1,400 years of uninterrupted conflict laid on Islam’s doorstep, by Robert Spencer.
“What I found is that through 14 centuries, without any break, without any let-up, without any reformation or reconsideration, without any period of tolerance — although there are a lot of historical myths about that — Islam has been responsible for conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims for 14 uninterrupted centuries,” said Spencer, who is quick to point out that most Muslims are not jihadists.
“Obviously, not all Muslims are involved in this and not all of them approved of it. Nonetheless, in every century and in in every place in the world where there have been Muslims, there have been jihadis who thought that it was one of their responsibilities before Allah to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers,” said Spencer.
Islam was founded in A.D. 622, Muhammad died in 632, and by 732, at the Battle of Tours in modern-day France, Charles Martel led a decisive Frankish victory against Muslim invaders who had already swept through North Africa and Spain.
But how did those invaders get from the Arabian Peninsula to the Atlantic coast within 100 years? Spencer says it was accomplished through violent conquest, and he contends most people who deny the violence perpetrated in the early years of Islam are arguing from a position of ignorance.
“People aren’t really aware of this history. This is one of the reasons why I wrote this book. The Islamic advance was incredibly swift. And not only did they get all the way to the Atlantic and to Spain within 100 years of the death of Muhammad, but they also went in the other direction, conquered one of the great powers of the day in Persia and went into India,” said Spencer.
Spencer says his book is the first work in the English language to detail the jihad against India, which he calls “an extraordinary and bloody story.”
“I think a lot of people take for granted the idea that there was some kind of mass conversion to Islam, that people were converting to it because they were convinced that it was true and that this is what was responsible for the Islamization of the Middle East and North Africa. That’s actually not the case. It was all done by conquest,” he said.
Spencer further asserts that ISIS is not the exception or some radical departure from Islam over the centuries. He claims ISIS looks much like jihadists throughout the past 14 centuries.
Ever noticed that most of the world’s conflicts are around the boundaries between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds? Or that over half the world’s conflicts since WWII have involved Muslims?
Islam is the religion of conflict.
Jihadists also played a key role in the first major military engagement of the United States when President Thomas Jefferson was forced to confront the Barbary Pirates off the coast of North Africa.
“They were jihadis, as I show in the book. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote a report to Congress about how the Moroccan ambassador had explained that they were fighting them because it was explained in the Quran and they felt they had a divine responsibility to do so,” said Spencer.
That conflict is also how U.S. Marines became known as “leathernecks.”
“They’re leathernecks because they wore leather collars that would prevent them from being beheaded. The (Marine Corps) song with the ‘shores of Tripoli’ was all about them facing the jihadis,” said Spencer.
In multiple speeches, President Obama stated Muslims have been a vital fabric of the United States from our very beginning. Spencer says other than being our first opponent in war, Obama’s assertions do not hold up.
“In terms that Obama’s claim that Muslims were in the United States and were involved in it since the founding; that’s complete historical fiction and has no basis in fact whatsoever,” said Spencer.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
