Dracula, Christian Hero!

In this article, Raymond Ibrahim argues that Count Dracula, Vlad the Impaler (1428-1477), was a Christian hero whose image has been tarnished by fake news.  Interesting.  In the 15th Century, the Ottoman Turks were ascendant.  The Turks had finally conquered the Byzantine Empire's capitol of Constantinople in 1453 and would surge to the gates of Vienna by 1688.  Vlad's Romania was not spared the Islamic Jihad that battered the waning Christian kingdoms.  It is noteworthy that Vlad fought fire with fire.  Muslims practiced impalement, but none of them have come down through history as such & such the Impaler.  Why is that?  Fake news.  Why is Dracula associated with Christianity gone bad rather than a warrior against Islam?  Fake news.

This is a fascinating reconsideration of Count Dracula, but it fits with other twisted history.  All too often whenever one talks of the clash of Christianity and Islam, apologists will declare that the West had the Crusades.  Yes, but why?  In the 7th Century, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, North Africa, Turkey, and Syria were dominated by Christianity.  Islam conquered all of this territory and, by 732, fought the Battle of Tours in France!  The Crusades was a pathetic response against the ongoing attacks.  Even today, the conflicts between Muslims and Jews is almost always laid at the feet of the Jews.

Yes, I'm sold.  Dracula got bad press.

The Crusades

President Obama recently intimated that Christians had been very bad in the past and had no standing to condemn Islam today.  He brought up the Crusades as an example.  Let us consider that.

At the time of Muhammad's death in 632, Christianity was the dominant religion of the Mediterannean, including what is now Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Armenia, and Turkey.  Then the Umayyad Caliphate arose.  The caliphate spread through the region like wildfire, conquering all the Christian regions in the Levant, sweeping across North Africa, toppling the centuries old Visigothic Kingdom of Spain, and invading France.  Not until Charles Martel defeated them at the Battle of Tours in 732 did the Islamic Conquest begin to recede.  Christendom had been on the brink of being swept away.  This was not because Muslim Imams had won hearts and minds with their preaching but because of fire and sword.

 

Europe was still mired in the Dark Ages and the Caliphate needed time to digest its conquests.  The remains of the Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, fought an ongoing battle with Islam as it sought to gobble up more and more of Christian Anatolia (Turkey).  Late in the 11th Century, the Byzantines requested aid from the West.  Pope Urban II declared a Crusade in 1095.  By 1099, Crusaders had recaptured a sliver of lands between Egypt and Anatolia.  The vast majority of the territory that had been conquered in the 7th Century remained in the hands of the Fatimid Caliphate or the Seljuk Turks.  By 1300, the Crusader States were gone.  The Byzantine capitol of Constantinople finally fell in 1453.  Greece and the Balkans fell also.  In 1683, an Islamic army attacked Vienna, Austria.

 

The idea that the Crusades were an unprovoked attack is nonsense.  The Crusades were a feeble response to centuries of attacks.  Be it the various Caliphates, the Seljuk Turks, or the Ottoman Empire, Islamic states were at war with Christian states since the 7th Century.  This remains true today though the tactics have changed.

 

While Jesus called upon his followers to turn the other cheek, Muhammad was a warlord who justified attacking caravans to gain wealth and power.  This tells you most of what you need to know about both religions.