primarily with consent and kindness and step by step interchanged their manner to kidnapping. Blacks were to be farmers or farmhands, but became indentured servants whom were enlisted to be free for more than 3 centuries.

Southern colonies was a paradise of cotton and West Indies Company as well as its eastern half was responsible for preparing demanded cotton for English textile companies. It's obvious that anybody is looking for cheaper production and so more benefit. They put at work the new black comers, low wage and high gage servants who could made money far more than their own cost.

Slavery is obscure in American Constitution, if so some hints verify it within. The Founding Fathers with no exception were slave holders. They established laws to have blacks as their property, and an obligation to send back "runaways" to their masters. Huge and vast lands really required man power to be cultivated.

Too many discourses and dialogues were common about the inimical nature of this phenomenon but it was commonly widespread in southern states. But Eli Whitney invented a machine for prolonging the debate on abolitionism.

If so Missouri Compromise succeeded to some extend in banning of slavery extension but it was an ignition for the American Civil Wars. 450,000 to 483,000 casualties -save economical and emotional losses- is just the Human cost of this simple statement: to have or not to have slaves, that's the question. From 1861 to 1865 Americans "spoke daggers" to each other to understood whether they should remain masters or simply became neighbors.

Abolitionism

The keystones of anti slavery dates back to 1783 but the organized steps towards it began years after it. Under the leadership of William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, anti slavery campaigners succeeded in getting the slave trade to the British colonies abolished in 1807. The United States prohibited the importation of slaves that same year, though widespread smuggling continued until about 1862.

"Liberator" read and asked for emancipation and liberation of slaves from the starting hours of 1831 frankly, if so it took 32 years for this claim to be verified. Torture was what had been done upon poor slaves, thus those religious orthodox men whom were unable to have slaves financially or there was no need for black work in their occupation echoed for "abolitionism".

William Lloyd Garrison was one who believed in nonviolent and peaceful campaign against slavery. As the founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1833-70) he let the runaways Frederick Douglas and William Wells Brown to state their wishes to Northerners in his publication (North Star). But lucky he was as Elijah P. Lovejoy another American newspaper editor martyred in Alton, Illinois in defense of his right to print antislavery material in 1837.

Furthermore Whites also raided to post offices and burnt all anti-slavery stuffs; the post director refused to accept the anti-slavery materials and congress ignored to mention the issue as well.

Underground Railroad

Fugitive slave law of 1850 which asserted for sending back the runaways from the state to state in addition of a new opportunity for white jobless called "slave catcher" was another violent measure facing the blacks.

As a counter measure, Blacks developed a system called "Underground Railroad" or "Underground Railway" for transferring enslaved blacks to northern states and Canada to nonviolently free them.

Using disguise and darkness 40,000 to 100,000 blacks liberated from white tyranny and of course not "white supremacy". Liberty Line introduced from 1830 was a brilliant hope for black peace sojourners, although it granted them Compromise of 1850 and Emancipation Proclamation (1863) by slave-holder Lincoln, which freed all slaves in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. but violent Civil War had begun in 1861.

Not being too late must another case be mentioned; Dred Scott a slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state; caused the Supreme Court to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional! A national compromise violently broke simply to not grant a black his liberty.

Civil War

Emancipation Proclamation was meant that the blacks as freedmen! could (must) attend the Union Army and defend of other freemen (whites). United States Colored Troops was established involved of 178,000 blacks.

Out-Migrate vs. In-Migrate

While for decades blacks for violently brought to Americas for servitude, after emancipation in fear of Blacks' retaliation whites thought to send back them to Africa.

Liberia

From 1817 a program called American Colonization Society emerged in Washington D.C with supports of local branches, churches, and the legislatures of Border States to transport freed and free-born blacks to Africa. The program was headed by Henry Clay and Francis Scott Key whom were from prominent slave holders. They bought a land on the western coast of Africa now called Liberia. Once forcibly in-migrated blacks then "peacefully" became out-migrated by whites and gained their freedom!

Discrimination

Although, if so in lip service blacks had been freed, but it was not encompassed the social rights such as right to vote and education. They were freed to be killed for defending of whites.

It took a long more time to these rights found legitimacy. By the 15th amendment of American Constitution, Section 1, that reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." in 1870 Blacks found suffrage at last.

But another odd occurrence took place, for the 1st time since and then the American President impeached, Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), 17th president of the United States (1865-1869) impeached accused of "violation of the Tenure of Office Act and the 'command of the army' provisions of the Army Appropriations" and also another one which conveys that Johnson had attempted to undermine Congress. Save what aforesaid Johnson was pro-blacks and support them, so simply and violently he removed.

Jim Crow

The last quarter of 19th century was the time for another plot against Blacks. Jim Crow laws were discriminational written and un-written codes to prevent Black form accessing to public services like: parks, restaurants, hotels and etc. furthermore, Black veterans weren't in an equal status as whites were. "Persons of color" weren't called "negroes" but no inequality against them was common. This traditional violence against Blacks went further as a new club called Ku Klaus Klan emerged.

Ku Klux Klan

Post American Civil War a secret society of white Southerners in the United States was formed to resist the emancipation of slaves; they used terrorist tactics to suppress Black people. In fact they were White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) whom believed America belongs to whom are 100% American. They were against immigrants whether in terms of ethnicity or religion but their major animosity was for poor Blacks. There were two in the United States, one founded immediately after the Civil War and lasting until the 1870s, the other beginning in 1915 and continuing to the present and still act violently against Blacks.

However, there were acts like Force Act in 1870 and the Ku Klux Act in 1871 which authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, suppress disturbances by force, and impose heavy penalties upon terrorist organizations; but "white violence" could not tolerate it and in United States v. Harris in 1882, the Supreme Court declared the Ku Klux Act unconstitutional.

W.E.B Dubois

"Men of America, the problem is plain before you. Here is a race transplanted through the criminal foolishness of your fathers. Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down."

