Here ya go, Therese. It is INDED not black and white. NOT all Christian persecution of Muslims in "The Crusades":

a man named Muhammad was born in Mecca around the year AD 570. He was orphaned at six, and was consequently brought up by his grandfather and uncle who trained him to be a merchant. He became increasingly concerned about the polytheism and superstitions of the Meccans and other Arabs, some of whom were idolaters. He became familiar with the teachings of the Jews, but rejected some parts of the Old Testament. He also studied, at least in part, the New Testament, accepting the person of Christ but denying his deity and resurrection. Around 610, he claimed to have received a visitation from the angel Gabriel, who told him he was the messenger of God. After becoming a teacher, his teaching were collected and written down as the Quran (the recitation), revealed to him, supposedly, by God.

When Muhammad's wife and uncle died, he lost his claim to wealth, and he and his small band of followers were no longer wanted in Mecca. There was much persecution of those propounding this new religion, which came to be called "Islam" or "surrender," and its followers were called Muslims--"those who have surrendered." During this time, he claimed to have been taken by Gabriel to Jerusalem, where he met Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and led them in prayer. Afterwards, he was taken to the seven heavens from the famous rock that has become known as the "Dome of the Rock." Upon his return, he preached even more fervently, bringing on himself more wrath and persecution. He was invited to a city named Yathrib, and emigrated there in 622. This is the date from which Muslims start their calendar. The name of the city was changed to Medina, "the city of the prophet."

As he was exiled, he launched a fierce "jihad" or holy war against the significant Jewish communities of Hejaz. He had the Jewish men scourged and decapitated in the public square, and divided their women, children, animals, and property among his followers. He wrote scathing verses in the Quran against Jews and Christians, calling them defiled, violent, and receiving indignation from Allah. He called for his followers to "Fight against the Jews and kill them." However, as he gained control over the Arabian peninsula, and then over the Mediterranean world, he tempered his policy of slaughter, and invented a treaty, or Dhimma, to subjugate his foes by sparing their lives in return for a tithe of half their property. Various taxes were added on later, and the subjugated people were permitted to practice their religion on a limited basis.

By 630, Muslim armies had taken Mecca. Muhammad died in 632. George Braswell sums up his legacy:

By the end of his life, Muhammad had emerged as a religious and political leader without equal in the Arabian peninsula. He had founded a monotheistic and prophetic religion that included a basic and straightforward confessional statement, a worldview of one God who sent angels to prophets with a message embedded in a perfect scripture. Islam provided a specific and orderly lifestyle of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage in the context of the mosque and under the guidance of religious and political authorities. A Muslim was taught to walk the straight path of Allah and thereby attain heaven and avoid hell.

During the last ten years of his life, Muhammad served the Muslim community as prophet, as political and economic leader, and as commander-in-chief of his warriors. He established the umma with such strength that shortly after his death Islam moved quickly beyond the peninsula to claim vast territories and peoples under its banner.

The crescent moon became the symbol on the minarets of mosques and on flags. The mission of Islam had been set. The world was divided into two domains: that world which was to exist under Allah, the teachings of the Qur'an, and the traditions of Muhammad; and that world which was still in ignorance and disobedience and which needed to be brought to submission under Islam. The destiny of Islam, which Muhammad had set was to extend from Mecca to the moon.4

Muhammad's followers continued in the path of aggression against those who "had not submitted--were not Muslims." Even though Mohammed revered Jesus as "one of the prophets," and His followers were "people of the book" receiving special consideration, yet Christians were still infidels and had to be dealt with as such. This meant that they were guilty of idolatry, subject to the judgment of Allah, and thus subject to the wrath of the Umma--the true community of Islam.

Who will protect them, by night or by day, from the Lord of Justice? Yet they are unmindful of their Lord's remembrance. Have they any other means to protect them? Their idolatry will be powerless for their salvation. Nor shall they be protected from our scourge. Good things have been bestowed upon these men and upon their fathers. They have lived long and prospered. But now, we shall invade their lands and curtail their borders. Can they then triumph? They have been warned by inspiration, but the deaf can hear nothing (Quran 21:41-46).

Grant states:

During the first four decades of the seventh century, Muslim armies began to engage the defenses of the Christian Middle East. With the divine assurance of ultimate victory and the comfort of devotional martyrdom inspiring them, the Muslim troops threw themselves into battle with passion, vision, and potency. And more often than not, they won.5

At this time, Byzantium, the Christian civilization that covered the Middle East, Asia Minor, the lower parts of Europe, and the northern edges of Africa was flourishing. In many ways, the Byzantine civilization had flowered to an excellent example of Christian civilization. It had a just and efficient legal system, limited and decentralized government, free and prosperous trade, and stable and secure families. A visitor during this time by the name of Maedock of Alliers wrote:

The evident misery in so many other domains is seemingly altogether absent here in the East. The prosperity and liberty enjoyed by all has had a melodious effect upon them. Industry and labor is undertaken with gladness of heart. Benediction is upon every tongue. Surely God's grace has rested upon them.6

However, this stability had encouraged a lax estimation of the importance of military preparedness, and the Islamic armies quickly saw and exploited that weakness. The caliph, Umar, who was the military leader, despised the Christian infidels, and was whole hearted in his desire to cause Byzantium to submit. Of him it is said,

'In Christians he saw challenge. Therefore, his meat was their humiliation; his drink was their shame; his humor was their downfall; his very breathing was their destruction. To see the whole earth bow in submission to Allah was his sure desire; but to see Christendom fall was his great delight.7

By the time of Umar's death, Syria was conquered, Egypt was largely controlled, and he had defeated the Byzantines in the battle of Yarmuk. He conquered and controlled Jerusalem and all of Iraq, brought the Persians to the brink of collapse, and put Christendom on the defensive at every turn. This period of expansion was only stopped in 732 when the Christian armies of the West, led by Charles Martel, defeated the Muslim armies at the Battle of Tours/Poiters. By then, the map of the Mediterranean world had been practically transformed from a vast Christian empire to a vast Islamic one. Etc

http://www.natreformassn.org/statesman/02/confislm.html