Although the conflict between Islam and the West is a continuation of history, the strategy of those who seek to whitewash and thus empower Islam is to fixate on peaceful aberrations while suppressing the continuum of hostility.
Thus, in “Italy must remember its pluralist past,” Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, Washington, DC, highlights uncharacteristic episodes from Italy’s past with Muslims in an attempt to convince Italians to be even more welcoming of Muslim migrants.
Before looking at his claims, some actual historical context concerning Italy and Islam—otherwise devoid in Akbar’s article about the “past”—is needed.
Once the jihad was unleashed from Arabia, not only was Italy bombarded and under threat for centuries, but as the seat of Rome—the capital of Western Christendom, i.e., Infidel-dom—several ambitious caliphs and sultans especially targeted it, often while making the perennial Islamic boast that they would be first to turn St. Peter’s altar into a feeding trough for their horses.
As early as the seventh century, “the nation of the Saracens that had already spread through Alexandria and Egypt,” wrote Paul the Deacon (b. 720), “came suddenly with many ships, invaded Sicily, entered Syracuse and made a great slaughter of the people—a few only escaping with difficulty who had fled to the strongest fortresses and the mountain ranges—and they carried off also great booty…and thus they returned to Alexandria.”
By 846 Muslim fleets managed to land on the coast of Ostia, near Rome. Unable to breach the walls of the Eternal City, they sacked and despoiled the surrounding countryside, including—to the shock of Western Christendom—the venerated basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul. The invaders vandalized the two holy shrines, desecrated the tombs of Christendom’s two most revered apostles, and stripped them of their treasures.
Such sacrilege prompted Pope Leo IV to erect strong walls and fortifications along the right bank of the Tiber to protect the basilicas and other churches from further Muslim raids. Not ones to be deterred, “in 849 the Muslims attempted a new landing at Ostia; then, every year from around 857 on, they threatened the Roman seaboard,” explains French medieval historian C. E. Dufourcq.
Indeed, the following entry from Ibn al-Athir’s history dealing with southern Italy and Sicily is indicative of the quantity and quality of these Islamic invasions:
Another raid [in 835] directed at Etna and the neighboring strongholds resulted in the burning of harvests, the slaughter of many men and pillage. Another raid was again organized in the same direction by Abu al-Aghlab in 221 [according to the Muslim calendar, which in this case corresponded to Christmas Day, 835]; the booty brought back was so extensive that slaves were sold for almost nothing.…In the same year, a fleet was sent against the [neighboring Christian] islands; after having taken rich booty and conquered several towns and fortresses there, they returned safe and sound. In 234 [August 5, 848], the inhabitants of Ragusa made peace with the Muslims in exchange for surrendering the town and what it contained. The conquerors destroyed it after having taken away everything that could be transported. In 235 [July 25, 849], a troop of Muslims marched against Castrogiovanni and returned safe and sound, after having subjected that town to pillage, murder and fire [Ye’or 2010, 289–290].
Sadistic treatment for the infidel always accompanied the raid; for “it was to the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to pillage, the monasteries and churches,” notes Edward Gibbon. “At the siege of Salerno a Musulman chief spread his couch on the communion table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the virginity of a Christian nun.”
Although centuries of crusades largely safeguarded Italy and Sicily from further Islamic attacks, by 1480, Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II invaded Italy and captured Otranto. More than half of its twenty-two thousand inhabitants were massacred, five thousand led away in chains. On a hilltop (subsequently named “Martyr’s Hill”) another eight hundred Christians were ritually beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam (see above image ) and their archbishop sawed in half.
Here is how French priest Jerome Maurand described the fate of the inhabitants of the tiny island of Lipari off Sicily after it was invaded by the Ottomans in 1544: “To see so many poor Christians, and especially so many little boys and girls [enslaved] caused a very great pity.…The tears, wailings and cries of these poor Lipariotes, the father regarding his son and the mother her daughter…weeping while leaving their own city in order to be brought into slavery by those dogs who seemed like rapacious wolves amidst timid lambs.”
