[Wyatt Flicker]

Coming from a Roman Catholic to Eastern Christian background, the Crusades are an incredibly sticky issue. Western Christians, from personal experience, sometimes devote too much attention to praising the value of the Crusades, either as an aesthetic or an evangelistic endeavor. I think in difficult and disputed areas of history like these, Western Christians would be well-advised to center the experience of their Eastern brethren, who often were victims both of the Crusades, especially the Fourth, and the Islamic conquests. Using moments of peaceful cohabitation between indigenous Christians and Muslims in the Near East is far more likely to produce beneficial conversations. Also, focusing instead on the noblest interactions between Western Christianity and the Islamic world, for example the visit of St. Francis to the court of the Egyptian sultan in the midst of the Crusades, is an ideal way for charting a more understanding future between Islam and the West specifically.