Media Puff Pieces: Whitewashing Islam: 20 Errors on 20/20 (ABC News)

31 August 2014 A.D. Dr. Arthur Jeffery: Quotations on Islam from Notable Non-Muslims

31 August 2014 A.D.  Dr. Arthur Jeffery:  Quotations on Islam from Notable Non-Muslims

For 88 more quotes from other leaders regarding Islamo-Dominionism & Theocratic Reconstructionism, see:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2014/08/25-august-2014-ad-quotations-on-islam_25.html

Here’s one quote by Dr. Arthur Jeffery.

Arthur Jeffery

Arthur Jeffery (1892 – 1959) was an Australian professor of Semitic languages first at the School of Oriental Studies in Cairo, and from 1938 until his death jointly at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He is the author of extensive historical studies of Middle Eastern manuscripts. 

The early Arabic sources quite plainly and frankly describe the expeditions as military expeditions, and it would never have occurred to anyone at that day to interpret them as anything else.... To the folk of his day there would thus be nothing strange in Muhammad, as the head of the community of those who served Allah, taking the sword to extend the kingdom of Allah, and taking measures to insure the subjection of all who lived within the borders of what he made the kingdom of Allah.^[16]”

For 88 more quotes from other leaders regarding Islamo-Dominionism & Theocratic Reconstructionism, see:  http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2014/08/25-august-2014-ad-quotations-on-islam_25.html

For illustrative quotes on Islam from Barack Hussein Obama:

#1 “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

#2 “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer”





#3 “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

#4 “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

#5 “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”

#6 “Islam has always been part of America”

#7 “we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities”

For the rest of Obama’s 40 theological quotes and scholarship, see the URL.

http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2014/08/40-theological-quotes-from-barack.html

Islam: The Greatest Murder Machine in History

Konrad, Mike.  "The Greatest Murder Machine in History."  The American Spectator. 31 May 2014.  http://americanthinker.com/2014/05/the_greatest_murder_machine_in_history.html.  Accessed 31 May 2014.

May 31, 2014

The Greatest Murder Machine in History

By Mike Konrad

When one thinks of mass murder, Hitler comes to mind. If not Hitler, then Tojo, Stalin, or Mao. Credit is given to the 20th-century totalitarians as the worst species of tyranny to have ever arisen. However, the alarming truth is that Islam has killed more than any of these, and may surpass all of them combined in numbers and cruelty.

The enormity of the slaughters of the "religion of peace" are so far beyond comprehension that even honest historians overlook the scale. When one looks beyond our myopic focus, Islam is the greatest killing machine in the history of mankind, bar none.

The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. -- Will Durant, as quoted on Daniel Pipes site.

Conservative estimates place the number at 80 million dead Indians.

According to some calculations, the Indian (subcontinent) population decreased by 80 million between 1000 (conquest of Afghanistan) and 1525 (end of Delhi Sultanate). -- Koenrad Elst as quoted on Daniel Pipes site

80 Million?! The conquistadors' crimes pale into insignificance at that number. No wonder Hitler admired Islam as a fighting religion. He stood in awe of Islam, whose butchery even he did not surpass.

Over 110 Million Blacks were killed by Islam.

... a minumum of 28 Million African were enslaved in the Muslim Middle East.  Since, at least, 80 percent of those captured by Muslim slave traders were calculated to have died before reaching the slave market, it is believed that the death toll from 1400 years of Arab and Muslim slave raids into Africa could have been as high as 112 Millions.  When added to the number of those sold in the slave markets, the total number of African victims of the trans-Saharan and East African slave trade could be significantly higher than 140 Million people. -- John Allembillah Azumah, author of The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue

Add just those two numbers alone together, and Islam has surpassed the victims of 20th-century totalitarianism. However, it does not end there. Add the millions who died at the hand of Muslims in the Sudan in our lifetime.

Much of Islamic slavery was sexual in nature, with a preference for women. Those men who were captured were castrated. The mulatto children of the women were often killed, which explains why Islam was not demographically shifted towards the black race, unlike slaves in the West, who bore children to breed a mestizo class. Add in those dead children; and we arrive at well over 200 million.

Remember that in the 7th century, North Africa was almost totally Christian. What happened to them? 

By the year 750, a hundred years after the conquest of Jerusalem, at least 50 percent of the world's Christians found themselves under Muslim hegemony… Today there is no indigenous Christianity in the region [of Northwest Africa], no communities of Christians whose history can be traced to antiquity.-- "Christianity Face to Face with Islam," CERC

What happened to those Christian millions? Some converted. The rest?  Lost to history.

