Fr. Z's Blog

On this anniversary of 9/11 I call to mind a post about the “Islamic Cultural Center” to be build near the site of the World Trade Center, but which was really a rabat,

The first rabat appeared at the time of the Prophet.

The Prophet imposed his rule on parts of Arabia through a series of ghazvas, or razzias (the origin of the English word “raid”). The ghazva was designed to terrorize the infidels, convince them that their civilization was doomed and force them to submit to Islamic rule. Those who participated in the ghazva were known as the ghazis, or raiders.

After each ghazva, the Prophet ordered the creation of a rabat — or a point of contact at the heart of the infidel territory raided. The rabat consisted of an area for prayer, a section for the raiders to eat and rest and facilities to train and prepare for future razzias. Later Muslim rulers used the tactic of ghazva to conquer territory in the Persian and Byzantine empires. After each raid, they built a rabat to prepare for the next razzia.

[NB:] It is no coincidence that Islamists routinely use the term ghazva to describe the 9/11 attacks against New York and Washington. The terrorists who carried out the attack are referred to as ghazis or shahids (martyrs).

I don’t think that we are really taking stock of what is going on in the West.

“Immigrants” are pouring into Europe across the Mediterranean via Lampedusa. “Immigrants” are pouring into Europe through Turkey toward Germany.

There is an outstanding piece at 1 Peter 5 by Andrew Biezad

Samples:

The Final Hijra: A Warning on the Refugee Crisis

[…]The world is reaping what has been sown. [That is, what the West has wrought in the Middle East.] Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and are on the move, a massive sea of humanity flowing into Western Europe. They are also threatening to overrun the borders into Eastern European nations. The American and Western European governments are saying this is a “refugee crisis,” and the news media, like good propagandists, run images of a few poor women and children, while neglecting to show us the rest of the situation. Not displayed is the mass of overwhelmingly young, healthy, well-dressed males, carrying the latest smart phones. Far from the starving widows and orphans one might imagine upon hearing the word, “refugee,” these men have come to riot, rampage, and destroy.

[NB] Lest anyone allow themselves to be deceived, this is not a normal migration – it is a hijra.

“Hijra” does mean “migration “ in Arabic. But it carries a deeper connotation. In Islamic history, the hijra was the event in 622 AD, when Muhammad and his small cult fled the city of Mecca to Yathrib, both of which are in what is today Saudi Arabia, and the latter which Muhammad renamed “Medina,” which means “the city.” This act marks three of the major events in Islam, which are:

1. The beginning of the Islamic calendar
2. The creation of the first Islamic government
3. The prolific use of violence and torture to propagate Islam

At the time when Muhammad made the hijra with his followers, Medina was a city with a Jewish majority, which had peaceable relations with the other pagan Arabs. By the time Muhammad launched his band of raiders from that same city eight years later to conquer Mecca in 630, most of the pagan and Jewish populations were either converted to Islam, had fled, or were dead. The few survivors were forced to pay an extortion tax — called a jizya — to Muhammad and his followers. This was the only way they would be granted permission for their continued existence under Muhammad’s new Caliphate.

In Islamic law and applied theology, the idea of the hijra pertains to the movement of a group of Muslims from a predominately Muslim area to a predominately non-Muslim area, with the goal of establishing Islam’s dominance in it. After Muhammad’s death, Muslims have counted two great hijras in the West. The first was the great Islamic expansion from 632 to 750, when Islamic armies conquered all of the territory from what is today central France to Uzbekistan. The second hijra included the Turkish migrations that resulted in the fall of Constantinople, and reached its zenith with Islamic armies besieging the gates of Vienna in 1683. It was during this last encounter that the horde was driven back by Polish Catholic forces into the Balkan Peninsula, breaking the strength of the Ottoman Empire.

The battle began on September 11th, 1683. [No, it is not a coincidence.]

After the Battle of Vienna, European regimes began to rapidly colonize the Middle East, and the remains of the Ottoman Empire diminished, eventually being formally abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 – but not before purging over a million Armenian, Assyrian, Pontic Greek, and Turkish Christians from its lands between 1915 and 1917. Muslim “revivalists” beginning as early as the 18th century reminisced about a return to the practice of “orthodox” Islam, and posited that in so doing, they could bring about a revival of the same bestial force which conquered so much of the world and subjected so many countless peoples under Islam’s burdensome yoke. The first hijra conquered Jerusalem in 638. The second hijra conquered Constantinople in 1453. Two of the three oldest and holiest cities for Christians were conquered by Muslims.

Except for Rome.

This, now, is the third hijra. According to certain voices in the Islamic world, it will be the final hijra, the one that will conquer Rome.

In Islamic circles, there has been a long-held belief that Christianity — and specifically, the Catholic Church — is the main obstacle impeding Islam’s domination of all humanity under one religious and political system. Therefore, in order to realize this vision, the Christian faithful must not only be converted to Islam, but their sacred spaces must be taken from them and given to the dar Al-Islam – “the house of Islam.” If the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem led to the end of Christianity as the dominant religion in the Holy Land, and the same was true in the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople, the conquest of Rome and the Islamization of St. Peter’s Basilica would mean the effective destruction of the Church worldwide, and its replacement with Islam. [I call the mind the “peace tree” planted in the Vatican Gardens and the prayer of the Imam.  HERE  Be sure to follow the links and read about what that may have symbolized.]

[…]

We are witnessing the beginning of the next great Islamic invasion. It may well represent an existential crisis for the West.

When the time comes, will we be ready to fight them? Everything we know and love is at stake.

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, pray for us.

St. Pius V, pray for us.