Posted on 10/07/2007 12:47:28 PM PDT by guinnessman
Lepanto, 1571: The Battle That Saved Europe
The clash of civilizations is as old as history, and equally as old is the blindness of those who wish such clashes away; but they are the hinges, the turning points of history. In the latter half of the 16th century, Muslim war drums sounded and the mufti of the Ottoman sultan proclaimed jihad, but only the pope fully appreciated the threat...
The Ottoman Empire, the seat of Islamic power, looked to control the Mediterranean. Corsairs raided from North Africa; the Sultan’s massive fleet anchored the eastern Mediterranean; and Islamic armies ranged along the coasts of Africa, the Middle and Near East, and pressed against the Adriatic; Muslim armies threatened the Habsburg Empire through the Balkans.
The Ottoman Turks yearned to bring all Europe within the dar al-Islam, the “House of Submission”—submissive to the sharia law. Europe, as the land of the infidels, was the dar al-Harb, the “House of War.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at crisismagazine.com ...
Here’s a history lesson which could prove very relevent to modern times.
Parents who homeschool may want to include this in their history lessons.
Maybe those people who are all concerned about the treatment of detainees at Gitmo should read here about what the Turks did to the defenders of Cyprus.
This is further clarification of what we face
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/arab-poitiers732.html
The Battle of Poitiers, 732
From 711 Muslim forces crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, conquered the Visigothic Kingdom, and in less than a decade crossed the Pyrenees. In 732, under the command of Abd-er- rahman, they were decisively defeated by Charles Martel and the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers [or Tours]. This event looms much larger in Western history than Muslim - leading to a famous passage of purple prose by Edward Gibbon about minarets rather than spires in Oxford if the Muslims had won. The event was notice the Muslim world, however, and the following is from an Arab chronicle.
The Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the river Garonne, and laid waste the country, and took captives without number. And that army went through all places like a desolating storm. Prosperity made those warriors insatiable. At the passage of the river, Abderrahman overthrew the count, and the count retired into his stronghold, but the Moslems fought against it, and entered it by force, and slew the count; for everything gave way to their scimitars, which were the robbers of lives. All the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army, and they betook them to their king Caldus [Charles Martel], and told him of the havoc made by the Moslem horsemen, and bow they rode at their will through all the land of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and they told the king of the death of their count. Then the king bade them be of good cheer, and offered to aid them. . . . He mounted his horse, and he took with him a host that could not be numbered, and went against the Moslems. And he came upon them at the great city of Tours. And Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers saw the disorder of the Moslem troops, who were loaded with spoil; but they did not venture to displease the soldiers by ordering them to abandon everything except their arms and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valour of his soldiers, and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But such defect of discipline always is fatal to armies. So Abderrabman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil, and they fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost before the eyes of the army that came to save it; and the fury and the cruelty of the Moslems towards the inhabitants of the city were like the fury and cruelty of raging tigers. It was manifest that God’s chastisement was sure to follow such excesses; and fortune thereupon turned her back upon the Moslems.
Near the river Owar [Loire], the two great hosts of the two languages and the two creeds were set in array against each other. The hearts of Abderrahman, his captains and his men were filled with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin to fight. The Moslem horsemen dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks, who resisted manfully, and many fell dead on either side, until the going down of the sun. Night parted the two armies: but in the grey of the morning the Moslems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers had soon hewn their way into the center of the Christian host. But many of the Moslems were fearful for the safety of the spoil which they had stored in their tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks that some of the enemy were plundering the camp; whereupon several squadrons of the Moslem horsemen rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed as if they fled; and all the host was troubled. And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult, and to lead them back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came around him, and he was pierced through with many spears, so that he died. Then all the host fled before the enemy, and many died in the flight. . . .
Quoted from an unidentified Arabian in Edward Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World Everyman’s Library (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. date?), 168-169
Yes, I have a picture of Don Juan of Austria {whose tomb I have visited} pinned up over my computer to remind me, every day, what our ancestors had to do to prevent their countries from being overrun by Islam. I also have a picture of Charlemagne.If they could do it, so can we.
“Lepanto, 1571: The Battle That Saved Europe”
It is sad to say that all the Christians who lost their lives in the battle died in vain, considering the state of affairs in Europe and America today.
Yes, it’s sad to see that what Militant Islam was unable conquer in Europe through force of arms, it is now able to do simply by having children.
Thanks for posting this.
Instead of Sweden and Denmark apologizing for a few cartoons, how ‘bout the Muslim world apologize for invading Europe 500 years ago and bringing war and terror upon its Christian inhabitants?
Wouldn’t it be nice if something great happened in the Middle East today...we found bin Laden, or we bombed Iran—something of that magnitude that would mark the anniversary of this victory with a victory of our own in the ever-continuous war against radical Islam.
Actually, George Bush started our counter-attack against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban on this date in 2001.
I’m not sure if it was a coincidence.
“..it is now able to do simply by having children.”
No, that’s not the only reason. The West does not want to understand that it and Islam are totally incompatible and will always remain so. It thinks that it is able to survive living with a cancer. It is the PC way.
***Edward Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World ***
I have that book!
That reminds me of something I read recently. The article detailed a conversation between a Muslim imam and an Anglican minister, in London England. The imam sweeps his arm around as he point out various christian churches and says to the Anglican minister:
"You see these churches? Within the next century they will all be mosques because we are reproducing and you are not."
As you can see, that comment left quite an impression on me. Now, not far from where I reside in upstate NY, Muslims have joined forces are are now constructing a 2 minaret mosque. I am a lifelong resident of New York State. Over the past 15 years I have witnessed the closing of Catholic Churches in this and other dioceses; this is the first time I am seeing the erection of a formal mosque. Blessed Massabki Brothers, please pray for us!
I think it's even a bit more complicated than that.
I've often pondered what effect the megadeath extravaganzas of the 20th century had on the societies who fought in them. It occurred to me long ago that Western societies never sent their "dreck" to the slaughter pens. The breeding stock that remained after we killed off so many of our best, bravest and strongest spawned the generations that came after. Therein I suspect lies the answer to many of the problems we now have.
I've read recently of a "street fair" of homosexuals on Folsom St. in SF. The public behavior of its attendees I understand was incredible. I also still burn with embarrasment at a Republican Senator being arrested for cruising in a public lavatory, and after all this, I think of the young lions we send to their deaths for the perverse, ungrateful benefit of what I see of the America around me.
Perhaps therein lies the real tragedy of war.
Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World From Marathon to Waterloo
Also available free online at Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/tfdbt10.txt
(also in a zip version).
Interesting...
“”You see these churches? Within the next century they will all be mosques because we are reproducing and you are not.”
The West is getting f——d.
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