One of the things that frustrate me is the overall ignornace of history in my country. I’m not sure how many young people under the age of forty are aware of what 9\11 was all about and who was responsible for the deaths of 3000 people?

If any of you readers are confused about that allow me to inform you that Isalamic terrorists, mostly from Saudi Arabia were responsible for the attacks on 9\11. They called themselves Al-Qaeda, a jihadi movement dedicated to a revolution that would see their version of Islam spread throughout the world.

Their means of accomplishing their goals do not know any limits in my opinion.

While Al-Qaeda was crushed to a point another movement quickly emerged called ISIS.

ISIS emerged around 2014. The goal of ISIS was (is) an Islamic state that seeks to unite all Moslems under it’s banner. ISIS succeeded in this through conquest and horrific terror conquering a large swath of Syria and Iraq before being beaten back with American help. The use of terror, was (is) basic to the goals of Islamic fundamentalist conquest. ISIS like Al-Qaeda are jihadi’s that do not play by the same rules as any country in the west.

HAMAS and Hezbollah currently in the news (again) are also jihadis. While focused on Israel and Palestine at the moment understand the commonality is their goals. Both organizations are sponsored in the main by Iran.

Iran is the world’s leading Islamic power. Their quest for nuclear weapons does not have anything to do with preaceful intentions. Iran, like other Moslem powers before it seeks conquest or at least seeks to be the unifier among all Moslems, a fact that has had in the past put them at odds with Saudi Arabia, who is the keeper of the Moslem holy places. Mecca as the most important.

What is not new is Islam’s quest to dominate the world. This is true regardless of efforts to say that is not true or that all Moslems believe that. It does not take a majority of people to lead other people on the path to world conquest. Not all Germans were Nazi fanatics, nor all Japenesse militaristic expansionists.

Take a look at the map.

The green areas represent the first Islamic expansion under the Caliphs. The basic meaning of the word “caliph” is successor-successors to Muhammad, who was the founder of Islam. When Muhammed died rival successors emerged but expansion was still the goal.

I would encourage the reader to to read the KEY in the map. You can easliy see the progression of Islam until you see the box titled Ottoman Empire 1683.

The year 1683 is significant because that is the year the Ottoman’s (Moslem Turks) were turned back from the gates of Vienna by a Holy Roman\Polish coalition. The Ottoman’s like other entities before them were expansionist and for quite a long time the green areas were under their control.

The Ottoman’s declined after 1683 and by then Islam had retreated from Christian Spain but by and large much of the map still was Moslem. About two billion people worldwide claim Islam as their religion today.

One of the most significant things that happened to the map is the First World War. Note the map image below:

The map illustrates Ottoman decline with it’s reduced territory and influence. The Ottoman reduction does not mean fewer Moslems or Islamic states, it just means that the Ottomans had declined. Also note for the sake of history that the country we know as Iran is on the map as Persia. Persia has been an Islamic State since the 7th Century. It has become a fanatical Islamic State since the Shah was deposed in 1979 and American hostages were held for over a year.

Why does any of this matter?

Again, look at the 1914 map.

The Ottoman’s sided with Imperial Germany and Imperial Austria-Hungary in the Great War. This put the Ottomans at war with Russia (a traditional enemy of the Turks), Great Britain and France.

At the time (1914) the British controlled Egypt largely to protect the Suez Canal. Egypt had formerly been Ottoman and because Great Britain was at war with the Ottoman’s the whole mid-east became a front, although a side show compared to the carnage of the Western Front.

Nevertheless, the British (and French to lesser extent) went on the offensive against the Ottomans. Eventually, under General Allenby, the British took Jerusalem which had been under Moslem control for centuries except for a brief period during the Crusades.

The British were assisted by various Arab tribes in what is known as the Arab Revolt (1916-18). The 1960’s movie, Lawrence of Arabia tells a partial story of what occurred.

The Ottoman’s lost the First World War and the empire dissolved in the early 1920’s when a secular government took control. The areas we now know as Iraq, Jordan and Palestine became part of what was known as the British Mandate. Syria and Lebanon fell under French control. France also had acquired a North African empire portions of which lasted until the 1960’s but that’s is another story.

It gets a bit complicated at this point because history in general is complicated.

The issue became what to do with the mandates now that the Ottoman’s were not in the picture. Turkey as we now know it replaced the Ottomans and Persia (Iran) remained indepentent. Both countries remained Moslem, but not necessarily radically so. It’s also worth pointing out that Persians (Iran) are not Arabs.

The Arabs were another matter entirely. Remember it was Arab tribes (7th Century) that launched the initial conquests and sustained those conquests until the emergence of the Ottoman’s. The land we know as Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others are laregly Arab. Palestinian Arabs are one variety.