W. E. B. DuBois

William Edward Burghardt DuBois was the United States civil rights leader and political activist who campaigned for equality for Black Americans, he was the first Afro-American received PhD degree. He was one of founders of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and it was synchronous with Harlem Renaissance. This was a time for blacks to fight against white's violence literarily. Of course, some black intellectuals were predecessors to them like Harriet Beecher Stowe with her "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Authors like Langston Hughes (belongs to Lost Generation) draw a vivid vision of Blacks' situation in America; as he versifies:

I'm nobody, who are you?

Are you nobody too?

Then, there is a pair of us

Don't tell you know

They'll banish us

How already to be somebody?

Say your name all day long

Like a frog in the bog.

W.E.B. DuBois's doctoral dissertation was The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870. As the editor of The Crisis, he encouraged the development of black literature and art and urged his readers to see "Beauty in Black." In deed he and his contemporaries were the literate nonviolent campaigners against white's violence.

Elijah Muhammad and Nation of Islam

"The Negro wants to be everything but himself...He wants to integrate with the white man, but he cannot integrate with himself or with his own kind. The Negro wants to lose his identity because he does not know his own identity."

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Poole converted to Islam as Elijah Muhammad was founder and leader of the black separatist religious movement known as the Nation of Islam (sometimes called Black Muslims) in the United States. He was famous for his rhetoric directed at white people, whom he called "blue-eyed devils." He challenged white's violence by articulating Islam rulings in Black Americans context and promoted racial unity and self-help and maintained a strict code of discipline among members. During World War II he asked his followers not to attend military service and serve for white's devil whimsical desire. He was jailed for his thoughts and speeches, but being imprisoned he was challenging with white's violence and try to find others to convert them to Islam and enter them to the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was one of them.

Malcolm X and Black Power

"There is nothing in our book, The Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone, but, if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion."

Malcolm X

Malcolm Little well known as Malcolm X was a black militant leader who articulated concepts of race pride and Black Nationalism in the early 1960s. Primarily he was not a Muslim, but he converted to Islam and became a minister of the Nation of Islam movement being familiar with Elijah Muhammad. He was an exception in this narrative as he believed in violence rather than violence, in deed it's his belief: "I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me." Whites were violent to him so he was to them as well. This is was the bone of a little contention between him and MLK.

Back Power who were movement formed by American blacks to produce social equality and equal rights and emphasize racial pride; and Black Panthers who were radical underground African American organization that was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in the mid-1960s and advocated violence to attain liberation and equality for African Americans were largely influenced by his opinions. They were standing for violent campaign in facing of white's violence and mostly Ku Klux Klan. For this belief he sentenced years of his life in prison and actually there he met Elijah Muhammad.

However, after he came back from Hajj pilgrimage and rename himself as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, chose a more nonviolent way in his struggle against white's violence. That's why he was assassinated in 1965 by some which there is belief they were Blacks related to Nation of Islam!

Thurgood Marshall and Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka

"The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down."

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was the first black member of the U.S. Supreme Court. As an attorney he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), in which racial segregation in American public schools was declared unconstitutional. He's prominent in advancing anti discriminational laws in US judiciary system. His legacy up to now is what Black community benefits form. Before his legacy white's violence even militarily prevented Black students to entering White's school, after it they become motley.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Movements

"Today the choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence.

It is either nonviolence or nonexistence."

MLK

The most famous figure in American Black Community is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. doubtless. He is an American emblem of Nonviolence. King's nonviolent doctrine was strongly influenced by the teachings of Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi. Unlike the great majority of civil rights activists who have regarded nonviolence as a convenient tactic. King followed Gandhi's principles of pacifism. In King's view, civil rights demonstrators, who were beaten and jailed by hostile whites, through the redemptive character of their unmerited suffering educated and transformed their oppressors. King set about organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform from which to speak

The Montgomery bus boycott started on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, and as a consequence was arrested for violating the city's segregation law. It was an ignition for chain of nonviolent protests against segregation and racial discrimination. Sit-Ins in Nashville under leadership of James Lawson, nonviolent demonstrations and public speech were usual tactics rendered by Blacks (mostly students) to confront Whites brutality and violence.

King joined other civil rights leaders in organizing the historic March on Washington. On August 28, 1963, an interracial assembly of more than 200,000 gathered peaceably in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law. It led to Civil Rights Act in coming year.

But these accomplishments were not as easy as ABC; once MLK had said: "I'm frankly tired of marching. I'm tired of going to jail," for every minute reason he had been sued by whites. In 1968 days before living for Memphis he'd asserted: "Living every day under the threat of death, I feel discouraged every now and then and feel my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again." He was accurate, on April 4, 1968 he was shot in a Balcony of a hotel in Memphis by a violent white some like to call him James Earl Ray. He sentenced for a century a year after but even Dr. King's family doesn't believe in him as the assassinator.

If so King chose nonviolence and not nonexistence; but "White violence" chose nonexistence for him, even by announcing his birthday as a holyday.

Louise Farrakhan

After Muhammad's death in 1975 another group, retaining both the name and the founding principles of Elijah Muhammad's original Nation of Islam, was established under the leadership of Louis Eugene Wolcott converted to Islam with a new name Louis Farrakhan. He was leader of the New York Temple and the Nation' most prominent spokesman at the time of Elijah Muhammad' death. Although given a national post by Mohammed, Farrakhan disagreed with Mohammed' changes, and in 1978 he left to found a third Nation of Islam.

By the 1990s he had emerged as a prominent African American leader, as demonstrated by the success in 1995 of the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., which he helped to organize. In 1995 Qubilah Shabazz daughter of Malcolm X was accused of plot to assassinate him, but he didn't sue the case. Farrakhan toned down his racial rhetoric and moved the group toward orthodox Islam after a bout with prostate cancer in 2000.

COINTELPRO

During the 1950s and '60s, the bureau used covert means to disrupt the activities of groups it considered subversive and to discredit their leaders; the operations, known as COINTELPRO (counterintelligence programs), were officially discontinued in 1971.

