The Newest Phase of a Very Old War

Some people refer to the current war as the GWoT (Global War on Terror). Others call it WWIV (Norman Podhoretz). We at Gates of Vienna prefer to call it GIJ3W: The Great Islamic Jihad, Third Wave.

This conflict of cultures has endured for more than a millenium. The first wave began with the conquest of Mecca by Mohammed in 630 CE. It crested in Al Andalus (Moorish Spain) in 711, only receding in 1492 when Los Reyes Católicos entered Granada.

The second wave began when Osman raided Western Byzantium in 1299 and founded the Ottoman Empire. It crested during the reign of Süleyman I in the 16th century, and receded after the failure of the second siege of Vienna under Kara Mustafa in 1683.

From our perspective at the dawn of the 21st century it is hard to realize that a little more than three centuries ago the whole of Christian civilization was threatened. When the Turks stood at the Gates of Vienna it seemed that all of Europe would be overrun by the legions of the Prophet.

This war never ended. While many individual treaties were made between various states over the centuries, no truce was ever declared between Islam and the infidels, and no permanent peace was established (as General Gordon discovered at Khartoum in 1885).

So when did the Third Wave begin?

When will the Third Wave crest? And when will it begin to recede?

The thesis of this blog is that, like it or not, we are in a religious war. We do not define the terms but we should take careful note of them. We are mistaken if we think the Enemy wants merely to kill us. Once again, Jihad offers two choices to the West: conversion or death. Jihad exists in order to annihilate unbelief. Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists, or Wiccans, it is all the same to him.

Once again, our survival depends on our capacity to unite in a common cause against physical and cultural destruction.

Full disclosure: the authors are practicing (non-evangelical) Christians, staunch supporters of Israel and the Jews, and tolerant of all. Even those who don’t agree with us or with one another.

We invite comments and discussion on GIJ3W and related topics.

24 thoughts on “The Newest Phase of a Very Old War

  1. Baron

    As an avid student of history, I can attest to the veracity of your post, that this is indeed an ongoing conflict. However it appears to me that we in the West have had it too easy for too long, which has allowed us to breed a sense of ease and a feeling of entitlement to our comforts. The concept of standing up for your convictions has, by social engineering through education and manipulation of the filters of the media subsumed the original prevailing dominant culture, in order to facilitate an effortless ability to rule, as by divine right, by our political masters. This Gramiscian / Frankfurt School nexus of subversion has been extremely effective, so much so, that even now the forces controling and directing this nefarious agenda are still able to hide behind a wall of plausible deniability.
    Who would of believed 40 years ago, that the moral equivalence which currently masqurades as modern moral rectitude, would not only be defended by intellectual vacuities, unable to string a coherent sentence together, without a stream of profanities, but that such a postulate would gain credence among a wide audience. Sad, truely sad.

  2. Richard — “The concept of standing up for your convictions has, by social engineering through education and manipulation of the filters of the media subsumed the original prevailing dominant culture…”

    I think the media has to bear the major part of the blame, especially television. Television panders to people’s worst impulses in order to gain their attention, and then lulls them into ignorant somnolence.

    Kill your TV!

  3. Baron

    Already did, or rather shut off the cable, which in the complex where we live means only 1, yes thats one channel which our 3 tv sets can recieve. My sons were’nt too happy, but they’ve adjusted. Also, as a great side benefit, the 3 of us get to talk to each other much more.

  4. A suggested next step: subscribe to a DVD mail rental. Have everyone help decide which movies to watch–and which to refuse to patronize, and why.

    Find lots of well-written movie reviews. Take turns reading them. Argue with the reviewers’ ideas. Remind them that claiming a movie “sucks” is not an argument; it’s an exhibition of an inability to think.

    This form of pedagogy is painless, develops an aesthetic sense, an ability to present one’s ideas coherently and eventually it leads to reading.

    Playing “Battleship” is pretty cool, too. So is poker.

