Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stoneberry. In a recent Substack, Ayon Hursi Ali pointed to something that former President Barack Obama once said. That, and I quote, "Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance, which we see in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba." End quote.
Well, the president was referring to the time between 711 and 1492, when Islam conquered and ruled a region of modern-day Spain, Portugal, and parts of southern France. Ayman al-Hajeri then quoted Osama bin Laden, who, in responding to American retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, proclaimed, "And I quote: We shall never accept that the tragedy of Andalusia would be repeated in Palestine." What he was referring to was the end of that nearly 800 years of Muslim rule. Islamists have a longer commitment to historical memory than the West does. Most Americans and Europeans would not be familiar with the events from the 15th century or what it has. To do with current conflicts, but for Muslims, that time of Islamic rule within the West is remembered as a golden age of progress, tolerance, and enlightenment, and that's the story that's now repeated by an increasing number of Western academics and taken for granted, apparently, by presidential candidates and media outlets.
The example of Andalusia is often trotted out in response to the violent history of Islam, or sometimes when Christianity's role in building the West is highlighted as Ayane Hursi Ali noted in her article, and I quote: "This story is presented as an established fact in Western textbooks and popular media. It pervades museums and the pattern of tour guides across Southern Spain. It's the first story Western liberals reach for when arguing that Islam is a religion of peace, eminently tolerant of other faiths. It's also a complete fiction." End quote. And one of the strangest ironies in the contemporary discourse about religion and history is that Christianity.
Is scorned as imperialistic, theocratic, and intolerant, but Islam somehow gets a pass. It's related to another strange irony, one more contemporary. What's come to be called the Red Green Alliance, for reasons that match neither history nor current reality, far left groups like Marxist feminist and transgender activists embrace Islamists as being fellow champions of liberation. But these agitators know neither history nor Islam. Whereas the first three centuries of Christianity and nearly all of Jewish history were defined by persecution against Christianity, the first three hundred years of Islam were characterized by militarism, conquest, and slavery.
By Islam, by the time of his death, Muhammad had captured nearly all of Arabia. And a century later, the ancestors of the French were fighting against Muslims in Western Europe, and Muslim armies were making their way into what's now Pakistan and India. As late as 1683, in fact, Muslim Turks were laying siege on Vienna. Anywhere that they conquered, an absolute theocracy was established. There was no democracy, much less separation between mosque and state.
Pagans and idolaters were given the choice to convert or die. Christians and Jews were sometimes tolerated, but only barely. They were allowed to live under frequent persecution, and then only if they paid the tax for their own occupation. And in many cases, it was Christian and Jewish second-class citizens who were building the reputation for scholarship and. Administration in those societies, that reputation that was then assumed by Muslim leaders.
Christians who conquered and oppressed others did so in defiance of the teachings of Christ, as reported in the Bible. But the Muslims who attempt to conquer the world for Allah are obeying the tenets of their faith, as taught in the Quran. Basically, every one of the evils that secularists like to blame on religion is true, not only about many Muslims, but also about Islam itself within. The Islamic worldview. When those accusations are true of Christians, well, it's a contradiction to both Christ and the Christian religion.
If secularists hope to engage religion, especially a reemerging Islam, it has to begin with getting these historical facts straight. The lived and the academic experience of someone like Ayon Hersi Ali.
Well, that is a great place to start for the Colson Center. I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored with Dr. Timothy Paget. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
And for more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to Breakpoint.org. If you're ready to go deeper in Christian worldview formation, it may be time to consider the Colson Fellows program. Colson Fellows take time over ten months to study how Christianity is so much more than a private God and me only faith. It's a way of seeing and comprehending all reality. The result is a more confident, courageous faith that's equipped for our cultural moment.
If you're ready to learn more, join us on a live informational webinar on Thursday, November twelfth, at one. 1 p.m. Register today at colsoncenter.org/webinar. That's colsoncenter.org/webinar.
