All I know is that I live in the here and now. I live in my lifetime. I don't give a rip about what happened in the crusades, during the witch hunts etc. All I care about is that Islam is responsible for about 90% of the terrorist attacks around the world right now. It's a clear and present danger- Christianity is not. And that's getting real.
Many forget that The Crusades were a series of
defensive wars waged by the Christian west (Christiandom) against a steady multi-century Islamic onslaught. Islam's advance by the sword had finally reached Constantinople. The leaders of that dwindling civilization (the last remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire) sent out a call to the west for military assistance, or they would fall. Prior to that, the west had always felt safe against Islam, because they were sure the Eastern Roman Empire (a Christian empire) could hold them off forever.
Look at Constantinople (now Istanbul) on a map. If it fell, western Christiandom (that's us) knew that a huge doorway for Islam to invade the west (the open goal of Islam) would be wide open. That's why the west sent military assistance to Constantinople. To save their own hides.
After several tries, we eventually lost The Crusades, and Islam (as predicted) spread by the sword from there (by two prongs, an upper and lower) all throughout North Africa, up into Spain (conquering all but the mountainous northern tip), threatening France from the west; and in the east (through Constantinople) all the way through Greece up to Hungary, threatening Italy and Austria.
We almost lost it all. The west was just barely able, with all it's resources united, to stop Islam from destroying Western civilization completely. Their goals have not changed. Only their methods.
