Newspapers, pundits respond to May's controversial "Crusader" comment

By Jim Coggins

A crusading knight (Orlando Bloom) charges forth in Kingdom of Heaven.

She made the statement in a news release criticizing the conclusions of the Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan.

The panel's report, popularly called the 'Manley Report' after panel chair John Manley, recommended that Canadian troops remain in southern Afghanistan after February 2009, provided an additional 1,000 troops are sent to the region by Canada's Western allies. The Canadian troops are part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

May's news release stated that the Canadian troops should be replaced by Afghan government troops and by troops from "a different cultural mix of UN countries."

She added: "The Manley Report fails to consider that the recommendation of more ISAF forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a 'Jihad'. This, in turn, may feed the recruitment of suicide bombers and other insurgents."

However, it was not May's policy proposals that raised controversy but her use of the term "Christian/Crusader heritage."

Unspeakable

"Crusade" has become an increasingly volatile word, and public figures have shied away from using it in recent years.

US President George W. Bush stated on September 16, 2001, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while." After the term aroused widespread criticism, he withdrew the remark and apologized.

Billy Graham for years used to conduct "evangelistic crusades." His son and successor Franklin Graham conducts "evangelistic festivals."

The term was first applied almost a thousand years ago to the military campaigns waged by some Christian European countries to take back Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which had been conquered by Muslims a few centuries earlier. The term is now often associated with the atrocities committed by the original Crusaders, and it is often applied by Muslims to people from Western countries that are perceived as still basically Christian.

The current controversy

In a later clarification, published in the National Post, May stated that she should have put "Christian/crusader heritage" in quotation marks to signify that she was not calling Canada's military effort a Christian crusade but that the Taliban would use that term as a means of gaining more recruits. "The point we are making is that Taliban recruitment propaganda portrays the NATO mission, led by the United States, Canada and other Western countries, as a conflict between the Christian West and Islam," she wrote.

A Conservative Party response called May's comments "grossly insulting to Canadian forces," arguing that the "Canadian forces . . . are working . . . to bring peace and human rights to the people of Afghanistan . . . at the invitation of the Afghan Government."

A National Post editorial made a similar point: "Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are fighting for values that people of all faiths (or of no faith), can freely support."

A Calgary Herald editorial similarly affirmed that the Canadian troops' purpose "is not conquest, but security for those trying to build schools and clinics -- at the invitation of the country's popularly elected government." The Herald also suggested that, ironically, May's warning against fuelling Jihad will have the opposite effect -- her "hapless choice of words" will confirm "radical suspicions" of "Muslim fundamentalists" and "endanger the lives of Canadian soldiers."

James Beverley, a professor of Christian thought and ethics history at Tyndale University College and Seminary, told CC.com the conflict in Afghanistan is an attempt to combat terrorism and is not a religious war. Although the West is "still largely Christian . . . most people in the West do not view the campaign against terrorism as a religious war," he said.

While there is a danger that the Taliban will characterize the war as a Christian crusade, and Canadian leaders should be aware of that, sending Canadian troops there "is not necessarily wrong," he added.

The furor over May's terminology has been an "over-reaction," said Beverley. "I doubt if the Taliban leaders are really following the Green Party."

Context

Newspapers and politicians, including May herself, are backing away from any suggestion that the conflict in Afghanistan is in any sense a Muslim-Christian war. Rather, they insist it is an attempt to bring democracy and human rights to Afghanistan.

Beverley said it is unlikely that troops from Muslim countries would replace Canadian troops in Afghanistan because it would arouse opposition in their own countries from factions who would see them as being "co-opted by the West." However, he said it is important to remember that "Islam comes in different varieties" and "the vast majority of Muslims in the world don't like Islamic terrorism," which is "so lacking is respect for Muslim law about the use of force."

However, Roman Catholic Father Raymond J. de Souza commented in the National Post that "despite the awkwardness in her formulation, May is largely correct."

De Souza argued that Muslims, Christians and others understand the Crusades as "the outrages of fundamentalist Christian zealots setting upon irenic Muslims in the east, raping and massacring and pillaging as they went." Without defending the atrocities of the Crusades, he said the Crusades should properly be understood as "an episode in a long series of battles between Christian and Muslim armies." Moreover, in those battles, Muslims were often the aggressors, "advancing for several centuries, even into Europe, before being turned back."

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Joanne Pepper, coordinator of inter-religious studies at Trinity Western University, told CC.com it is important to understand that the Crusaders were often complete secularists just emerging from the Dark Ages who were not able to read the Bible since it was available only in Latin. They supposedly acted for "gold, glory and God," but there was often "little gold, a lot of glory and nothing of God" in them, she said.

"Most Christians have come to realize that carrying the sword does not help advance the gospel," said Beverley. "Christians don't want the Christian story connected to sending armies to kill and conquer."

Theological Questions

Nevertheless, some observers note that there are still theological and ideological components to the current conflict.

De Souza cited the argument in George Weigel's book Faith, Reason and the War Against Jihadism that "The great human questions, including the great questions of public life, are ultimately theological."

In his book, Weigel states: "It will not do to offer democracy, secularism and licentious living as an alternative to religious extremism. The answer to bad religion is good religion."

Therefore, in addition to military and political efforts, there must also be an effort to change theological ideas, says Weigel: "The most relevant question, whether God can legitimately command something contrary to reason -- such as coercing the faith by violence, or the slaughter of innocents -- is a theological question."

"The fact that we culturally recoil from even the term 'crusade' reflects a theological view about what is pleasing to God and what is not," wrote de Souza. "That theological view is not held by Canada's enemies in Afghanistan."

"We can't expect a country where 90 percent of the people are Muslim to adopt a secular outlook," said Beverley. "George Bush was naive to believe Iraq was going to become a Jeffersonian democracy." However, he suggested it is possible to hope for Muslim countries to adopt a more liberal form of social organization "free of corruption, torture and dictatorship."

Helping the Afghan government fight off terrorism might be "a terrible necessity" in the short run, said Beverley. However, while that might be the responsibility of the Canadian government, the Christian church should have a different agenda. "The most important thing Christians can do is help people in every country come to the gospel," he said. "And the best way to do that is through social care, loving action and trying to work for peace."

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May's Crusades talk is useful
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February 6/2008