As this issue is prepared in late September 2001, we have no idea what the coming months will bring or what the state of the world and international relations will be like by the time this little pamphlet gets into your hands. But we do know that the issues between the Muslim world and Western civilization go back a long time--over 1,200 years. We also know that there are still ancient wounds that continue to fester. We know the issues are tangled almost beyond comprehension and involve the political, economic, religious, and historical dimensions.

So in this issue of Glimpses, we add a little bit of background perspective that is largely buried and forgotten. We remind you of the so-called "Children's Crusade," and what led up to it. We hasten to add there is no specific lesson that we are trying to expound here. But we trust you will find much here to reflect upon.

It Goes Way Back
In October, 732, an invading army thundered across the heartland of Christian Europe. Behind their leader, Abd-er-Rahman, two hundred thousand plundering Moors, Persians, Berbers and Copts swept into Christendom unchecked, their appetite for the delicious spoils of bountiful lands luring them ever northward. They swarmed across the Church's domain like the locusts of Egypt, resolved that the Cross would bend to Islam.

To the north another storm was gathering and its thunder rolled ominously through the nervous French countryside. At the head of an opposing army roared Charles the Hammer, King of the Franks. The hard-eyed Christian soldiers did not know it then, but the future of a civilization would be determined in the battle to follow.

For hour upon hour the champions of two worlds collided. In the end, Abd-er-Rahman lay dead and his vanquished cavalry routed. The lands of modern France, Germany, and Italy had been saved. Islam still controlled Spain, however, as well as all that had been Christian in North Africa and the Middle East. The sons of Mohammed retreated, only to prepare another invasion.

Defending the Faith
By the latter part of the eleventh century Islam's armies were poised to attack Europe's easternmost boundaries in modern Turkey. In addition, news abounded of Christian pilgrims suffering persecution for their faith in Jerusalem. In response, the Pope begged the kings and lords of his lands to rise, yet again, in defense of the Faith. So, in August, 1096, the armies of Christendom rallied to his call and the knights of Europe stormed into the very heart of Palestine in their First Crusade.

For three years the crusaders waged war until in July, 1099, Jerusalem was taken for the Church. For generations to follow, however, Islam resisted the Crusaders bitterly. Finally, in 1187, the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem and gradually pressed the Christian armies against Palestine's coast. Fearing disaster, Pope Innocent III sounded the alarm, calling upon the knights of Europe to rescue their brethren and to save the cause. But his warriors were weary, and they hesitated.

Power and Purity
Then, in the spring of 1212, the children of France and Germany heard the Pope's plea and began to stir. Near Cloyes, France, a 15-year-old shepherd boy named Stephan announced a vision in which he saw the children of Christendom part the Mediterranean Sea and march, unopposed, through the opened gates of Jerusalem. He proclaimed that an army of harmless children would win Jerusalem for Christ by the power of their purity and innocence.

About the same time a ten-year-old German boy named Nicholas was heralding a similar message in the city of Cologne. He, too, summoned an army of children to conquer Jerusalem and convert all of Palestine from Islam to Christianity. He assured his breathless audiences that though the crusading knights of the great kings had failed, they, by their simple dependence on God Himself, would succeed. Thousands of children answered his call.