The Crusades, generally speaking, refer to the war waged by Christian countries in Western Europe, claiming their wish to free Jerusalem from the Arabs in order to secure a path for Christian pilgrims.
Muslims consider the Crusades as hostile wars meant for nothing but killing Arabs and seizing the treasures of the East. They did not seek to serve Christianity, and this becomes clear when we look at the history of the earlier Crusades in Eastern Europe and Byzantium. They were the bitter massacres of innocent people, including Christians.
When the Crusaders of the fourth mission waged Constantinople, they attacked and slaughtered innocent people, bishops and the Pope of the Orthodox Church, and appointed a prostitute to the post of the Pope of the East.
These were massacres carried out by the Crusaders against the Orthodox, despite both being Christian. Imagine how cruel and hostile they were to the Muslims who were avowed enemies.
When the Crusaders entered Jerusalem in 1099 AD, they killed all the Muslims in the town, i.e. 7,000 Muslim, men and women and children. For two centuries following that, they bitterly massacred people in every place they entered.
The Crusades have had a great impact on both Muslims in the East and people in the West. The latter believe that the Crusades unified the European countries for the first time in their history. The former, however, regard them as they do the attacks launched against Muslims by the Tartars, whose violent and gruesome force still affect Muslims today.
The destructive impact of the Crusades on Muslim countries is more manifest in the cultural and historic aspects of Islamic heritage. That is, even the new generations of Muslims still feel the hostile intentions of the West against them.
Until the present, influential Westerners aim to take hold of the East and dominate it. For example, when Allenby, the British general in the First World War assigned in the Middle East, went to Jerusalem in 1917, he said: “Today we won the final battle of the Crusades.” Also, when General Juro went the tomb of Saladdin (Salahud-Deen) after the battle of Mislon in 1920, he said: “Here we are again Saladdin.”
There are several incidents that show the hostility of the West towards the East, while in contrast, Islam is the religion of mercy and tolerance.
When the Jews were mercilessly slaughtered in Europe, they only found shelter in Muslim countries. Also, when the Muslims subsequently conquered countries in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, they did not cause any harm to the Christians living there. Different sects of Christians enjoyed security and justice under the Islamic rule in all Arab countries.
This is in contrast to the Spanish Inquisition where Muslims were either slaughtered or forced to convert to Christianity. And, if we record the discussions and confessions of historians about the tolerance of Islam, we will collect volumes.