9-8-14<\/p>\n
History knows two kinds of war, generally: those that are declared, with precise commencements, formalities, and peace treaties; and those that begin from a host of various grievances or jealousies, have hazy \u2013 usually multiple \u2013 flash-points, and drag on, and on, spreading misery and atrocities over civilian populations no less than enemy forces. Both sorts of war can change the course of history to equal degrees.<\/p>\n
The United States \u2013 the West; the Christian church \u2013 is engaged in the second form of these wars. We are not anticipating it. We are IN it. And we have been for some time. That the \u201cenemy\u201d can be defined in several ways does not diminish the fact that there is one war. And it is not new, although our dim-witted realization, as if awakening from a dream, might be new.<\/p>\n
I am writing of Islam, of course. It is instructive, even vital, that we review how we got here. \u201cPast is prologue,\u201d Shakespeare wrote.<\/p>\n
The hideous barbarism of ISIS \/ ISIL is the latest. We should call it the Islamic State, as its leaders do, although our own \u201cleaders\u201d believe that would reveal us to be politically incorrect if we call them either Muslims or terrorists. (They are merely \u201cextremists,\u201d you see). We can go back to 9-11; to the various Palestinian terror groups, modeling themselves, by the way, after the Zionist terror groups before 1948. We can go back and back in history.<\/p>\n
The history of Islam, or the Mohammedans, as the West used to call them, is as rich in politics and warfare as it is in theology. After the death of Mohammed, probably in 632, Muslim factions started warring, partly as a byproduct of factionalism, but also to spread their religion\u2019s overall influence, expanding in an imperialist mode. Throughout the Levant, to Asia Minor, to north Africa. And to Europe.<\/p>\n
Through formal invasions and persistent incursions, Muslims spread into Europe. It was a time after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Civic, military, and social systems had deteriorated, and Islam tried to fill the vacuum. The remnants of the Visigoth Empire were supplanted in modern-day Spain. Pockets in southern France were overrun. Strongholds of the old Byzantine Empire were no longer strong, and Mohammedan armies pushed them back.<\/p>\n
For a millennium the Arabs and Islam continued squabbling over men\u2019s minds and men\u2019s land, while over the time also mastering various cultural advances in mathematics, science, poetry, astronomy, medicine, and art. But the doors of Europe and Christianity, whether to knock or kick down, were seldom far from the expansionists\u2019 minds, either.<\/p>\n
Around 700 and for roughly a half-century, a fierce battle over the survival and character of Christian Europe was fought on the Iberian peninsula and in southern France. The romanticized legend known as The Song of Roland, a landmark in Western literature, nevertheless tells the facts that Charles Martel, his son Pepin le Bref, and his son Charlemagne, combined through persistent bravery and bloody sacrifice to defend Western civilization.<\/p>\n
Not only was militant Islam turned away from Europe, but Charlemagne, in present-day German lands, reestablished the Holy Roman Empire. Yet the inexorable \u201csoft\u201d invasions continued. After a siege on Constantinople roughly contemporaneous with the Battle of Saragossa in Spain, the Bulgarian Emperor Khan Tervel turned back vicious Moslem fighters and earned the title \u201cSavior of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around 900, Moslems attacked the Italian peninsula. Rome was sacked, and an emirate was established in Sicily. Three centuries later a resurgent Mongol empire swept across Eurasia, defeating Moslem strongholds in their path, most notably as far south as in the Battle of Baghdad, 1258\u2026 but then its leaders, following the mighty Timur, converted to Islam. The effect was a victory for the consolidation and spread of a militant Islam, from Egypt through Syria to India.<\/p>\n
Thereafter, the Islamic Ottoman Empire invaded Western Europe and colonized Greece, all of the Balkans, Romania, Bessarabia, and Hungary, and was stopped only at the outskirts of Vienna. In 1683 a brutal force of militant Islamic soldiers besieged Vienna, which literally, geographically, was a gateway to Europe. Only the fierce rescue by brave Polish, Austrian, and German Hapsburg troops led by the Polish king Jan Sobieski turned back the Muslim invaders.<\/p>\n
