Free Republic

As the Pelosi Democrats attempt to steer the debate on Iraq and the war on terror away from President Bush's approach, it is useful to examine the premises behind the liberal Democratic understanding of the war on terror. So far the Democrats have been successful in faulting the president's admittedly-flawed approach. But there is no advantage in trading one bad model for another. Here, then, is my critique of some of the major elements of the liberal explanation for "why they hate us." They're very upset at us for the Crusades: James Carroll’s recent book Crusade, portrays the Crusades as...

Bernard Lewis is the recipient of the 2007 Irving Kristol Award presented annually by the American Enterprise Institute at the institute's annual dinner. After receiving the award, Mr. Lewis delivered the Irving Kristol Lecture. In his lecture, Bernard Lewis outlined the historical relationship between the west and the middle east and recent trends in European attitudes towards Muslims.

Western civilization – life as we know it – is under attack, and indeed has even reached a very dangerous point. Some may even think it is a point of no return. Not just because in recent months Muslim groups around the world insisted that the pope apologize for merely quoting someone else. No, not just because the prime minister of Denmark had to grovel to the Muslim nations for a cartoon that appeared in a Danish newspaper, over which he had no control whatsoever. No, not even just because President Bush rushed into a Muslim mosque in Washington, D.C.,...

Think carbon nanotubes are new-fangled? Think again. The Crusaders felt the might of the tube when they fought against the Muslims and their distinctive, patterned Damascus blades. Sabres from Damascus, now in Syria, date back as far as 900 AD. Strong and sharp, they are made from a type of steel called wootz. Their blades bear a banded pattern thought to have been created as the sword was annealed and forged. But the secret of the swords' manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century. Materials researcher Peter Paufler and his colleagues at Dresden University, Germany, have taken electron-microscope pictures of...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Almost from the very beginning of Islam, there were wars upon wars between Christians and Moslems. We remember the Crusade wars, seven major and several minor, which lasted for centuries. This is the story of the Battle of Lepanto, which marked the end of the Crusades and was a turning point in the history of Christianity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charles Martel's victory at Poitiers definitely stopped the Moslem invasion of western Europe. In the east Christians held firm against attacks of the Moslems until 1453. In that year, Mohammed II threw huge assaults against Constantinople and by the evening of May...

good book on the crusades?

Pope Benedict XVI, the "Panzer pope," has done the unusual in modern discourse: he has jumped into the war on terror with armored facts from six centuries ago that refute a deal of the appeasement from 21st-century Europeans and their American fellow travelers. You will recall that Pope Benedict recently spoke, auf Deutsch, at Regensburg University, where he once enjoyed a professorship. The speech was dry, mechanical, unappetizing, a predictable German exercise in theology, with much attention to how reason and faith are compatible. In Calvinist seminary we used to call this a Roman disquisition on epistemology. Yet in the...

The Calling of Our Generationhttp://magic-city-news.com/article_6655.shtml By Hans Zeiger Sep 18, 2006, 10:43 "The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation." These are the words of President Bush on September 11, five years after the attacks. If Baby Boomers doubt that this present war is the calling of their generation, the children of the Boomers-at least the rising leaders among them-have little doubt that it is theirs. On the eve of September 11, 2006, nearly 150 Hillsdale College students gathered for a...

Unreasonable Response Benedict XVI hasn’t revived the Crusades. By Thomas F. Madden -------------------------------------------- In November 1095 Pope Urban II called the First Crusade. To judge from the comments issuing from some Muslim groups and politicians, Pope Benedict XVI has done the same thing. According to Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of the majority party in Turkey, Benedict, “has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world.” Kapusuz maintains that the pope is engaged in “an effort to revive...

Angry protests against Pope Benedict XVI erupted in the Islamic world today as the Vatican struggled to explain a reference by the Pontiff to the Prophet Mohammad’s “evil and inhuman” contribution to religion. The Vatican has tried to defend the Pope after comments he made about Islam and jihad prompted anger in the Muslim world.   The Pope stressed that the controversial words were not his own Muslim clerics from Cairo to Kashmir declared the Pope had revived the spirit of the medieval crusades and the official sermon for Friday prayers in Teheran condemned the Pope as “rude and weak-minded”....