John Edgar Hoover, ex FBI director who was 48 years at office, clarifies the mission of COINTELPRO against nationalist blacks as below:

a. preventing form emergence of a new leader who can unify Blacks.

b. preventing from violence directed by Black nationalist groups

c. preventing from popularizing of Black Nationalist groups and their leaders

d. preventing from rapid growth of Black Nationalist Organizations especially among youth.

e. targets of these operation were: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and....

Hoover also ordered aggressive surveillance of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., and tried to discredit King by disseminating derogatory information about him to the media, Congress, and others.

Conclusion

It's 2008, to a high extend Blacks and Whites have been melted, even a Black man have nominated himself for American Presidency; but still there is Ku Klux Klan (if so, underground); WASPs are still the superiors amongst nation; guys show "noose" to their Black friends and foes even jokingly and white's violence is still common.

Individualism is a white phenomenon in American mind as volunteerism is; in fact as George Orwell says in Animal Farm: "all are equal but some are more equal" and this is the true meaning of egalitarianism and Human Rights in the States. America is a melting pot, but blacks never considered as edible and thus prevented to enter the pot.

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence."

Mahatma Gandhi

# A Force More Powerful, Peter Ackerman, Palgrave 2000
# · COINTELPRO: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, Nelson Blackstock, Pathfinder, 1975.
# · Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008.
# · Encyclopædia Encarta. Encyclopedia Encarta Premium 2007 Microsoft
# · Nonviolent Social Movements, ed. Stephen Zunes, Blackwell 1999.

A Brief History of the Muslim Brotherhood

How the Muslim Brotherhood was established and what are its main ideologies? Is this movement different than the current movements that carry its banner and had military tendencies? How does the West in general and the United States in particular see and deal with this movement?

The Muslim Brotherhood, the best known and widespread movement in the Arab and Muslim World. Al - Ikhwan Al - Muslimun, as they are called in Arabic, was founded in 1928 by Hassan al - Banna, 22-year-old elementary school teacher and social reformer from Egypt. Al - Banna came from a well educated family in a Al-shari'a, the Muslim law. His father was a preacher in a Cairo mosque and by profession, he was a watchman repair. Hassan al - Banna was inspired by and belonger to Sufi movement. At his early age, have actively participated in the political life during the British occupation of Egypt. I received his education in Cairo and was deeply disturbed by Western influence upon the Egyptian social fabrics. I have the secular west perceived as corrupt, morally and was deeply concerned by how Muslims were drifting away from the path of Islam.

The two most influential reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were Muhammad Abduh and Jamal al - Din al - Afghani. Both of them were considered the founding fathers of modernizing Islam. Looking at western superior economic, technological and military power, ' Abduh was shocked by decline of a once powerful Arab and Muslim community, to Al-ummah. In his opinion, Islam had greatly drifted from the righteous path and from the main principles that were prevalent during the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the four Kalifate. Modern Muslims need to Su early "pious Henri" or "Al-salaf Al-Salih", who practiced to correct form of Islam. I mainly advocated education as the basis to redirect Muslim and to bridge the gap between Islam with modernity.

Jamal al - Din al - Afghani shared most of 'Abdu's philosophy and teachings. He was, however, more of to political activist that a scholar. Al - Afghani was raised in Iran, but it was in Cairo that I began his political activism. I have traveled widely in Europe and was astonished to see the progress there while The Muslim world suffered from backwardness. I, similar to ' Abduh, advocated the return to the ideals of Islam to regain the power lost against colonial powers.

Al - Banna was deeply affected by 'Abduh and al - Ahfghani's views of how to revive Islam. But it was Rashid Rida, a Syrian and a disciple of Abdu, who influenced al - Banna the most. To jurist and an able scholar, Rida did not totally ascribe to Islamic traditions. "I have blamed the faqih or"ulama"for most of the ills of society as they failed to educate the masses to achieve progress. All these three earlier reformers shared a common vision: to rebuild a nation that long had been in decline.

El-Banna's message was loud and clear. I have preached against western secularization and cultural decay of Muslim society. I did not believe that religion and politics are separable. I intended the movement to be a reformist movement designed to revive Islam during its declining stage. This spiritual ideology had a mission to combat social decadence and religious ineptness. It was due to al-Banna's charismatic leadership that new recruits joined its ranks. The organization's original main purpose was to foster religious education, to improve the life of the less fortunate through charity, and to promote the establishment of Islamic nation. It was opposed to violence and practiced peaceful means to achieve its objectives. Al - Banna was able to bridge the gap between the idealism of ' Abduh and the realism and activism of al - Afghani.

The movement actively participated in the 1948 war against Israel. It gained popularity shortly thereafter. Al - Banna was gunned down in 1949 at the age of 43. During the 1950s, Sayyid Qutb became its most influential intellectual and leader of the Movement. His famous books, Ma'alem fi al - Tariq (Milestones) and Fi Zilal al - Quran (In the Shadows of the Quran), were widely read by the members of the Movement. I have advocated concepts such as "jihad" and "Takfeer" those who abandoned Islam and become infidels, unbelievers. Although I got his university education in the United States, Qutb was the secular and materialistic life however I have observed in America. I have rejected western values as inferior to the purity of Islam.

Today, Al - Ikhwan, or the Brotherhood, is one of the most influential organizations in the modern Arab World. It is mostly active in Egypt, Gaza, Syria, and Jordan and had many adherents in Saudi Arabia and North Africa. It operates openly in many countries and most of the time it is gone underground. It has a large base among the poor which is mainly attributed to its widespread network of charity. The organization does not overextended military approach to take power from secularist regimes but to work in the framework of current political system to gain recognition and win seats in the parliament. It is perceived as a moderate movement in comparison to more radical ones and does not subscribe to the terrorist organization of al - Qa'ida ' eda led by Osama Bin Laden and his deputy al - Zawaheri. It is considered to moderate voice among the competing ideologies where the United States refuses to acknowledge or deal with it directly.

Joe Baaklini: Middle East Political Analyst

A history of the mythology of God

The question of God is a difficult one. There is no clear definition and many threads get woven into the search of God. However, it is important to go over brief history of mythology of God, the religious influence, and now scientific influence in 21 st century.

