(06-11-2014 07:08 AM)EverRespect Wrote: (06-10-2014 11:36 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote: (06-09-2014 10:12 AM)VA49er Wrote: (06-09-2014 08:27 AM)bitcruncher Wrote: It's Sultan Mehmet, ER, and his only crime was kicking out the Christians who were persecuting his people for NOT being Christian. Frankly, if you hate him, you hate everyone in history who kicked out an usurping tyrant.
Try picking someone worthy of hatred next time, instead of picking someone based on their religion. I can think of several Popes far more worthy of hatred, and quite a few Priests as well. And you don't have to go all that far back in history either.
From what I've read Mehmet was a pretty generous ruler. He allowed his subjects a considerable degree of religious freedom granting them freedom to move freely within the Empire, and to practice their religion free from persecution.
Agreed, from everything I remember, I don't see how you can put Mehmet on the list of 'evil'/'despicable' people.
His conquests are the root of a lot of the problems we have in the Middle East today. He was a scourge on Christianity. He is also the reason my family, and millions of others, are Italian/Sicilian and not Albanian.
Many of the problems in the Middle East today are the result of stupid decisions made at the end of WWI, when advisers under the pay of the world's major oil corporation drew up the boundaries of the nations of the Middle East around the major oil fields, rather than taking into account the people living there. This split tribes across several nations, while making mortal enemies fellow countrymen. So there is unrest within all these nations, as well as unrest between the nations.
The troubles between the Jews and the Arabs can be trace back to the time of Abraham. Jews are descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac, while Arabs are descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael. Ishmael was the son of a slave woman. Isaac was the son promised to Abraham who would inherit his blessings. When Ishmael mocked Isaac, he and Hagar were sent off into exile because of Isaac's mother. Read the Book of Genesis for further details. But the animosity has extended since that time.
Muhammad tried to make peace with the Jews, prior to writing the Quran. But his peace offering was rebuffed. Muslims used to face Jerusalem to pray. But when Muhammad heard his peace offering was rejected because the Arabs were descended from the wrong son of Abraham, he turned 180° to face Mecca, which Muslims have done ever since.
The trouble between Christians and Muslims can be traced to the Crusades. Folks in the Middle East have long memories.
The trouble between Israel and Arabs can be traced to the end of WWII, when none of the nations of the world wanted to take in the survivors of the holocaust. So they forced the Palestinians to give up their nation, and gave it to the Jews. Many of the Palestinians were accepted into Lebanon as refugees, and for thanks Lebanon was destroyed by wars between the Palestinians, Jews, and Lebanese. Beirut was once the Paris of the Middle East. Not anymore.
So trying to blame all that on Faith Sultan Mehmet is rather ignorant. Don't you think?