The Ottoman Empire remained a diminished irritant to European Christianity, and was dispatched after World War I after it chose the wrong side \u2013 the defeated Central Powers \u2013 and was dismembered. Greece became independent, the British typically gained territories-by-peace-treaties, and Turkey became a constitutionally secular country in 1923.<\/p>\n
With that \u2013 and buying off Islamic leaders with protected artificial statehoods (Iraq, Iran, Trans-Jordan, etc), trade favors, and other emoluments after both world wars \u2013 Western Europe thought that radical Islam was a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
But as recent events have shown (including a quiet resurgence of a radically Islamic Turkey), the last century was just a breathing-period. The incessant 1500-year war of Islam against Christianity continues.<\/p>\n
I do not apologize to readers for this brief history lesson. As George Santayana said, \u201cThose who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.\u201d Shame on Americans for being generally ignorant about such vital matters. I will go further and wager that most Americans could not fill in the names of many Middle East countries on a blank map of the region. Nor assign the Sunni or Shi\u2019ite loyalties of the players in the current crises, much less Alawite or Ba\u2019athist roles in the conflicts.<\/p>\n
(Neither can most Americans identify the role of British and American manipulation of events since the end of World War I, prompted by trade and oil and geopolitical interest, including doing others\u2019 bidding; and usually bungled. But that is another essay.)<\/p>\n
The fact \u2013 the hard fact \u2013 remains: we are engaged in a religious war. And that is very bad news, because America is hardly a religious nation any more.<\/p>\n
We are, therefore, losing before we realize we are being attacked. Feeding our lack of conviction is the notion that to recognize Islam\u2019s war on us is to be \u201cunfair.\u201d \u201cPrejudiced.\u201d The political and cultural leaders who feed these concepts are, simply, traitors to the nation, to our culture, and to our faith.<\/p>\n
We should recognize them as traitors, and deal with them as traitors. And shame on the American public \u2013 traditional Christian patriots \u2013 for surrendering. Not just to notions of \u201cArab extremism\u201d or \u201cIslamic terror,\u201d but surrendering to the traitors who soften or minds and wills.<\/p>\n
The United States is a Christian nation, founded by Christians, dedicated to God by countless pilgrims and pioneers in the name of Christ. That does not means we hate or should exclude others, but it traditionally meant that we invited others to live at peace in a Christian nation. Christians like to say \u201cJudeo-Christian\u201d often so they will not be accused of wanting another \u201cHolocaust,\u201d but our values and traditions are Christian.<\/p>\n
We are under attack. \u201cWe\u201d are not only Americans \u2013 Islam does not care so much about our passports. It is not a question of their wanting more real estate.<\/p>\n
Christianity is under attack. You can respond by softening your faith. By being \u201ctolerant\u201d of those who wish you dead and happy to help in the effort. Or you can join the historic ranks of forgotten heroes and martyrs like Charles Martel, Pepin le Bref, Charlemagne, Khan Tervel, and Jan Sobieski, willing to die if necessary for Western civilization and for Christianity.<\/p>\n
The war, like it or not a real war, is being waged by Islam.<\/p>\n
But the real enemy, admit it or not, is our own culture\u2019s loss of faith.<\/p>\n
We cannot pretend that — for the first time in history — this condition, a lost foundation of faith, will not be fatal to a culture. We cannot wish this away. We need backbones, not wishbones. <\/p>\n
The first battle \u2013 or is it our last? \u2013 seems to be lost already. How many of us will enlist?<\/p>\n
+ + +
\nWe are not helpless or clueless if we choose to engage. We have the words of the Bible, and the example of Christ. There is the example of uncountable martyrs and warriors who loved the Word so much \u2013 who savored the sacrifices of those who have gone before; and who cherish the dream for the sake of their children \u2013 so we might be encouraged. For Christ\u2019s sake, not just our own. An inspiring version of an old hymn of the church, and a rousing video message, by Michael Card.<\/p>\n