Here's a brief review about the history of mythology of God that may influence our understanding about the new concepts in search of god.

Before Judaic Christian era, with the invention of agriculture in Turkey , human society changed from hunter gathers to farmers. During this era, the God was perceived as female Goddess. Archeologist Maria Gimbutas studied how this culture of the Goddess spread. The farmers spread out from Turkey moving east into Asia and west towards the Atlantic . As the farmers spread out from Turkey , they displaced the hunter gathers that lived on the land first.

What is most interesting about the civilization of the Goddess, is the level of violence. Maria Gimbutas found little evidence of violence in the first towns the early farmers built. The towns did not have fortified walls. People were buried in egalitarian cemeteries. Their gravesites did not contain weapons of war. Their bones did not show wounds from weapons of war. This is very important. It means that war is something humans learned.

After the farmers filled up the available farmland, things began to change. With all the good farmland brought under cultivation, people in their towns begin competing for limited resources. Humans are a biological species controlled by evolution. Species evolve by producing more off spring than the environment can support. In the competition for limited resources only the fittest survive. Humans are no exception. The peaceful interlude was over. Starting in the east and moving west the towns started to become more fortified. The egalitarian cemeteries were replaced by Kurgans. A Kurgan is mound of earth containing a burial site of a ruling male and his family. These burial sites contain weapons of war. The bones of people from this period also show injuries from these weapons. Kurgan is also the name given to a tribe of horsemen who brought this transformation to the civilization of the Goddess. The Kurgans did not displace the farmers. A study of the bones shows that the same farmers lived in Kurgan towns. They were now ruled by the Kurgans. The Kurgans transformed the first farmers into a more violent society. When the environment in which humans lived changed, the mythology now changed. Myths about male gods were now added to the story of the female goddess.

As we stated above, the driving force of evolution is the survival of the fittest. For a couple of thousands years this rule was suspended. The first farmers could expand out from Turkey to bring new land under cultivation. They did not have to compete for limited resources. During this time, the worship of the goddess created a peaceful society. When the best farmland was brought under cultivation, towns started competing for limited resources. Those towns that started worshipping male gods created more violent males. The more violent towns survived. This type of mythology active in a society creates a more or less violent culture.

All this happened before the Judaic - Christian period. Karen Armstrong in her book "A History of God" picks up the story with Abraham and the stories and myths we are familiar with. If you remember, Abraham has a son late in life and then is told by God that he must sacrifice his son on an alter to God. He does not question God but takes his son up the mountain to be sacrificed. At the last moment, God tells Abraham that he can sacrifice a ram instead of Isaac and his son is spared. Other episodes where God sacrifices the sons are history of Moses and Egypt .

With the rise of God sacrificing sons, there was also a decline of the Goddess. In the face of an external threat, the Jews abandon the Goddess. Monotheism is a further refinement of the mythology of God. God is becoming only a Male God. In order to survive, the Goddess is suppressed.

This also happens later in Islam. At the time of Mohammed, the Arabs worshipped three Goddesses: Allat, al-Uzza, and Manat. Mohammed urged his followers to abandon these Goddesses and only worship Allah. Islam then goes on to conquer the Middle East, Northern Africa and Spain . Suppressing the Goddess makes a society more violent and the more violent societies survive.

Christianity adds further refinements to this myth. Paul on the road to Damascus has a revelation. He comes to see Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Jesus is the Son of God who comes to earth and lives as a human. He is sacrificed for are sins. He is crucified, dead and buried. He descends into hell, on the third day he is raised from the dead and ascends into heaven.

There were two forms of early Christianity competing for people's attention in the Rome Empire: the Gnostic Christians and the Trinitarian Christians. The Gnostic Christians still had a place for the Goddess in their tradition. The Trinitarian Christians believed only in a male God of three parts - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Under Constantine , the Trinitarians gained the support of the Roman Empire . The Trinitarian with their all male God mythology destroyed the kinder, gentler Gnostic Christians. What Christians have inherited today is the monotheism of the all male God of the Trinitarians.

This is a mythology that is needed for an era where people compete for limited resources. This mythology suppresses sexuality and creates more violence. The suppression of sexuality and the increase of violence bestow a survival advantage to people who must compete for limited resources.

The history of Hindu avatars Rama and Krishna is also based in violence of Mahabharata and Ramayana. So is the creation of Khalsa, the fighting force in Sikhism by the last of ten gurus.

Mahabharata (Mahabharat) is a great story of sibling rivalry, violence and war, of complex interwoven sub-stories, of philosophy, divinity, adventure, bravery, and betrayal. The characters are very well developed and are glorified in great works of Indian art and literature that is supposed to have happened in 5,000 BC. Hindu holy scripture, " Bhagavad-Gita" is the war time counsel of Krishna to his disciple-relative Arjuna during the Mahabharata war.

The story of Ramayana is about Rama, the prince of Ayodhya that happened before Mahabharata. Rama was the eldest son of king Dasharatha who had three wives. The youngest of the wives Kaikeyi tricked the king into making her son as the descendent to the throne and made Rama go to the forest in relinquishment.

Rama, the good son that he is, follows the word of the father and goes to the forest for fourteen years. His wife Sita and loyal brother Lakshman follow him. Rawana king of Sri Lanka What follows is the great search for Sita and violence and war, when the goodness wins with the help of the friends ( Hanuman- the flying monkey) and the brother Lakshman. The destruction of Sri Lanka and bringing Sita back to Ayodhya is glorified in the great works of Indian arts and literature. kidnaps Sita and keeps her arrested in his garden.

In the late 17 th century Mogul emperor Aurungzeb's religious policy was totally against non-muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, they had to pay more taxes than Muslims. On the site of temple he built a mosque at a great cost. All these accesses were happening around 1690. The army of Khalsa was created by tenth Guru of Sikhs in 1699 to fight against the accesses. These are latest of wars and violence of which the youngest among religions, the Sikhism is also not spared.

