| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Fjordman : Will the Third Rome Fall to Islam? |
| 2007-03-20 |
| From the desk of Fjordman I recently read the book The Reformation by Owen Chadwick, about the Protestant Reformation and the situation in 15th and 16th century Europe. It is fascinating to read about Western Europe during a period when it was genuinely dynamic, not the anemic and self-loathing continent it is now. But still, I was also struck by how many similarities there are between the situation then and now. This was also during a period of Muslim aggression, as the Turks made inroads into the Balkans and Central Europe, eventually threatening even Western Europe. Ironically, this period was also when the Greco-Roman heritage was rediscovered in the West. The classical heritage had been preserved in the East for a thousand years after the Western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, and with the pressures from Muslims, many Greek Byzantine scholars brought their texts with them to northern Italian cities such as Venice, thus fuelling the Renaissance. However, the overall picture was one of Western division. Spain, which was probably the strongest nation in Europe during the 16th century, was after expelling Muslims from their own peninsula in 1492 more interested in looking westwards to the Americas rather than eastwards to the expanding Ottoman Empire. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #3 The French even allied with the Muslims for their own short-term gains. According to Chadwick, "the French king had not hesitated to attempt alliance with the Turks when it suited his political need, and once allowed a Turkish admiral to celebrate the fast of Ramadan in the streets of Toulon." QuÂ’elle surprise! People from Russia, a country which was once under the Tartar Yoke, should understand the Islamic threat. So why are the Russians helping The Islamic Republic of Iran with missile and nuclear technology that will eventually be used to intimidate non-Muslim countries? Something that IÂ’ve always been intensely curious about. Some of the Russian skepticism towards the West is understandable. As long as Western nations pander to Muslims, why shouldn't the Russians do so, too? The reaction of European Union officials to the grotesque Islamic Beslan massacre of Russian school children, almost blaming it on the Russian security forces instead of the Islamic terrorists, rightly upset many Russians. But they still donÂ’t get it and triangulate against the West while abetting their most dire enemies. Is it any surprise that Russia is such a post-communist hellhole? Elena Chudinova, the author of the dystopian novel The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris, says that if the Muslims were to succeed in establishing their own rule in Moscow, then Russian culture, Russians as a people and Russia itself would cease to exist. And her point is? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-03-20 23:32 |
| #2 The French even allied with the Muslims for their own short-term gains. La plus que ça change. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-03-20 19:44 |
| #1 I always wondered what would have happened if the Spanish took their New World money and continued the reconquest across North Africa instead of fighting Protestants. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-03-20 17:09 |