[al_mandi]

Of course the word crusade has a negative connotation. The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. As per your links, the enslavement that happened were due to war, so the same as what the Europeans did.

[car_analogy]

> The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented.

You're saying Europe should not have retaliated for all the land and people that were stolen? They were at war, under attack for centuries, but if they counter-attack, well that's the worst thing ever, still remembered almost a thousand years later, while the Muslim attacks they were responding to go largely unmentioned. It's bizarre.

[al_mandi]

What provoked the Muslim attacks, and how did the Muslims treat the local population compared to the chaos and destruction left by the Crusades? Islam has rules of engagement, which prohibits the atrocities committed by the Crusades and the Mongols