Book Review
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The review of God’s Battalion explains how the authors purpose to demystify the negative ideas about the crusades in Christian history is successful. The author takes an unconventional approach towards the concept, especially because the crusaders are thought to have been extremely barbaric and bloodthirsty (Muehlenberg, 2009). Compared to the Islamic forces, the crusaders lose their religious credibility because the Islamic forces are thought to have been more merciful and less bloodthirsty. Stark argues that this modern view is far from accurate and establishes his historical evidence to justify the crusaders.
Book Review
In the evaluation of credibility, the author qualifies due to his intellectual and academic qualifications. In his explanation, it is inaccurate to believe that Islam was more lenient and less hostile than Christian crusaders. In fact, the crusades only occurred following Islamic antagonisms. The crusaders were not out to loot and grab land; rather, they were reclaiming the holy Christian lands that had been previously conquered by Islamic forces (Muehlenberg, 2009). The Muslim armies were involved in the massacres of people in all the lands they conquered from the middle east, north Africa and Southern Europe.
We can relate the content of the review to the concept of fake news in modern days. The internet has allowed many platforms to be able to circulate information. Some of these sources use the internet to circulate fake news and propaganda (Quandt et al., 2019). People need to be able to recognize which information sources are accurate to avoid believing in inaccurate information. Just like in the review, it is important to evaluate the credibility of the source. One can evaluate the author’s credentials to determine if they are qualified to be offering the information. The news source should also be evaluated because big media companies remain credible to maintain their image and professionality. Smaller sources cannot always be trusted to be professional.
References
Muehlenberg, B. (2009). A Review of God’s Battalions by Rodney Stark. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/10/11/a-review-of-god%E2%80%99s-battalion-by- rodney-stark/
Quandt, T., Frischlich, L., Boberg, S., & SchattoâEckrodt, T. (2019). Fake news. The international encyclopedia of Journalism Studies, 1-6.