Islam and the Church

On September 11, 2001, a day that shall live in infamy, radical Muslims [1] seized four airplanes and smashed three of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in northern Virginia; the fourth crashed in southern Pennsylvania. To date more than 3000 dead are estimated. Immediately the inquiry began into the motives and means of attack. For the first time in their history the United States find themselves in a religious war, one not of their own making, but one unleashed against them by radical Muslims whose declared mission is the destruction of Christians and Jews and the United States which shelter them. Liberals, secular humanists and Islamophiles may cringe at this, but the declared purpose of Osama bin Laden and of Muslims of like mind leaves no room for any other conclusion. This page shall not inquire in any depth into the religion of Islam [2] and its founder, Muhammad, but rather into the origins of the holy war (jihad) [3] waged for fourteen centuries against Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims.

We begin first with Muhammad, founder of Islam. Muhammad (the Praised One) was born in 570 AD of the Quarish tribe in the Hijaz south of Mecca in the Arabian [4] peninsula. At the age of 40 he claimed to have heard the voice of the Archangel Gabriel who called on him to abolish polytheism and to restore the pure monotheistic religion of Abraham, the prophets and Jesus Christ. He converted first his family and clan, but incurred the wrath of the merchants of Mecca who perceived his religious agitation as harmful to commerce and their control of Mecca. In 622 AD he and his followers fled to Medina from which they waged war against his enemies until he prevailed. He returned to Mecca in 630 AD and died three years later.

During his “ministry” Muhammad taught that his religion embodied the pure monotheism of the prophets which would replace Judaism and Christianity, further that he was Allah's last messenger and that none would come after him. Over several years his utterances to his followers were taken down by scribes and collected in a single book known as the QURAN [5] which his followers believed to be the literal word of Allah.

Soon after Muhammad's death in 633 AD Arab raiders pushed out of the Arabian peninsula and within 100 years they had cut and burned their way across North Africa to the Atlantic, north through the Iberian peninsula across the Pyrenees into southern France where they were repulsed by Charles Martel, King of the Franks, at Tours in 732 AD. Islam's armies also pushed into the Byzantine Empire, across the Middle East, and then in the 8th and 9th centuries they overran Persia, Afghanistan and northwest India. The march of Islam was stopped by the Mongols and Turks who destroyed the Islamic empire. The Turks adopted Islam and continued its spread across Anatolia and Armenia, over the defeated imperial city of Constantinople into the Balkans, twice reaching the gates of Vienna in the 17th century, from which they were miraculously repulsed.

Islam divides mankind into believers and non-believers. The former are “the best of nations” [6] and the latter are “the vilest of animals” [7] The parts of the world where Islam prevails is called “House of Islam” (dar al-Islam) and those areas which non-believers control is known as “the House of War” (dar al-harb) because war is what it takes to subdue it. Non-believers are divided into two groups, namely pagans and Peoples of the Book (Christians and Jews because they relied on books, i.e. the Torah and the Gospels). In early Islam the pagans were offered the choice of converting or being put to the sword. Most converted. Christians and Jews, however, were treated differently. Upon surrender without a struggle and in exchange for protection of their lives and property, they entered into a contract (dhimma) with their overlords, minimum conditions of which were 1) submission to Islamic rule; 2) admission of their own inferiority; and 3) payment of the capitation or head tax (jizya) [8] In addition the local rulers imposed whatever other limitations or indignities they wished, such as distinctive clothing, boots and head gear, restricted living areas, limited use of riding animals etc and other indignities designed to compel conversion to Islam and transfer of wealth to Muslims.

In the early centuries of Islamic rule Christians constituted the majority of the population in the conquered territories, but in time the ancient Christian communities disappeared from northern Africa, Anatolia, Persia and central Asia and were reduced to small remnants in the Middle East now rapidly vanishing through emigration in response to militant Islam. Only in recent centuries has the rise of the European powers stopped further spread of Islam through jihad. [9] The present war of radical Islam exemplified by the attacks of September 11 did not begin therewith, but represents a continuation (renewal) of jihad as known for 14 centuries. It is exacerbated by conditions in the modern world which many Muslims find intolerable.