We know that over 1 million Europeans were enslaved by Barbary Pirates. How many died is anybody's guess.

...for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000 -  BBC

In the Middle Ages…

…many slaves were passed through Armenia and were castrated there to fill the Muslim demand for eunuchs. -- Slavery in Early Medieval Europe.

The same practice ran through Islamic Spain. North Europeans captured from raids up to Iceland, or purchased, were butchered in the castratoriums of Iberia. Many died from the operations that ran for centuries.

The number of dead from the Muslim conquest of the Balkans and Southern Italy is unknown, but again the numbers add up, surely into the millions over the centuries. Don't forget the 1.5 million Armenian Christians killed by the Turks during WWI. We do know that over five centuries, vast numbers of Christian boys were kidnapped to become Islamic Janissary mercenaries for the Turks. Add those in, too.

Muslims prized blonde women for their harems; and so enslaved Slavic women were purchased in the bazaars of the Crimean Caliphate. In Muslim Spain, an annual tribute of 100 Visigothic [blonde] women was required from Spain's Cantabrian coast.

For decades, 100 virgins per year were required by the Muslim rulers of Spain from the conquered population.  The tribute was only stopped when the Spaniards began fighting back -- Jihad: Islam's 1,300 Year War Against Western Civilisation

Add in the death toll from the Reconquista and the numbers climb higher. 

Research has shown that the Dark Ages were not caused by the Goths, who eventually assimilated and Christianized:    

…the real destroyers of classical civilization were the Muslims. It was the Arab Invasions... which broke the unity of the Mediterranean world and turned the Middle Sea -- previously one of the world’s most important trading highways -- into a battleground. It was only after the appearance of Islam... that the cities of the West, which depended upon the Mediterranean trade for their survival, began to die. -- Islam Caused the Dark Ages

Add in those unknown millions who died as a consequence.

How many know the horrors of the conquest of Malaysia? The Buddhists of Thailand and Malaysia were slaughtered en masse.

When attacked and massacred by the Muslims, the Buddhists initially did not make any attempt to escape from their murderers. They accepted death with an air of fatalism and destiny. And hence they are not around today to tell their story. – History of Jihad.org

We may never know the numbers of dead.

After Muslims came to power in the early 15th century, animist hill peoples eventually disappeared due to their enslavement and ‘incorporation’ into the Muslim population of Malaya, Sumatra, Borneo, and Java via raids, tribute and purchase, especially of children. Java was the largest exporter of slaves around 1500. -- Islam Monitor

In the same manner, Islam arrived in the Philippines. Only the appearance of the Spanish stopped a total collapse, and confined Islam to the southern islands. 

The coming of the Spanish saved the Philippines from Islam, except for the Southern tip where the population had been converted to Islam.-- History of Jihad.org

Again, the number of dead is unknown; but add them to the total.

The animist Filipinos were eager to ally with the Spanish against Islam. In fact, much of Southeast Asia welcomed the Spanish and Portuguese as preferable to Islam. 

...from the 17th century successive Thai kings allied themselves with the seafaring Western powers – the Portuguese and the Dutch and succeeded in staving off the threat of Islam from the Muslim Malays and their Arab overlords.-- History of Jihad.org  

A few galleons and muskets were not enough to conquer Asia. Islam had made the Europeans initially appear as liberators; and to a certain extent they were. Who were the real imperialists?

Even today...

...Malaysian Jihadis are plotting to transform multi-ethnic Malaysia into an Islamic Caliphate, and fomenting trouble in Southern Thailand.-- History of Jihad.org

Add this all up. The African victims. The Indian victims. The European victims. Add in the Armenian genocide. Then add in the lesser known, but no doubt quite large number of victims of Eastern Asia. Add in the jihad committed by Muslims against China, which was invaded in 651 AD. Add in the Crimean Khanate predations on the Slavs, especially their women.

Though the numbers are not clear, what is obvious is that Islam is the greatest murder machine in history bar none, possibly exceeding 250 million dead. Possibly one-third to one-half or more of all those killed by war or slavery in history can be traced to Islam; and this is just a cursory examination.

Now consider the over 125 Million women today who have been genitally mutilated for Islamic honor's sake. In spite of what apologists tell you, the practice is almost totally confined to Islamic areas. 

New information from Iraqi Kurdistan raises the possibility that the problem is more prevalent in the Middle East than previously believed and that FGM is far more tied to religion than many Western academics and activists admit. – “Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?” ME Quarterly

Once thought concentrated in Africa, FGM has now been discovered to be common wherever Islam is found. 