The Greeks gave us more than the myth of Hercules that had similarities to the Christian myth. They also gave us philosophy. Aristotle talked about the first cause, the sufficient cause and the final cause. Plato taught that there was a oneness behind the universe. The Greek philosophers also had an influence on religion. The oneness that Plato talked about got incorporated into monotheism. Monotheism for us today is the oneness behind the universe instead of choosing a male god over a female god.

It is the physicists that will understand the oneness behind the universe and the first cause that started the universe. A unified theory that can describe the universe has become the holy grail of modern physics.

The early Greek philosophers also influenced Islam. Karen Armstrong tells us of Islamic scholars who tried to use reason to find God. These Islamic scholars were called the Fulasufahs. We will look at just one. Abu Hamid Al-Ghazzali lived from 1058 to 1111. He studied all the major sects of Islam and "struggled with truth like a terrier" searching for a kind of indubitable certainty. The more he searched the more disillusioned he became. How could any of their claims be objectively verified?

The more he studied the more depressed he became. He finally was unable to continue his studies. He abandoned his prestigious teaching position and went of to join the Sufis. In Sufi dance, he found what he was looking for. A direct experience of something he could call God. After Al-Ghazzali, Islam abandoned its attempt to find God through reason.

Some people, in this modern era of science and technology, have a problem with calling this God-through-reason-quest the search for God. God could be redefined into the ground of being or a oneness behind the universe; but the word God is tangled up with the mythology of God the Father sacrificing the Son. They want to drop the word God. Instead of searching for God that is tangled up with violence and survival , today we should search for God of spirituality . We need to search for what lifts us out of depression and into being in good spirits. It is this search that will lead us into a new era. Birth control and advances in agriculture has fundamentally changed our society. We no longer need to compete for limited resources. The rule of survival of the fittest no longer applies. It is the search for spirituality that will lead us to a new mythology that will transform our society from the war and strife we have known through most of recorded history.

We are at the dawn of a new era. A better world is within our grasp. We need to find a God of spirituality that will lead into this new world.

More Info on the Subject: http://dpcpress.com/pa.html

About the Author: Dr. Sukhraj S. Dhillon has an advanced degree in life sciences and molecular biology from the west and a fascination with yoga, breathing, religion and spirituality from the east crafted out of studies at Yale University , U.S.A. and Punjab University , India . Therefore, he is uniquely qualified to present a synthesis of eastern and western approaches towards concept of God, science, religion and spirituality. He has published over 10 books and 40 research papers, and has expressed his views in the news media and workshops. He has been the President, Chairman of the board, and life-trustee of a non-profit religious organization and has expressed his views in the congregation and at international seminars.

At Turning Point in History The Fall of Atheism - Part 2

Quantum Physics and the Discovery of the Divine Wisdom

When scientists have gone deeper into the atom, they found it shockingly "empty".

One of the areas of science that shatters the materialist myth and gives positive evidence for theism is quantum physics.

Quantum physics deals with the tiniest particles of matter, what is called the sub-atomic realm. In school everyone learns that matter is composed of atoms. Atoms are made up of a nucleus and several electrons spinning around it. One strange fact is that all these particles take up only some 0.0001 percent of the atoms. In other words, an atom is something that is 99.9999 percent "empty."

An even more interesting fact is that when the nuclei and electrons are further examined, it has been realized that these are made up of much smaller particles called "quarks," and that these quarks are not particles in the physical sense, but simply energy. This discovery has broken the classical distinction between matter and energy. It now appears that in the material universe, only energy exists. What we call matter is just "frozen energy."

There is a still more intriguing fact: The quarks, those energy packets, act in such a way that they maybe described as "conscious." Physicist Freeman Dyson, on his acceptance of the Templeton Prize, stated that:

Atoms are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom.14

What this means is that there is information behind matter. Information that precedes the material realm. Gerald Schroeder, an MIT-trained scientist who has worked in both physics and biology and author of the famous book The Science of God, makes a number of important comments on this subject. In his more recent book, The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (2001), Schroeder explains that quantum physics-along with other branches of science-is the tool for discovering a universal wisdom that lies behind the material world. As he puts it:

It took humanity millennia before an Einstein discovered that, as bizarre as it may seem, the basis of matter is energy, that matter is actually condensed energy. It may take a while longer for us to discover that there is some non-thing even more fundamental than energy that forms the basis of energy, which in turn forms the basis of matter.15

John Archibald, professor of physics at Princeton University and recipient of the Einstein Award, explained the same fact when he said that the "bit" (the binary digit) of information gives rise to the "it," the substance of matter.16 According to Schroeder this has a "profound meaning":

The matter/energy relationships, the quantum wave functions, have profound meaning. Science may be approaching the realization that the entire universe is an expression of information, wisdom, an idea, just as atoms are tangible expressions of something as ethereal as energy.17

This wisdom is such an omniscient thing that covers the whole universe:

A single consciousness, a universal wisdom, pervades the universe. The discoveries of science, those that search the quantum nature of subatomic matter, have moved us to the brink of a startling realization: all existence is the expression of this wisdom. In the laboratories we experience it as information that first physically articulated as energy and then condensed into the form of matter. Every particle, every being, from atom to human, appears to represent a level of information, of wisdom.18

This means that the material universe is not a purposeless and chaotic heap of atoms, as the atheist/materialist dogma assumes, but is instead a manifestation of a wisdom which existed before the universe and which has absolute sovereignty over everything that exists. In Schroeder's words, it is "as if a metaphysical substrate was impressed upon the physical". 19

This discovery shatters the whole materialist myth and reveals that the material universe we see is just a shadow of a transcendent Absolute Being. Thus, as Schroeder explains, quantum physics has become the point where science and theology meet:

The age-old theological view of the universe is that all existence is the manifestation of a transcendent wisdom, with a universal consciousness being its manifestation. If I substitute the word information for wisdom, theology begins to sound like quantum physics. We may be witnessing the scientific confluence of the physical with the spiritual. 20

Quantum is really the point where science and theology meet. The fact that the whole universe is pervaded by a wisdom is a secret that was revealed in the Qur'an 14 centuries ago. One verse reads:

Your god is God alone, there is no god but Him. He encompasses all things in His knowledge. (Qur'an, 20:98)

The Natural Sciences: The Collapse of Darwinism and

The Triumph of Intelligent Design

Darwin: His theory is now refuted by a great deal of scientific evidence.

