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What if the narrative we’ve been told about the Crusades isn’t just wrong, but intentionally fabricated to fit a modern-day narrative? Author and historian Raymond Ibrahim offers a compelling re-examination of one of history’s most misunderstood eras. 

Raymond Ibrahim isn’t your average commentator on the Crusades. 

An American-born scholar with Egyptian roots, he bridges two worlds—Western and Middle Eastern—with equal fluency in English and Arabic. This rare combination has equipped him to interpret centuries-old Christian–Islamic conflict through a lens many Western historians lack. 

His interest in Islamic civilisation was first piqued when he began visiting the Middle East as a child in the 1970s. Interacting and conversing with the locals throughout the decades has provided him with an intimate, personal appreciation of that part of the world, complementing his academic training. 

His academic resume is formidable. As the Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum, Ibrahim is a widely published expert on the Middle East and Islam. 

His books include: 

• Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood against Islam (Bombardier, 2022) 

• Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West (Da Capo, 2018) 

• Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013) 

• The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007) 

• The Battle of Yarmuk: An Assessment of the Immediate Factors behind the Islamic Conquests (MA thesis, 2002). 

He spent years as a regional specialist at the Library of Congress, providing insight to counterterrorism, intelligence and defence agencies. 

Ibrahim’s writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times Syndicate, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, USA Today, Washington Post and Washington Times – to name but a few. 

But it’s his passion for truth and the protection of persecuted Christians that truly drives his work. Since 2011, Ibrahim has produced a monthly report titled “Muslim Persecution of Christians”, documenting global abuses with detail and consistency. These reports serve as a living continuation of his 2013 book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians. 

Rewriting the Crusades 

Ibrahim’s most striking work, however, may be in how he tackles the Crusades themselves. 

As most of us have been taught, the Crusades were a time of unbridled terror, bloodshed, and rampant hatred by Christians who attacked Islam and all who followed it. It was supposedly a time when those who called themselves Christian crusaders slaughtered innocent Muslims who had done them no wrong. In fact, these Muslims were living side by side with Christians in peace and harmony. 

But Ibrahim suggests we’ve been sold a fiction—crafted more to appease modern political sensibilities than to honour historical truth. 

Like many others, I stumbled across Ibrahim’s work by accident. It was on YouTube, in a long-form conversation with Winston Marshall. 

But it quickly became clear that this was more than just another opinion piece—it was a clear-eyed appeal to re-examine history with courage, humility, and a biblical sense of justice. 

For those of us who grew up being told that Crusaders were the aggressors—murdering innocent Muslims without provocation—his message was, frankly, gobsmacking. 

A Defensive War, Not an Aggressive One 

At the heart of Ibrahim’s thesis is a simple but explosive idea: the Crusades were not acts of aggression but of defence. 

For centuries leading up to the First Crusade in 1095, Islamic armies had rapidly expanded, overtaking vast swathes of formerly Christian lands—from the Middle East and North Africa to Spain and even parts of France. Ibrahim points out that Christian communities were decimated, churches destroyed, and pilgrims brutally attacked. 

The Crusades, then, were a response—a desperate effort to push back, to defend fellow Christians under siege. The goal wasn’t to conquer for conquest’s sake but to reclaim what had been lost and to secure safe passage for pilgrims. 

This changes the entire tone of the conversation. Suddenly, the Crusaders are not villains; they’re flawed but courageous men acting out of duty to protect their faith, their families, and their brothers and sisters in Christ. 

A More Balanced Perspective 

Of course, like any war, the Crusades were not without their horrors. Ibrahim doesn’t deny that. Atrocities occurred, as they have in every human conflict. But he insists these need to be understood in their historical context—not held up as proof of Christianity’s inherent violence while ignoring the often greater and more systematic brutality of opposing forces. 

More importantly, Ibrahim highlights how the Crusader ethos was rooted in biblical values. Many Crusaders saw their campaigns as acts of service, not ambition—laying down their lives to protect the innocent and uphold Christian worship (John 15:13). 

His book Defenders of the West introduces us to Christian heroes like Godfrey of Bouillon, Louis IX, and John Hunyadi—men who fought not for glory, but for God. It’s a striking counter-narrative to the one our culture has embraced. 

Confronting Modern Narratives 

So why does this matter today? Why revisit a conflict from nearly a thousand years ago? 

Because the myths we believe about the past shape how we think about faith, freedom, and responsibility in the present. When Christians are portrayed as historic aggressors, it becomes easier to silence their voice in the public square. When Islam is portrayed only as a victim of Western violence, it becomes harder to address ongoing persecution and radicalisation with honesty. 

Raymond Ibrahim challenges us to resist the temptation of easy narratives and to seek the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable. As Christians, we’re called to be people of truth (John 8:32), to test everything (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and to remember that history is ultimately God’s story—not ours to rewrite. 

Listening to Ibrahim, I can’t help but wonder: how much else have I misunderstood? Am I willing to confront uncomfortable truths that turn over my conventional understanding? 

Key takeaways from the interview with Winston Marshall include:

1. Within the space of 100 years, after the death of Mohammed, by 732, Muslims were overtaking Europe by violent conquest. There was no tolerance, harmony between Judaism,  Christians and Muslims.  Christianity was denigrated, and it was convert, pay Jizya, or die. Jizya is money paid by non- Muslims so that they can keep practising their religion.  (Under Islamic law,  if the money is not paid, the people are to be enslaved or killed.) 
2. Three-quarters of the Christian world was conquered and has not been recovered.  
3. Once a Territory is taken by Islam, even though they are defeated and expelled from that region, Islam believes it always belongs to them and must be retaken.  
4. The Eastern world included Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Morocco. They were more Christian in numbers and belief than Europe at that time. (In fact, the Coptic Christians from Egypt were instrumental in spreading the Gospel in Europe.) Each country was violently conquered. As was Israel.  
5. The Slavic nations got their name from the fact that Islam conquered the area and enslaved the populace. Slavery was their bread and butter.  
6. The Vikings supplied white slaves to the Muslims.  
7. The exploration of the New World by Christopher Columbus came about because of the constant threat of Muslim invasion of Spain. The quest was a fallback plan if all else failed.  
8. The very first war fought by the new United States of America was against the barbarism of the Barbary Pirates. A series of two wars were fought from 1801-1805. The North African slave traders ramped up their aggressive posture by shifting their focus to KIDNAPPING and holding for ransom. The pirates, based in modern-day Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco, demanded tribute for ‘safe passage’ through the Mediterranean. The newly minted American nation refused to negotiate with terrorists and defeated them.  
9. The times may change. The playbook remains the same.  

In light of the ongoing religious persecution that Christians across the world are subjected to, perhaps Raymond Ibrahim’s work needs to be looked at more closely. 

And indeed, the question must be asked why so few dare to speak about it today.  

In a world that often suppresses truth in the name of political correctness, Christian clarity is more vital than ever. 

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Image courtesy of Adobe.