    In other words, develop in your children an appreciation of beauty, rhetoric, and strategy –all of which prepares them to earn their way thru college. ;}~D

  5. dymphna

    Once again, I’m a little ahead of the curve. A detour from the subject in hand, so please bear with me; a little history here, without getting too complex. We’re refugees from an alcholic/victim of child abuse, relationship. While I accept some responsibility, mainly for failing to see warning signs in advance and an inability to effect any change of course to someone suffering from acute anger from childhood trauma/abuse (only hinted at, never brought out into the open).

    The net result is that I have 2 very smart boys, both of whom were deeply affected by the break-up of our marriage. All the usual sordid mess I’m afraid, but that’s life in the modern world. Both boys seem destined to follow their father (yes that’s me), onto a stoney path to find their own place in this world. Both of them detest school, indeed I have withdrawn the 17 year old and apprenticed him to me to learn a trade, as he would not have graduated high school until the age of 20 if even then. This child is not dim, he is very intelligent, just totally uninterested in the school system. The younger one has an IQ of 136 (for what that’s worth) and was in ‘gifted’, but due to his difficulty adjusting to the seperation of his parents, has rebeled against everything in his world and largely withdrawn into himself; I’m slowly trying to help him put the pieces back together again. Sorry for the sob story but to end this tale on a high note, finally we have reached a stage where the predominant emmotion within our household is as it should be…love; something that is always totally absent in an alcholic induced disfunctional household.

    We have had some interesting conversations in this place we call our home. While my oldest son rebels against my natural intellegence, as I have a vocabulary he struggles to keep up with, which results in a good natured game of ribbing each other for our cross communication faux paus. Indeed your comment re…”this movie sucks”, is not an argument, is what prompted this little tale of family disfunction/road back to health. His talents mainly lie in his hands, something I encourage as much as possible, while I refrain from demeaning his intellectual shortcomings, and realise that he will get there eventually. My younger son on the other hand, is as sharp as a whip, that is when you can get him to say anything. Indicative of some of the sparing matches we have, is a tale from this past Wednesday….while sitting on the bed beside my chair, we both spied an icon on my computer screen ‘Islam’, to which I made some dispparaging remark, only to be brought up sharp by his quick rejoinder that my comment was an over generalisation, was highly inappropriate and ignored the fact that there were a great many innocent victims on the other side of my comment. My first reaction was to defend my position, (a response which is the natural default course when attacked). When I tried to draw him into further conversation on this issue, he declined and rushed back to his computer game. Upon a momments reflection, I followed him into his room, and told him how proud I was of his principled stand against my position, at which he just rubbed the top of my head and turned his gaze back to the computer screen ending all further conversation. Children are such a great blessing.

    As to your suggestion re. movie rentals. Each time we watch an historical type of movie, I harangue the screen for it’s inconsistancies, which dose’nt earn me any respect, rather abuse, until I finally say, “well go pull such and such a book off of the bookshelf”, which usually has the unfortunate effect of ending all comments as they desperately evade this course of action. Still, I keep trying. The up-shot of all of this is that I am indeed raising 2 independantly mind individuals, something I think we all strive for.

    Sorry for going so far off topic, I’ll try to behave better next time.

  6. JA Richard:

    It is OT, but so what. Life mostly is.

    Please email me. I have a parallel history and some ideas that might (wish I could put a little wavy line under “might”). My adult daughter died two years ago from the long-term effects of abuse. Not only hers, but the agony of watching her older brother endure so much…a long story.

    Due to her father’s perfidy, this child lies in an unmarked grave. The same honor and considertion he showed her in life he has bestowed in death.

    Also have some ideas re childhood/adolescent teaching. You may or may not find helpful. I am assisting my daughter’s widower, my son-in-law, in finding a niche for their son.

    There is no cruelty like family cruelty, there is no balm like the touch of a child’s hand.

    Do email me.

    ~D

  7. It is amusing to read this blog as it holds the exact opposite of the thesis I hold to frame events in the world.

    This blog thesis is that Islam is a force that should be met with equal force by a return to the absolute convictions of the Western world.