“The Muslim world is a political and social disaster for all to see. With the arguable exception of Turkey, it consists of a series of despotisms , each with an absolute ruler whose ultimate justification is his strength and will. A family or a clique gathered around the ruler under the protection of the state apparatus of secret police and military repression. To the powerful, the spoils; to the weak, submission. No rights, no freedom of expression, no loyal opposition, no rule of law, no redress except through violence, conspiracy, a coup, and ultimate civil war.” [10]

Whose fault it this? The zealous Muslim believes from the Quran that Muslims are “the best of nations” and that non-believers are “the vilest of animals”. Yet, when he looks around he sees that “the vilest of animals” i.e. the Christians, Jews, Americans and Europeans, have all the wealth and power, whereas the overwhelming majority of “the best of nations” is poor. He views his ruling elites as utterly corrupt and compromised to the “House of War” and his life and country as dominated by the politics and economics thereof. Rather than conclude that Muhammad's vision is skewed, he vents his rage against his ruling elites and the “House of War”. The pious Muslim longs for the Golden Age of Islam in the first 300 years after Muhammad when Islam was expanding over the globe and was ruled by purportedly just and enlightened khalifs, and the pure teachings of the Quran. His mullahs, shaiks and imams [11] tell him that justice will only prevail again when the ruling elites are overthrown and “the House of War” is destroyed. For him, compelling the world to submit to Allah (Islam) is the ultimate good. For those who believe in this holy war, there are no restraints. Neither slaughter [12] nor self-inflicted death [13] are impediments to jihad. To die in furtherance of jihad is the noblest death that a pious Muslim can suffer, for it assures immediate entry into paradise [13].

The longing of radical Muslims to return to the “golden age” of Islam during the time of Muhammad and his immediate successors is explained in the following quote from Serge Trifkovic's book, THE SWORD OF ISLAM [16] which reads as follows:

The revival of the model of early Islam in a modern form absolutely mandates the reaffirmation of uncompromising animosity to non-believers and the return to violence as a means of attaining political ends. Islamic terrorism, far from being an aberration, became inseparable from modern-jihad as spiritual battling with the evil impulses of the soul - a rendering endlessly repeated by Islam's apologists in the Western world - is quite properly rejected by today's Islamic activists not only as theologically incorrect (which it is) but also as a dangerous and harmful distraction from the path of divinely ordained struggle. The cult of martyrdom, always present in Shi'ite Islam, was fully revived by the Muslim brotherhoods in the early twentieth century and their different incarnations throughout the Islamic world and the Muslim diaspora in the West. What distinguishes “fundamentalists” and “conservatives” from “ordinary” Muslims as far as reference to the “golden age” is concerned is that “the former blot out history in favor of the reactivation of the founding myth, while the latter accommodate themselves to the history of Muslim societies”. p 205

Do all Muslims share this view of perpetual jihad until all the world submits to Allah as contemplated by Muhammad? Certainly not! But to venture guesses about percentages of those who do and those who don't, is vain speculation. Surely many believe in Osama bin Laden's mission - a few are directly involved in terrorism [14], many more assist with intelligence, money and safe haven. Unfortunately even more approve or remain silent. Therein lies the dilemma. How do we know who would murder and maim us and who would suffer our continued existence as a free people? That conundrum awaits resolution by wisdom far greater than ours.

As Eastern Catholics, our duties are clear. “…love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6, 27-28) [15] To the Muslims who live among us, we owe respect for their personal, civil and proprietary rights unvarnished by hate. As Eastern Catholics who are also Americans, we owe our country and fellow citizens vigilance in seeking out the enemy, obedience to the laws respecting all persons, and support for the national effort in defense of the homeland. [16]

On October 7, 2001, the 430th anniversary of the Naval Battle of Lepanto, the Armed Forces of the United States attacked the stronghold of Osama bin Laden and his supporters in Afghanistan in the continuing struggle of counter-jihad. [17] The effort promises to be a long one. May we be heartened by the example of those who preceded us.

Summary and Commentary

The attack on America which took place on September 11, 2001 is nothing more or less than a recent episode in a holy war waged by Islam against the non-Islamic world beginning during the lifetime of Muhammad and continuing down through the centuries until the territorial aggrandizement of Islam was stopped at the Battle of Lepanto [17]. Only the rise of the European nation-states as the prevailing political and military reality in the centuries following Lepanto accompanied by the decline and eventual dismemberment of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries assured Christendom of a pause after centuries of the Islamic juggernaut. This followed not from any change of ideology, but from the reality of the political, economic and military balance of power in favor of the West and the Russian Empire. Today we face a new form of jihad, one not carried on by khalifs and sultans leading armies of conquest, but by well organized and well financed radical Muslims who move unhindered throughout the world using the modern technology of communications and destruction in furtherance of the same old objective - KHILAFAH - the universal rule of Islam over all mankind. The tactics of jihad are necessarily different and adapted to the circumstances of the present. The objective, however, remains the same, namely our destruction. For those who view the world from the perspective of the Quran - believer vs. infidel, best of nations vs. vilest of animals, House of Islam vs. House of War - one could hardly expect otherwise.