As we stated at the beginning, one of the main supports for the rise of atheism to its zenith in the 19th century was Darwin's theory of evolution. With its assertion that the origin of human beings and all other living things lay in unconscious natural mechanisms, Darwinism gave atheists the opportunity they had been seeking for centuries. Therefore, Darwin's theory had been adopted by the most passionate atheists of the time, and atheist thinkers such as Marx and Engels elucidated this theory as the basis of their philosophy. Since that time, the relationship between Darwinism and atheism has continued.

But, at the same time, this greatest support for atheism is the dogma that has received the greatest blow from scientific discoveries in the 20th century. The discoveries by various branches of science such as paleontology, biochemistry, anatomy and genetics have shattered the theory of evolution from various aspects. (See Harun Yahya, Evolution Deceit, 2000). We have dealt with this fact in much more detail in various other books and publications, but we may summarize it here as follows:

Paleontology: Darwin's theory rests on the assumption that all species come from one single common ancestor and that they diverged from one another over a long period of time by small gradual changes. It is supposed that the proofs for this will be discovered in the fossil record, the petrified remains of living things. But fossil research conducted in the course of the 20th century has presented a totally different picture. The fossil of even a single undoubted intermediate species that would substantiate the belief in the gradual evolution of species has not been found. Moreover, every taxon appears suddenly in the fossil record and no trace has been found of any previous ancestors. The phenomenon known as the Cambrian Explosion is especially interesting. In this early geological period, nearly all of the phyla (major groups with significantly different body plans) of the animal kingdom suddenly appeared. This sudden emergence of many different categories of living things with totally different body structures and extremely complex organs and systems, including mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms and (as recently discovered) even vertebrates, is a major blow to Darwinism. For, as evolutionists also agree, the sudden appearance of a taxon implies supernatural design and this means creation.

Biological Observations: In elaborating his theory, Darwin relied on examples of how animal breeders produced a different variety of dogs or horses. He extrapolated the limited changes he observed in these cases to the whole of the natural world and proposed that every living thing could have come to be in this way from a common ancestor. But Darwin made this claim in the 19th century when the level of scientific sophistication was low. In the 20th century things have changed greatly. Decades of observation and experimentation on various species of animals have shown that variation in living things has never gone beyond certain genetic boundary. Darwin's assertions, like "I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more and more aquatic in their habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale."21 actually demonstrates his great ignorance. On the other hand, observations and experiments have shown that mutations defined by Neo- Darwinism as an evolutionary mechanism add no new genetic information to living creatures.

The Origin of Life: Darwin spoke about a common ancestor but he never mentioned how this first common ancestor came to be. His only conjecture was that the first cell could have formed as a result of random chemical reactions "in some small warm little pond".22 But evolutionary biochemists who undertook to close this hole in Darwinism met with frustration. All observations and experiments showed that it was, in a word, impossible for a living cell to arise within inanimate matter by random chemical reactions. Even the English atheist Nobel Prize-winner Fred Hoyle expressed that such a scenario "is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein."23

Intelligent Design: Scientists studying cells, the molecules that compose the cells, their remarkable organization within the body and the delicate order and plan in the organs are faced with proof of the fact that evolutionists strongly wish to reject: The world of living things is permeated by designs too complex to be found in any technological equipment. Intricate examples of design, including our eyes that are too superior to be compared to any camera, the wings of birds that have inspired flight technology, the complexly integrated system of the cells of living things and the remarkable information stored in DNA, have vitiated the theory of evolution which regards living things as the product of blind chance.

All these facts have squeezed Darwinism into a corner by the end of the 20th century. Today, in the United States and other Western countries, the theory of intelligent design is gaining everincreasing acceptance among scientists. Those who defend the idea of intelligent design say that Darwinism has been a great error in the history of science and that it came to be as the result of materialist philosophy's being imposed on the scientific paradigm. Scientific discoveries show that there is a design in living things which proves creation. In short, science proves once more that God created all living things.

Psychology: The Collapse of Freudianism and the Acceptance of Faith

The representative of the 19th century atheist dogma in the field of psychology was the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Freud proposed a psychological theory which rejected the existence of the soul and tried to explain the whole spiritual world of human beings in terms of sexual and similar hedonistic motivations. But Freud's greatest assault was against religion.

Later studies showed that Freud's ideas, especially the ones about religion were totally flawed.

In his book The Future of an Illusion published in 1927, he proposed that religious faith was a kind of mental illness (neurosis) and that, as human beings progressed, religious faith would completely disappear. Due to the primitive scientific conditions of the time, the theory was proposed without the requisite research and investigation, and with no scholarly literature or possibility of comparison, and therefore, its claims were extremely deficient. Indeed, if Freud had the possibility of evaluating his propositions today, he would himself be surprised by the logical deficiency of his claims and he would be the first to criticize such senseless presuppositions.

After Freud, psychology developed on an atheist foundation. Not only Freud, but the founders of other schools of psychology in the 20th century were passionate atheists. Two of these were B.F. Skinner, the founder of the behaviorist school and Albert Ellis, founder of rational emotive therapy. The world of psychology ended up by becoming the forum for atheism. A 1972 poll among the members of the American Psychology Association revealed that only 1.1 percent of psychologists in the country had any religious beliefs.24

But most psychologists who fell into this great deception were undone by their own psychological investigations. It became known that the basic suppositions of Freudianism had almost no scientific support and, moreover, that religion was not a mental illness as Freud and some other psychological theorists declared, but a basic element of mental health. Patrick Glynn summarizes these important developments:

Yet the last quarter of the twentieth century has not been kind to the psychoanalytic vision. Most significant has been the exposure of Freud's views of religion as entirely fallacious. Ironically enough, scientific research in psychology over the past twenty-five years has demonstrated that, far from being a neurosis or source of neuroses as Freud and his disciples claimed, religious belief is one of the most consistent correlates of overall mental health and happiness. Study after study has shown a powerful relationship between religious belief and practice, on the one hand, and healthy behaviors with regard to such problems as suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, depression, even, perhaps surprisingly, levels of sexual satisfaction in marriage, on the other. In short, the empirical data run exactly contrary to the supposedly "scientific" consensus of the psychotherapeutic profession.25

Finally, as Glynn says, "modern psychology at the close of the twentieth century seems to be reacquainting itself with religion"26 and "a purely secular view of human mental life has been shown to fail not just at the theoretical, but also at the practical, level.27

In other words, atheism has been routed also on the field of psychology.