There are indications that FGM might be a phenomenon of epidemic proportions in the Arab Middle East. Hosken, for instance, notes that traditionally all women in the Persian Gulf region were mutilated. Arab governments refuse to address the problem. -- "Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?" ME Quarterly

Remember that this has gone on for 1400 years; and was imposed on a population that had been formerly Christian or pagan.

FGM is practiced on large scale in Islamic Indonesia; and is increasing.

...far from scaling down, the problem of FGM in Indonesia has escalated sharply. The mass ceremonies in Bandung have grown bigger and more popular every year. -- Guardian

The horrified British author of that Guardian article is still deluded that Islam does not support FGM, when in fact it is now settled that FGM is a core Islamic practice. Islamic women have been brainwashed to support their own abuse.

Abu Sahlieh further cited Muhammad as saying, "Circumcision is a sunna (tradition) for the men and makruma (honorable deed) for the women."  -- “Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?” ME Quarterly

What other tyranny does this? Not even the Nazis mutilated their own women!

Unlike the 20th-century totalitarians whose killing fury consumed themselves, reducing their longevity, Islam paces itself. In the end, though slower, Islam has killed and tortured far more than any other creed, religious or secular. Unlike secular tyranny, Islam, by virtue of its polygamy and sexual predations, reproduces itself and  increases. 

Other tyrannies are furious infections, which burn hot, but are soon overcome. Islam is a slow terminal cancer, which metastasizes, and takes over. It never retreats. Its methods are more insidious, often imperceptible at first, driven by demographics. Like cancer, excision may be the only cure.

So whenever you read about this or that Israeli outrage -- and there may be truth to the complaint -- place the news in context. Look whom the Israelis are fighting against. Islam is like nothing else in history.

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who is not Jewish, Latin, or Arab. He runs a website, http://latinarabia.com, where he discusses the subculture of Arabs in Latin America. He wishes his Spanish were better.

For the rest, see:
 http://americanthinker.com/2014/05/the_greatest_murder_machine_in_history.html
 

Nigeria: Attacks on Christians kill at least 100 | CNS News

Nigeria: Attacks on Christians kill at least 100 | CNS News

Special Ops Chief: Extremists in Syria Will "Eventually Threaten" U.S. Soil

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(Graphic): Syrian Islamo-Fascists Behead Man Who Will Not Convert

http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/03/04/muslims-force-xtian-to-convert-to-islam-then-brutally-behead-him/

(BBC): Syrian Islamo-Fascists Issue Rules For Christians

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26366197

Syria crisis: ISIS imposes rules on Christians in Raqqa

The northern city of Raqqa was seized by ISIS fighters last year

Continue reading the main story

Syria conflict

• Evacuation in pictures
• 'Eating grass to survive'
• What is Geneva II?
• Barrel bombs

A jihadist group in Syria has demanded that Christians in the northern city of Raqqa pay a levy in gold and accept curbs on their faith, or face death.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) said it would give Christian residents "protection" if they agreed to the list of conditions.


The announcement came in a statement posted online.


Correspondents say ISIS is trying to implement an extreme interpretation of Islamic law in areas it controls.


Raqqa, seized by ISIS last year, was the first provincial capital to be completely in the hands of rebels.

'Risking the sword'

The directive from ISIS, citing the Islamic concept of "dhimma", requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety.

It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public.

Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS (also known as ISIL) on their daily lives.


The statement said the group had met Christian representatives and offered them three choices - they could convert to Islam, accept ISIS' conditions, or reject their control and risk being killed.


"If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword," the statement said.


A group of 20 Christian leaders chose to accept the new set of rules, ISIS said.


Raqqa was once home to about 300,000 people, with less than 1% Christian, according to AFP news agency.


Many Christians fled after ISIS started attacking and burning churches.


The group has been accused of serious abuses in the areas it controls.


Raqqa has seen fierce violence between ISIS and rival groups fighting the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.


More than 2,000 people are believed to have been killed since Western-backed and Islamist groups attacked ISIS strongholds in early January.

Muhammad and the Anti-Christ Religion of Islam

Varied Authors. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Ed. “Muhammad and the Religion of Islam.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Given the forum’s interest in orbital learning, divine providence (Reformation theology, WCF, 5)…inquiries into Islam proceed.

When catechetized, e.g. the Westminster Confession of Faith, learning is a corollary concern in life; it’s natural.