It is only fair to point out that there is a considerable body of Islamic thought which rejects the notion of jihad as perpetual warfare against non-Muslims. These moderates would like to beat the Sword of Islam into a plowshare of humanity. They seek to bring Islam out of the 7th century and adapt it to the realities of the present. Unfortunately the voices of moderation do not resound well in the streets of the Islamic world. Many Muslims of radical persuasion regard the “house Muslims” as sycophants of the establishment who offer no political remedy to meet the poverty and powerlessness of the masses. As stated before, in Islam religion and politics are not distinguishable. Therefore any religious or theological efforts of moderation and reform which are not expressible in political programs fall short of meeting the expectations of Muslims who are oppressed, impoverished and shut out of the decision making. Consequently anger at the establishment and at the West finds its outlet in religious fervor of the kind preached in the mosques on Friday afternoon throughout the Islamic world.

This problem is summarized well by Serge Trifkovic [16] as follows:

“Islam, a religion born in the desert, has created jihad and remains defined by jihad , its most important concept for the rest of the world. Through jihad Islam has emerged as a quasi-religious ideology of cultural and political imperialism, that knows no natural limits to itself. Unlike the “just war’ theory originated in Christian thinking, which has evolved into a secular concept instituted in international laws and codes, including the Geneva Conventions, jihad is inherently religious as well as political: Islamic normative thinking does not separate the two. It has emerged from the desert, and it perpetually creates new mental, psychic, spiritual, and literal deserts of whatever it touches.”

p. 141

Christ has promised us that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church. What, therefore, should be the response of Christians who perceive the prevailing gates of Islam with profound anguish? Hope is a Christian virtue. Despair is the sin against hope. As Christians we must opt for hope in the expectation that Almighty God will grant to our leaders wisdom and courage, to our Armed Forces in Afghanistan safety and success, and to us all the strength to persevere in the struggle against those who seek to destroy us. With that we end this page.

Dedication

We dedicate the images of the Holy Virgin on this Web page as an enduring prayer for the repose of the souls of the victims of jihad at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the plane crash in southern Pennsylvania, the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the Army barracks in Saudi Arabia, the US embassies in Africa, the destroyer, Cole, and of all other times and places. The grieving families and friends of the victims of jihad we commend to the prayers and consolation of OUR LADY THE JOY OF ALL WHO SORROW. [18] And we implore for ourselves, for one another, for the leaders of our country, for our Armed Forces and for all others the intercession of OUR LADY OF HOLY PROTECTION [19] that we may be delivered from the wrath of our enemies who roam about the world seeking our ruin.

TROPARION OF HOLY PROTECTION

Protected by your coming, O Mother of God
the faithful people solemnly celebrate today;
and gazing upon your immaculate image,
they humbly say: “Watch over us with your noble
protection, and deliver us from all evil by asking
your Son, Christ our God, to save our souls.”

Epilogue

More than five months have passed since the day of infamy. We see in the above image of the skyline of New York the twin towers of the World Trade Center frozen in an instant of time past - the way they were - now gone forever in the dust and rubble of our enemies' wrath. The thousands who perished on that day we have commended to the eternal memory of God. Gone too is the Evil One, buried perhaps in a cave in Afghanistan and lodged in the bosom of his lord and master, al Shaitan. or in hiding somewhere. The Battle of Afghanistan continues. The wider war waged by militant Islam remains in progress and likely to continue for decades. Following the Battle of Lepanto 430 years ago, Christendom had enjoyed some respite in Islam's jihad against us, but it is becoming increasingly evident that Islam has entered a new era of militancy such as had characterized it in its earlier centuries. Various experiments in the decades after World War II by many Islamic countries with limited democracy, nationalism and socialism were unable to accommodate the needs of rapidly growing populations. Consequently all have returned to the tried and true method of rule and social order in Islam, namely the despotism of ruling elites which use their control of the instruments of force and the allocation of wealth to maintain their rule and to exclude the power challengers from participation. In recent decades we have seen the return of Islamic militancy based on the literal and radical application of the religion of Muhammad. This phenomenon is gaining strength and is the only credible movement of consequence throughout the “umma” (Islamic community).

