by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
RightNetwork.com<\/p>\n
In\u00a01984<\/em>\u00a0George Orwell described how the abandonment of belief in objective truth makes possible a politicized history that legitimizes tyrannical power:<\/p>\n If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened\u2014that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death . . . . And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed\u2014if all records told the same tale\u2014then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The danger Orwell describes does not just afflict totalitarian societies in which the organs of information are controlled by the state. Free peoples too must watch out for the manipulation of historical fact in the service of ideology. The techniques may be subtler and more insidious than the crude propaganda that typified the Soviet Union, or that can still be found in the state-run media of North Korea or Cuba. Yet the distortion of history through mythic historical narratives continues to shape policies that ultimately abet the aggression of our enemies.<\/p>\n The fight against jihadism has been compromised by just such narratives in which the facts of history are twisted into a melodrama of Western imperialist aggression against a peaceful and tolerant Islam. This idealized picture of Islamic history would have astonished our ancestors, who for centuries called Islam the \u201creligion of the sword\u201d based on their own unfortunate experiences with centuries of Muslim aggression. This whitewashed history would have insulted the Muslim historians who proudly recorded the triumphs of Allah\u2019s warriors and the devastation they left behind them.<\/p>\n Consider, for example, the following description, by the Muslim historian Ar-Razi, of the battle of Valdejunquera, fought in 920 between the Christians of northern Spain and the army of \u2018Abd al-Rahman III. (Al-Rahman was the self-styled caliph of C\u00f3rdoba \u2014 that mythical paradise of interfaith tolerance and cooperation, which in fact was the center of the Muslim imperialist occupation of Spain.) Before the battle, Ar-Razi writes, \u201che [al-Rahman\u2019s general al-Nasir] penetrated deeply into enemy territory, laying it waste, destroying the fortresses of Osma and San Esteban, and many monasteries and churches.\u201d After the Spaniards\u2019 defeat and the capture of the survivors, \u201cThe combatants among them were put to the sword in the presence of al-Nasir, more than 500 of their counts and knights.\u201d Another account, by the writer Arib ibn Sa\u2019id, informs us that there were too many heads of slain Christians for the mule-trains to take back to C\u00f3rdoba. Those heads that did make it were put on stakes around the city walls.<\/p>\n There exist numerous such accounts from the thousand-year assault of Islam against the West. Yet when do we ever hear that history anymore? When do we hear about the centuries-long occupation of Christian Spain, the Balkans, and Greece? When do we hear about the thousands of plundered, desecrated, and destroyed churches and temples? When do we hear about the two million Europeans kidnapped and sold into slavery? Or the 10 million slaves taken from Africa, many of whom were castrated then marched across the Sahara Desert?<\/p>\n That history is absent from most of our public commentary and from our popular culture, where the \u201cfundamentalist Christian\u201d remains the most dangerous threat to our freedom. Nor is that history taught in our schools, where we are told that \u201cIslam spread\u201d into Christian lands, without any acknowledgement of the death and destruction that followed.<\/p>\n Rather, the glories of Islamic civilization are celebrated even as Christianity is chastised for its history of pogroms, witch-burning, and religious wars. We hear all about the Inquisition, which in its entire history executed at most 5000 people, a fraction of those killed just in the Muslim conquest and occupation of Spain. The Crusades are trotted out repeatedly as the premier example of Western proto-imperialist aggression fueled by religious and racial bigotry. Forget the persecution of Christian pilgrims in Palestine, forget the fact that the region was Christian, Jewish, and Hellenic for six centuries before it was brutally conquered by Muslim armies and absorbed into the Islamic empire. And by no means point out that the Crusaders, whatever their baser motives, were pushing back against centuries of Islamic invasion, raids, and plundering of Christian lands.<\/p>\n For the jihadists and their Western apologists, that history \u201cnever happened,\u201d which is why the jihadist narrative has gained traction among so many in the West. By accepting that distorted history, we put ourselves in the role of the aggressor who has provoked by his depredations the current terrorist attacks against us. Our behavior, not the religious motives of the jihadists, is the key to the conflict. Hence the futile attempts at outreach, displays of respect, protestations of admiration for Islam, celebrations of Muslim holy days in the White House, fawning school curricula, groveling apologies, and all the other ways in which we tell Muslims that our own historical crimes and continued bigotry against their wonderful religion is the real problem.<\/p>\n Such efforts, of course, haven\u2019t worked and won\u2019t work. By endorsing the jihadist narrative, we cede to them a moral authority that justifies their attacks and inhibits our own response. We calibrate everything we do according to anxious calculations of how our actions will affect the alleged \u201cmoderate Muslims\u201d who will support us if they just realize we regret our historical crimes and want nothing more than peaceful coexistence. Hence the desperate attempts to solve the Israeli-Arab conflict, which \u201cfoments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel,\u201d and \u201cal-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support,\u201d as General David Petraeus put the received wisdom in his testimony before Congress.