Professor Bruce Thornton writes, "Whitewashing Islam: “Who Controls the Past Controls the Future,” subtitled, "Painting Out History with Thick Coatings of Hogwash."
[T]he 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.No, Islam is the problem, along with our duped willingness to place ourselves into submission to it. Jihad is the fundamental duty of a Muslim. This is explicit in the Quran. Violent, or lesser jihad, gets the attention, but greater jihad is more pernicious and threatening in the longer term. Please see my column, "The Threat of a Greater Jihad - Why talk of 'moderate Muslims' is so misguided."
For the jihadists and their Western apologists, that history “never happened,” 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.
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