The decrease in certain types of violence that the Church played a role in is a big reason why there are still so many theocrats and Western-European chauvinists. To them the Church was a civilizing force that discouraged war and put many incentives and norms in place that put together what we would call "civilized society".

They're not wrong, but the Umayyad Caliphate accomplished many of the same things, with less xenophobia.