"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
Posted on 05/29/2020 5:34:32 AM PDT by george76
Today in history, on May 29, 1453, the sword of Islam conquered Constantinople. Of all Islam's conquests of Christian territory, this was by far the most symbolically significant. Not only was Constantinople a living and direct extension of the old Roman Empire and contemporary capital of the Christian Roman Empire (or Byzantium), but its cyclopean walls had prevented Islam from entering Europe through its eastern doorway for the previous seven centuries, beginning with the First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678). Indeed, as Byzantine historian John Julius Norwich puts it, "[h]ad the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the fifteenth, all Europe — and America — might be Muslim today."
When Muslim forces failed again in the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople (717–718), conquering the ancient Christian capital became something of an obsession for a succession of caliphates and sultanates.
However, it was only with the rise of the Ottoman sultanate — so named after its eponymous Turkic founder, Osman (b. 1258) — that conquering the city, which was arguably better fortified than any other in the world, became a possibility, not least thanks to the concomitant spread of gunpowder and cannons from China to Eurasia. By 1400, his descendants had managed to invade and conquer a significant portion of the southern Balkans — thereby isolating and essentially turning Constantinople into a Christian island in an Islamic sea.
Enter Sultan Mehmet, or Muhammad II (r. 1451–1481) — "the mortal enemy of the Christians," ... (Note: "Mehmet" is simply an English transliteration of the Turkish pronunciation of "Muhammad.")
...
May 29, 1453, the 2,206-year-old Roman state died with him, and "the saying," observed another contemporary, "was fulfilled: 'It started with Constantine [the Great, who founded Constantinople in 325] and it ended with Constantine [XI].'"
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
When I played “Age of Empires” with my sons, I always played as the Byzantines. They had the best tech tree.
Talk about a lengthy "Dark Ages."
Some hatred never dies:
Abdullah Bozkurt @abdbozkurt
https://twitter.com/abdbozkurt/status/1266098231437639681
#Turkey’s President #Erdogan’s dream of branding himself as the Caliph will get a new road marker tomorrow.
He announced today that the Conquest Chapter from Quran will be recited in Hagia Sophia tomorrow on anniversary of Ottoman conquest of Istanbul.
#SymbolismMatters
Erdoo the Islamist Dictator of Turkey is spewing hate today.
A little-known fact: Constantinople was occupied by the Western powers from 1918 to 1923. It’s a shame they couldn’t figure out a way to give the city to Greece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Constantinople
Erdogan is reviving the Religion of the Antichrist that will enable the Islamic Mahdi to declare “I Am God..”
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"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace."
islame is repugnant to reason
Funny. I’m playing the latest version of that now. Incredible graphics. I play free for all vs. two computer opponents, always as the Spanish.
It’s an interesting note that the Ottomans put so much time and effort into conquering Byzantium that it basically cost them much of the rest of their empire. Yes, they still hold it today, but in the process over the next 100 years they lost the Battle of Malta-—ending forever their hopes of invading Italy or Spain again-—then six years later lost the Battle of Lepanto, ending their control of the Med.
Why did Constantinople get the works?
The muzzles have this tremendous historical memory of events in the distant past. I’m sorry we lack that. This day should be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the west.
Toss up on what appears the more stupid. GWB’s picture or the statement he made about Islam.
George W. Bush’s “Islam is peace” speech at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. six days after 9/11 was disgusting… Bush’s suicidal willful ignorance, after 1,400 years of jihad warfare, so many ruined lives, so much bloodshed..
As Americans still searched the smoking ruins for the remains of their loved ones, Bush’s submission to Dawah, as if the 9/11 attacks had been perpetrated by Americans targeting Muslims.
Grover Norquist’s ties to Islamic supremacists and Jihadists have been known for years .. Norquist arranged for an incurious president George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 ..
What should have been the most important teaching moment of the long war became a propaganda tool for Islam. A singular opportunity was squandered
Pre-Obama we had a Muslim population of about 1.7 million (0.5% of the total population).
In 2011, the Muslim population was 1.8 million (0.6 of the total population).
Today the Muslim population is about 3.45 million (1.1% of the total population).
In other words, under Obama, the number of potential terrorists in America doubled.
Actually, the situation is far worse, as many of those imported Jihadists by Obama are sketchy, at best.
Does anyone think this is an accident?
Muslim jihadists have a longer view than most in the west... and they are still at it ::
Paul Sperry, author of Infiltration, calls Grover Norquist “an agent of influence for Islamists in Washington.” .
The association between Grover Norquist and Islamists appears to have started in 1998, when he became the founding chairman of an organization called the Islamic Free Market Institute, better known as the Islamic Institute.
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2003/12/10/a-troubling-influence-2/
Seems like yesterday
Byzantium
The first public hospital
The first public schools
The first nation to abolish slavery
The first nation to allow women in the civil service
The first to use iron as reinforcing material in concrete and as banding around carved stone structures
The first to use modular construction for buildings (Lots of those buildings and pillars in Venice today used to be in Constantinople.)
Converted the Russians to Christianity
Was the repository of the ancient writers like Plato and Aristotle (not the Arabs) that sparked the renaissance
Resisted Islam for 600 years giving Central Europe time to develop.
Was betrayed by the Venetians who sacked the city in the 3rd Crusade. If it were not for that event, Byzantium might still be with us today.
Byzantium Forever and Ever!
The Venetians leading a crusader army destroyed Constantinople and fatally wounded it.
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