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The crusades were a mistake and were due to the Pope's attempt at a power grab against the "Eastern" Roman Empire. The Emperor requested military assistance from the Pope against the Turks, who unlike Arab Muslims butchered Christian pilgrims (Arabs just took payments from them). The Emperor was not so concerned about the pilgrims as he was concerned with the depopulation of Asia Minor of its Christians and severe battlefield reverses.

Instead of the Emperor's request for the Pope funding of professional mercenaries for the effort the Pope created a version of Christian jihad that did not and does not exist in Christianity. In fact in the Orthodox Church killing even in battle is still a sin. The Crusades failed everyone Catholic, Orthodox and even Muslims since it allowed the Islamic world to embrace the warlike Turks who upon taking power decimated Islamic centers of learning through their barbarity.

The respected Saladin, a Kurd (from a Kurdistan that was once both Zoroastrian and Christian before Islam) was the last none Turk to rule the Middle East until the 20th century.

Under the Turks the richest most educated areas of the planet, the Middle East, Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean became a backwards world still not recovered.

I'm sorry, but that just isn't true. I don't have time to post my links, as I am going to the store for ice cream, but if you go to my profile and click the threads entitled "Christiandom vs. Islam" [there are two of them] you will get an excellent overview of the truth about our crusades. I stand by every word written in them.

The Crusades failed everyone Catholic, Orthodox and even Muslims since it allowed the Islamic world to embrace the warlike Turks who upon taking power decimated Islamic centers of learning through their barbarity. The respected Saladin, a Kurd (from a Kurdistan that was once both Zoroastrian and Christian before Islam) was the last none Turk to rule the Middle East until the 20th century.

This statement makes no sense at all. The Turks were an irresistable force at that point in history. Their conquest of the Byzantine Empire was delayed thanks to a combination of the Crusades and the Mongols. To claim that if the Crusades had never happened, the Turks would never have come to power in the Near East is silly.