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One argument people often use against religion is that it has caused wars. The common cited example used for this, more often than not, are the Crusades, a series of "holy" wars where the Christians fought against the Muslims.
Armed with that basic statement, many make the mistake of actually assuming this war begun because of religious purposes. Now, I will not deny that there were some religious motivations that popped up but the initiation behind the Crusades was all down to land and politics.
"The Crusades were one phase of the long struggle between Christians and Muslims. This period came after centuries of Muslim advance, during which time many Christian lands had been overrun by successive invasions of Arabs and Seljuk Turks.
There were various reasons for the Crusades. They started as a result of a proclamation by Pope Urban II in 1095, declaring holy war against the Muslims in an effort to free Palestine from their control. The pope's proclamation came in response to an appeal by Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, for military aid against the Seljuk Turks, who had conquered much of the Byzantine Empire.
Local church officials made impassioned pleas for volunteers. People joined the Crusades for a variety of reasons. Some joined out of religious devotion. Others joined for the prospect of military glory. Still others joined for the chance of acquiring loot or land."
Mainly then, the Crusades were started in response to the forceful expansion of the Seljuk empire. Although, the Church, used this opportunity to say "let's take the holy land now" in subsequent crusades (the first, having stopped the expansion).
I have to say that I agree with this idea. While that is not to say the Crusaders are innocent of any wrongdoing. We generally consider the Allies to be the 'good guys' but was Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne etc. necessary? No side is fully free of guilt, rather, it is generally little bit more right on one side than the other. In this case, the Crusaders, at least at first, were fighting to help their Spanish and French brothers and aid their Orthodox cousins in Byzantium. A short look at what happened in the time afterwards can show you what the Turks tried to do and nearly achieved. After swallowing Byzantium, they pushed through Southern Europe and very nearly took Central Europe. They were stopped at Hungary only due to a coalition of Hungary, HRE, Poland and other forces.
You cannot fully absolve the Turks of guilt, just as you cannot say that the only reason radical muslims today kill people is because of the Western World.