Medicine: The Discovery of "How Hearts Find Peace"

Another branch of science that was affected by the collapse of atheist suppositions was medicine.

According to results compiled by David B. Larson and his team at the National Institute for Healthcare Research, a comparison among Americans in relation to church attendance yielded very interesting results. Risk of arteriosclerotic heart disease for men who attended church frequently was just 60 percent of that for men who were infrequent church attenders. Among women, suicide was twice as high among infrequent as among frequent church attenders; smokers who ranked religion as very important in their lives were over seven times less likely to have normal diastolic pressure readings than were those who did not.28

Secular psychologists generally explain such phenomena as having a psychological cause. In this sense, faith raises a person's morale and contributes to his well-being. There may be some truth in this explanation, but if we look more closely we see something much more dramatic. Belief in God is much stronger than any other influence on the morale. In comprehensive research on the relationship between religious belief and physical health, Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School came up with some interesting results. Although he did not have any religious faith, Benson arrived at the result that faith in God and worship had a much more positive effect on human health than could be observed in anything else. Benson concludes that he has "found that faith quiets the mind like no other form of belief."29

Why is there such a special relation between faith and human spirit and body? The result arrived at by Benson, who is a secular researcher, was, as he put it, that the human mind and body are "wired for God."30

This fact, that the medical world is slowly beginning to notice, is a secret revealed in the Qur'an with the verse, "Only in the remembrance of God can the heart find peace." (Qur'an, 13:28) The reason why those who believe in God, pray to Him and trust in Him are physically and mentally more healthy than others is that they behave in harmony with their nature. Philosophical systems opposed to human nature always bring pain, sorrow, anxiety and depression upon people.

The basic source of the peace experienced by a religious person is that he acts in order to gain God's approval. In other words, this peace is the natural result of a person's listening to the voice of his conscience. A person does not live the morality of religion simply "to be more at peace" or "to be healthier"; a person who acts with this intention cannot find peace in its true sense. God well knows that what a person stores in his heart or what he reveals. A person experiences peace of mind only by being sincere and attempting to gain God's approval. God commands:

So set your face firmly towards the [true] religion, as a pure natural believer, God's natural pattern on which He made mankind. There is no changing God's creation. That is the true religion-but most people do not know it. (Qur'an, 30:30)

In the light of the discoveries that we have briefly indicated above, modern medicine is starting to become cognizant of this truth. As Patrick Glynn says, "contemporary medicine is clearly moving in the direction of acknowledging dimensions of healing beyond the purely material".31

Society: The Fall of Communism, Fascism and the Hippie Dream

The collapse of atheism in the 20th century did not occur only in the fields of astrophysics, biology, psychology and medicine; it happened also in politics and social morality.

Communism may be considered the most important political result of 19th century atheism. The founders of this ideology, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky or Mao, all adopted atheism as a basic principle. A primary goal of all communist regimes was to get society to adopt atheism and to destroy religious belief. Stalin's Russia, Red China, Cambodia, Albania and some Eastern block countries applied immense pressure on religious people to the point of committing mass murder.

Yet, amazingly, at the end of the 1980s this bloody atheist system collapsed. When we examine the reasons for this dramatic fall, we see that what collapsed was actually atheism. Patrick Glynn writes:

To be sure, secular historians would say that the greatest mistake of Communism was to attempt to defy the laws of economics. But other laws, too, came into play... Moreover, as historians penetrate the circumstances of the Communist collapse, it is becoming clearer that the Soviet elite was itself in the throes of an atheistic "crisis of faith". Having lived under an atheistic ideology-one that consisted of lies and that was based on a "Big Lie"- the Soviet system suffered a radical demoralization, in every sense of that term. People, including the ruling elite, lost all sense of morality and all sense of hope.32

An interesting indication of the Soviet system's great "crisis of faith" was President Mihail Gorbachev's attempts of reform. Since the time that he assumed the presidency, Gorbachev was interested in moral problems as well as economic reforms. For example, one of the first things he did was to initiate a campaign against alcoholism. In order to raise the morale of society, for a long time he used Marxist-Leninist terminology but he saw that this was of no use.

Gorbachev: His futile attempts could not heal the "crisis of faith" in the Soviet society.

Then, in the later years of the regime, he even began to mention God in some of his speeches, even though he himself was an atheist. Naturally, these insincere words of faith were of no use and the crisis of faith in Soviet society continued to worsen. The result was the collapse of the gigantic Soviet empire. The 20th century documented not only the fall of communism, but also that of another fruit of 19th century antireligious philosophy-fascism. Fascism is the outcome of a philosophy which may be called a mixture of atheism and paganism and which is intensely hostile to theistic religions. Friedrich Nietzsche, who may be called the father of fascism, extolled the morality of barbarous idolatrous societies, attacked Christianity and other monotheistic religions and even called himself the "Antichrist." Nietzsche's disciple, Martin Heidegger, was an avid Nazi supporter and the ideas of these two atheist thinkers gave impetus to the terrifying savagery of Nazi Germany. (The Holocaust, one of the greatest act of evil in human history, was the result of Nazi anti-Semitism, an ideology that hated Jews and the monotheistic faith that has been the cornerstone of Judaism-and also Islam.) The Second World War, that caused the death of 55 million people, is another example of the calamity that atheist ideologies like fascism and communism have brought upon humanity.

