The Lessons of History

The Lessons of History

1987 1 January 26 The Lessons of History (353) Saint Bernard was one of those Christian priests who, during the Crusades, called upon the Christian nations to take part in the ‘holy war’ as a matter of sacred duty. But after a struggle, which lasted for 200 years, they ultimately suffered a total defeat at the hands of the Muslims.

Commenting on the crusades, Bertrand Russell writes:

“Although he preached the Crusades, he did not seem to understand that a war requires organization and cannot be conducted by religious enthusiasm alone” (A History of Western Philosophy, p.431).

What Bertrand Russell has to say about the Christian crusaders can be applied in like manner to the Muslims of modern times, and what the Prophet Muhammad had to say on the subject so many centuries ago still rings true today:

“You (Muslims) will follow in the path of past communities, and even if they had entered the hole of a lizard, you will follow suit.”

Just as the Christian nations made the mistake of thinking that religious fervour was sufficient to bring them victory in the crusades, and then were virtually beaten because of their own lack of discipline, so in modern times Muslims have waged innumerable wars against their conquerors, but have achieved little thereby because their efforts lacked the cohesion brought about by discipline. They have, in fact, been defeated on every front.

This striking similarity between the thinking and behaviour of the ancient and modern peoples of the Book (i.e. peoples who possess revealed scriptures, especially the Jews and the Christians) shows how little human capacity there is for learning valuable lessons from history.

It would appear that when a nation goes into a decline, all that remains of patriotic sentiment is a kind of empty enthusiasm unsupported by wisdom. There is no seriousness, no realism in tackling the affairs of the nation and, all too often, a basic sense of responsibility is unceremoniously dispensed with: the same unbalanced approach is evinced as was prevalent amongst Christian nations at the time of the crusades. How long will it take modern Muslims to realise that they are falling into the same error?