    My thesis is:

    “There is a struggle between rational, modernist, humanist ideas and national, religious, tribalist emotions. The Tribalists feed on each other to frame the world in their terms.”

    – Ousama Bin Laden is a leader of idelogically motivated criminal band

    – 9/11 is a result of structural problems related to assymetric warefare. It happend to done by OBL but could have been McVeigh, NeoNazis, PLO, Red Brigades, the cult of SumSum, etc

    – The response of the US. In particular the rhetoric, elevated OBL to Master of the Dark Side and thus enhanced his standing in the Muslim world.

    – This response by the most powerful nation on earth articulated by the most powerful man on earth framed the conflict as a Islam/West, war of civilisation

    – Of course this is extremely convenient to OBL and his band, since the next best thing to being the most powerful force in the universe is to be the deadliest enemy to the most powerful force in the universe.

    – This is extermely convenient to the neoCons, since by framing the destiny of humanity this way, many actions they always dreamed of become acceptable to the general pop. EG Invasion of Iraq.

  8. Because, you know, Osama is so much better off hiding in a cave somewhere, with his organization shot to hell (literally), and his capos either dead, captured, or looking for a cave of their own to hide in. Brilliant strategery on their part.

  9. I just discovered your blog, very interesting reading.

    I would like to add one comment.

    After the Muslim Armies were driven back from the Gates of Vienna in 1683, the Alliance which defeated them wanted to form a more complete European Alliance to drive them out of the conquered territories of Eastern Europe.

    But France for one, which had extensive economic ties with the Ottoman Empire, was not interested.

    Sound familiar?

  10. I would bet you that if you asked the top students at any high school in the country about Sobiesky and the Battle of Vienna, very few would know. That history has simply been burried. All they talk about in world history is the imperialism of the Europeans.

  11. DualCitizen.net Expert —

    Yes, I know, I know. I generally cal it “The Great Jihad” or “The Great Islamic Jihad”. But when I’m feeling really pedantic, I call it “The Third Wave of the Great Islamic Jihad”.

    Take your pick. The “Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism” just doesn’t cut it.

  12. The name I like best for the current conflict is “our war with the Islamic Third Reich.” Or, for short, War with Islamo-fascism.

    This is especially appropriate given the long-standing alliance between Islamic Fascists and the real McCoy. They were in formal alliance during WWII and its lead-up folloiwng the Paris Treaty of 1919, formally dismantling the Islamic Second Reich.

    The Engineer

  13. Engineer —

    You are right about Islam and the Nazis; I wrote about the Grand Mufti in my post about the Armenian Genocide.

    But their new alliance is with the Left, and perhaps what we have is a 3-way convergence: The Islamofascists, the hardcore Left, and the Jew-hating skinhead Aryan Nation Right.

    We live in a strange time.

  14. An interesting blog that I agree with wholeheartedly. I recently remarked to a friend that Allah Akbah is the Sieg Heil of the 21st century, to which he (a history major) replied that it’s been the Sieg Heil of the last 1000 years.

    The current struggle is in many ways different that when the west faced Moorish Spain or Ottoman invasions of the Balkans, as the states of the Christian West and Muslim East are in no way comparable militarily – should it wish, the armies of the West could march whole over the entirety of the East. But the West is not truly engaged against Eastern states – rather, a subculture of terrorism and aggression that doesn’t have the active support of most Muslims or Muslim states, but DOES have a tacit undercurrent of sympathy. This gives the terrorists the leeway needed to operate in their midst, and makes it extraordinarily difficult to engage and destroy them. In fact, it can be argued that the only group that can defeat this sort of Islamist militancy are Muslims themselves.

    It will be interesting to see if the prosperity and secularism that is undermining Christianity in the West (especially Europe) will do the same to Islam in the East. Iraq will be an interesting experiment.

  15. As you may know, I have visited your site quite often. However, I had not come upon this post until today. I like it, especially the brevity of the summary of this battle. I am linking to it in my post today.

    Thanks,
    W.

