We need to learn from history if we wish to prevent creeping sharia from overwhelming the West. If in the past the force of arms led to Islamic hegemony in so many parts of the world, today other methods are being employed, but they can be just as effective. While the means may differ, the goals are the same.
So a quick look at history can help us in the current battles we face. There were two decisive moments in European history in its war against imperialistic Islam. Both had to do with halting the Muslim advance at crucial stages of history. Both had to do with keeping Europe free of totalitarian Islam.
The first episode took place on October 10, 732. It is called the Battle of Tours, or the Battle of Poitiers, since it took place between these two cities in northwest France. Charles Martel led the Franks against the invading Muslim forces, turning the tide of the Muslim onslaught.
For the first 100 years Islamic expansionism showed no signs of being stopped. Muhammad died in 632 and in the next century his followers broke out of their small enclave to take over much of surrounding territory. In the first few decades Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Persia had been conquered, and at the time of the battle of Tours Islamic expansionism extended from Spain to Persia.
If France had fallen, the rest of Western Europe would likely have been taken over as well. That could well have spelled the end of Christendom and the West. So this was indeed a decisive battle in political, religious and historic terms.
The other key battle took place in 1683 when the Turkish attack on Vienna was repulsed. For 100 years the Ottoman Empire had been expanding, and it looked like Vienna would soon succumb. Their defeat marked the end of their expansion, and the eventual decline of the Empire.
Historians look at these two epic battles as being major turning points in European history, and the state of the church. Things would be very much different today if these two battles had had different outcomes. Except for modern Islamic terrorism, the threat of expansionist Islam had been solidly resisted and their military plans thwarted.
Today Islamic conquest is still underway, but this time much of the West is not so much threatened by military might as by cultural, social, political and evangelistic fervour. The spread of sharia law and Islamic values is continuing apace, and what may not have been accomplished by the sword is now being accomplished by other means.
Islamic da’wa, or mission, is well underway, and the West seems to be succumbing big time. While some Islamists resort to military jihad and violence, another very effective means is to take over the West from within. And they are now doing what their forebears could not do.
Ironically, historian Edward Gibbon had said that if the Franks had lost at the Battle of Tours, “Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran 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 Mahomet”.
But this of course is happening now, in hundreds of Western universities. Not just in our schools, but everywhere, creeping sharia and stealth jihad are taking place at an alarming rate. Gibbon’s words are now coming back to haunt us. I have documented plenty of such cases of Islamic inroads into the West on this website in the past.
Every day new gains are being made, and along with them, Western freedoms are being eroded and chipped away. And Europe is a main arena for all this. Thus what Islamic militarism could not accomplish centuries ago is now being realised by non-military means.
Let me cite just one example of this. I have written before about how all over Western European cities we find Muslim enclaves which have effectively become no-go zones for non-Muslims. Indeed, European citizens are afraid to enter many of these hot spots.
England and many European countries will likely have Muslim majorities this century if current demographic trends continue. Thus they will achieve what they have always wanted – complete control of these valuable non-Muslim lands.
One recent article laid out the case for all this, and how frightening conditions have become there. It speaks of an “occupation without tanks or soldiers”. It begins this way: “Islamic extremists are stepping up the creation of ‘no-go’ areas in European cities that are off-limits to non-Muslims.
“Many of the ‘no-go’ zones function as microstates governed by Islamic Sharia law. Host-country authorities effectively have lost control in these areas and in many instances are unable to provide even basic public aid such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services. The ‘no-go’ areas are the by-product of decades of multicultural policies that have encouraged Muslim immigrants to create parallel societies and remain segregated rather than become integrated into their European host nations.
“In Britain, for example, a Muslim group called Muslims Against the Crusades has launched a campaign to turn twelve British cities – including what it calls ‘Londonistan’ – into independent Islamic states. The so-called Islamic Emirates would function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Islamic Sharia law and operate entirely outside British jurisprudence.
“The Islamic Emirates Project names the British cities of Birmingham, Bradford, Derby, Dewsbury, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Sheffield, as well as Waltham Forest in northeast London and Tower Hamlets in East London as territories to be targeted for blanket Sharia rule.”
It is the same in Europe: “In France, large swaths of Muslim neighborhoods are now considered ‘no-go’ zones by French police. At last count, there are 751 Sensitive Urban Zones (Zones Urbaines Sensibles, ZUS), as they are euphemistically called. A complete list of the ZUS can be found on a French government website, complete with satellite maps and precise street demarcations. An estimated 5 million Muslims live in the ZUS, parts of France over which the French state has lost control.
“Muslim immigrants are taking control of other parts of France too. In Paris and other French cities with high Muslim populations, such as Lyons, Marseilles and Toulouse, thousands of Muslims are closing off streets and sidewalks (and by extension, are closing down local businesses and trapping non-Muslim residents in their homes and offices) to accommodate overflowing crowds for Friday prayers. Some mosques have also begun broadcasting sermons and chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’ via loudspeakers into the streets.”
The article goes on to discuss the situation in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. These matters are occurring on a daily basis. Indeed, as if on cue, I just received this in my inbox: it seems that Muslim police in London do not have to protect Jews. Although it turns out that this story is in fact from 2006, it is nonetheless very telling indeed: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218145,00.html
A video of his remarks can be seen here, if FB allows: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1292651095513
If things were that bad five years ago, how much worse are they now? The expansion of Islam’s universal caliphate with worldwide submission to Allah seems to be proceeding nicely. They may have failed to achieve this with the sword, but now they are getting to the same place without it.
People gave their lives in the past to stop the spread of militant Islam. We may find ourselves in a similar situation today. But certainly it cannot be business as usual, as we lose more and more of our freedoms each day, and become more and more of a Western Mecca.
http://www.hudson-ny.org/2367/european-muslim-no-go-zones
[1262 words]