Outline

The Foundations of Islam

1. Muhammed: the Prophet and his message

A. Life and works
B. Character and achievements
C. The legacy of Muhammed

2. Sources of Islamic doctrinal and social views

3. Islamic scripture: the Qur’an

A. Form
B. Doctrines of the Qur’an
C. Origins and compilation of the Qur’an
D. Interpretations
E. Translations

4. Hadith, traditions of the prophets

A. Nature and origins
B. Historical development
C. The science of Hadith
D. The compilations
E. Sectarian variations
F. Significance of Hadith

5. Fundamental practices and institutions of Islam

A. The five pillars
B. Sacred places and days

Islamic Thought

1. Origins, nature and significance of Islamic theology

A. Early developments
B. The Hellenistic legacy

2. Theology and sectarianism

A. The Khawarij
B. The Mu`tazilah
C. The Sunnah
D. The Shi`ah
E. Other groups

3. Islamic mysticism

A. History
B. Sufi literature
C. Sufi thought and literature
D. Theosophical literature
E. Sufi orders
F. Significance

4. Islamic philosophy

A. The Eastern philosophers
B. The Western philosophers

5. The new wisdom: synthesis of philosophy and mysticism

A. Philosophy, traditionalism, and the new wisdom
B. Primary teachers of the new wisdom
C. Impact of modernism

The Culture of Islam

1. Islamic law, Shari`ah

A. Nature and significance of Islamic law
B. Historical development of Shari`ah law
C. The substance of traditional Shar`ah law
D. Law in contemporary Islam

2. Social and ethical principles

A. Family life
B. The state
C. Education
D. Cultural diversity

3. Religion and the arts

A. The visual arts
B. Music
C. Literature
D. Architecture

4. Islamic myth and legend

A. Sources and variations
B. Types of myth and legend
C. Illustrations of myth and legend
D. Significance and modern interpretations

The Foundations of Islam

Muhammed: the Prophet and his message. Islam was created by a false prophet with religio-Imperialist and socio-economic ambitions. His name is Muhammed, born in Mecca, c. AD 570, and died c. AD 632. The religion is entitled “Islam” which means surrender to Allah (Arabic for “God”) as revealed in the fevered revelations of this displaced chap and caravan-raider-gone-big. Those revelations had an oral tradition and were written down in the Qur’an (=Koran).

Muhammed’s deal was his vision that he, by Allah’s will, was the final prophet. While he noted Adam, Noah, Jesus and others as prophets, he was the “last prophet” whose prophecies “abrogated” those of the earlier prophets. This Anti-Christ nonsense would soon be backed up by the sword, astute commercial treaties, taxation policies, and numerous military victories. His victories were judgments on its victims.

He was handed around, as a lad, in varied tribal families. About 610, he got his big vision of a majestic being with a vocal call, “You are the messenger of God.” It sounds like something out of Benny Hinn or a TBN-prophet. The varied revelations were sometimes accompanied by noises (e.g. a bell) or simple internal ideas. They were viewed as the “Word of Allah” to which "all must submit." He gathered some sympathizers around him, but his ideas accosted nomadic and Arabian polytheism.

He ran into opposition at Mecca. He had begun preaching publicly with implied critiques of rich merchants, a message that was not entirely popular with the mercantilists. “There is no god but Allah” coupled with his economic complaints. By 616, some Meccan forces united to oppose Muhammad; he and followers headed off to Medina. By 627, a Constitution is developed in Medina acknowledging Muhammed as the source for adjudication of any disputes. For 5 years, he gathers others.

He engages in numerous “benevolent” (tongue-in-cheek) razzias (=”raids”) on varied caravans. He personally led 3 “raids” in 623. Big point here: he becomes what he’s criticized, a materialistic gamer with a self-created religion. These razzias expand to Syria and Yemen. By 624, he puts out orders to accost caravans to and from Yemen. Varied Jewish groups oppose him and his policies begin to shift; finally, there is a break with the Jews. In 624, he conducts a successful raid on a Syrian caravan which he views as a “vindication” of his prophetic sovereignty. More raids and battles. Two are notable, the Victory of Badr, Syria, 624 and the Battle of Uhud.

A crafty and able chap, he made life simple. Submit to Islam and we can have a socio-economic pact: no raids. It was a Mafia-protection racket provided you submit. Given humanity’s depravity, the thinking goes: “What’s a minor theological accommodation, a little Allah, for the sake of peace and commercial progress?” There were clear economic and material advantages.

His closing years were accompanied by more alliances. He became “militarily the strongest man in Arabia.” By 630, he had a very successful raid in Syria along with further arrangements. His attitude to Christians began to change as well including Copts in Egypt and Ethiopia. His power had united Arabia and, shortly after his death in 632, his fanatics were poised to conquer Syria and Iraq.

