By David Warren
Let us remember Covadonga, the great Christian victory in Spain in the year 722 A.D., and the beginning of the Reconquista.
This was a decade before the battle of Tours, when Charles Martel, “the Hammer”, repelled the “unstoppable” Umayyad cavalry, paving the way for the Carolingian Empire that saved, or could be said to have invented, Europe.
All of Christendom had been devastated, including the civilized centers of Egypt and Syria, except for the waning “Rome” (Byzantium), and the mostly pagan wastelands in the far west. Only miracles saved, for example, France from falling prey to the aggression.
However, the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the desert peoples was, like their advance through the Middle East and North Africa, a catastrophe for Christians, who had ruled with relative peace.
It began fourteen centuries of annihilation, with other Arab waves preceding Islam. Zoroastrian Persia was also pulverized, and deep massacres were committed in Hindustan and even as far as Tibet.
Islam has bloody borders, as Samuel P. Huntington wrote a decade before 9/11, and it always has. Wherever Islam meets non-Muslims, there is bloodshed. This is not just a modern condition. It was true from the beginning. Islam expanded through terrorism, by absolute surprise, out of nowhere. The September 11ths were its constant strategy.
Non-Muslims, in general, have a history of enmity with Muslim neighbors, and most have been massacred by Muslims in their time. But Christians and Jews have been the main victims, as both were psychotically identified in the Quran and the hadiths.
To learn about the realities of Islam, one must study those foundational texts, just as one must read the Bible to access Christianity. Finding faithful translations is necessarily a challenge, as from Arabic to English it is almost impossible; there are enormous disparities between any pair of versions. At least a third of the Quran is nonsensical verbiage, even in the original. Good luck.
Questions like who Muhammad was, if he really existed, or if Mecca was even built by the seventh century, cannot be resolved using evidence in the Western manner. There is no scholarship comparable to that which supports both the Old and New Testaments.
For good reasons, the investigation of Islamic texts and claims is impeded in all Muslim countries and entails danger when attempted in the West. In contrast, Christianity and Judaism can be studied openly, even by skeptics, and have been available for destructive dismantling for a long time.
Archaeology has shown that biblical traditions are solid or plausible. In contrast, all ancient archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia have been completely leveled and bulldozed. Enormous efforts have been made to keep the history of Islam away from scrutiny, or restrict it to official authorities. In fact, practically all attempts to study the Islamic past have been carried out in Western institutions and limited to them.
This may sound like an exaggeration, and a scandal for today’s smiling “multicultural” liberalism. But check it, because it is a fact. Moreover, if one consults the older academic literature, until a few decades ago, it is evident that all agreed on the indigence of Islam. Our earlier historians did master the field. The more recent ones have almost always been “politically correct” and timid apologists, out of fear of Muslim reprisals.
Peter Collier at Encounter Books commissioned me to write about this state of affairs, right after the topic became current following the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11. I did not accept the advance, and refused until I was sure the task was feasible.
It was not feasible, unfortunately, for a person who cannot read Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and several other languages. Moreover, I think I was a coward. But since then, braver and more scholarly people have emerged.
Perhaps we have overcome the ridiculousness expressed by President George W. Bush about “the religion of peace”, and his reluctance to use the word “crusade”.
But Islam would not even exist, except for its most essential practice: the universal punishment of apostasy with death. This is at the forefront of the many barbaric punishments of this religion, and underlies every article of Islamic law, the Sharia.
It is in open and violent conflict with all civilized legal traditions. Even “moderate Islam” offers no relief, because “moderate” Muslims are like “moderate” Christians: people who do not know and do not care what they believe. Invariably, Muslim beliefs return to their disturbing origins and to the control of fanatics.
To this day, for example in Nigeria, where thousands of Christians have been massacred and churches burned by Boko Haram and other Muslim representatives. And there are also 53 Muslim-majority nations, and several dozen where Muslims now constitute a significant and problematic minority.
Despite wonderful, though brief, cultural moments, the experience of Islam has been the same throughout the centuries. It is consistently violent, and all its success has depended on intimidation. It only attracts violent men, and their economies of piracy, slavery, and theft.
This is what I learned over the years since, as a child in Pakistan, I was horrified by Islamic violence (though I appreciated the warmth of many Muslim families).
So, how do we “reconquer” the Muslims?
“We can’t,” is the answer from all our smug liberals and post-Christians. Surrender is their only coherent policy.
However, victory is near. Because the invasion of Europe and America by Muslim immigrants is proving to be Islam’s greatest mistake. People coming from societies where 99 percent of Muslims remained Muslims have arrived in places where at least 20 percent convert, and most become Christians when they can, even in Iran. They were the best Muslims and become impressive Christians.
The Reconquista will not require violence on our part. It will cost us martyrdoms. But when we have the courage to tell Muslims the shocking truth, their religion will collapse. Because the truth is firm: DEUS VULT!
About the author:
David Warren was editor of the Idler magazine and a columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Middle and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, can be consulted at: davidwarrenonline.com