Remember Jimmy Carter and his withdrawal of support for the Shah of Iran at a critical moment?
Remember how fanatical Muslim Fundamentalists, one of whom might be in charge of Iran now, took US embassy personnel hostage for 444 days while the Demoncratic Jimma Carter administration conducted Kerry-style nuanced negotions?
This is nothing new for the so-called “Religion of Peace” nor is it an isolated instance.
Let’s go back in time, to circa 1095 a.d. and see how little things have changed. That is the generally accepted beginning date of the First Crusade.
The Crusades were a reaction to three centuries of Islamic predation in the Levant against Christians. Today, we are inextricably bound to the Middle East by oil, but back then it was due to Jerusalem being the birthplace of the Christ and therefore a place of Pilgrimage as the Holy Land. Pope Urban II and Robert the Monk addressed a great crowd at the Council of Clermont, detailing Seljuk Turkish predations against Christians:
From the confines of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople a horrible tale has gone forth and very frequently has been brought to our ears, namely, that a race from the kingdom of the Persians, an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, a generation forsooth which has not directed its heart and has not entrusted its spirit to God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and has depopulated them by the sword, pillage and fire; it has led away a part of the captives into its own country, and a part it has destroyed by cruel tortures; it has either entirely destroyed the churches of God or appropriated them for the rites of its own religion. They destroy the altars, after having defiled them with their uncleanness. They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcision they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font. When they wish to torture people by a base death, they perforate their navels, and dragging forth the extremity of the intestines, bind it to a stake; then with flogging they lead the victim around until the viscera having gushed forth the victim falls prostrate upon the ground. Others they bind to a post and pierce with arrows. Others they compel to extend their necks and then, attacking them with naked swords, attempt to cut through the neck with a single blow. What shall I say of the abominable rape of the women?
Whether Persians, Seljuk Turks, Saracen, seeking control of the Mediterranean or approaching the Gates of Vienna, or predating Western shipping, taking hostages and demanding tribute the need to invade, to take hostages and slaves has persisted. Cowardice matched only by bloodthirstiness when the advantage, however fleeting or temporary, has remained constant.
The Muslims are obliged to wage struggle against unbelievers and may contemplate tactical ceasefires, but never its complete abandonment short of the unbelievers’ submission. This is the real meaning of Jihad… -the meaning of Jihad as the obligatory and permanent war against non-Muslims has not changed since Al-Mawardi’s time. .... The conquered peoples were “protected persons” only if they submitted to Islamic domination by a “Contract” (Dhimma), paid poll tax-jizya-and land tax-haraj-to their masters. Any failure to do so was the breach of contract, enabling the Muslims to kill or enslave them and confiscate their property.
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