by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n M<\/span>any in the West are congratulating Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s recent trip to Turkey, where in the Blue Mosque he prayed facing Mecca and made other gestures meant to salve the wounds raised by his references to Islam\u2019s history of violence. Personally, I found the whole scene a depressing exhibit of the West\u2019s terminal failure of nerve, one particularly distressing given this Pope\u2019s documented understanding that what we call the \u201cwar on terror\u201d is in fact the latest episode in the centuries-long struggle with a militant Islam.<\/p>\n In the Pope\u2019s visit and the media response to it, we once again witnessed the one-way street of\u00a0 \u201creligious tolerance\u201d and \u201crespect.\u201d In other words, the West is supposed to respect and tolerate Muslims and Islam, all the while that no such respect is afforded to Christians and Jews. The West is supposed to feel guilty and obsess over its putative crimes against Islam, all the while that the longer chronicle of Islamic assault against the West is forgotten. Hence the ridiculous ignorance of those who think the Crusades were \u201choly wars\u201d akin to jihadic aggression. Somehow it\u2019s forgotten that the Holy Land was Greco-Roman and Hebraic and Christian for centuries before the armies of Allah destroyed that cultural continuity and imposed a new culture and religion at the point of a sword.<\/p>\n This double standard was particularly obvious given the backdrop of the Pope\u2019s visit \u2013\u2013 the city of Istanbul. Once known as Constantinople, this was one of the great cities of Classical and Christian culture, home to one of Christendom\u2019s most magnificent churches, Hagia Sophia, the church of the Holy Wisdom. On May 29, 1453, Constantinople ceased to exist, falling to the armies of the Sultan Mehmet II: \u201cBy noon,\u201d John Julius Norwich writes, \u201cthe streets were running red with blood. Houses were ransacked, women and children raped or impaled, churches razed, icons wrenched from their golden frames, books ripped from their silver bindings. . . . In the church of St. Saviour in Chora the mosaics and frescoes were miraculously spared, but the Empire\u2019s holiest icon, the Virgin Hodegetria, said to have been painted by St. Luke himself, was hacked into four pieces and destroyed. The most hideous scenes of all, however, were enacted in the church of the Holy Wisdom. Matins were already in progress when the berserk conquerors were heard approaching. Immediately the great bronze doors were closed; but the Turks soon smashed their way in. The poorer and more unattractive of the congregation were massacred on the spot; the remainder were lashed together and led off to the Turkish camps, for their captors to do with as they liked. As for the officiating priests, they continued with the Mass as long as they could before being killed at the high altar.\u201d<\/p>\n Ancient history, you say, irrelevant to the present? But do not the Muslims repeatedly invoke the historical crimes of the West to justify terrorism? Are not the sins of colonialism and imperialism continually cited, even though France and England\u2019s 150 years in the Middle East and North Africa are dwarfed by Islam\u2019s several centuries in Spain and the Balkans and the cradle of the West, Greece? Is there some statute of limitations on conquest and the transfer of territory that attends it, so that the conquests of Islam are legitimized by time, while those of the West can never be?<\/p>\n W<\/span>hy do we accept this double standard? Why are the continuing persecution of Christians today, despicable anti-Semitic slanders, and the desecration of temples and churches in Muslim lands shrugged away in the West, while trivial cartoons and mere statements of historical fact are met with hysteria, violence, and threats? Why are churches disappearing throughout the lands of Christianity\u2019s birth and growth, while huge mosques are going up in London and Milan? Why are Christians and Jews forbidden entry into Saudi Arabia, while Muslims in Europe demand special privileges and recognition of their faith?<\/p>\n Nowhere is this insane, groveling capitulation of the West more obvious than in its treatment of Israel. By all rights, when Israel recaptured Jerusalem from Jordan \u2013\u2013 in a defensive war Israel did not want, a war Israel literally begged Jordan to stay out of \u2013\u2013 Israel could have razed the Aqsa mosque and rebuilt the temple on the site it had stood on for centuries before Islam even existed. Instead, the Temple Mount is still controlled by Muslims, who are free to worship in the mosque all the while they allow the children of Allah to throw stones on the Jews who come to worship at the few scraps of the temple wall, all that is left to them of their holiest site. Meanwhile the countries of the West decry the \u201cillegal occupation\u201d of Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee, refuse to put their embassies in the capital of Israel, and continually demand more and more concessions to a people who have made it clear that\u00a0their<\/i>\u00a0conquest of Jerusalem is legitimate, that Israelis, not they, are the interloper in the Jews\u2019 historical homeland, and that violence against innocents is justified to undo a history deemed to violate Allah\u2019s will.