Militant Islam Is Moving Ahead As Expected

The war in Iraq is now over a year old. Contrary to many media pundits, I believe the war is going as expected, even with the recent increase in fighting at Fallujah and Najaf. Over a year ago, I was among those who wrote that this war is not simply a war against terrorism, but is in fact a war against militant Islam. It looks like what we wrote then is coming to fruition today. Events both in Europe and Iraq seem to confirm our expectations.

       The war on terror has now turned into a religious war in Iraq. Today, both militant Sunnis and militant Shiites confront U.S. troops there. Although many of those involved in the ''uprising'' against our forces of occupation are from outside Iraq--most notably Syria and Iran--all of the fighters are followers of fundamentalist imans and are motivated by religious zeal. The so-called uprising has become a jihad.

       Some media commentators are surprised that the U.S. is now in a position in Iraq where radical Islamist from both the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam have combined to fight American and British forces of occupation. Anyone familiar with Islam knew this was going to happen. Even though there has been an attempt by outside forces in Iraq to stir up trouble between both Shiite and Sunnis, extremists from these two camps now have more in common than they a did over a year ago before the Western occupation.

       We can expect more of the same, now. Fortunately, many are beginning to see just how much of a misnomer the war on terror is. Muslims know the war on terror is more of a political fiction than a reality, and as time passes politicians in the West will have to make the same realization. Thumbing through dictionaries, some are even looking up the old word ''crusade.''

       U.S. policy will also have to adapt by giving a new name to this widening war. With this new name must also come a new plan for victory. If this does not happen, then our necessary victory in this struggle may not happen either. Writing in the National Review over a year ago, John O'Sullivan makes a similar point. He says, ''What ordinary Americans rightly oppose is a war conducted without any clear aim or prospect of victory.'' (September 29, 2003).

       Many in the West fail to realize that elements of Islam have been at war with Europe for over 1,000 years. Calling this present-day conflict a war on terror does nothing to change the fundamental antagonism that exists between the Muslim world and the West, especially as the West is symbolized by the U.S. As time goes by, more and more Muslims will define the U.S. and Europe as ''the enemies of God,'' and become militant. With high birth rates, low employment, and little prospect for the future, many Muslim young men are prepared to be soldiers in a jihad against these enemies of God.

       Writing in the Atlantic Monthly almost 15 years ago, Bernard Lewis made a point that is timely even today. In his article ''The Roots of Muslim Rage,'' (September, 1990) Lewis wrote, ''It should be clear by now that we are facing a mood and a movement far transcending the level of issues and policies and the governments that pursue them. This is no less than a clash of civilizations.'' Since Lewis wrote these words, this clash of civilizations has become more rather than less evident.

       As the war in Iraq shifts from being a war on terror to being a war on militant Islam, we can expect a hardening of lines between Islamic civilization and Western civilization. This is already evident in some Muslim communities in Western Europe and to a degree in the U.S.

       Eventually, the clash between Western and Islamic values will test the limits of liberalism to contain them. The U.S., and especially Europe, may be forced to repeat the events of 1492, when Granada, the last Moorish city in Spain was captured by the military forces of Ferdinand and Isabella. After that, the Moors were driven from Spain, concluding a ''reconquista'' that began centuries earlier by the Spanish hero, El Cid. It may be necessary in the not too distant future to remove again all Muslims from Western societies, and build a fence around Islam. This may happen when the conflict in Iraq widens, which no doubt it will.

       Already radical Muslims living in Europe are calling for jihad and the overthrow of Western governments. Reporting in the New York Times (4/26/04) P. E. Tyler, and D. Van Natta, Jr., write that in Luton, England, a former industrial town north of London, ''a small group of young Britons whose parents emigrated from Pakistan after World War II have turned against their families' new home. They say they would like to see Prime Minister Tony Blair dead or deposed and an Islamic flag hanging outside No. 10 Downing Street.''