Failing to comprehend why the Muslim conquerors so wantonly tortured the now enslaved population—including by slowly gutting the old and infirmed with knives “out of spite”—he “asked these Turks why they treated the poor Christians with such cruelty, [and] they replied that such behavior had very great virtue; that was the only answer we ever got.”
Finally, a great many of those millions of Europeans enslaved and sold in Muslim Barbary between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries were originally seized from the Italian coastline and Sicily.
Needless to say, these centuries and events—documented in my book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West—never make it in Akbar’s article, “Italy must remember its pluralist past.”
Instead—and because his agenda is to prompt Italians to be even more accommodating of Muslim migrants—he ignores the constants while fixating on those aberrations that might validate his thesis:
Italy produced Christian leaders such as Roger II, the King of Sicily, and Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, and King of Italy, who spoke Arabic, had Muslim bodyguards, and featured Arabic inscriptions on their royal mantle. Muslims and Jews were permitted to live by their own laws, and the jewel of Sicilian architecture, Roger’s twelfth-century Palatine Chapel, incorporated Christian, Muslim, and Jewish influences.
Such is Akbar’s evidence concerning Italy’s “pluralist past.” While his anecdotes seem a far cry from the aforementioned centuries of unwavering hostility, one is still at loss concerning Akbar’s point. After all, few if any Italians today have a problem with knowing Arabic, employing non-Christians, allowing others to live according to their customs, or erecting exotic architecture.
Rather, they have a problem with facilitating the ancient jihad against their homeland by bringing in more and more Muslim migrants who act in accordance with the history that Akbar suggests never happened.
This is funny. You occupy someone else’s country and then boast that you’ve created plurality.
Did anyone invite you to the country? Did anyone want to have his country occupied by hostile elements?
The nerve of Akbar (means ‘bigger’) Ahmed. He should change his name to Asghar (smaller) Ahmed. A slight difference in pronunciation would make it worse…”az’aar”.
It’s getting to the point that it’s absurd to imagine that Islam has ever been anything but a living hell for Christians. Is there anything about Islamic doctrine that has changed?
Short answer: NO, just the “toys” they employ in their butchery.
The Bible says, and it is true, “you reap what you sow.” If ones sows weeds, they do not reap wheat.
islam has “sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind.”
Much like the Pharaoh of Egypt who held the sons of Israel as slaves and was drowned in the Red Sea, moslims who enslave and slaughter God’s people will pay a heavy price. They will all “reap” what they “sow.” Likewise those who tell lies in order to gain an advantage. Even if the lies are those of omission.
Yes, and the time for that reaping is growing very close now.
Absolutely.
Thanks Raymond for your enlightening research of the onslaught of Muslims in Italy. With all the revisions of history, it’s refreshing to know what really happened in Rome.
Thank you Raymond coming from Northern Italy and not the Eastern Italian coastline, this article points directly at the reason why we Northerners hate Southerners. Too much lazy arab blood has been mixed with the blood of good hard working Italians. It was a sad day for Italy when she was invaded by Arabs. Now today Christians of the older generation are so devout – but then my grandma’s generation were taught the real history of Islam! Italy’s last proudest moments were the Roman Empire’s East & West. As soon as insane Muhammad came out the desert with his marauding hoards the world has been lost. The British Empire kept these savages in check but still had to deal with the savage Ottomans who were rich on booty stolen from elsewhere. Arabs & Islam is a religion of stealing, killing, raping, subjugating and led by an insane man. Oil has sealed the fate of the rest of us. I personally would like to see every Islamic nation bombed by MOAB’s – oil blown to a burning inferno as in Kuwait. The west would be then be forced to seek alternative energy quicker, plastic one of the main by products is destroying the oceans. What ever people think of Russia & China they have never behaved like MUSLIMS simply because their tribal behavior was wiped out over 2,000 years ago. In the case of China whose influence covered half of Russia if was civilized by law over 4,000 years ago. Lastly even the Vikings learned to control their behavior and brought enhancement to western civilization. As for Africa, anyone who knows anything of anthropology and the origins of humans did not start with one species namely from Africa and further more at this time Africa was more like central Europe and not the majority of desert today. Climate affects the color of skin, thus high levels of desert sun forced human biology to develop Melanin to protect skin from burning and this is why black Africans are black. The further North you go in East Africa the lighter skin becomes and white skin is a by product of Northern hemisphere cold climate. There was a time Arabs were black, endless rape of Caucasion women diluted the genome. Arabs are savage, lazy and greedy and all this is sanctioned by mad Muhammad.
