A Brief Look at Four Enduring Myths About the Crusades

Addressing a 1,000-year debate

Photo by Snowscat on Unsplash

It seems preposterous that a historical event that occurred nearly 1,000 years ago could generate such heated and even violent reaction today, but that is exactly what happens any time the subject of the Crusades comes up. One of the main reasons is that the Crusades and their history have been one of the biggest victims of revisionism over the centuries, and more so in the 20th and 21st centuries than at any other time. Whether this was done as a political or religious maneuver (or sometimes both), there has never been a greater need to debunk some of the myths about the Crusades than now.

Radical Islamist terrorists have taken up the Crusades and their own twisting of the history of the Crusades to further their cause among the general Muslim population. Radical far-right groups in the West have often called for a new Crusade against the terrorists while implicitly lumping all Muslims in with them. Neo-Nazi groups use the word “crusade” without hesitation while others on the alt-right avoid the word itself, knowing the reaction it will cause.

What neither side wants you to know are the actual facts of those events that began in 1095, because the facts don’t match their narrative. Like many global conflicts, the Crusades saw numerous horrible…