In the streets of America, Canada, Europe and the Islamic world wander men seething with hatred for Jews and Crusaders viz. Christians. They are not agents of states, but adherents of a religion which calls for our destruction and subjugation. They do not relent in their plots to advance the cause of an Islamic world empire. Much of the 20th century was devoted to the extirpation of the German heresies of Nazi-Fascism and Marxist Communism. How much of the 21st will be taken up by the struggle with the heresy of Muhammad? While liberals, secular humanists and Islamophiles contend vigorously that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion, we have only to look about the world today to perceive otherwise. Wherever Islam confronts the hated “kufr” there is violence and terror - Western China, Southern Russia, Northern India, Indonesia & East Timor, Southern Sudan, Northern Nigeria, the Middle East and the Balkans. Should we be so possessed by our decadent pursuit of wealth and arrogantly confident of our military and technological advantage that we relax our vigilance only again to be struck with vengeance and to be called upon in the future to take up arms in our defense? The Quran gives us no cause for rest. “And as to those who reject Our communications, We draw them near to destruction by degrees from whence they know not.” (Surah VII, 182) Fourteen centuries of jihad should suffice to instruct us. When we will be next drawn near to destruction is a matter of time and place not of our choosing. [20].

We conclude with two images below of St. Michael Archangel, [21]which reveal two aspects of this saint in the symbolism of the Eastern Church. We submit them to our readers in affirmation of our faith in the promises of Christ that He will be with us always until the end of time (Matt. 28, 20) and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church (Matt. 16, 18).

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APPENDIX

The Lepantoes of James The Sixt, King of Scotland.
at Edinburgh printed by Robert Walde-Graue
Printer to the Kings Maiestie - cum priuilegio regali

The HOLY LEAGUE, organized by the Pope to thwart the Muslim Turkish invasion and enslavement of Western and Central Europe, was an exclusively Roman Catholic undertaking. The Protestant states of Europe contributed not one ducat to the effort. Nevertheless, the victory of the HOLY LEAGUE over the heathen Turk in the Naval Battle of Lepanto did not pass unnoticed in Protestant Europe. Most notably among those who welcomed the victory was King James VI of Scotland (1566 - 1624) who later became King James I of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. James, an accomplished poet in his own right, was widely believed by his Calvinist subjects to be a crypto-Catholic i. e. one who appeared outwardly as a Protestant but inwardly remained one of those who would sneak off from time to time for a “Popish mass” in some secret place - not uncommon in those days of Protestant persecution of Catholics in England and Scotland. King James as James I of England is best known for commissioning the official translation of the Bible into English known as the King James Version which served to standardize English speech according to the southern English dialect.

In the Preface to the Reader, the king accuses his Calvinist detractors of stealing his “poeticall execrcises” and circulating the same in order that he “…should seeme, far contrary to [his] degree and Religion, like a Mercenary Poet, to penne a worke, ex professo, in praise of a forraine Papist bastard…”

King James' THE LEPANTOES was published in 1591 in two English dialects of the time, namely in the dialect of southern England (which eventually became the basis of Standard English) and also in the dialect of the Lowlands of Scotland where he ruled, there being at the time no standard English language as such throughout England and southern Scotland. For the ease of reading, we excerpt from the version in the southern dialect to illustrate the king's perception of the great event which was Lepanto. All portions appearing herein are courtesy of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University in England.

I sing a wondrous worke of God,
I sing his mercies great,
I sing his justice heere-withall
Powr'd from his holy seat.
To wit, a cruell Martiall warre,
A bloodie battell bold.
Long doubtsome fight, with slaughter huge
And wounded manifold.
Which fought was in LEPANTOES gulfe
Betwixt the baptiz'd race,
And circumsised Turband Turkes
Rencountring in that place.
O onely God, I pray thee thrise,
Thrise one in persons three,
Alike Eternall, like of might.,
Although distinct yee be.
I pray thee Father, through thy Sonne,
Thy word immortall still,
The great ARCHANGEL of records
And worker of thy will,
To make thy holy Spreit my Muse,
And eik my pen inflame,
Aboue my skill to write this worke
To magnifie thy name.

…

Are we not day by day
By cruell Turks and infidels
Most spitefullie opprest?
They kill our Knights, they bash our forts,
They let us neuer rest.

