{"id":6700,"date":"2013-10-31T11:25:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6700"},"modified":"2013-10-31T11:25:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T18:25:00","slug":"how-historic-revisionism-justifies-islamic-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-historic-revisionism-justifies-islamic-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"How Historic Revisionism Justifies Islamic Terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

How important, really, is history to current affairs?\u00a0 Do events from the 7th\u00a0century\u2014or, more importantly, how we understand them\u2014have any influence on U.S. foreign policy today?<\/p>\n

By way of answer, consider some parallels between academia\u2019s portrayal of the historic Islamic jihads and the U.S. government\u2019s and media\u2019s portrayal of contemporary Islamic jihads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While any objective appraisal of the 7th\u00a0century Muslim conquests proves that they were just that\u2014conquests, with all the bloodshed and rapine that that entails\u2014the historical revisionism of modern academia, especially within Arab and Islamic studies departments, has led to some portrayals of the Muslim conquerors as \u201cfreedom-fighters\u201d trying to \u201cliberate\u201d the Mideast from tyrants and autocrats. (Beginning to sound familiar?)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s approach<\/a>\u00a0to teaching the history of the Muslim conquests of the 7th\u00a0century is something as follows: Yes, the Mideast was Christian, but local Christians helped Arab Muslims invade and subjugate their countries in preference to Christian Byzantine rule, which was oppressive due to doctrinal disagreements over the nature of Christ.\u00a0 Hence, the Muslim conquerors were actually \u201cliberators.\u201d<\/p>\n

This perspective, as with many modern Western perspectives concerning Islam, is a product of modern day epistemic distortions, chief among them: 1) repackaged narratives of the \u201cnoble savage\u201d myth\u2014yes, 7th\u00a0century Muslim invaders were coarse, but had elevated ideals, including a fierce love for freedom and religious tolerance in comparison to Christians of the time (not to mention now); and 2) entrenched political correction that seeks towhitewash the true history of Islam<\/a>\u00a0followed by the uncritical acceptance of Islamic apologetics,\u00a0some of which border on the absurd<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, before the Islamic \u201cliberator\u201d thesis had become mainstream, historians such as Alfred Butler, author of\u00a0The Arab Conquest of Egypt<\/em>, had this to say about it:<\/p>\n

Even in the most recent historians it will be found that the outline of the story [of the 7th\u00a0century conquest of Egypt] is something as follows: \u2026. that the Copts generally hailed them [Muslims] as deliverers and rendered them every assistance; and that Alexandria after a long siege, full of romantic episodes, was captured by storm.\u00a0 Such is the received account.\u00a0 It may seem presumptuous to say that\u00a0it is untrue from beginning to end, but to me no other conclusion is possible<\/strong>. [emphasis added; pgs. iv-v]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, one of the major themes throughout Butler\u2019s\u00a0Arab Conquest of Egypt<\/em>\u2014which, published in 1902, is heavily based on primary sources, Arabic and Coptic,\u00a0unlike more modern secondary works<\/a>\u00a0that promote the Islamic \u201cliberator\u201d thesis\u2014is that \u201cthere is not a word to show that any section of the Egyptian nation viewed the advent of the Muslims with any other feeling than terror\u201d (p. 236).<\/p>\n

Butler and other politically incorrect historians were and are aware of the savage and atrocity-laden nature of the Islamic conquests.\u00a0 The Coptic chronicler, John of Nikiu, a contemporary of the Arab conquest of Egypt and possibly an eyewitness, wrote:<\/p>\n

Then the Muslims arrived in Nikiu [along the Nile]\u2026 seized the town and slaughtered everyone they met in the street and in the churches\u2014men, women, and children, sparing nobody.\u00a0 Then they went to other places, pillaged and killed all the inhabitants they found\u2026.\u00a0 But let us say no more, for it is impossible to describe the horrors the Muslims committed\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nonetheless, today\u2019s accepted narratives do not come from antiquated historians or primary historical texts; they come from the\u00a0Saudi-funded ivy league<\/a>\u2014Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, etc.\u2014all of which peddle pro-Islamic propaganda (I personally had direct experience at Georgetown), including the \u201cfreedom loving jihadis\u201d vs. \u201coppressive tyrants\u201d thesis.<\/p>\n

Percolating out of liberal academia to liberal mass media, the effects of this well-entrenched but false narrative have taken their toll, ultimately helping to create a disastrous U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Put differently, the Islamic terrorists waging jihad against autocratic (but secular, religiously tolerant) governments\u2014most notably in Syria today\u2014are easily portrayed in the West as \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d against oppressive tyrants and thus deserving of U.S. support in great part because this motif has permeated the social consciousness of America, molded as it is by\u00a0Hollywood<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0news rooms<\/a>,\u00a0and based on academic distortions of events that took place nearly fourteen centuries ago.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Islamic \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d are\u00a0slaughtering<\/a>,\u00a0raping<\/a>,beheading<\/a>,\u00a0persecuting and plundering<\/a>\u2014just as they have been for\u00a0<\/em>nearly fourteen centuries<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is the only unwavering constant in this sad story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 How important, really, is history to current affairs?\u00a0 Do events from the 7th\u00a0century\u2014or, more importantly, how we understand them\u2014have any influence on U.S. foreign policy today? By way of answer, consider some parallels between academia\u2019s portrayal of the historic Islamic jihads and the U.S. government\u2019s and media\u2019s portrayal of contemporary Islamic […]<\/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":[227,99],"tags":[1035,1055,1028,1017,30,1060,894],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1K4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":915,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-historical-reality-of-the-muslim-conquests\/","url_meta":{"origin":6700,"position":0},"title":"The Historical Reality of the Muslim Conquests","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Because it is now almost axiomatic for American school textbooks to whitewash all things Islamic (see\u00a0here\u00a0for example), it may be instructive to examine one of those aspects that are regularly distorted: the Muslim conquests. 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