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Mikey Weinstein, who sued the Air Force over allegations that Air Force Academy cadets were subjected to Christian evangelization, now wants New Mexico's Cannon Air Force Base to end the 523rd Fighter Squadron's use of "Crusaders" as the unit's nickname. He also objects to the squadron's emblem, which features a cross, a sword and an armored helmet. Weinstein, who's Jewish, says having warplanes named after medieval Christians who fought Muslims in the Holy Land is crazy when the United States is at war with radical Islam. He believes the religious emblem also is unconstitutional. A Cannon Air...

Christians are Jews' best friends Toronto Sun Sat, August 12, 2006 By MICHAEL COREN One of the most difficult things about spending time in Israel is returning home, as I did two weeks ago. As dangerous as life might be in the Jewish state at the moment, daily existence is layered in significance. Then it's back to North America, where the trivial is made to seem profound. I refer to Mel Gibson's drunken stupidity when he made various repugnant comments about Jewish people. As a Roman Catholic with three Jewish grandparents, and someone who worries every day about the...

Accused Terrorist Wrote Public School Guidelines with ACLU [over 23 references linked below] Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" with the ACLU which holds the copyright. Launched by Clinton in 1995, these "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. School districts are pressured to utilize Clinton’s guidelines which he sold to...

All of us know that historical revisionism is a favored tool of the liar and those who like to play the blame game. Right after 9/11, this was on display for the whole world to see when Bin Laden and the Left decided to blame the Middle East’s hatred of the West on, of all things, the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars that were fought nearly a thousand years before anyone on this Earth was born, yet the extremists hang on to it today like it’s some kind of personal injustice. I find it inconceivable that one...

Three of the alleged ringleaders of the foiled airplane bomb plot have been identified by western intelligence agencies involved in unraveling the plot. Two of them are believed to have recently traveled to Pakistan and were later in receipt of money wired to them from Pakistan, reportedly to purchase tickets for the suicide bombers. Sources identify the three, who are now in custody, as: --Rashid Rauf --Mohammed al-Ghandra --Ahmed al Khan

I found one of my dad's old National Geographic magazines, and it had some neat pictures on the crusades that I thought I would share. Peter Bartholomew, a servent in the Crusader army, told the nobles that St. Andrew had revealed to him the hiding place of the lance that pierced Christ's side at the Crucifiction. Here, after a search beneath the Church of St. Peter, Crusaders gasp as Bartholomew uncovers a corroded lance head. Hope rekindled, the knights broke the Muslim siege the next day.Braving a Rain of Arrows, Europeans Route the Turks on the Plains of Antioch.Crusaders Marching...

Modern society obsessively avoids suffering, risk and danger. It secures everything with seatbelts and safety rails, air conditions the summer heat, prints warnings on coffee cups and advises that that safety glasses should be used while working with hammers. Certainly such precautions have prevented misfortune. However, since heroism and excellence are born from confronting rather than avoiding suffering and peril, the mania for safeguards has also diminished the notion of these qualities. This is unfortunate since only those intrepid souls who confront danger, endure suffering and overcome obstacles merit mention in the annals of history. A shining example is the...

Baldwin IV (Baldwin the Leper), c.1161–1185, Latin king of Jerusalem (1174–85), son and successor of Amalric I. Raymond, count of Tripoli, was regent from 1174 to 1176. Baldwin was constantly engaged, except for a truce (1180–82), in defending his kingdom against Saladin. In 1183 his leprosy began to spread very rapidly; he appointed Guy of Lusignan as his regent, but in the same year he withdrew the commission and had his five-year-old nephew crowned king as Baldwin V (d. 1186). Raymond was regent for Baldwin V, who was succeeded as king by Guy of Lusignan. Minority Baldwin spent his youth...

It is often said that in order to keep polite company polite, we must refrain from speaking of religion and politics. Yet, the two are not equals in the hierarchy of politesse. Political debate may be unwelcome in many settings, but no one clears the room by observing that the great totalitarian evils of the 20th century, Communism and fascism, were directly responsible for incalculable carnage. Not so when it comes to religion — or, at least, one particular religion. The past three decades have borne witness to a rising, global tide of terrorist atrocities, wrought by Muslims who proclaim...

Given that the old Greek word behind the English term "gospel" means "good news," you have to wonder whether the much-touted and recently published Gospel of Judas really qualifies as either. Assuming you didn't give up the media for Lent -- which, come think of it ... oh, never mind -- you could hardly have avoided this month's announcement about the latest addition to the religious history files. To make a long story short: The Gospel of Judas is part of an ancient manuscript that apparently was unearthed in the late 1970s in Egypt. After a lengthy trip through the...