  16. I wanted to say “Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists, or Wiccans, [and don’t forget the European Socialist] – it is all the same to him [Jihadist].”

    Here in London we have relic called the Socialist Worker Party – and although most don’t support it – many are still influenced by this more radical view of thinking.

    As it is a fringe party – each Saturday – you are bound to see them set up somewhere with a megaphone shouting out their radical slogans.

    At the end of a discussion with one – I was told people should go and take over the Banks in the City of London!

    But, on this one Saturday there was a poster of George Bush – with the slogan ‘The World’s Biggest Terrorist.’ And I reached over and said
    ‘Is he going to make us all – wear black?’
    He said pardon me, then I repeated it and he just shrugged me off, he wouldn’t answer.

    I totally agree – we all have to get together on this one – these people care only, whether or not you are Muslim – whatever you may or may not believe.

    Funny enough radical Muslims in the Arab attire, have now started to occupy that same spot on the street in order to canvas people. I am a woman – and in my mind it is better just to walk on. At least I can argue with a Socialist.

  17. if this peaks your mind.. please see link for more..God did not forget to tell us about Islam and PS I would call it the final jihad:
    Recent Events in the Holy Land
    fulfill Bible prophecy.
    It can now be shown conclusively that Daniel, a prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures, prophesied the coming of Islam 1200 years before Muhammad was born. Those same scriptures prophesied the crucifixion of Messiah over 500 years before Jesus was born. John, another Bible prophet, foresaw the new nation of Israel 1800 years before it was established. John then prophesied that Jerusalem would be freed of Islamic control by 1967.

    All these events were foreseen right to the year, putting to rest the Islamic claim that Jewish and Christian Scriptures were corrupted. Many Moslems also believe the number 666 points to the Koran and its prophet. The coming of a man identified with that number, and its dire significance, was prophesied in the Bible over 600 years before the Koran was written.

    http://fishhouseministries.com/

  18. Religious arguments aside, the question is, why are so many non-Islamic people in high places so willing to enable this influx of Arabs and Moslems, especially in the wake of September 11th. There must be a larger picture here.

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  20. As a poor student of history this post helps me a great deal. The public dialog is so soaked with this idea that Islam is peaceful that I had nothing to prove otherwise except just my own research after 9/11 and reading articles such as this. I’m a poor student of history because some have it and some don’t in that area.

    This does not excuse me from taking the network news, AP, Reuters at face value. We need to dig on something as important as this. I have heard the other side. This website, European News and others are equal time.

    As one of God’s children I have weighed Islam and found it wanting. People involved in Islam are doomed for eternity. The reason the Christian culture in America is so diverse and patient and tolerant is because it gives people more time to make peace with their Creator before the end of their life. If any of you reading this have a problem even with Christianity you must also give it equal time and a good place to start is to read the eyewitness, John. The gospel of John in any version of the Bible are the most important pages you can ever read.

  21. Europeans have been programmed into a pacifist state of mind by the ruling elite who have no or very little concern for the long-term impact of their humanistic principles. Europe has become the dumping the ground of the world and it has no clear immigration policy to protect the interests of taxpayers and its citizens. The leaders of Europe are either indoctrinated by socialist ideas that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall or they are simple technocrats who enjoy the same lifestyles of the past European nobility class. They are out of touch with the electorate and use immigration in order to dilute cultures and minimise the influence of Christian beliefs. The biggest indication of the socialist conspiracy is the fact that Coptic Christians who are widely persecuted in Egypt are not placed on the preferential list of people discriminated against and therefore would have easier access to immigrate to Europe for legitimate reasons. Alternatively, mass immigration from Muslim nations is tolerated to such an extent that no immigration process applies and once landed on the shores of Europe are protected with the same legal rights afforded to the citizens who pay for the institutions. The problems that confronts Europe today is that the problems are behind the Gates of Vienna and not in front of them. The biggest problem is the current leadership in Brussels with their outdated socialist principles. Our only saving grace will be the fact that they are running out of other people’s money to cultivate their socialist policies.

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