> We going to pretend the crusades didn't happen? > Christian and Muslim states had been in conflict since the establishment of Islam in the 7th century. In th

> We going to pretend the crusades didn't happen? > Christian and Muslim states had been in conflict since the establishment of Islam in the 7th century. In the span of approximately 120 years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 632, Muslim forces conquered the Levant (including Jerusalem), as well as North Africa and most of the Iberian Peninsula, all of which had previously been under Christian rule. By the 11th century, Christians were through the Reconquista gradually reversing the 8th-century Muslim conquest of Iberia, but their ties to the Holy Land had deteriorated. Muslim authorities in the Levant often enforced harsh rules against any overt expressions of the Christian faith. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade You can't play the crusades card in this context.