Islamic Terrorism Is Not a New Phenomenon
W. N. Kilarjian
Islamic terrorism against
the
United States
and the West is not a new phenomenon.
In
1968 Palestinian terrorist Sirhan Sirhan, claiming he was upset at and
wanting revenge for the Senator’s support of
Israel
, assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. In 1973 United States Ambassador to
Sudan Cleo Noel was murdered in
Khartoum
by Yasser Arafat’s Black September organization. In 1976 United States
Ambassador to Lebanon Francis E. Meloy, Jr was murdered on the authority
of the Arab Socialist Action Party. In 1983 in Beirut Al-Jihad Al-Islami,
a Hizbollah front group, killed
241 U.S. Marines with a truck bomb driven into the Marine’s compound. In
1988 Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed over
Lockerbie
,
Scotland
. While the
United States
blamed
Libya
evidence existed that the PFLP-GC (Palestinian Front for the Liberation of
Palestine – General Command) and
Syria
itself were involved. In 1993 The World Trade Center was bombed for the
first time. In 2000 the U.S.S. Cole was attacked in the Port of Aden,
Yemen. On September 11th, 2001 The World Trade Center towers
were brought down murdering three thousand Americans.
I do not claim the
aforementioned list to be fully exhaustive; there are many more incidents
of Islamic terror, merely a descriptive timeline.
It would be remiss of me to not mention the history
of Islamic terrorism against the State of Israel.
Israel
since the very day of it’s birth in 1948 has been subject to unrelenting
attacks and attempts to destroy it. I will touch on the notion of a “
Palestinian
State
” a bit later.
Given the long history of
Islamic terror against the West, the Crusades
were primarily defensive wars. They were an effort to defend against
and repel Muslim attacks against Christian lands. At the time of
Mohammed’s death the
Levant
was the most heavily Christian area in the world. Spurred to action by the
traditional Islamic belief that Christian and Jewish states must be
destroyed and their lands conquered Muslim armies quickly overran them. By
the eight century all of Christian North Africa and
Spain
succumbed. The Seljuk Turks
conquered Asia Minor, Christian since the time of
St. Paul
, in the eleventh century. Christianity as a faith and culture had to
defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense. The
Battle of Vienna in 1683 marked the end of the centuries long struggle
between Christian Europe and Muslim invaders.
The present day has the
United States of America
in the role of defender of Western Judeo-Christian civilization and
culture. The
stated goal of Islam is world domination.
It can be argued that the
Cold War was merely a brief respite in the two thousand year battle
against Islam. We will prevail.
With regard to a “
Palestinian
State
.” Let us keep in mind that the term ‘
Palestine
’, which is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Pelesheth’, is mentioned
only once in the Bible. It was not used again until later Roman
designations. In fact Romans used the term Judea and called the northern
regions
Galilee
. Israel-Judah-Judea has
always existed from the beginning of history until this day as a united,
independent sovereign nation state in “
Palestine
” west of the
Jordan River
. There has never been a “
Palestinian
State
” of any kind. It can be cogently argued that the “Palestinians
already have their state: Jordan.
Nearly three million “Palestinians” live in
Jordan
out of population of only 5.7 million “Jordanians”.
Additional Resources:
Facts
and Logic About the Middle East
The
History and Meaning Of "Palestine" and "Palestinians"
Dr.
Mordechai Nisan
Zionist Organization of
America
W.
N. Kilarjian is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of the
United Kingdom
. He regularly writes for MichNews.com, WEBCommentary.com, The Berlin
Reporter (
Berlin
, NH), PardonMyEnglish.com,
OpinionEditorials.com
,
Israel
Pundit, and The Templar Intelligencer.
©
Copyright 2005 W.N. Kilarjian
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