I’m not familiar with any reference whatever in the Bible refers to the Crusades, particularly the New Testament which emphasizes peace.

What I do understand, is that The Crusades were a direct reaction to the advancing Islamic military expansion in its commitment to dominate and make the world Islamic. Sound familiar?

From what I’ve read, there were Old Testament Bible verses used to justify the Crusades, but they were cherry-picked, as they so often are, to justify what men wanted to do. While I have no problem understanding both the desire and need to confront
the threat against them - the same one we face today, imo, I do not think God should be blamed for the Crusades. Too much that happened was in contradiction to Scripture.

Interesting headline I caught recently was a claim that the Quran did not consider Islam a religion, but a civilization! Should follow up on that, I suppose. Immediately thought how that does specifically address the issue of worship and the obvious difficulty
implicit with the person of Mohammed being worshipped. Yet, many do worship him.

I do believe the history of Western Civilization is based on Judeo Christian Biblical principles. I also believe that the enemies we have are determined to change that foundation of our civilization.
I see it as war between good and evil. And because I believe that the Bible teaches in many verses there is no good when God is not present, I don’t believe any government, institution, et al can be truly successful without God as the ultimate principle giver.

Further, as Biblical influence diminishes so does the understanding of what is good, what is just, even what is kind.
One result is that people “settle” for their own limited understanding and never know the extent of the good, the love, the blessings that God alone can give. On this, I speak from the experience I’ve had as a maturing Christian, not always having had the awareness myself. But, I digress.

Bottom line, our success against our enemies cannot happen without God and unless we do understand that these divisive issues have God as their primary target (primarily spiritual warfare, imo) and don’t seek Him, I see no win.