Muhammad was reviled by medieval European scholars. He undoubtedly approved of assassination plots. He indubitably conquered with the sword. He indubitably ran a Mafia-protection racket. He indubitably united “religion and state” backed by the sword and bribery.

20 years after his death, his federation extended to Libya and Persia. The Byzantine Empire and Persian Empire felt his sting: “Islam is the basis of Arab unity.” Jihad was the war cry, meaning “Holy War” and “Holy Surrender.” This would also extend to Spain and into India.

Christians and Jews were the “people of the book.” As such, they were “taxed.” All others: “convert or die.” Not quite the religion of peace as is often put forward.

As Confessing Christian Churchmen, this Anti-Christian religion needs further exposition.

(Islamo-Fascism) Human Events: "Western Civilization Saved from Islam at Battle of Tours" (Oct 732)

Western Civilization saved from Islam at Battle of Tours

By: Raymond Ibrahim
10/14/2013 04:49 PM

 

Precisely 100 years after the death of Islam’s prophet Muhammad in 632, his Arab followers, after having conquered thousands of miles of lands from Arabia to Spain, found themselves in Gaul, modern day France, facing a hitherto little known people, the Christian Franks.

There, in mid-October in the year 732, one of history’s most decisive battles took place, demarcating the extent of Islam’s western conquests and ensuring the survival of the West.

Prior to this, the Islamic conquerors had for one century been subjugating all peoples and territories standing in their western march—including Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. In 711, the Muslims made their fateful crossing of the straits of Gibraltar, landing on European soil. Upon disembarkation, the leader of the Muslims, Tariq bin Zayid, ordered the Islamic fleet burned, explaining that “We have not come here to return. Either we conquer and establish ourselves here, or we perish.”

This famous Tariq anecdote—often reminisced by modern day jihadis—highlights the jihadi nature of the Umayyad caliphate (661-750), the superpower of its day. Indeed, as most historians have acknowledged, the Umayyad caliphate was the “Jihadi-State” par excellence. Its very existence was coterminous with its conquests.  Its legitimacy as “viceroy” of Allah was based on subjugating lands in the name of Allah.

Once on European ground, the depredations continued unabated. Writes one Arab chronicler regarding the Muslim northern advance past the Pyrenees: “Full of wrath and pride” the Muslims “went through all places like a desolating storm. Prosperity made those warriors insatiable… everything gave way to their scimitars, the robbers of lives.” Even far off English anchorite, the contemporary, the venerable, Bede, wrote, “A plague of Saracens wrought wretched devastation and slaughter upon Gaul.”

Strange anecdotes also find their way in the chroniclers’ accounts during this time. Muslim historian Abd al-Hakem reports that, after landing on an island off Iberia, one of Tariq’s squadrons discovered that the only inhabitants were vinedressers. “They made them prisoners. After that, they took one of the vinedressers, slaughtered him, cut him into pieces, and boiled him, while the rest of the companions looked on.”  This incident resulted in a rumor that Muslims feast on human flesh.  (Nearly 1300 years later, in the year 2013, a Muslim jihadi ate the organs of his slain enemy to surrounding cries of “Allahu Akbar”.)

At any rate, this must have been the picture the men to the north had of the invaders from the south—wild and insatiable madmen, possibly cannibals, mounted on swift steeds, not unlike, in this manner, the Huns of old, who, under the “anti-Christ” figure of Attila, came ravaging through Europe, only to be defeated, in part by the Franks, in the year 451 at the Battle of Chalons, also in modern day France, 150 miles east of Tours.

“Alas,” exclaimed the Franks, “what a misfortune! What an indignity! We have long heard of the name and conquests of the Arabs; we were apprehensive of their attack from the East [see Siege of Byzantium, 717-718]: they have now conquered Spain, and invade our country on the side of the West.”

Conversely, the Muslims, flushed with a century’s worth of victories, seem to have had an ambivalent view, at best, regarding Frankish mettle. When asked about the Franks, some years before the Battle of Tours, the then emir of Spain, Musa, replied: “They are a folk right numerous, and full of might: brave and impetuous in the attack, but cowardly and craven in the event of defeat. Never has a company from my army been beaten.”

If this view betrayed overconfidence, Musa’s successor, Abd al-Rahman (“Slave to the Merciful”) exhibited even greater haughtiness regarding those whom he was about to give battle. At the head of some 80,000 Muslims, primarily mounted moors, Rahman’s destructive northward march into the heart of France was greatly motivated by rumors of more riches for the taking, particularly at the Basilica of St. Martin of Tours. Rahman initially separated his army into several divisions to better ensure the plunder of Gaul. Writes Isidore, author of the Chronicle of 754: “[Rahman] destroyed palaces, burned churches, and imagined he could pillage the basilica of St. Martin of Tours. It is then that he found himself face to face with the lord of Austrasia, Charles, a mighty warrior from his youth, and trained in all the occasions of arms.”

