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The Church, by apologising for past misdeeds, misunderstands the militant nature of Islam, says Piers Paul Read

A PARADOX marks the opening of the new millennium for members of the Christian religion. On the one hand, the fact that the anniversary of the birth of Christ was celebrated throughout the world shows the universal historical ascendancy of the Christian religion: on the other, Christ's message of peace to all men remains widely ignored. Indeed. many of the endemic conflicts arise from religious differences. particularly between Christianity and Islam. In Nigeria, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia. Bosnia. Kosovo, Cyprus. Chechnya. Lebanon and the Philippines blood is being shed by the warring partisans of Muhammad and Christ.

In response to this paradox the leaders of the Christian churches have adopted a penitential stance. The Archbishop of Canterbury, flanked by members of other Christian denominations. publicly apologised for the sins committed in the name of Christ following the example set by Pope John Paul 11 last September when, at a general audience in Rome. he said that the communal implications of sin impel the Church to ask pardon for the 'historic sins of her children'.

What are these historic sins? Last week's act of contrition by the British church leaders was somewhat vague: it mentioned Christians' past indifference to the institution of slavery; to Christian racism, specifically Christian anti-Semitism. While in Rome the Pope has set Lip investigations into the role played by the Catholic Church in the Inquisition, the Reformation and the Crusades; according to reports last week, Pope John Paul II is planning to mark the beginning of Lent by issuing a solemn apology for the past sins of the Catholic Church.

To many outside the Church, such an apology is long overdue, For example, in Britain. Dr Zaki Badawi, chairman of the Council of Imams and Mosques. has demanded that the Catholic Church should apologisc for the Crusades. 'Hopefully an apology would also mean repentance,' he said, 'We hope that the word "crusade" will disappear from our language because it is something that rankles enormously with Muslims.' This view of the Crusades is not confined to Muslims: the celebrated Crusade historian. Sir Steven Runciman, judged that the Crusades 'were a tragic and destructive episode ... a long act of intolerance in the name of God, which is the sin against the Holy Ghost.' An Anglican expert on Islam, the Revd Colin Chapman, agreed with Dr Badawi: 'The Crusades,' he said, 'are such a major stumbling block in the minds of many Muslims ... the Christian community [should] recognise the enormity of what was done in the name of Christ.' As a result a committee was formed by the main Christian denominations to draw up an apology to mark the 9(X)th anniversary of the First Crusade in 1998. A draft was presented to the committee but the members could not agree. No statement was issued. No apology was made.

What blocks a consensus? One of the difficulties is that a younger, post-Runciman generation of historians such as Jonathan Riley-Smith now dismiss the hitherto accepted view that the Crusaders had been greedy younger sons intent on pillage. 'Few historians,' wrote Riley-Smith, -appear to believe in them any longer.' Instead the First Crusade should be understood more as a pilgrimage under arms involving considerable material sacrifices with little expectation of anything other than spiritual gain.

Indeed, a look at a broader sweep of history reveals that. while the growth of Christianity in the first three centuries after Christ had been wholly pacific, Islam from its inception had been a religion that spread the Word bv force. The Prophet Muhammad himself had led raids on rival tribes in Arabia and after his death his father-in-law, Umar. had led the armies of Islam in a lightning campaign of conquest against the Christian Byzantine Empire. Islamic armies conquered the Christian territories of Palestine, Syria, the whole of North Africa, and most of the Iberian peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia and southern Italy. A Muslim base was established on the coast of France in the modern La Garde-Freinet, and in 846 a Muslim expeditionary force made a move on Rome itself. sacking St Peter's basilica. then outside the city walls.

Islamic expansion into Christian Europe was only stopped in the West when a MUSlim army was defeated by Charles Martel at Poitiers in 732; and in the East with the raising of the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. Far from being instances of aggression, the Crusades were seen by Christians at the time as wars both in defence of Christendom and for the liberation of fellow Christians Linder Muslim rule.

It was almost certainly the political and mercantile imperialism of the West European powers in the 19th century that accounts for the mistaken impression in the minds of many Muslims today that it is Christianity, that is the predatory religion, And such are the sensitivities of Muslims that it becomes difficult and even dangerous to dispute the point of view. The French historian. Paul Fregosi, who described the Prophet Muhammad as a political and violent man in his book nJilad in the West, and suggested that this explained the violence at the root of many Islamic societies today, had his contract cancelled by the publishers Little, Brown. He accused Little, Brown of backing off for fear of a fatwa; Little, Brown replied that they had merely decided not to publish 'a bad book'.