Was Obama Right In Equating Christian Crusaders With Islamic Jihadis?

President Barack Obama seems to have invited some pretty strong reactions to his statements on Christian history during the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. He said, on religious intolerance: "Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."

Furious at the comparison between Christianity and Islam, conservatives began to lambast him. Rush Limbaugh accused him of insulting Christianity and supporting extreme Islam. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore said: "The president's comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I've ever heard a president make in my lifetime," adding that Obama "has offended every believing Christian in the United States. This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all share."

However, his critics have isolated only one or two statements that seem to be putting Islam as well as Christianity on par. He had referred to Islamic State a "vicious death cult," and pointed out that endless evil can be propagated with distorted faith. Past Christian atrocities can counterbalance the reproach aimed religious violence that has been perpetrated.

Even though Obama limited the mention of the Christian violence to the Crusades and Inquisition, recent Christians have also perpetrated the Bosnian War, which included the systematic rape of women and girls, mostly by Christians against Muslims. Meanwhile, "the Christian churches of Rwanda were intimately involved in the politicking that produced the genocide of 1994, with some clergy even reported to have participated in the violence," according to newrepublic.com.

Most critics are ready to condemn the various atrocities against races and religions. Christianity is seen only as one thread in the larger network of atrocities. However, the same point can apply even to the ISIS terrorism, which has been denounced by various Muslim leaders and clerics, especially after the murder of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh. The creation of ISIS in its "unthinkable cruelty", due to war crimes and brutality within the Christian world, is more than just religious convictions. That is what Obama seems to be conveying.

Even the Nazis were staunch supporters of Christians and took their inspiration from the anti-Semitic sayings of Martin Luther, who was the founder of the Protestant church, according to rawstory.com.

"We are at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and the blood of the children [Jews] have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin)," wrote Luther. "We are at fault in not slaying them."

This according to newrepublic, is important: "But accountability requires honesty, and pretending that Christians have never attributed violence to the cause of Christ is a disservice to modern peacemaking and to the victims of the past. Obama was right to take a clear-eyed view of the years that have come before, and to look hopefully to what we can do together as a multi-faith nation in the years to come."