The land we call Palestine during the mandate was populated by Jews and Arabs (many of which were Christian). The Jews and Arabs are semitic peoples although to be anti-semitic today means to hate Jews. The Jews have occupied the land been from about 1200 B.C. Many were dispersed by the Assyrian, Babylonian and later Roman occupations but many remained. Arabs had always been neighbors to Isreal but after the Arab conquest 7th Century they became a majority.

The area we call Palestine contained both Jews and Arabs and was ruled and occupied by various powrs that included the Byzantines (East Romans as they called themselves), various Arab caliphates, the Crusaders, the Seljuk Turks and then the Ottoman’s Turks.

The area has been fought over for a long, long time so what is going on is not nothing new.

Note the map of the British Mandate for what we know as Palestine.

As noted previously and this is important to understand, history is complicated and if not studied objectively much harm can be done.

The British whether we agree or not made some lines on the map. Transjordan would one day become the Kingdom of Jordan (which it is today). Iraq would become independent as would Syria and Lebanon which is not shown.

The area titled Palestine was set aside from Egypt and Transjordan (although Gaza was Egyptian until 1967). Jordan, which is a Palestinian State became independent of Great Britain in 1946 right after the Second World War. Egypt had been occupied by the British since 1882 but was nominally independent as the British controlled the Suex Canal which was vital to their empire. Egypt however was never Palestinian except for what we know as the Gaza Strip.

Are you with me so far? It’s complicated.

The British set aside areas of Jewish settlement and Arab settlement (Transjordan). Following the Holocaust and World War Two the British allowed further Jewish settlement in Palestine. The 1960’s movie Exodus tells part of the story.

The British mandate (the British withdrew) became the nation of Israel in 1948. Isreal was recognized as an independent state by most nations including the United States, the Soviet Union, the UK and France just to mention some of the major powers.

The Arab countries surrounding the now indepedent nation of Israel did not accept Israel’s independence and attacked Israel. Those countries included Jordan (still under British influence but independent) Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The Israelis managed to defeat them all despite the fact they were under equpped and fought the war on multiple fronts.

The key in understanding the big picture whether one agrees with it or not is that the Arab nations surrounding Isreal did not accept Israell as an independent nation. This attitude persisted (and still persists among some) until the aftermath of the 1973 war.

It’s important to note that area we know as Gaza was part of Egypt until Egypt lost it in the 1967 War with Israel (The Six-Day War). Gaza was populated primarily by Palestinian Arabs, not Egyptians. The Israeli’s also occupied the Sinai all the way up to the Suex Canal after the 1967 war.

In the wake of the 1973 Ramadan War Israel made peace with Egypt and that resulted in the eventual withdrawl from the Sinai by Israel. For his efforts Anwar Sadat of Egypt was assassinated as the jihadi element within his own country would not tolerate peace with Israel, although that peace has been maintianed with Sadat’s successors.

Gaza remained under Israeli control. Why Egypt did not want it back is a good question. This led to the PLO, the Palestintian Liberation Organization (PLA-Palestinian Liberation Army) the predecessors to HAMAS.

Meanwhile, in 1970 and into 1971 Jordan fought a Civil War with the PLO since the so called “West Bank”of the Jordan River was formerly Palestine. It was a Civil War because both sides were Palestinian. Jordan won and eventually it too made peace with Israel.

This is an interesting part of the story. Neither Jordan nor Egypt (nor any other Arab) country wants anything to do with the Palestinian refugees. This is most likely because no country wants much to do with the radical Islamists although they will pay lip service to Arab unity.

One can make the argument and many Arabs do that the west led by Great Britain is responsible for the State of Isreal, a State they will not tolerate. The founding charter of HAMAS, who was elected in Gaza declares as it’s goal the destruction of Isreal as a state. The massacre of 1400+ Israeli civilians on October 7th, 2023 is proof that they will stop at nothing to achieve that goal.

Iran, which seeks to be the dominant Islamic power has also declared that the elimiation of Isreal as its goal but thus far seeks to accomplish the through the use of proxies, HAMAS and Hezbollah to name the two most promiment.

While Isalm is not a monolith, it is appropriate to ask does Islam in general seek world domination regardless of which country serves as the spearhead?

The various terrorist movements in and around Israel and in other parts of the world (hence 9\11) would indicate that terrorists do represent a type of the head of the spear that Moslem countries either support outwardly, or tacitly by not opposing. This is not Islamophobia, it is a logcial conclusion after understanding the long history of Islam.

No, I do not think all Moslems seek world domination, but I also think that as a whole it’s only a question of which version of Islam is leading the charge. Certainly the Moslems in opposition are prety quiet in their opposition, not that I blame them for to make peace with Israel may mean ending up like Anwar Sadat.

The war iin Israell\Palestine is a snap shot, a tragic snapshot to be sure, but we in the west had better learn to connect the dots and realize it’s not ultimately about the nation State of Isreal. It’s about civlilations in conflict and they have little in common in this modern age..