Were the crusades really defending Europe or were the Muslims attacking Europe to defend their homeland?

I understand this is very biased, but I wish someone can give me a website or source that shows what the Muslims did was to defend rather than what so many "history" books say that happened. Please be humble and open minded in your response.
Were the crusades really defending Europe or were the Muslims attacking Europe to defend their homeland?
Aggression and defence happened both ways.





In the Dark Ages the Muslims attacked Europe from the south - there was a strong Muslim presence for a long time in Spain, Italy and France, for instance. The reconquest did not come to in end until Isabel %26amp; Fernando took over the last scrap of southern Spain in the late 15thC.





Muslims also attacked and colonised large areas of central Europe. Hungary, Austria and Yugoslavia all suffered.





When they had the power the Western states in their turn went out looking for land, power and strategic advantage. The crusades took advantage of weakness and ongoing power struggles in the Holy Land to establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Spanish later invaded N. Africa (where the invasion of Spain had come from, of course). By the 19thC the Christian west had its collective tail up, and was doing more or less what the Muslims had been doing earlier. French and British influence spread along the N. African coast, and poor old Mohammed was on the back foot.





So, no. What the Muslims did was attack, bloody-mindedly and selfishly, as long as they could. That was also what the Christians did when they could get away with it. So do the Chinese, the Hindus, the Japanese, old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.





That's the sort of species we are.
Were the crusades really defending Europe or were the Muslims attacking Europe to defend their homeland?
The Crusades were all about the western Christendom's efforts to acquire land to the east.





I say "western" Christendom because the eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity, as parcticed in Byzantium, wasn't in the crusading spirit and was in fact the target of the Fourth Crusade.





I don't know of any history or "history" book that says anything that contradicts the above two paragraphs, so I'm not clear on why you ask, but I'll post a couple of sources below.





Now, there was a LATER period of Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, -- beginning in the 1450s -- that took them right up to the gates of Vienna. In that period, it was the Moslem world, or part of it, that was on the offensive. And, actually, the poor Byzantines were wiped out as a civilization as a result. Are you perhaps confusing the two periods?
Reply:The Moslem attacks on Europe started before the year 700 C.E. The first Crusade wasn't until about 1092. By 732 the Moslems invaders had made it to Tours France which is just south of Paris. Charles Martel stopped them there. You do the math to see "who was defending what".
Reply:I don't believe the crusades to be a defensive wars for Christian Europe. I know some claim it's a response to the Islamic conquest of Byzantium %26amp; Spain in the 7th century, but that doesn't answer the following questions:





1- Why did it take Europe 400 years to respond?


2- Why did the crusaders massacared the Jews in Europe? (the Jews were the 1st victims of the crusades)


3- Why did the crusaders massacared many Christians on the way to the holy land? (the crusaders killed many Christians in Europe %26amp; the mid-east, the 1st crusader's kingdom was established was Eddasa, which they took from the Armenian Christians)


4- Some claim the Crusader's goal was to defend the Christian pilgrams from Muslim attack, but this doesn't explain why there was more crusades after king Richard of England sign a treaty with Saladin securing the pilgramig rights.





The crusades had actually started because of the political ambitions of pope Urban II. Addetionally, the Christian west used to live a dark age just as the Muslim east today. In the past Christians did many bad things against Christianity, %26amp; the Christian people as well as others. Today Muslim are doing evil that is actually against Islam %26amp; Muslim people as well as others. I believe this is the most important lesson one should learn from the Crusades.
Reply:The Muslims didn't attack Europe. They were there long before the Crusades. The Crusades were mostly treasure hunting expeditions by European nobility who used the excuse of freeing the Holy Land from the grasp of the "heathens".