…

The armie shoulde on easterne Seas,
Convene from farre and neare.
Thus bent upon their Enterprise,
The principalls did conuene,
Into MESSENA to consult,
What order should haue beene,
Obseru'd in all their armie great:
There DON IOAN d'AUSTRIA came,
Their Generall great, and VENIER als
Came there in Venice name.
From GENES ANDREA DOREE came
And Rome COLONNE sent.

…

Their preparations being made,
They all vpon a day,
Their biting ankers, gladlie wayed,
And made them for the way.
The Grecian Fleet, for HELENS cause
That NEPTVNS town did sack:
In braue array, or glistring armes,
No match to them could mak.
There came eight thousand Spaniards braue,
From hotte and barren SPAINE,
Good ordour kepars, cold in fight,
With proud distainfull braine.
From pleasant fertill ITALIE,
There came twelue thousand als,
With subtill spreites bent to reuenge,
By craftie meanes and fals.
Three thousand ALMANS also came,
From Countries colde and wide,
These monney men with awfull cheare
The chok will dourelie bide.
From diuers partes did also come,
Three thousand venturers braue,
All voluntaires of conscience mou'd,
And would no wages haue.
Armde Galleyes twice a hundr' and eight
Six shippes all wondrous great,
And fiue and twentie loadned Shipps,
With baggage and with meate.
With fourtie other little barkes
And prettie Galents small,
Of these aforesaid was compound
The Christian Nauie all.

…

Into LEPANTOES gulfe, and there
Prepared them for the fight.
Whill this was doing heere on earth,
Great God who creats all,
With wakrife eie preordoning
What euer doth befall.
Was sitting in his pompous Throne,
In hiest Heauen aboue,
And gloriouslie accompanied
With justice and with loue:

…

And that the glorie of God in earth,
Into their manhead stands,
Through just reliefe of Christian soules
From cruell Pagan hands:
But if the enemie triumphed
Of them and of their fame,
In millions men to bondage would
Professing Jesus name.

…

With Bullets, Raisers, Chaines, and nailes,
That from their peeces flew:
Their cannons rummisht all at once,
Whose mortall thudding draue,
The fatall Turks to be content
With THETIS for their graue.
The Fishes were astonisht all,
To heare such hideous sound,
The Azur Skie was dim'd with Smoke,
The dinne that did abound,
Like thunder rearding rumling raue
With roares the highest Heauen.

…

The Cannons thuds and cries of men
Did in the skie resound:
But Turks remaind not long vnpaid
Euen with their proper coyne,
The bitter shots which Christians did
To former thrundring ioyne:
Dead drop they downe on euery side,
Their sighing Spreits eschews,
And crosses Styx into distaine,
To heare infernall newes:

…

The clinkes of swords, the rattle of Pikes,
The whirre of arrowes light,
The howles of hurt, the Captaines cryes
In vaine do what they might,
The cracks of Gallies broken and bruzd,
Of Gunns the rumbling beire
Resounded so, that though the Lord
Had thundered none could heare:
The Sea was vernished red with blood,
And fishes poysond all,

…

Now vp now downe on either side,
Now Christians seemd to winne,
Now ouerthrowne, and now againe,
They seemd but to beginne.
My pen for pitie cannot write,
My hair for horrour stands,
To thinke how many Christians there
Were kild by Pagane hands.

…

To BASHA bold did rin,
And with a Cutlace sharpe and fyne
Did whip mee off his head,
Who lackt not his reward of him
That did the Nauie lead:
The Generall syne caus'd fixe the head
Upon his Galley Mast.

…

When thus the victorie was obteind,
And thankes were giuen to God,
Twelue thousand Christians counted were
Releeu'd from Turquish rod.

…

CORVS VENETVS

Sing praise to God both young and olde
That in this towne remaine,
With voice, and euerie Instrument,
Found out by mortall braine:
Sing praises to our mightie God,
Praise our deliuerars name,
…
To him that hath releeued our necks
From Turquish yoak prophaine.
…
Sing praise, sing praise both young and olde,
Sing praises one and all,
To him who hath redeemd vs now,
From cruell Pagans thrall.

CORVS ANGELORVM

…
Thus ended was the Angels song,
And also heere I end:
Exhorting all you Christians true,
Your courage vp to bend,
And since by this defeat ye see,
That God doth loue his name
So well, that so he did them aid
That seru'd not right the same.
Then though the Antichristian sect
Against you do conjure,
He doth the bodie better loue
Then shadow be ye sure:
Do ye resist with confidence,
That God shall be your stay
And turne it to your comfort, and
His glorie now and ay.

FINIS