THE SARACEN TOWER
The Amalfi Coast on the Sorrentine Peninsula south of Naples, Italy, is considered to be the most beautiful coastline in the world. It is dotted with spectacular villages like Positano…
And views like this, at Ravello, made famous as an escape-from-the-world by Greta Garbo…
The latter view is called The Belvedere of Infinity.
Then there is Amalfi itself.
Here is the famous Duomo di Sant’Andrea, the Cathedral of St. Andrew containing the tomb of the Apostle of Jesus. Originally built in the 800s, it has been remodeled over the centuries after being repeatedly destroyed by invaders. Note the stone tower high up on a hill to the left.
The Amalfi Coast is riddled with these towers, most right on the coast. If you look carefully at the pic of Positano, there’s one right on the water behind the big ship on the left. Here’s another one.
Some have been made into small private resorts.
The landmark one at Amalfi is now a very pricey restaurant.
These are all known as "Saracen Towers." They were built over a thousand years ago to protect the region from invasions and attacks from "Saracens" – the term Medieval Europe used for Moslems, from the ancient Greek Sarakenoi, the nomad bandit tribes of Arabia. In the centuries before the invention of Islam when all of the Middle East was predominantly Christian, the Sarakenoi developed a fearsome reputation for their raids on monasteries and murdering monks.
This became vastly worse when they acquired a religious rationale for their banditry. They called their new religion Islam, the Arabic word for "submission," claiming it meant submission to their deity Allah – but what it really meant was "unbelievers" submitting to them. And what that meant was they had a religious right to enslave Christians.
Last Sunday, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Moslem attack on America. The 19 terrorists, most with Saudi visas, murdered 2,977 innocent people in a more grotesque way than any horror movie. It was an unforgivable act of unmitigated evil that traumatized us all.
We continue to deal with the trauma today – and what may help is to place it in a historical context. The examples of Islamic barbarity history provides are legion – so let’s focus on that of the Saracen towers.
The Atrocity of 9/11 occurred in an instant, in a single morning. The Christians who lived along the Amalfi Coast, and other coastlines of the Western Mediterranean (i.e., of Italy and Spain today) suffered Moslem atrocities for centuries. It took the Christians of Spain almost 800 years to kick the Moslem invaders out of their land – from 711 to 1492. And still the Islamic barbarism continued – for 300 more years.
From 1500 to 1800, Moslem pirates from the north coast of Africa so devastated the Christian Mediterranean that entire coastlines of Spain and Italy were depopulated, there were slave raids as far away as Ireland, and over one million Christians captured and enslaved, who "would end their days as slaves in North Africa, dying of starvation, disease, or maltreatment," in the words of British historian Robert Davis.
Thomas Jefferson put an end to it. The Pasha of Tripoli, Yussif Karamanli, was holding the captain and crew of a US Navy ship hostage for ransom. President Jefferson sent the Marines, who captured Tripoli’s city of Derna on April 27, 1805. They were led by Marine Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon, who became the first man ever to raise the American flag in victory on foreign soil.
The Pasha surrendered, the crew was released, and O’Bannon was presented with a Mameluke sword for his bravery, which Marine officers carry to this day. Ever since, the Marines have sung about "the shores of Tripoli."
Jefferson and the US Marines introduced real Islam – submission to civilized behavior – to Moslems. The people of Amalfi did not have to build Saracen Towers anymore, and were free to prosper – so much so they could convert those towers into spas and fancy restaurants.
Ralph Peters this week wrote a passionate call to conservatives to abandon fears of Moslem bogeymen – and it’s very good advice. The Amalfi Coast, after all, is the land of la dolce vita with plenty of churches and not a single mosque.
No, the real danger to America is not Islam – it is the American Left. This was made blindingly clear in the commemorations they held for 9/11.
Zero did not even identify the perpetrators of 9/11 – the words "Moslem," "Islam," or even "Al Qaeda" did not escape his lips – except to promise that "the United States will never wage war upon Islam."
As political humorist Mark Steyn puts it, all the libtards could do regarding 9/11 was engage in "the usual touchy-feely huggy-weepy pansy-wimpy multiculti effete healing diversity mush."
Yet after you laugh because Steyn’s a funny guy, let’s step back and put him and Ralph Peters together. Libtards are pansy-wimpy pussies – why should we be afraid of them any more than Moslem crazies whose only education is memorizing the Koran and have such teeny zibbs they’re terrified of women?
We conservatives have principles, truth, and actually know how to make a living. Libtards haven’t a clue of how to survive without a government paycheck or subsidy. Why do we let these folk get in our way? They have no morals. They only pretend to, such as all their pretenses to being more-compassionate-than-thou (with other people’s money) – when their actual morality is nothing more than the end justifies the means.
It is high time to stop putting up with Lib-Dem intimidation. It’s time for each of us to start getting in their face when they spout their drivel. It’s time to get mad as hell and not take it anymore. And it’s time to carry should you be assaulted by union goons or a racist flash mob.
The people of the Amalfi Coast did not submit. They built their Saracen Towers and fought the constant attempts of Islamic barbarians to enslave them. The barbarians of the American Left and the Democrat Party are engaged in a constant attempt to enslave us. Every one of us can be a Saracen Tower refusing to submit to their lies, threats, smears, insults, and indeed, their unconstitutional rules and laws. In honor of 9/11, our motto should be Let’s Roll. Roll Over Liberals.
And also in honor of 9/11, here is British comedian Pat Condell discussing Bedbugs and Islam: