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January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel
Christianity vs. Islam
by Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld
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You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and
Kosovo were all about. That conflict proved that the war between
Christianity and Islam has never ended. Over the ages, it simply
took on different forms.
Because we live in such a highly secularized society,
we cannot believe that America could ever become involved in a
religious war in this day and age. Yet ferocious religious wars
have been going on all over the place: in Northern Ireland, Israel,
the Balkans, the Sudan and Russia. But history is a very harsh
taskmaster and refuses to let us Americans escape into our secular
fantasies and hot houses for long.
Thus, it is vitally important for us to reconnect
with the human race's never-ending history of religious struggle.
That a group of Islamic terrorists, living in a remote, war-torn,
famine-ridden, hell-hole in Asia could organize the kind of
mind-boggling attack against America that took place on Sept. 11,
means that America is not only not exempt from history, but has
been dragged kicking and screaming back into the middle of it.
Back in 1588, Christopher Marlowe, master of
historical drama, wrote his famous Tamburlaine 2. In it, there is a
fascinating scene in which the Christian King Sigismund of Hungary
and Orcanes, the Muslim King of Natolia, both former enemies,
decide to establish peace between them in order to join forces to
defeat Tamberlaine the Great, the cruel, pagan conqueror of
Asia.
Both men confirm their commitment with an oath. King
Sigismund vows: "By Him that made the world and sav'd my soul, The
Son of God and issue of a maid, Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly
protest and vow to keep this peace inviolable!"
King Orcanes vows: "By sacred Mohamet, the friend of
God, Whose holy Alcoran remains with us, Whose Glorious body, when
he left the world, Clos'd in a coffin mounted up the air, and hung
on stately Mecca's temple-roof, I swear to keep this truce
inviolable!"
But as the story goes, it was King Sigismund who
later broke the truce and was defeated and killed by the
Muslims.
While the history of the struggle between Christians
and Muslims for control of Europe was for a time settled after the
Muslims were expelled from Spain in 1492, and driven back from the
gates of Vienna to Asia and Africa, the Islamic enclaves that
remained in the Balkans led to the recent wars in Bosnia and
Kosovo. The Serbs had considered themselves as the Christian
bulwark against further Islamic incursions in Europe, and therefore
could not understand why they were being bombed by fellow Europeans
and Americans.
You had to know history to understand what Bosnia and
Kosovo were all about. That conflict proved that the war between
Christianity and Islam has never ended. Over the ages, it simply
took on different forms.
The rise of European power put a lid on Islamic
ambitions and the Muslim world became the backwater of history
until the discovery of oil in the 20th century. But in the 19th
century, the Islamic Barbary states of North Africa could still
make trouble for the infidel. They took possession of American and
European commercial vessels, held their crews for ransom and
enslaved other Christians. Our first war after independence was
fought during the Jefferson administration against the Muslim
pirates and kidnappers of Tripolitania, the Barbary War, in which
U.S. Marines staged their first invasion of foreign soil. Hence,
the Marine anthem: "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of
Tripoli."
In order to finally put a stop to the piracy and
barbarism coming out of North Africa, France decided to take over
Algeria. During the 1830s and 1840s, the French imposed their rule
over the territory, encouraging Europeans to settle there. The
result was a flourishing French colony and an end to Barbary
piracy. France maintained order in North Africa until the end of
World War II, when the anti-colonialist movement got underway. Both
liberals and communists joined in forcing the European powers to
give up their colonies.
In Algeria, however, over a million Europeans had
settled in the territory and the coastal departments were
considered an integral part of France. However, when Charles de
Gaulle gained power at the height of the Algerian uprising, he
decided that France should quit Algeria because the Muslims could
never become true Frenchmen. And so, France abandoned Algeria, and
a million Europeans took to the boats. Today, the invasion has been
reversed. Five million Muslims, mostly Algerians, live in France.
They comprise 10 percent of the population and are part of the
resurgent Islamic power in Europe. Christianity is now so weak in
France that one wonders if it is capable of resisting the
assumption of Islamic power.
We have been told by our leaders and the media that
we are not at war against the Islamic religion. We are at war
against terrorism. But what they all prefer not to recognize is
that the spiritual power behind that terrorism - the power that
drives otherwise intelligent human beings to undertake suicidal
missions against the infidel - is the religion of Islam. Of course,
there are millions of Muslims who just want to lead normal lives.
Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, nothing is "normal" anymore.
©WorldNetDaily. Reprinted with permission.
Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of eight books on
education, including: Is Public Education
Necessary?, NEA: Trojan Horse in
American Education, and Home-schooling:
A Parents Guide to Teaching Children. His books are
available online at Amazon.com.
TSS
January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel
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