Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 9:17am

Eternal Jihad

It has always seemed to me possible, and even probable, that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent.

Hilaire Belloc, 1938

 

Over at the National Catholic Register Father James V. Schall, SJ, reviews Robert Spencer’s book on the history of jihad:

 

Spencer presents a narrative of the Islamic world and mind. He almost always presents Islamic history in terms of contemporary Muslim writers; he knows what Islamic thinkers use and present to justify their views. The reader also is aware that within Islam is found a dynamism that does not let it forget its own vocation of world conquest. Most Western thinkers will look for motives that are non-religious to explain the energy found in Islam. Yet, the evidence seems conclusive. Islam cannot rest if some non-Muslim part of the world continues to exist. We cannot pretend that war and bloodshed are not part of the historic record and of the teachings within Islam. So long as the Qur’an is kept in its integrity, these ideas will keep recurring within Islam.

Spencer does not think that the West will ultimately recognize the nature of this movement to conquer the world and to impose the Sharia on all nations as a sign of submission to Allah. He uses the word “doom”. He maintains that the people who would suffer most under Sharia are precisely those who cannot or will not take the teachings and historic record of Islam seriously. Spencer does not pretend to be a prophet, but he does offer a judgment based on a careful attention to facts. To diligently seek to oppose jihad and all that goes with it would be a turn of events that Spencer certainly hopes will come about. But if it is not to come about, it will be because it is prevented from doing so. And that requires a respectful and attentive look at what Islam has invariably done in the past and what its Holy Book outlines for it.

To read this book is to be caught up in many historic battles. It is to endure the sight of much bloodshed. It is to realize that historic Muslim victories have proved unchangeable. Islam is rapidly developing ways to practice jihad when it is not a major military power. It is learning how to rule and invade simply by immigration and settling in lands that tolerate it. It has learned to live in the West and to use its freedom to advance its own religious and cultural agenda. In the meantime, most of the non-Muslims in Muslim lands have been killed or have left the Near East. The persecution of Christians in the near-East goes on.8

Why—to answer the second part of Spencer’s thesis—are people so reluctant to see this historic record and the causes behind it? Several possibilities exist. 1) Liberalism does not take religion or permanent principles to be unchangeable. Therefore, when Muslims settle under democratic laws, they will gradually themselves become relativists. 2) The second is what I call the “sleeping dog thesis.” The adage “let sleeping dogs lie” means, in this case, that there is no sense in stirring up Muslim masses. The historical record is true and simply tells us to have nothing to do with Islam. 3) A third view would be that Islam is less dangerous than Christianity. Thus, given a choice, we should favor Islam. 4) The fourth reason is a legitimate fear of confronting such a fanatical foe. More bloodshed would arise from confronting it than leaving alone at all costs. In short, we do not confront Islam because we know, from reading Spencer’s book, what to expect.

The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS
By Robert Spencer
New York: Bombardier Books 2018
Hardcover, 448 pages

 

Go here to read the rest.  Contemporary Leftists tend to be ignorant of history and view the world through racial glasses.  Muslims are just another romantic third world group that Leftists can adopt and use as a sledgehammer against their domestic political adversaries, especially believing Christians.  Blind fools is too kind an epithet for these “useful idiots” in the march of Islam.  Catholics who are part and parcel of this madness, looking at you Pope Francis, have no excuse since the history of our Church for almost fourteen centuries has been, in large part, a battle to survive against Islam.

 

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father of seven
father of seven
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 6:19am

5) They hate the existing Catholic faith so much they are willing to align with its enemy to undermine it. Looking at you Pope Francis.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 6:50am

Seriously!

Pray tell. Do we need to apologize to the religion of peace for being so evil and unjust that 20 devout, young Muslim men were forced to murder flight attendants and pilots, and fly jumbo jets into the Twin Towers and Pentagon? If so, do we need to do it daily, weekly, monthly, annually?

Papa Foxtrot is dumber than a bag of rocks. There is the evidence. If it weren’t for logical fallacies, he would have nothing.

Father of Seven, that is very true. Also true if you replace “Catholic Faith” with “America and Americans.” They say they fear and hate Trump. Really they hate you and me.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 9:52am

What gets you about Francis is that he has the mental habits of a seedy bureaucratic operator. He betrays everyone.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 3:08pm

Western Europe had thrown away its history. Central Europe has not. Hungary has not forgotten what the Ottomans did. Islam was a mortal enemy of Poland for centuries.

I named my sons for John Sobieski and Charles Martel for a reason. Islam understands one thing and that is force. Hit Islam in the mouth hard enough and often enough and they eventually get it.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 4:37pm

Penguins Fan: It seems as if America threw away the lessons NOT learned on September 11, 2001. The academy, administrative state, and lying media still, and Barack Hussein Obama spent the eight years from 2009 to 2017, are apologizing to the Muslim world that America was so evil and unjust as to force thousands of devout Muslims to commits, world-wide, tens of thousands of massacres.

The oriental (specifically spelled to anger the PC crowd) mind works differently. Any compromise/concession is a sign of weakness. It simply energizes the childish savages and filthy pagans.

Apparently, Gillett doesn’t want me to shave with its over-priced razors.

David WS
David WS
Friday, January 18, AD 2019 6:19pm

Simply put, For Islam to be true “Both” Judaism and Christianity would have to be false.
There simply can’t be a third Abrahamic religion.
And Islam is not about peace, it’s about subjugation.
PF is a relativist and a dictator. Not an accident, relativism always leads to totalitarianism.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Saturday, January 19, AD 2019 3:43am

Islam is a political system bent on world domination. The religion part serves as a useful umbrella placing a condoning higher power over the people to legitimize Muslim atrocities at home and abroad. Islam is another false materialistic program of the devil, like Communism.

The fact that the Catholic Church, since Vatican II, is not able to see this is more evidence that our hierarchy is under the influence of Satan–just as Pope Paul VI said.

Mary De Voe
Mary De Voe
Saturday, January 19, AD 2019 12:34pm

A grown man, Jorge Bergoglio does not know the difference between violence and armed force; between violent aggression and self-defense; between Satan and Saint Michael.

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