       Similar events are occurring on the continent. At a mosque in Geneva, an iman recently exhorted his followers to ''impose the will of Islam on the godless society of the West.'' In France today, about one in ten persons is a Muslim. In Germany, Muslim fundamentalism is also a growing phenomenon. While in the U. S., with most of the mosques funded by Saudi Arabia, hardly any Muslim clerics denounce the events of 9/11 nor do they come out in support of the war against terror, let alone the removal of Sadam Hussein in Iraq.

       It is not unusual for Muslims living in the West to agree with Sheik Omar. Speaking to his followers just outside London, the sheik spends time telling his young followers about the erotic delights of paradise. He warns Western leaders, ''You may kill bin Laden, but the phenomenon, you cannot kill it—you cannot destroy it. Our Muslim brothers from abroad will come one day and conquer here and then we will live under Islam in dignity,'' (NYT, P. E. Tyler, and D. Van Natta, Jr.)    We should remember well these words and not be surprised when a new ''El Cid'' arises in Europe.

Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago and is an adjunct professor at Roosevelt University. His books are available from amazon.com.

Here's a rather lengthy summation on Islam's history:

Under the guise of religion, Muhammed created one of the largest...and longest lasting empires to ever exist on this planet. Unfortunately, unlike the empires of Rome, Byzantine or even the French and English, Islam refuses to go away. These are people who are still fighting the last Crusade, as they seek to retake land they took from others...and add new land to it.

Their recent military conquests in places like the Sudan, Indonesia and the Phillipines have seen Christians and Jews slaughtered to make room for Sharia. What many people refuse to acknowlegde, is that this Jihad has been going on for the last 1400 years, since 622 A.D. In the last 1400 years Moslems have invaded:

-Mecca in 622 (Beginning of the Moslem Hegira Era)
-Autas (Arabia) in 624
-Tayef (Arabia) in 626
-Assyria (portions of Iraq, Iran,
Syria, Turkey) in 630

This happened during the lifetime of the prophet Mohammed. He himself led these attacks, where all Arabs who refused to submit to Islam were mercilessly killed. All Jews were killed, all Christians were killed. After that most arabs decided that prudence was the better part of valour and became Moslems. After Mohammed died, moslems invaded the following countries under Abu Bakr:

-Palestine/Ertez Israel in 636
-Syria and Jerusalem in 637
-Zoroastrian Persia (Iran) in 637
-Egypt in 638-659

The other Khalifas continued the Jihad by attacking and forcibly converting the pople of the following countries to Islam:

-North Africa in 650
-Spain in 680
-Sindh (India) in 715
-France in 732 (Battle of Tours when
we defeated the Moslem and stopped their advance into Western Europe)
-Khotan (Eastern China) in 1050
-Punjab (India) in 1191, (destruction of Buddhism in India by 1192)
-Kosovo in 1369
-Indonesia and Malaysia in 1450
-Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453
-Ottomans annex Serbia in 1456
-Ottomans annex Bosnia/Herzogovina in
1461
-Ottomans annex Albania in 1462
-Vienna in 1689

This marked the end of the first phase of the Jihad, when European navigators took charge of the seas in the 15th century all over the world. This, however, still didn't stop Muslim atrocities from occuring as the Ottoman Empire continued through WWI:

-Asia Minor/Smyrna in 1877-1923. Over 1.5 million Armenian Christians slaughtered; 750,000 Assyrians murdered (3/4 thier population); over 400,000 Greeks killed in WWI.

While the Cold War and Soviet expansion focused attention elsewhere, Islam's aggression still continued:

-Israel in 1948-2003
-Lebanon in 1973
-Cyprus in 1975
-Indonesia/East Timor 1975-2000
-Mindanao (Southern Philippines) 1980
-Bosnia in 1996
-Chechenya in 1997
-Kosovo in 1998-99
-Macedonia in 1998-99
-Southern Sudan 1997
-Ethiopia in 1999
-Kashmir in 1999

Just about everywhere there is conflict in the world, today, you will find Islam at war with its neighbors...be they Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus or whatever. Whether it's the continuing violence in Chechnya, Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Phillipines or Israel, Islam seeks to depose all existing cultures.

Here is a brief list of the surviving Christian communities of the Middle East, courtesy of ArabicBible.com.

