ISLAM: THE WAR THAT WON’T GO AWAY

We are engaged in a war.

It is a very old war - - a war that began when the Prophet Muhammad delivered these final instructions to his followers.: “Know that every Muslim is a Muslim’s brother, and that the Muslims are brethren; fighting between them should be avoided, and the blood shed in pagan times should not be avenged; Muslims should fight all other men until they say, ‘There is no god but Allah.’

By 635, three years after the Prophet’s death, the Muslim horde had invaded the Byzantine Empire and conquered Damascus, the city where St. Paul was headed when he received a blinding vision of the Resurrected Christ. Antioch, the ancient Greek city where the followers of Christ were first called Christians, fell next. In 636, the Muslims conquered the Christian city of Jerusalem. The caliph Umar stood in triumph over the site of Solomon’s Temple, where the Prophet Muhammad, according to Islamic tradition, once ascended into Paradise.

By 642, the Muslims had swept through the Fertile Crescent, including Syria and Persia (modern day Iraq), slaughtered the Egyptian armies, and spread throughout North Africa. Over 250 Christian churches were destroyed in Egypt. The blood-lust of the Muslims remained unabated even when they encountered little or no resistance.

The conquered Christians and Jews became reduced to the status of dhimmitude. As dhimmis, Christians and Jews were required the pay the obligatory jizyah - - suppression tax - - which was often so exacting that many converted to Islam rather than pay it. Dhimmis also were compelled to submit to the following disabilities:

Dhimmis are not to build any new places of worship.

Dhimmis are not to repair any old places of worship which have been destroyed by the Muslims.

Dhimmis are not to prevent Muslim travelers from staying in their places of worship.

Dhimmis are to entertain for three days any Muslim who wants to stay in their homes, and for a longer period if a Muslim falls ill,

Dhimmis are not allowed to harbor any hostility towards the Islamic state, or give any aid or comfort to hostile elements.

Dhimmis are not to prevent anyone  - - not even a family member or fellow dhimmi - - from converting to Islam.

Dhimmis are to show respect to every Muslim.

Dhimmis must allow Muslims to participate in their private meetings.

Dhimmis must not dress like Muslims.

Dhimmis are not to name themselves with Muslim names.

Dhimmis are forbidden to ride horses with saddle and bride.

Dhimmis are forbidden to bear arms.

Dhimmis must not wear signet rings or seals on their fingers.

Dhimmis must not sell or drink liquor.

Dhimmis must wear distinctive dress which displays their inferior status and which separates them from true believers.

Dhimmis must not propagate their customs among Muslims.

Dhimmis must not build their houses in the neighborhood of Muslims.

Dhimmis must not bring their dead near the graveyards of Muslims.

Dhimmis are not to observe their religious practices publicly or mourn their dead loudly.
By 732, the Islamic horde had conquered Crete, Cyprus and Rhodes; pushed on to overrun Spain; and crossed the Pyrenees into France, where Charles Martel, “the Hammer of the Franks,” managed to force them into retreat at the Battle of Tours. Regarding this battle, Edward Gibbon in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, wrote at the end of the 18^thCentury:

A victorious line of march had been prolonged by the Muslim invaders above a thousand miles from the Rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire: the repetition of equal space would have carried the Muslims to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or the Euphrates and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Qu’ran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammad.

The Muslims continued to dominate the Iberian Peninsula for the next seven hundred and fifty years. Held in check by the West, the Muslim army continued to sweep east, conquering Syria, northwest India, the Sindh and Punjab regions of modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Java, Borneo, and eventually the Philippines.