At this point, we must recall another atheist ideology-Social Darwinism-which was among the causes for the outbreak of both the First and the Second World Wars. In his book entitled Europe Since 1870, Harvard history professor James Joll states that behind each of the two world wars lay the philosophical views of Social Darwinist European leaders who believed in the myth that war was a biological necessity and that nations developed through conflict.33

In contrast with the theist and peaceful American Revolution, the French Revolution was atheist, neo-pagan and extremely violent.

Another social consequence of atheism in the 20th century appeared in Western democracies. In the present day there is a tendency to regard the West as the "Christian world." However, since the 19th, century, a quickly growing atheist culture has held sway with Christian culture, and today there is a conflict between these two cultures in what we call Western civilization. And this atheist element has been the true cause of western imperialism, moral degeneration, despotism and other negative manifestations.

In his book God: The Evidence, the American writer Patrick Glynn draws attention to this matter and, in order to compare the God-fearing and atheist elements in the West, he takes the examples of the American and French Revolutions. The American Revolution was carried out by believers; American Declaration of Independence states that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". Since the French Revolution was the work of atheists, the French Declaration of Human Rights was very different, with no reference to God and full of atheist and neo-pagan notions.

The actual results of the two revolutions were quite different: in the American model, a peaceful, tolerant environment was created that respected religion and religious belief; in France the fierce hostility to religion drowned the country in blood and unleashed a savagery such as had never been seen before. As Glynn says, "there is an interesting historical correlation between atheism, on the one hand, and moral and political catastrophe, on the other hand."34

Glynn notes that attempts to turn America into an atheist country have also caused harm to society. The fact that the sexual revolution (for example) that spread in the 60's and 70's caused immense social damage is accepted even by secular historians.35

John Lennon: The world he imagined -one without religion- did not bring a happy end, neither to him nor to his followers.

The hippie movement was a demonstration of this social damage. The hippies believed that they could find spiritual emancipation through secular humanist philosophy and by such things as unlimited drugs and sex. These young people who poured onto the streets with romantic songs-like John Lennon's Imagine in which he spoke of a world "with no countries, and no religion too"-were actually undergoing a mass deception.

In fact, a world without religion actually brought them to an unhappy end. The hippy leaders of the 1960s either killed themselves or died from drug-induced comas in the early 1970s. Many other young hippies shared a similar fate.

Those young people of the same generation who turned to violence found themselves on the receiving end of violence. The 1968 generation, who turned their backs on God and religion and imagined they could find salvation in such concepts as revolution or selfish Epicureanism, ruined both themselves and their own societies.

The Dawn of the Post-Atheist World

The facts that we have briefly summarized to this point shows clearly that atheism is undergoing an inevitable collapse. In other words, humanity is - and will be - turning towards God. The truth of this assertion is not limited only to the scientific and political areas that we have written about here. From prominent statesmen to movie stars and pop artists, those who influence opinion in the West are much more religious than they used to be. There are many people who have seen the truth and come to believe in God after having lived for years as atheists. (Patrick Glynn from whose book we have quoted is one of these ex-atheists).

The fact that the developments which have contributed to this result began in the same period, that is from the second half of the 1970s, is quite interesting. The anthropic principle first appeared in the 1970s. Scientific criticism of Darwinism started to be loudly voiced at that same time. The turning point against the atheist dogma of Freud was a book entitled The Road Less Traveled published in 1978 by Scott Peck. For this reason, Glynn, in the 1997 edition of his book writes that "over the past twenty years, a significant body of evidence has emerged, shattering the foundations of the long-dominant modern secular worldview."36

Surely, the fact that the atheist world-view has been shaken means that another world-view prevails, which is belief in God. Since the end of the 1970's, (or, from the beginning of the 14th century according to the Muslim calendar) the world has seen a rise in religious values. Like other social processes, this does not happen in a day and the majority of people may not notice it because it has been developing over a long period of time. However, those who evaluate the development a little more carefully see that the world is at a major turning point in the realm of ideas.

Secular historians try to explain this process according to their own principles but just as they are in deep error with regard to the existence of God, so they are greatly mistaken about the course of history. In fact, as the following verse reveals, history moves as God as determined: "...You will not find any changing in the pattern of God. You will not find any alteration in the pattern of God." (Qur'an, 35: 43) It follows, then, that history has a purpose and unfolds as God has commanded. And God's command is the perfection of His light:

They desire to extinguish God's Light with their mouths. But God refuses to do other than perfect His Light, even though the disbelievers detest it. (Qur'an, 9: 32)

This verse means that God has sent down His light upon humanity through the religion that He has revealed. Those who do not believe want to extinguish this light by their "mouths"- intimations, propaganda and philosophies, but God will finally perfect His light and give dominion to religious values on earth.

This may be the "turning point in history" mentioned at the beginning of this article as also indicated by the evidence we have provided here, as well as the implications of various hadiths and statements by scholars. Surely, God knows best.

Conclusion

We are living at an important time. Atheism, which people have tried for hundreds of years to portray as "the way of reason and science," is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance. Materialist philosophy that sought to use science for its own ends has been in turn defeated by science. A world rescuing itself from atheism will turn to God and religion. And this process has begun long ago.

It is clear that believers have important duties in this period. They must be aware of this major change in the world's way of thinking, interpret it, make good use of the opportunities that globalization offers and effectively represent the truth along this road. They must know that the basic conflict of ideas in the world is between atheism and faith. It is not a struggle between East and West; in both East and West there are those who believe in God and those who do not. For this reason, faithful Christians, as well as faithful Jews are allies of Muslims. The main divergence is not between Muslims and the "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians), but between Muslims and the People of the Book on the one hand, and atheists and pagans on the other. Of course, we must not show hostility to such people but view them as people who need to be rescued from their error.

The time is fast approaching when many people who are living in ignorance with no knowledge of their Creator will be graced by faith in the impending post-atheist world.

1. http://www.harunyahya.com/articles/70the_fall_of_atheism_sci34.php