Egypt: The Copts of Egypt -- Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants -- are estimated to be between 10 and 12 million, dispersed across the country. They are the descendants of the ancient Egyptian people living under the Pharaohs. Their numbers shrank after the Arab-Moslem invasion in 740 A.D. and flourished under the British in the 19th century. One million Copts live in the diaspora, particularly in the United States and Canada.

Sudan: Seven million black Africans live in the south. Most of thesetribes are Christians-Anglicans, other Protestants, and Catholics. After the Islamic conquest, the Africans of Nubia were displaced to the south. Since the Islamist takeover in the north in 1989, they have been submitted to ethnic cleansing and forced to abandon their faith in order to protect their lives. One million south Sudanese are living in exile.

Lebanon: The Christians --Maronites, Orthodox, Melkites, and others, including Protestants -- number about 1.5 million. Since 1975, hundreds of thousands have been massacred, displaced, and exiled. Since 1990, the Christian areas of Lebanon have been under Syrian occupation. There are more than 7 million Lebanese Christians in the diaspora. More than 1.5 million Americans are of Lebanese descent.

Iraq: About 1 million Christian Assyrians, Nestorians, Chaldeans, and others live in Iraq. Most are concentrated in the north. The Assyrians are submitted to cultural and political repression. Approximately 1 million Christian Mesopotamians live in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Syria: One million Christians are Syrian citizens. Deprived of cultural and educational rights, Syria's Aramaeans, Armenians, Orthodox, and Melkites are present in the northeast and in the major cities.

Iran: Five hundred thousand Persian, Armenian, and Assyrian Christians from all denominations live in constant fear under the Islamic Republic of Iran. Christian spiritual leaders are executed by the government. There is slightly greater tolerance for varieties of Christianity that pre-date Islam in Persia.

-What Arab Civilization?

When one talks about the Golden Age of Islam, it is important to remember that Islam's Golden Age was created by those cultures that were conquered. When Arabs and Islam began sweeping through the Middle East in 630 A.D., they encountered hundreds of years of civilizations from the Assyrian Christians, Buddhists in India, Persians and Egyptians...all with a rich heritage, a highly developed culture, and advanced learning institutions. It is these civilizations that became the foundation of the Arab civilization.

The Christian Assyrian community was drained of its population through forced conversion to Islam (by the Jizzya), and once the community had dwindled below a critical threshold, it ceased producing the scholars that were the intellectual driving force of the Islamic civilization, and that is when the so called "Golden Age of Islam" came to an end (about 850 A.D.). Islam the religion itself was significantly molded by Assyrians and Jews (see Nestorian Influence on Islam and Hagarism: the Making of the Islamic World).

Arab/Islamic civilization is not a progressive force, it is a regressive force; it does not give impetus, it retards. It was in part, an Assyrian
accomplishment that Arabs expropriated and subsequently lost when they drained, through the forced conversion of Assyrians to Islam, the source of the intellectual vitality that propelled it. What other Arab/Muslim civilization has risen since? What other Arab/Muslim successes can we cite?

The Ottomans were extremely oppressive to non-Muslims. For example, young Christian boys were forcefully taken from their families, usually at the age of 8-10, and inducted into the Janissaries, (yeniceri in Turkish) where they were Islamized and made to fight for the Ottoman state. What literary, artistic or scientific achievements of the Ottomans can we point to? We can, on the other hand, point to the genocide of 750,000 Assyrians, 1.5 million Armenians and 400,000 Greeks in World War One by the Kemalist "Young Turk" government.

This is the true face of Islam. Arabs/Muslims are engaged in an explicit campaign of destruction and expropriation of cultures and communities, identities and ideas.
Wherever Arab/Muslim civilization encounters a non-Arab/Muslim one, it attempts to destroy it (as the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan were destroyed, as Persepolis was destroyed by the Ayotollah Khomenie).

This is a pattern that has been recurring since the advent of Islam, 1400 years ago, and is amply substantiated by the historical record. If the "foreign" culture cannot be destroyed, then it is expropriated, and revisionist historians claim that it is and was Arab, as is the case of most of the Arab "accomplishments." (credit to Peter Betbasoo)

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