Part 2: Islam Rising: The Sword
The Sword of Islam or Sword of Allah as it is sometimes referred to is really the history of the first conquests of peoples and territories by the Mohammedans. For some centuries after Europe was successful in stemming the Islamic incursions, driving out the Moors, there appeared to be a dormant period. As Serge Trifkovic writes in The Sword of the Prophet, Regina Orthodox Press, 2002:
"But at the very time that Europe achieved its military and geopolitical advantage, ... moral and religious decline ... had become evident. Having found in their grasp places their Crusader predecessors had only dreamed of reclaiming: Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople - effete and demoralized European governments made no effort to re-Christianize them and, within a few decades, meekly abandoned them. The moral disarmament of contemporary post-Christian Europe is now nearly universal. After World War I, with the installation of nominally "pro-Western" governments in many Muslim countries fashioned from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire, the West seems to have convinced itself of the existence of benign Islam. [Emphasis in bold added.]
"Even without being fully or permanently liberated, for the first time in more than a millennium, the representatives of Christian communities of Lebanon -and Egypt were allowed to participate in the government, Christian churches were again freely built, ... One notable exception, even in period of Western domination between two world wars, was Saudi Arabia, which remains to this day a fortress of stern Wahabbism, as determined to convert the Western World to Islam as it is to decapitate any one of its subjects who violates the tenets of the Faith.
'"The pendulum has swung back in recent decades. The perceived slight of infidel presence and direct or indirect dominance in the Arab world also resulted in the backlash in the form of Islamic religious resurgence ..." [pp. 126-127]
What is this Sword of Islam, what is its origin? And what is the significance today? We will cite two descriptions:
"Khālid ibn al-Walīd also called Sayd Allāh al-Maslūl - the Drawn Sword of God - was a companion of Muhammad and historically speaking considered one of the great military strategists. He renowned for his tactics and keen ability in taking the command of the forces of Medina under Muhammad and the forces of his immediate successors of the Rashidun Caliphate. It was under his leadership that Arabia, for the first time in history, was united under a single political entity, the Caliphate. In charge of the warriors of the nascent Islamic State, Khalid was victorious in over a hundred battles, against the forces of the Byzantine-Roman Empire, Sassanid-Persian Empire, and their allies, in addition to other Arab tribes. His achievements include the conquest of Arabia, Persian Mesopotamia and Roman Syria within several years from 632 to 636.
"Khalid ibn al-Walid (Khalid son of al-Walid, lit. Immortal son of the Newborn) was from the Meccan tribe of Quraysh, from a clan that initially opposed Muhammad. He played a vital role in the Meccan victory at the Battle of Uhud against the Muslims. He converted to Islam, and joined Muhammad after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and participated in various expeditions for him, such as the Battle of Mu'tah. It was the first battle between the Romans and the Muslims. Khalid ibn Al-Walid reported that the fighting was so intense, that he used nine swords, which broke in the battle. Khalid took over after Zayd ibn Haritha, then Jafar ibn Abi Talib, then Abdullah ibn Rawahah were killed. After Muhammad's death, he played a key role in commanding Medinan forces for Abu Bakr in the Ridda wars, conquering central Arabia and subduing Arab tribes. He captured the Sassanid Arab client Kingdom of Al-Hirah, and defeated the Sassanid Persian forces during his conquest of Iraq (Mesopotamia). He was later transferred to the western front to capture Roman Syria and the Byzantine Arab client state of the Ghassanids. Even though Umar later relieved him of high command, he nevertheless remained the effective leader of the forces arrayed against the Byzantines during the early stages of the Byzantine–Arab Wars. Under his command, Damascus was captured in 634 and the key Arab victory against the Byzantine forces was achieved at the Battle of Yarmouk." Taken from the web site:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_ibn_al-Walid
About the dead Boston terrorist brother:
"Tamerlan Tsarnaev presented himself as yet another Sword of Islam. The Washington Post reports that a YouTube account under his name includes two laudatory videos under the category terrorists; It also lists seven videos on Islam. One of these is dedicated to the prophecy of the Black Banners of Khurasan, which is embraced by Islamic extremists particularly Al Qaeda. According to Black Banner prophecy, early Muslim leaders took the flag into battle and were martyred, but then the flag was taken by a Sword amongst the Swords of Allah and and Allah made victorious. Followers believe that Mohammed himself had designated the flag for them his people, claiming that: The black flags will come from the East, led by mighty men ... their first names are from a Kunya.
