Saladin the "Moderate"? 

Why the West's Bar for Islam Is Pathetically Low

When Not Butchering Civilians Makes You a Hero

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Saladin.
To many in the West, his name evokes honor, chivalry, and magnanimity. He’s the Muslim warrior-king who took Jerusalem but let the Christians live. He’s the anti-ISIS. The exception. The ideal.

Or so we’re told.

But this legend is built on a fantasy — a deliberate whitewashing of Islamic history to make Islam appear more palatable to modern Western ideals. And that whitewashing has a purpose: to convince Western minds that Islamic extremism is a distortion, not a continuation.

But once you pull back the curtain, the truth is ugly — and deeply inconvenient.

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🏹 Saladin Was No Moderate

While it’s true Saladin (1137–1193) was less bloodthirsty than many of his Muslim contemporaries, he was still a jihadist by definition, driven by the obligation to reclaim Islamic land from the infidel.

He oppressed and persecuted Christian minorities.
He desecrated their churches.
And when Christians refused to convert — he killed them.

His playbook? Practically identical to ISIS.

So why do Western historians, filmmakers, and schoolbooks still treat him like a noble exception?

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🤔 Why Saladin? Why Not Baybars?

Simple: because Saladin was slightly less barbaric than others. That’s it.

Take Baybars (1223–1277), the Mamluk sultan hailed in the Islamic world as a second Saladin. He scored major victories against the Crusaders. He promoted jihad. And he showed zero mercy.

Consider the 1268 sack of Antioch, one of the most savage events in Crusader history. Baybars personally gloated in a letter:

“You would have seen your knights prostrated beneath horses’ hooves... your women sold four at a time for a dinar... crosses smashed, tombs overturned, priests slaughtered upon the altar…”

Baybars broke truces repeatedly. At Arsuf and Safad, he offered terms of peace — then massacred everyone who surrendered.

• He skinned alive the Christian commander of Safad.

• He decapitated his men.

• He mass-slaughtered 2,000 civilians — after promising them safe passage.

“He had them all seized… put to death… beheaded. Then he had a circular wall erected around them. Their bones and heads may still be seen.”
— The Templar of Tyre

Yet Baybars remains mostly unknown in the West — because he doesn't fit the moderate Muslim hero mold. Saladin does.

But here's the truth:
👉 Saladin is only celebrated because the bar is set so low.

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🧱 The West's Desperate Need to Find "Good Muslims"

Western culture — obsessed with tolerance, diversity, and guilt over colonialism — needs heroes from Islam. And if none exist, it will invent them.

So when Saladin:

• Kept a few of his promises,

• Let a few old Christians go free,

• Didn't enslave every survivor…

…he becomes a legend.

Never mind that Christian Crusaders did the same or better. That countless Christian commanders made — and kept — pacts of peace. They’re forgotten.

Why?
Because they’re expected to behave well.
But when a Muslim ruler does it once? He’s lionized for life.

“The bar has been set so low for Muslims that standard social behavior has become cause for celebration.”

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🕌 Al-Azhar: Today’s Saladin Mirage

The same low-bar logic is alive and well today.

Take Al-Azhar University in Egypt — hailed as the most prestigious Islamic institution. Its leader, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, has promoted everything from:

• Hatred of apostates,

• Intolerance of Christians,

• Praise of Sharia supremacy…

…yet he’s still seen as a moderate.

Why? Because he shook the Pope’s hand. Because he signed a paper on “human fraternity.” That’s it.

Never mind what’s preached inside Al-Azhar’s walls.
Never mind what’s written in its textbooks.
A photo-op was enough to fool the West.

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🎯 The Real Lesson: Western Delusion Is the Problem

This isn’t about Saladin or Baybars. It’s about us.

The West:

• Ignores atrocities,

• Whitewashes history,

• Celebrates mediocrity as heroism…

…just to maintain its myth that “Islam is good at its core.”

But history says otherwise.

Saladin was no saint.
Baybars was no aberration.
ISIS is not a break from Islam — it’s a return to form.

Until the West is ready to accept this, we will keep getting burned by the same lies — while congratulating ourselves for finding “moderate” Muslims who simply aren’t genocidal today.