Great review, amusing as always. I had the same impression of the game: fun, pretty but not the Second Coming. I suppose if you allowed yourself to be whipped into some Jihadic frenzy then yes the game might have encouraged one to go on some angry Crusade of disappointment.
Like the Medal of Airborne Airborne video I had no problem with the political stuff but there was so much more to ridicule about the game. The one-at-a-time sword fighting, the overpowering of counters such that you rarely slash yourself but 99% of the time wait for them to attack first, the fact you have to HOLD the sneak/blend button down (ugh!), the tall building climbing and hay stacks, the flags, the odd lethality of water, death sentences for knocking pots off ladies' heads, and a few more I'm not thinking of.
I pretty much wanted this to be some sort of Hitman: Holy Lands to engage some part of my brain higher than the spinal column but such was not to be. The tips given by your contacts are of such little use as to be silly. Plotting assassinations, sneaking through a the palace for 3-10 minutes in order to track down your prey would've been great. Instead you just kind of run up and stab him. The best part of the game is a tiny, tiny minority of the play.