4/21/2006
September 11, 1683
NUMBER 141
A Small Historical Note
September 11, 1683
There is a lot of bum dope floating around these days about the war on terror. I have been reading what a couple of careful observers have to say about this.
One warns of the imperial ambitions of militant Islam. These ambitions have never died, only shifted shape over the years.
“What is going to happen in Europe over the next half century is happening today in the State of Israel. The Jewish birthrate is above the replacement level of 2.1 children per family: 2.7 children. This is mainly the result of the no-contraception policy of Orthodox Jews. Yet this high birthrate - the highest of any industrial nation - is still below the birthrate of Israeli Arabs: three children per family.
“Then there is Gaza, where Arab women bear on average seven children. This according to a paper presented at a 2005 conference on population held by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Islamic birthrates are falling, but not to the extent that European birthrates are.
“Unless Europe experiences a Christian revival, its culture will not exist in 2100. Islam will have achieved in the bedroom what the Ottomans did not achieve on horseback, 1500-1700: victory.”
(Gary North, The Death of Secular Humanism, in Faith For All Of Life, March/April 2006, page 17)
Efraim Karsh points out an interesting historical convergence.
“Like their Arab predecessors, the Ottomans were energetic empire-builders in the name of jihad. By the early 16th century, they had conquered Syria and Egypt from the Mamluks, the formidable slave soldiers who had contained the Mongols and destroyed the Crusader kingdoms. Under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they soon turned northward. By the middle of the 17th century they seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe, only to be turned back in fierce fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683-on September 11, of all dates.” (Islam’s Imperial Dreams, in Commentary, April 2006, page 38)
What Western Christian Europe halted at the gates of Vienna on September 11, 1683 was begun anew with a vengeance in New York City on September 11, 2001. If European Christians don’t get their birthrates up, their educational act together, and their spiritual lives in order, they will find themselves living under Sharia law in less than one hundred years. And if American Christians don’t pay attention and learn from their mistakes, we just might follow Europe into the new Caliphate.
If you are interested in these things I highly recommend a new book:
Knowing The Enemy
Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror
Mary Habeck, Yale University Press, 2006
Here is the cover flap data:
“After September 11, Americans agonized over why nineteen men hated the United States enough to kill three thousand civilians in an unprovoked assault. Analysts have offered a wide variety of explanations for the attack, but the one voice missing is that of the terrorists themselves. This penetrating book is the first to present the inner logic of al-Qaida and like-minded extremist groups by which they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks.”
“Mary Habeck explains that these extremist groups belong to a new movement known as jihadism with a specific ideology based on the thought of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Hasan al-Banna, and Sayyid Qutb. Jihadist ideology contains new definitions of the unity of God and of jihad, which allow members to call for the destruction of democracy and the United States and to murder innocent men, women, and children. Habeck also suggests how the United States might defeat the jihadis, using their own ideology against them.”
A Small Historical Note
September 11, 1683
There is a lot of bum dope floating around these days about the war on terror. I have been reading what a couple of careful observers have to say about this.
One warns of the imperial ambitions of militant Islam. These ambitions have never died, only shifted shape over the years.
“What is going to happen in Europe over the next half century is happening today in the State of Israel. The Jewish birthrate is above the replacement level of 2.1 children per family: 2.7 children. This is mainly the result of the no-contraception policy of Orthodox Jews. Yet this high birthrate - the highest of any industrial nation - is still below the birthrate of Israeli Arabs: three children per family.
“Then there is Gaza, where Arab women bear on average seven children. This according to a paper presented at a 2005 conference on population held by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Islamic birthrates are falling, but not to the extent that European birthrates are.
“Unless Europe experiences a Christian revival, its culture will not exist in 2100. Islam will have achieved in the bedroom what the Ottomans did not achieve on horseback, 1500-1700: victory.”
(Gary North, The Death of Secular Humanism, in Faith For All Of Life, March/April 2006, page 17)
Efraim Karsh points out an interesting historical convergence.
“Like their Arab predecessors, the Ottomans were energetic empire-builders in the name of jihad. By the early 16th century, they had conquered Syria and Egypt from the Mamluks, the formidable slave soldiers who had contained the Mongols and destroyed the Crusader kingdoms. Under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they soon turned northward. By the middle of the 17th century they seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe, only to be turned back in fierce fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683-on September 11, of all dates.” (Islam’s Imperial Dreams, in Commentary, April 2006, page 38)
What Western Christian Europe halted at the gates of Vienna on September 11, 1683 was begun anew with a vengeance in New York City on September 11, 2001. If European Christians don’t get their birthrates up, their educational act together, and their spiritual lives in order, they will find themselves living under Sharia law in less than one hundred years. And if American Christians don’t pay attention and learn from their mistakes, we just might follow Europe into the new Caliphate.
If you are interested in these things I highly recommend a new book:
Knowing The Enemy
Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror
Mary Habeck, Yale University Press, 2006
Here is the cover flap data:
“After September 11, Americans agonized over why nineteen men hated the United States enough to kill three thousand civilians in an unprovoked assault. Analysts have offered a wide variety of explanations for the attack, but the one voice missing is that of the terrorists themselves. This penetrating book is the first to present the inner logic of al-Qaida and like-minded extremist groups by which they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks.”
“Mary Habeck explains that these extremist groups belong to a new movement known as jihadism with a specific ideology based on the thought of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Hasan al-Banna, and Sayyid Qutb. Jihadist ideology contains new definitions of the unity of God and of jihad, which allow members to call for the destruction of democracy and the United States and to murder innocent men, women, and children. Habeck also suggests how the United States might defeat the jihadis, using their own ideology against them.”
4/15/2006
HE IS RISEN
NUMBER 140
He Is Risen
In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy,
Let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
1852, Julia Ward Howe
He is risen indeed!
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9.23-25
He Is Risen
In the beauty of the lilies
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy,
Let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
1852, Julia Ward Howe
He is risen indeed!
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Luke 9.23-25
4/07/2006
Morning Person
NUMBER 139
SIX TWENTY ONE
ANTE MERIDIAN
With Apologies to Robert Frost
Venus, planet burning bright
At the tag-end of the night,
If you could speak, what would you say
As I begin another day?
Would you say, Joy follows pain
As sure as sunshine follows rain?
Would you counsel Faith and Hope
Along the culture's slippery slope?
Would you suggest that, in the end,
Justice is the just man's friend?
Or would you in the dark sky turn
And simply say, I burn, I burn?
Venus, planet burning bright
At the tag-end of the night,
If you could speak, what would you say
As I begin another day?
9/88
059