<\/p>\n This distortion of history is based on the jihadist narrative of Western crimes against Muslims, one of which is the neo-colonialist creation of Israel as an outpost of Western imperialist aggression. But long before Israel existed, jihadism historically gained traction among Muslims in times of Islam\u2019s retreat and weakness, whether in Spain of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when growing Christian power encroached on al-Andalus and provoked the brutally fundamentalist Almoravid and Almohad regimes; Mesopotamia in the fourteenth century, when the Mongol slaughters brought forth Ibn Taymiyyah, who wrote, \u201cSince lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God\u2019s entirely and God\u2019s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought\u201d: Arabia in the eighteenth century, when European penetration of the Middle East sparked the fundamentalist Wahabbist sect, still a premier fomenter of jihadist violence; or Egypt in the early twentieth century, where Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna likewise counseled struggle against the West in order to undo the catastrophe of the dismantling of the caliphate in 1924.<\/p>\n \u201cFighting the unbelievers,\u201d al Banna wrote, \u201cinvolves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship, and smashing their idols.\u201d<\/p>\n More recent jihadist attacks are likewise part of this long tradition of returning to a strict reading of the Koran and its jihadist imperative when Muslims are in retreat. From this perspective, Israel is merely a symptom, not a cause, one of many signs of infidel arrogance brought on by Muslims who whore after the false gods of modernity, nationalism, democracy, or any other ideology incompatible with Islamic doctrine.<\/p>\n The acceptance of the jihadists\u2019 false history confers some measure of legitimacy on their attacks on the West, and makes more palatable policies of appeasement. Worse yet, it distorts the true nature of traditional Islam and its theology of violence, leading to efforts at \u201coutreach,\u201d \u201cunderstanding,\u201d and \u201crecognition\u201d of Islam\u2019s superiority that hamper both our tactics and strategies for defeating the jihadists. By allowing Islamists to \u201ccontrol the past,\u201d we are making it easier for them to \u201ccontrol the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com In\u00a01984\u00a0George Orwell described how the abandonment of belief in objective truth makes possible a politicized history that legitimizes tyrannical power:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,505],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-iH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1445,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/despicable-israel-libels-on-display-in-california-universities\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":0},"title":"Despicable Israel Libels on Display in California Universities","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The moral and intellectual corruption of American universities has recently manifested itself in the California State University system, the largest in the country. A group of faculty and administrators has sent a letter to Chancellor Charles Reed asking that he not approve the reinstatement\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3326,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/california-abandons-history-for-melodrama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":1},"title":"California Abandons History for Melodrama","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society Just when you think California can\u2019t get any wackier, the state legislature steps up and proves you wrong. Despite a looming fiscal catastrophe that should be concentrating the minds of politicians, the Assembly is set to vote onSB 48, a bill already\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8734,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-middle-east-and-orwellian-historical-arguments\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":2},"title":"The Middle East and Orwellian Historical Arguments","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When lies are the foundation of policies. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Many of our policy debates and conflicts both domestic and foreign call on history to validate their positions. At home, crimes from the past like slavery and legal segregation are used to justify present policies ranging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Israel"","block_context":{"text":"Israel","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/israel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via www.breitbart.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/john-kerry-deep-thoughts-ap-500x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5490,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/imminent-danger\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":3},"title":"Imminent Danger","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Madness and massacre will not result in sound gun laws. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The reaction to the murders in Blacksburg is eliciting the usual liberal nostrums. Typical is the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0editorial that concluded, \u201cWhat is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-stupid-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":4},"title":"The Stupid Party","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thronton FrontPage Magazine The presidency of Barack Obama has established once and for all that modern liberalism is now the stupid party. Very little of liberal thought these days represents anything fresh or new, but rather comprises what Lionel Trilling once reduced conservatism to: \u201cirritable mental gestures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3107,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/imprecise-language-breeds-dangerous-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1159,"position":5},"title":"Imprecise Language Breeds Dangerous Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society In his classic essay \u201cPolitics and the English Language,\u201d George Orwell identified a \u201clack of precision\u201d as the besetting sin of politicized writing, either through incompetence or indifference as to whether \u201cwords mean anything or not.\u201d The liberal media have illustrated the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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