Indeed, unbeknownst to the Muslims, the battle-hardened Frankish king Charles, aware of their purport, had begun rallying his liegemen to his standard in an effort to ward off the Islamic drive. Having risen to power in France in 717—the same year a mammoth Muslim army was laying siege to Byzantium—Charles appreciated the significance of the Islamic threat. Accordingly, he intercepted the invaders somewhere between Poitiers and Tours, the latter being the immediate aim of the Muslims. The chroniclers give amazing numbers concerning the Muslims, as many as 300,000. Suffice to say, the Franks were greatly outnumbered, and most historians are content with the figures of 80,000 Muslims against 30,000 Franks.

The Muslim force consisted mainly of cavalry, and was geared for offensive warfare. The vast majority being of Berber extraction, they wore little armor, though their elitist Arab overlords were at least chain-mailed. For arms, they relied on the sword and lance; arrows were little used.

Conversely, the Franks were primarily an infantry force (except for mounted nobles such as Charles). Relying on deep phalanx-formations and heavy armor—reportedly 70 pounds for each man—the Franks were as immovable as the Muslims were mobile. They also appear to have had a greater variety of weaponry: the shield was ubiquitous, and arms consisted of swords, daggers, javelins, and two kinds of axes, one for wielding and the other for throwing—the francisca. This notorious latter weapon was so symbolic of the Franks that either it was named after them or, quite possibly, they were named after it.

The chroniclers state that the two contending armies faced each other for 6-7 days, neither wanting to make the first move. The Franks made much use of the familiar terrain: they appear to have held the high ground; and the dense European woods served not only to provide better shelter but to impede the anticipated Muslim cavalry charge.

Winter approaching, supplies and foraging areas dwindling, and an Islamic sense of superiority all compelled Rahman to commence battle, which “consisted entirely of wild headlong charges, wasteful of men.”

Writes an anonymous Arab chronicler: “Near the river Owar [Loire], the two great hosts of the two languages and the two creeds [Islam and Christianity] were set in array against each other. The hearts of Abd al-Rahman, his captains and his men were filled with wrath and pride, and they were the first to begin to fight. The Muslim 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.”

For the rest of this good article, see:

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/10/14/western-civilization-saved-from-islam-at-battle-of-tours/

(Islamo-Fascists): Blaming the Crusades for Jihadisms, Imperialisms & Conquests

Blaming the Crusades for Jihad

by Ryan Mauro
http://juicyecumenism.com/2013/09/23/blaming-the-crusades-for-jihad/
October 1, 2013

The cultural relativists on the Left and apologists for radical Islam like to blame the Crusades for almost everything. The Muslim extremists are only responding to the deeds of Christian extremists, the argument goes. In his new book, Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies, former Muslim Ibn Warraq takes on this misleading theme intended to blame the West for the Muslim world's troubles.

The claim that the Crusades are the starting point of Islamic jihad is basically the political application of, "For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction." It equates the Christian beliefs driving the Crusades with the Islamic beliefs driving jihad.

Ibn Warraq's new book tackles this misconception. Islamic atrocities were not provoked by the Crusaders' own reprehensible acts, but preceded them. Islamic jihad was not triggered by the Crusades; it preceded them.

In fact, as explained by Warraq and in books like The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)and What's So Great About Christianity, the Christian world was reduced to about one-third of what it was by the sword of jihad. The Crusades were launched with the objective of, without any exaggeration, saving Europe and Western civilization from Sharia.

My personal experience in school is that the opposite was taught. The Crusades were framed as offensive and the jihads as defensive. The Crusaders were depicted as barbarians, particularly to Jews. I cannot recall hearing about a single Islamic atrocity before or during these wars.

This is a common phenomenon, Warraq explains, and it's part of an overall trend when it comes to education about the history of Islam.

"What are seen as positive aspects of Islamic Civilization are ecstatically praised, even exaggerated, and all the negative aspects are imputed to the arrival of the pestilential Westerners, and where the Arabs, Persians and Muslims in general are seen as passive victims," Warraq said in an interview.

As proof, Warraq and the other authors mention the countless mass killings and persecutions of Christians and Jews before the Crusades. The destruction of over 30,000 churches during a 10-year period starting in 1004 AD is little-known. So is the burning of crosses, the beheading of converts to Christianity from Islam, the destruction of Christian holy sites like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the forced tax for non-Muslims (the jizya) and the list goes on and on.

