Islam and Western Civilization: Pillar or Pillager?

From noted Roman Catholic author and Tolkien scholar, Joseph Pearce, comes a sharp rebuttal of the fallacious belief that Islam is somehow compatible with, and even central to, Western Civilization. Excerpt:

The seven pillars of Western Civilization are the edifying edifices which tower over the landscape of the centuries as a fortress of faith and a beacon of reason. Islam has served throughout the centuries as an outside force which has repeatedly laid siege to the fortress, seeking its overthrow.

Islam and Western Civilization

By Joseph Pearce| The Imaginative Conservative |January 28th, 2023


Several weeks ago I wrote an essay for this illustrious journal entitled “The Seven Pillars of Western Civilization” in which I listed the seven seminal tomes which form the textual foundation of the civilization of the West. These are The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Bible, The City of God, the Summa Theologica and The Divine Comedy. Collectively, these texts epitomize why Western Civilization is founded on the three civilizations of Athens, Jerusalem and Rome.

This is not the place to offer explanations with respect to the rationale for why these seven texts were selected instead of other contenders. Those interested in understanding the reason for the selection are invited to read the original essay.

What surprised me was that several readers of the original essay admonished me for failing to include the Qur’an as one of the seven pillars of wisdom on which Western Civilization is built. This seems to beg the obvious question which I thought my essay had answered implicitly. What exactly is Western Civilization? If it is anything at all, it must be something rooted in a cohesive and coherent set of common values, which are themselves the fruit of cohesive and coherent theological and philosophical principles.

In brief and in sum, Western Civilization in its fullness and fruitfulness is a synonym for Christendom. [Emphasis added -ed.] It is the consummation of the mythological and philosophical musings of the Greeks and the fulfilment of the theological covenant of the Jews in the Person of Jesus Christ as made manifest in the Church He founded throughout the centuries since His Incarnation. The quest and questions of Athens and Jerusalem are fulfilled and answered in the Gospel as enunciated by the One who proclaims Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. Christ incarnates the transcendental trinity of the Good, the True and the Beautiful in who He is.

If this is so, the Qur’an is not one of the foundational pillars of wisdom on which the West is built but is a subversive text which undermines those very foundations. If Christ is who He says He is, Muhammed is a false prophet. This is as logically inescapable as it is theologically obvious.

"Coming soon: 'Lincolnshire Sharia Police'"

YouTube commenters are blasting the UK's Lincolnshire Police for releasing a pro-Muslim video on their channel. People are calling out the video as PC propaganda.

The video is Ellen DeGeneres-tier pap. At the 8:23 mark, Bana Gora, Chief Executive of the Muslim Women's Council in Bradford says the following:

"I think for us as Muslims we're enraged when we hear people are committing attacks in our religion -- in the name of Islam. For us, our religion is a peaceful religion. And anybody who doesn't abide to that is outside the religion."

That old familiar bit. Anyone with superficial knowledge of Mohammed knows this is false. Gora, along with the other interviewees, either have skin-deep knowledge of their own religion or are malevolent tricksters in the ongoing hypnosis of the UK.

May St John Damascene pray for the British Isles! Their institutions have fallen for the wicked pseudo-reality. They can't seem to help themselves. We're witnessing a collective return to the vomit in realtime (Proverbs 26.11).

Below, I've included a sample of the near unanimous negative backlash in the YouTube comments. Fair warning, the language in the comments section of the YouTube video itself are wide-open and NSFW.

Brian sanders
What a lot of Taqiyya,don't believe a word of this.

Hippie Gold
Uh, there were no children being raped in this video. I thought you wanted to accurately portray british muslims?

Handyjack
You can ignore reality but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.

amoergosum3
100% taqiyya. 

Coming soon: 'Lincolnshire Sharia Police'.

R G
Britain, the whole world is laughing at your weakness.

Joe John
Love the advertisement at the end for the Muslim faith.

Wake up Britains! Your government is funding Muslim proselytizing in the name of tolerance. The time to be concerned with appearing racist is over. The time to be concerned with tolerance is over. If you don't fight back your grandchildren won't have a Britain!

Pepper TN
Sad for the once Great Nation of Britain. The PC has gotten out of control.

les ferguson
Why no mention of the epidemic of grooming gangs prevalent throughout the UK , maybe this doesn't fit your propaganda narrative ,

Trump & Sobieski - Defenders of the West against Islamic Jihad

The symbolism of this photo op sends a powerful message of encouragement to a revitalized Christian Europe, plus a wake-up call to the chronically weak and sick Globalist EU, and a blunt warning to the militant Muslim world.


Coincidence? Polish Government Seats Trump Beside Painting of Polish King Famed For Routing Islam from Europe

by Oliver J.J. Lane, Breitbart News, July 6, 2017:

A Portrait of King Jan Sobieski III hangs over President Trump’s right shoulder, Thursday morning / AP IMAGES

President Donald Trump’s first photo-call in Poland after his arrival in Air Force One was with President Andrzej Duda and saw him sat beside an oil painting of a prominent figure in Polish history and folklore — the 17th-century king who kicked Islam out of Central Europe and is remembered as “the Hammer of the Turks”.

Warsaw’s Royal Palace, where the meeting took place — lavishly reconstructed after it was dynamited by Nazi German troops during the Second World War — benefits from a surfeit of grand rooms and hundreds of works of art.