"Tamerlan may have believed it was his destiny to carry the Black Banner of his namesake. His supporters will also." Source: the web site:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/2207/the_sword_of_islam.aspx
The Islamist world has erupted into a powder keg of violence and general mayhem under the motto of "Islam is a religion of peace." Nothing could be further from the truth, despite that there are many Moslems who devoutly subscribe to this view of their religion. Are they lying necessarily? No, I don't think so, they too, have been deceived for most of them are followers living in closed societies. The Islamist warrior with sword - euphemistically speaking in most situations - is on the move to drive out the infidel or the non-Moslem. The main instrument is the Jihad, as we have indicated on three fronts - the Media campaign to disarm doubts and spread misleading propaganda, in the mosques and schools, both public and madrassas, particularly of the virulent Wahabbi sect, and in violent attacks on civilians, not just military members abroad. Islam is rising and in large part due to the West convincing itself so recklessly into believing that there is such a reality as a peaceful or "benign" Islam. In our chapter on Western appeasement we will look closely in detail at the willing "surrender of the West" because of the supposed harmlessness of Islam.
While Islam Rising or on the Move was already stirring, it was not until 1967 when Israel thwarted their sworn enemies determined to wipe every Jew off the face of the earth that present historians tend to mark as the more or less official date as the resurgence of Islam.
However, it can truly be said the Sword of Allah or conquest and "conversions" by coercive means is the very substance and odor of Islam. Now we must pause here and acknowledge for the sake of accuracy that all religions have adherents who want to see their religion spread and work tirelessly in this cause. All perfectly normal given human nature and the purpose of religion itself. The critical distinctions to be made, are [1] that of rank coercion, what is usually depicted as, "by the sword", and [2] while other religious believers may undergo death for their faith, they do so because they are meek and or do not retaliate against their oppressors, which we especially see with Christians. But it is the Islamist who most claims martyrdom, but the kind he imposes on himself, not by others unless in self defense such as in a military event. Christians do not martyr themselves, they are martyred, at present by brutal regimes, one of which is the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. St. Paul was martyred by the sword in Rome by the pagans who ruled. Moslems are generally [meaning unless a quasi military or political case, and this is usually seen as a threat requiring defense, rightly or wrongly, but it is not for the purpose of persecution per se] not martyred but kill themselves and then insist they are martyrs. Everything is upside down, which is typical of the Islamist way of looking at the world.
Islam is rising and through its three-pronged sword and there is no reasoning with it. While this is not our only threat, the realities of confrontation with Islam's sword tends to deflect from other realities as dire, to the point we miscalculate and tie ourselves to alliances that will be our ruin ultimately - Saudi Arabia - the seat of Islam - being the prima facie case. Funding the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is another. Beyond stupid, it is rank, colossal incompetence.
Meanwhile, this contrarian upside downness brings us the absurdity of the West's muted voice on the open persecution of Christians, by Muslims, while bending over backward to protect Muslim pride and its a'waging of peace', sending in troops to protect Muslim insurgents. Our serendipity, if I may put it like this, always leads to a worse situation for Christians and a further rise of the Sword of Islam, and still we persist in this insane policy. 9/11 apparently has taught us nothing or precious little. Islam Rising, you bet and emboldened ever anew!
War on the rest of the world is part and parcel of Moslem tradition. Let me again cite from Trifkovic, emphasis in bold added:
"On the eve of the First Crusade, the prominent Islamic scholar Abu Ala Al-Mawardi prepared the formal blueprint for the Islamic government, based on the Kuran: the Tradition, and the practice of the previous four centuries of conquest. It reiterated the division of the world into the House of Islam ... and the House of War inhabited by harbis, that is, the rest of the world. ... Muhammad's move to Medina is the model for which the Muslim diaspora in the Western world provides contemporary example ... Muhammad, who accepted a truce with Mecca when he was in an inferior position but broke it as soon as his recuperated strength allowed and offered his pagan compatriots the choice of conversion or death. In Europe today, the early signs of this forthcoming stage, amounting to a low-intensity civil war, are visible in ethnic disturbances in English and French cities, when young English-born Pakistanis or French-born North Africans venture out from their no-go areas ...
"The final objective all along is Dar al Islam, where Muslims dominate and infidels are at best tolerated and at worst expelled or massacred. ..." [p. 103]
Christians do not kill or mistreat those who do not choose to convert, they pray for them and treat them as neighbors given normal conditions of life.
In our next chapter we take up Muhammad or Mohammed, "the Prophet".
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