<\/p>\n When will we learn that this forbearance is not a testimony to our strength but rather a sign of our cultural sickness? Would that the Pope had stood in Hagia Sophia and asked the Turks to restore this Christian monument to the Orthodox Church, as a sign that Turkey is sincere about entering the modern world and accepting its canons of reciprocal tolerance, not to mention showing the sort of regret for its ancestors\u2019 crimes that the West is continually dunned to show. What do you think the reaction would have been? How many Christians would have died in the ensuing riots by the adherents of the \u201creligion of peace\u201d? And how many Western commentators would have scourged the Pope for his blinkered intolerance and insensitivity?<\/p>\n No, the enemy knows that what we pretend to be \u201ctolerance\u201d and \u201crespect\u201d are merely the camouflage of spiritual exhaustion and fear. We have fewer and fewer men like those who created the West in the teeth of Islamic aggression, men like the Byzantine Greek Lucas Notaras. After the sack of Constantinople, the Sultan demanded Notaras\u2019s beautiful 14-year-old son for the royal harem: \u201cWhen Notaras still defied the Sultan,\u201d Steven Runciman writes, \u201corders were given for him and the two boys [his son and son-in-law] to be decapitated on the spot. Notaras merely asked that they should be slain before him, lest the sight of his death should make them waver. When they had both perished, he bared his neck to the executioner.\u201d As Nestor says in the\u00a0Iliad<\/i>, \u201cMen like those I have not seen again, nor ever will.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why the Pope should call for the return of the Hagia Sophia by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Many in the West are congratulating Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s recent trip to Turkey, where in the Blue Mosque he prayed facing Mecca and made other gestures meant to salve the wounds raised by his references to Islam\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,746],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1r6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5509,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-truth-about-tolerance\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":0},"title":"The Truth about Tolerance","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"How our therapeutic thinkers threaten Western values by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Acceptance of a double standard has always been a sign of inferiority.To let someone behave according to one set of principles or values while demanding that you be subjected to others is to validate a claim of\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":3362,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/running-scared-of-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":1},"title":"Running Scared of Islam","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society One of Broadway\u2019s big hits this season is the musical\u00a0The Book of Mormon, a creation of the scatological geniuses behind the cartoon\u00a0South Park. As one would expect, the show is \u201cblasphemous, scurrilous and more foul-mouthed than David Mamet on a blue streak,\u201d\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":5537,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/warning-quote-history-at-your-own-risk\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":2},"title":"Warning: Quote History at Your Own Risk","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pope's Remark Revisited by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers The Pope is under attack.\u00a0 Once again, riots, demonstrations, and \u201cretaliations\u201d have sparked throughout the Muslim world.\u00a0 Major Muslim figures \u2014 political and religious \u2014 have condemned the Pope. The \u201cMuslim Street\u201d is burning his effigy. What great crime did the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":936,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/koran-burning-and-destructive-double-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":3},"title":"Koran Burning and Destructive Double Standards","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine The riots and violence in Afghanistan over some accidentally burned Korans are following a script that by now is all too drearily familiar. As we have seen over the years with the riots over the Mohammed cartoons, Pope Benedict\u2019s comments about violence in Islam,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":775,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islamic-hate-for-a-dead-pope\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":4},"title":"Islamic Hate for a Dead Pope","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine Inasmuch as the recent death of Coptic Pope Shenouda III exposed the humanity of some Muslims, it also exposed the inhumanity of Islamic teachings. Consider some examples of Muslim sympathy following his death: Egypt\u2019s\u00a0Al Akhbar\u00a0newspaper called the Pope\u2019s burial \u201cthe funeral of the century,\u201d reporting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/greatest-church-soon-to-be-mega-mosque\/","url_meta":{"origin":5524,"position":5},"title":"Greatest Church Soon To Be Mega Mosque?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine Ostensibly dealing with a building, a recent report demonstrates how Turkey's populace \u2014 once deemed the most secular and liberal in the Muslim world \u2014 is reverting to its Islamic heritage, complete with animosity for the infidel West and dreams of Islam's glory days of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5525,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5524\/revisions\/5525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}