Holy War

When Mohammed, a merchant from Mecca, started to preach Islam or the "devotion to God" at the beginning of the 7th Century, he initially put his trust solely in the persuasive powers of his words. But soon Islam developed into a religion that - just like Christianity - defended a universal claim - even by the power of the sword.

Four hundred years after the Muslim expansion, the Christians of Europe struck back. "It is the Will of God" was the slogan of the crusaders who assembled in Western Europe. At the end of the first expedition - personally sacralized by the Pope - the blood-drenched conquest of Jerusalem took place, in the year 1099.

The film depicts the epoch of battles between the Islamic Ottoman Empire and the Christian powers of Europe. The fear of being enslaved by the Ottomans was one of the great traumas of Early Modern Europe. For a long time the Ottoman Empire seemed invincible.

During the First World War, the despotism and arrogance of Europe's colonial powers in the Islamic world was revealed once more. Particularly the British and Germans exploited the conflicts between Arabs and Ottomans for their own power interests.

The images of 9/11 or September 11th, 2001 sent shockwaves around the world; the unparalleled terror attack changed the international political system. There seemed to be a gulf opening up between the West and the Islamic World. The film describes the roots of modern "Jihad" and shows that its causes can be traced back to the political history of the near and Middle East since 1945.