WOW!!! In one post you show complete ignorance of human evolution,geology,and Italian history. My red-haired, blue-eyed, very white-skinned Sicilian blood relatives would laugh and sneer at your tremendous bigotry. I have a degree from Ivy League Penn (1959) and had world class teachers in anthropology and geology. I am torn between laughing and crying at the amount of stupidity you demonstrate, especially about Sicilian history. For starters, read “THE KINGDOM OF THE SUN” by John Julius Norwich,Harper & Row, 1970
So you think I’m impressed with your Ivy league status huh. Yes as you can see I have red hair and know a lot about my families country. Sicilian history honey is riddled with Arab invasions, have you lives in Sicciilia, do you have a blood line to Siccilia not contaminated by Arab blood. Read any Shakespeare lately, well try ‘Othello’ ‘The
Merchant’ of Venice is an ant-semitic the day in a Ghetto, which still exists but today it is a great tourist spot. Genoa has its own language a mixture of Portrugese French & Italian, this is due to its position on the Ligurian Coast just South of Genoa is what was the ancient civilization of E……(name escapes me) the Genovese are wheelers & dealers. Italy created double book keeping, first Bank Lomard Family Lombardia. Why the hell do you think there is has much corruption and crime in Siccilia – this goes or comes with Arab genes. Now Florence was whole different ball game. As for the evolution of man, you should follow up some of the latest research Iike the last two or three years. Take a look at China’s discoveries! What about those before Neanderthal’s Ape for sure but then they inhabited Northern climbs very cold. People existed before snowball earth and during the Ice ages. If you dig up old maps as well as those on line you will see I am right about landmasses of the earth before the plates moved apart probably my guess after the great Ice age which was dissolved through major volcanic activity. Earth has been a ball of fire more than once. I reiterate the Sahara and black Africa was late to the table and Homosepiens were similar to Butu’s or other African tribes. Go to Africa see the difference between the different areas of that huge continent which is not only the oldest but tow which all other landmasses were attached, check out the Tethys Sea before the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, Red Sea etc etc. All the Islands in the Pacific off the coast of China were attached to Australia as was India. Homosepians were all over the place not just Africa but we have to be careful not to offend! I guess you are PC however academic you are and most Professors today are so far up their backsides they teach young students the way they see the world and not how the world and its peoples really evolved. One last thing even Darwin’s theory of Evolution is being questioned to day. The only genius whose theory still stands is Einstine’s E=MC squared {my computer don’t do formula’s not even Einsteine’as). Have you ever questioned anything you have learned at Harvard further more what was your subject ‘Banking’
Oh and one last thing, not all Siccillians have Arab blood, what makes you think I don’t
nf
What is there about the Capella Palatina which permits Akbar Ahmed to lay claim to it for islamic influence, other than the implied threat that islam respects no other places of worship?
Sicko Franco has CONVENIENTLY erased all history trying to appease a murderous species that NEVER forgets even a jot or tittle of history.
Useful Idiots, like the pope and the liberal p.c. politicians are great ASSETS to the marauding mobs.
Is it going to be a walk-over victory for the followers of the desert Bedouin?? Seems so.
And “Saracens” have been raiding coasts up to Genoa well into the 1850’s.