Now concerning all the contemporary violence perpetrated in the name of Islam, I’m sure we can go back to the time of the Crusaders (and stop there, don’t ask questions about how Muslims came to occupy Jerusalem, North Africa, Spain, the Balkans, or south Asia) and find something they did that was comparable so we can all feel good that our forebears were guilty of comparable crimes, or some kind of crime anyway. Ahh, I feel better already.

You dont have to go far for variations on Crusader hstory:

Salomon Reinach, in his book, Orpheus, describes the Crusaders in a less-than-favorable light:

“The Crusaders in general, in spite of their sacred cause, behaved like highway robbers. The first host which set out in 1095, and was annihilated by the Turks at Nicaea, killed, burned and pillaged all they encountered. The army commanded by Godfrey de Bouillon massacred the entire population of Jerusalem (1098). The astuteness of Venice turned aside the fourth Crusade upon Constantinople, and the sack of this city is a dark blot on the history of Western Christendom (1204). It was abominably ravaged, and the very church of St. Sophia was the scene of bloody and sacrilegious orgies.”3

Find a religion that hath not persecuted and I may find faith, yet… Until then, faithless infidelity suits me just fine.