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Alright. Now as Paul Scotchie brought the theme up about ' peaceful religions causing wars worlwide', he won't object to this thread continuing on this subject (with the adverted commers).
Chris, no Christian Saints called on soldiers to join the Crusades to the Middle East. They did not call down from Heaven for people to join up, if that is what you meant!
The pope as a man (I think it was Urban) called for the first Crusade, and other popes later called for further Crusades in the Middle East.
The Arabs conquered the Middle East with the sword. They also allowed pilgrims from the West to visit holy places. The Turks conquered Jerusalem and vast areas in the Middle East from the Arabs, also with the sword. As the Turks then hindered pilgrims visiting what many called and do call the Holy Land, this led to the first Crusade.
The fact that the Arabs meanwhile had reconquered Jerusalem and sent message to the West that pilgrims could travel again peacefully to the holy places in the Middle East for contemplation, did not alter the pope from continuing with the first Crusade, which conquered with the sword.
Later, Christian rulers in Judea and Galilee and Lebanon, of Western origin, after initial wars to conquer with the sword, did have peaceful relations with the local Muslims and with the neighbouring Muslim states (Egypt, Syria and others), and got on well with local Muslim populations, as too did the Knights Templars. It wasn't all war, war, war and hatred.
However, wars did break out again, and eventually the Western forces withdrew from these areas.
Now you may know that there were then, and that there are now, Christian populations in Lebanon, Syria, Irak, Egypt, and also in Israel and the West Bank. These people do descend from the original populations who always lived there, as much as the Muslims do.
But Chris, if every peaceful co-habitation between different peoples of different religions, some of which I tried to mention above, is cancelled in your view, and only every war is remembered and put down to 'religion'. then I assume that if I am for peaceful co-habitation of nations and peoples in the world we live in, and proclaim the Christian Faith as I do to uphold this, and some others are for wars which I do not agree with, you will come along and say that my Christian Faith caused these wars, and those who waged them, for all that they may be believers in a religion or aetheists, do not carry any responsibility for the wars they waged.
In reality, if I am against the war in Afghanistan, which I am and have professed to be, and have stated publicly that I am against it and given reasons why our soldiers should not be there, and have signed an online petition (of BNP) to get our soldiers out of Afghanistan immediately, then I do not carry any responsibility for that war!
Neither does the Christian Faith which I profess to believe in!