8000 Muslims massacred by White, racist European non-Muslims. All Euro vs Euro

[WinterHold]

The church obviously sold "salvation contracts" to any knight contributing in the crusade.

I daresay it is even a little more complicated than that, Atlas.  Not better... probably worse... but certainly more complicated.  To oversimplify history, by the mid 11th century things had changed in Western Europe.  The Viking raids which had lasted for centuries had largely ended and the Vikings themselves were now xtians.  But 3 centuries of constant warfare had built up tremendous military establishments by the various feudal polities which were always looking to repel a Viking raid and when the Vikings stopped coming those did not instantly go away.  Instead, there was virtual constant low-grade warfare among xtian nobles trying to gain an edge over their rivals.  Everyone always concentrates on the concluding paragraphs of the Cleremont speech but it is the opening paragraphs which contains the real problem as the pope saw it.  Xtians were fighting other xtians.  So his "solution" was to redirect xtian aggression to the Islamic regions.

Yes, in the church's version of giving away ice in the wintertime he promised a free ticket to heaven to anyone who went to fight the Arabs.  Hey, costs him nothing to make absurd promises, right.  And those people were stupid enough to fall for it so why not play them for fools?

But his primary cynical goal was to stop xtians killing each other by getting them to kill muslims instead.  I guess the idea of not killing any one at all was a little too much for "god's representative on earth."

The Viking's period is totally dropped from my mind; mainly because they integrated with the European populations. I had more concentration on the Mongols. I figured out that they didn't cause much change to look into.
In other words; he was directing the knights' inner fighting to the outside. Richard the Lion heart didn't die in a crusade after all; he died in France, fighting other knights.

The idea of saving life wasn't preached at that time except by the Quran:

https://quran.com/5/32
Sura 5, The Quran:

Sahih International

(32) Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.


https://quran.com/17/33?translations=
Sura 17, The Quran:
Sahih International

(33) And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by right. And whoever is killed unjustly - We have given his heir authority, but let him not exceed limits in [the matter of] taking life. Indeed, he has been supported [by the law].