Modern-day Islamists and their apologists point to these times as proof of the historical tolerance of Islamic civilization. Islam-ruled Spain (Andalucia) and the city of Cordoba are held up as the golden examples of interfaith coexistence. For example, the Islamic Society of North America's official publication included an article in its March-April issue titled, "Andalucia: Paradise Still Lost?"

One of the most interesting claims made in Waraq's book is that the Crusades did not have a permanent impact on the Muslim psychology. Part of the reason is because the Muslim world viewed the wars as an overall victory.

"Many believe that modern Muslims have inherited from their medieval ancestors memories of crusader violence and destruction. But nothing could be further from the truth. By the fourteenth century, in the Islamic world the Crusades had almost passed out of mind," Warraq said.

This begs the question of what revived the relevancy of the Crusades in how the Muslim world views the West.

Warraq says that the Crusades were reentered into the discourse by Europe. Imperialism was purposely framed as a continuation of the Crusades; something particularly agitating for the growing Arab nationalist movement.

"Nineteenth, and even early twentieth century Europeans unashamedly used crusader rhetoric and a tendentious reading of crusader history to justify their imperial dreams of conquest," according to Warraq.

The Arab world's insecurities over its falling behind were blamed on the European colonists that were viewed as Crusaders. This theme "eases the guilty consciences of the Arabs themselves: it is not their fault that they are such abject failures-it is all the fault of the Crusaders."

In addition, attributing the backwardness of the Muslim world to the "Crusaders" allowed Sharia Law to escape responsibility. At the same time, complaining about the Crusades actually provided Muslims with hope in the face of Western superiority.

As Dinesh D'Souza explains, "So the Crusades can be seen as a belated, clumsy and unsuccessful effort to defeat Islamic imperialism."

However, Warraq emphasizes that his point isn't to blame the West for its use of Crusader rhetoric. The jihad existed before the Crusades and during the period when they "had almost passed out of mind" of the Muslim world.

"My point is that Islamic jihad did not end with the defeat of the Crusaders. On the contrary, in Islamic doctrine all the later Islamic conquests were seen as a part of the religious duty of carrying out jihad until the entire world submits to Islam," he said.

Blaming the Crusades is a way of denying the Islamic supremacist ideology that has driven the conflict from the beginning.


This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy and was originally published at Front Page Magazine.

(Islamo-Fascism) First Things: Carrie Wickham's "Muslim Brotherhood." Princeton University Press, 2013

Three things here.  (1) Mr. (Rev. Dr.) Peter's Leithart's brief review at First Things.  Second, a URL for the volume under review.  Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky.  The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement. Princeton University Press, 2013. Third, inclusion of product description and editorial reviews. 

Muslim Brotherhood

Sunday, September 29, 2013, 3:37 PM

Peter J. Leithart | @PLeithart

 

Even after extensive research, Carrie Rosefsky Wickham hasn’t quite cracked Egypt’s secretive Muslim Brotherhood. But the TLS reviewer gives enough to leave us worried.

The Brotherhood’s emphasis on the status and dignity of Muslims alone was a break with Egyptian nationalism’s pluralist tradition: other parties had prominent Christian and Jewish members. The Brotherhood was also different because it sought not Egyptian independence but the restoration of the Islamic caliphate over all land historically ruled by Muslims, including parts of Italy and Spain; Egypt would be only a province of this great empire.”

Coptic Christians are a particular.

For the rest, see:
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2013/09/29/muslim-brotherhood/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

The volume under review: 

Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky.  The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement. Princeton University Press, 2013.

It is available at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691149402/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0691149402&linkCode=as2&tag=leithartcom-20

The website gives this description:

The Muslim Brotherhood has achieved a level of influence nearly unimaginable before the Arab Spring. The Brotherhood was the resounding victor in Egypt's 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, and six months later, a leader of the group was elected president. Yet the implications of the Brotherhood's rising power for the future of democratic governance, peace, and stability in the region is open to dispute. Drawing on more than one hundred in-depth interviews as well as Arabic language sources not previously accessed by Western researchers, Carrie Rosefsky Wickham traces the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from its founding in 1928 to the fall of Mubarak and the watershed elections of 2011-2012. Further, she compares the Brotherhood's trajectory with those of mainstream Islamist groups in Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco, revealing a wider pattern of change. Wickham highlights the internal divisions of such groups and explores the shifting balance of power among them. She shows that they are not proceeding along a linear path toward greater moderation. Rather, their course has been marked by profound tensions and contradictions, yielding hybrid agendas in which newly embraced themes of freedom and democracy coexist uneasily with illiberal concepts of Shari'a carried over from the past. Highlighting elements of movement continuity and change, and demonstrating that shifts in Islamist worldviews, goals, and strategies are not the result of a single strand of cause and effect, Wickham provides a systematic, fine-grained account of Islamist group evolution in Egypt and the wider Arab world.

