CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 18, 2006

No, you can’t go back to Constantinople

Constantinople’s 14th Century Christian Emperor, Manuel Paleologos II, said, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Obviously Emperor Paleologos was onto something because, in 1453, Islamic invaders put Constantinople to the sword and converted the Seat of Byzantine Christianity, the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, into a mosque.

Apparently, not even indisputably accurate historical utterances can be quoted, even by Pope Benedict XVI, without sending the Islamic lunatics into the streets to kill Catholic nuns and firebomb Christian churches. For his part, the Pope isn’t backing off the prophetic statement by Emperor Paleologos. The Pope does, however, regret the violence against Christians that has followed his quotation of Emperor Paleologos.

By accident, the Pope has done the West a favor by making it even harder for those in denial; notably, Democrats and RINOs (Republicans in name only) in Congress, to contend that a religion that never was, is now, a religion of peace. Hello. Could we now face facts?

But historical facts do not count for much with the Islamic fascists. As historian, Victor Davis Hanson, says, “…in this war evidence means nothing – superstition, bias and delusion are everything.” Amazingly, that is true even with some non-Islamists. For example, a Scripps Howard poll finds that more than a third of Americans think the 9/11 attacks were staged by America itself.

These kinds of conspiracy theorists are probably some of the same lunatics who think the photographs of Americans walking on the surface of the Moon are merely the product of some Hollywood production stage. Put the word “conspiracy” in the title of a novel and you increase sales.

On the 5th anniversary of 9/11, bin Laden re-released a video starring bin Laden and some of the 9/11 suicide pilots in which they discuss their plans for the 9/11 attacks and their motivations for hoping to commit the murder of thousands of Americans.

Mind you, prior to 9/11, U.S. military involvement with Islam (other than ridding “the shores of Tripoli,” of pirates in 1803-04, and driving Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991) had been, under Clinton, to bomb Christians in the former Yugoslavia in an attempt to save Islamists in Kosovo and Bosnia. Professor Hanson points out, “Instead of having any precise claim against America, these killers showed their hurt arose from their own sense of envy and collective failure…” And that’s our fault?

Indicative of Islamist’ lunacy is their claim to Jerusalem, a Jewish city for over one thousand years. By Muhammad’s own telling, the only time he “visited” Jerusalem was in dream during which he met with Abraham, Moses and Jesus. So if Muhammad, who wasn’t born until 570 A.D., “flew” in his dream to meet with Old and New Testament figures, the Jews had to be in Jerusalem first.

Based solely on Muhammad’s dream, the Islamists contend that Jerusalem, on a par with Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, is one of their holy places because the “spirit” of Muhammad ascended into Paradise from the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem. (Koran 17:1, 53:1).

The Islamists are entitled to believe anything they wish; however, that does not give them a claim or a title to Jerusalem which was built and physically occupied by the Jews. It does not give Islamists a right to use their swords (or suicide bombers) to expel the Jews from where the Jews built their famous Temple or expel Christians from where Jesus was crucified.

When President Bush called the Islamic fascists: Islamic fascists, the Democrats, RINOs and the Sinistra Media went ballistic. And now, when the Pope quotes some Christian ruler whose city (Constantinople) would be put to the sword by the Islamists and renamed Istanbul, they go into orbit. As the old pop song says: “No, you can’t go back to Constantinople, because it’s Istanbul.”

William Hamilton, a syndicated columnist, a featured commentator for USA Today and self-described “recovering lawyer and philosopher,” is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – two thrillers about terrorism directed against the United States.

©2006. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com