From oils of kings and statesmen by artists such as Rembrandt to impressive murals and sculpture, the Polish authorities had a great deal of choice for where to host the symbolic first meeting of President Trump’s first European visit.

It may be seen as a remarkable coincidence, therefore, that of all the rooms and of all the paintings, they chose to sit President Trump besides a portrait of one of Poland’s best-known warrior kings. King Jan (John) III Sobieski is today remembered and celebrated in Poland, and elsewhere in Central Europe, for his pivotal role at the Battle of Vienna in September 1683.

At the culmination of the two-month siege of Vienna by the forces of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Sobieski led an army to relieve the city. Despite leading a force significantly smaller than the invading Ottomans, the coalition of Polish and Germanic troops staged one of, if not the largest, cavalry charge in the history of warfare and defeated the Ottoman army — ending centuries of Islamic attacks and invasions reaching the heart of Europe.

Patrick Henry: 'There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!'

And Islam = submission and slavery, when it doesn't equal beheadings and death.

What would Patrick Henry say today, seeing the West respond to Islamic jihad attacks with candles and teddy bears?

So, for America's Independence Day, here are the closing paragraphs of Patrick Henry's 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death' speech, with a few edits to suit our own darkening days:

There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard at every TSA security checkpoint, and in the accusations of 'Islamophobia'! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, [Islam means] "Peace, Peace," but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! 

The next gale that sweeps from the Middle East will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? 

Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Source for Patrick Henry's Speech: Colonial Williamsburg

Realism and Islam

"Our leaders cannot comprehend what is going on, either when a whole Western civilization loses its faith and moral standards or when Islam reawakens to the implications of its own faith and its vision of world conquest..."

"Realism means that we can and should call what happens by its proper name. It also means that, if we cannot or will not make this proper naming, we are not realistic. We will inevitably suffer the consequences of our failure to state the truth of what is there."

"The Muslim protagonists of today realize how close they were several times in the past to conquering Europe as the next step in world conquest. What they see today is a very realistic opportunity to succeed where their ancestors failed."


Realism and Islam—
To see reality in its fullest dimensions...

by Rev. James V. Schall, S.J., Catholic World Report, April 17, 2016:

I.

Political realism, long associated with Augustine, constrains us to consider what Machiavelli later recommended to us—namely, to look at what men “do” do and not at what they “ought” to do. This advice would be more persuasive if, in fact, some men did not do what they ought to do or others do what they ought not to do. Both sides usually persuade themselves that they ought to follow their convictions. Machiavelli thought that if men did what they “ought” to do they would not survive the onslaughts and cunning of those who did what they had power to do whatever they could do. However, Augustinian realism did not, as in the case of Machiavelli, justify this careful look at what men “do” do as a reason to deny the distinction between good and evil so that any means could be used to accomplish their purposes.

The “realistic” look was “realistic” for Augustine precisely because good and evil were included in the look itself, in the reality as seen. To see and act on the reality of good or evil is to see reality in its fullest dimensions. Practical truth, in terms of acting according to an accurate description of what is there, is the first principle of realism as well as of political action. Thus, Maritain could rightly maintain in the Augustinian tradition that “justice, brains, and strength” need not be separated. They belong together. Or, to refer obliquely to Lord Acton, the lack of power can also corrupt absolutely. Not to possess and use responsible power in defense of what is right is itself an evil, a cowardice.

With this background in mind, we recall recent events from “9/11”, the bombings in Spain, England, Mumbai, Bali, Fort Hood, San Bernardino, twice in Paris, Lahore, and Brussels, not to mention the persecutions and beheadings in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, Chad, Syria, and the Sunni/Shiite inner-Muslim battles. What is the most plausible way to judge such continuing violence and its origins? To make this assessment, we have to acknowledge that Islam, in principle, is actually and potentially violent throughout its entire history. The basic reason for this method is obedience to the Law of Allah, not love for violence itself.

On the basis of evidence and theory, we cannot conclude from the fact that Islam is a “religion” that therefore it is not “violent” or is so only by abuse of its own founding. It is possible to be a religion and to espouse violence. (Were this not so, we would have to exclude many key passages on the Old Testament itself.) We cannot obscure what is there and affirmed to be there by Muslims themselves. Realism means that we can and should call what happens by its proper name. It also means that, if we cannot or will not make this proper naming, we are not realistic. We will inevitably suffer the consequences of our failure to state the truth of what is there.

Abbot Tryphon: 'The War of Ideology - The Struggle between Two Worlds'

"The war of ideology between the Christian West and the Islamic world is one that promises to get worse before it gets better... The only way to survive this war is to make Christ central in your life."

The War of Ideology 
The Struggle between Two Worlds

by Abbott Tryphon, The Morning Offering, December 31, 2016:

The world is in a new struggle not unlike that which happened during the Soviet Union and the cold war that was brought on after the fall of the Royal House of Romanov. This was followed by World War II when we saw the struggle between the free world and the fascism of Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan.

"Some authorities are projecting this war of ideology will go on for at least two generations..."

All these ideologies have much in common with Islam, where there is a non-democratic tradition and people live under strict rules that leave little room for personal choice, and where fate governs the people. The idea of mankind being formed in the image and likeness of God and having a role in making choices for ourselves, is foreign to Islam. The god of Islam demands submission, just as did communism and fascism.