Editorial Reviews:

Review

"[F]ine-grained, historically rich analysis . . ."--Charles Tripp, London Review of Books

"This timely publication emerges from Emory University political scientist Wickham's (Mobilizing Islam) long-term research into the institutional and ideological nuances of 'movement changes' within the Muslim Brotherhood--the Sunni revivalist organization that was the leading opponent of the Mubarak regime in Egypt before the popular uprising of January 2011. . . . This admirable study (based on hundreds of interviews) is a judicious, well-grounded plea for complexity in the depiction and analysis of Islamist movements."--Publishers Weekly
"[F]ascinating and marvelously detailed. . . . The Muslim Brotherhood offers one of the best and most detailed presentations of a robust school of thought among students of Islamism. . . . [I]t is likely to become a standard text and will be received as a major summary statement of decades of research and analysis."--Marc Lynch, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

"In this richly researched book, Wickham provides the most in-depth analysis of the genesis and development of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood available in English. . . . This valuable contribution to the literature on mainstream Islamist movements will be useful to scholars and policymakers alike."--Library Journal

"[A] clearly written and balanced account of the Brotherhood from its modest beginnings to its coming to power."--Michael Burleigh, Literary Review

"[A] commanding study of the Brotherhood's long history . . ."--Frederick Deknatel, National
"[An] excellent new history of the Muslim Brotherhood."--Christopher de Bellaigue, Guardian

"[O]utstanding. . . . The Muslim Brotherhood is an essential guide to understanding the historical background of the political crisis in Egypt today."--Joseph Richard Preville, Muscat Daily

"[The Muslim Brotherhood is] an accessible and informative analysis of one of the most important and perhaps most misunderstood political organizations in the Middle East."--Matthew Feeney, American Conservative 
      

From the Inside Flap

 

"A timely and incisive look into the history, politics, and future of the Muslim Brotherhood by the foremost expert on Islamism in Egypt. Carrie Rosefsky Wickham has constructed a detailed account of how the Brotherhood confronts the challenges before it, and why and when it embraces change. Everyone concerned with the future of Egypt should read this book."--Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival and The Dispensable Nation

"Meticulously researched and powerfully argued, Carrie Rosefsky Wickham's The Muslim Brotherhood is the most significant book about the Egyptian brotherhood since the publication in 1969 of Richard P. Mitchell's The Society of the Muslim Brothers. Essential for understanding the Egyptian uprising of 2011 and its aftermath."--James L. Gelvin, author of The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know

"Given the profound political changes taking place in Egypt today, Wickham's in-depth, richly composed, and intimate analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood has never been so relevant or timely. This is a first-rate book on an important topic, written by a distinguished scholar, and utilizing an impressive array of sources."--John P. Entelis, Fordham University

"Until now, there was no study that provides a portrait of the Muslim Brotherhood from its founding in the 1920s to today, and Wickham's comparative analysis of Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco is unique in the literature. What is also distinctive about this book is that it does not concentrate on the extremism of Islamist movements, but rather on how they may become more active participants in regular political processes."--John O. Voll, Georgetown University

(Islamo-Fascists) Daily Mail, UK: Gory Details Emerge of Torture, Eyes Gouged Out, Fingers Removed with Pliers, and More

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434278/Kenya-mall-attack-torture-claims-emerge-soldiers-Eyes-gouged-bodies-hooks-fingers-removed.html

'Eyes gouged out, bodies hanging from hooks, and fingers removed with pliers': Horrific claims of torture emerge as soldiers reveal gory Kenyan mall massacre details

• Kenyan soldiers claim to find scenes of torture by mall terrorists
• They say children found dead in food fridges with knives still in bodies
• Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed

By Paul Bentley
PUBLISHED: 17:56 EST, 26 September 2013 | UPDATED: 07:46 EST, 27 September 2013  

Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.
Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
Scroll down for video

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged

 

Most of the defeated terrorists, meanwhile, were reportedly discovered ‘burnt to ashes’, set alight by the last extremist standing to try to protect their identities.
The horrifying details came yesterday as the first pictures emerged from within the wreckage of the building, showing piles of bodies left strewn across the floor.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434278/Kenya-mall-attack-torture-claims-emerge-soldiers-Eyes-gouged-bodies-hooks-fingers-removed.html#ixzz2gEfriSZv
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