By Theodore Shoebat
Muslim pirates from Libya attacked and stole a boat from the Sicilian fishermen. After they took control of the boat, the pirates left and kept one gunman posted to control the Sicilians. Luckily the Sicilians got so enraged that they counterattacked the pirates, overpowered the guard and courageously retook the boat. The Sicilians were later met by the Italian navy. According to one report:
Armed Libyan men on a tugboat stopped and boarded the fishing boat, demanding that it go to Misurata, according to the Sicilian fishing cooperative to which the boat belonged. One of the Libyan gunmen was left on the boat and the rest departed.
The seven crew members then overpowered the Libyan gunman, retook the helm and set sail for Italy, the cooperative said. Officials confirmed that the boat was already on its way home when an Italian naval vessel intercepted it. Naval personnel “boarded the Italian ship and took control,” the navy said, and the gunman was taken into custody.
The Muslims don’t know what they are messing with. The Westerners are nice right now, but if they push them long enough, they will have to deal with the wrecking ball of Christian militancy.
In the ninth century, in the Sicilian city of Ragusa, the watchers of the metropolis looked out and saw before them an entire army of Muslims. They blockaded the city and executed a fierce siege, but the native Christian Sicilians, with tenaciousness and ardency, put up a formidable resistance. But as much time passed, the advancers of antichrist wore out the saints; the Ragusians began to be extremely exhausted, and in their turmoil they sent a number of delegates to the emperor to gain his assistance against the enemies of Christ.
By the time the delegates arrived, the emperor gave up the ghost, but with all fortune, the succeeding emperor, the pious Basil I, heard their pleas. He sent a fleet of a hundred warships into Ragusa, but when the Muslims heard of this, they shook in terror and fled deeper into Italian territory. They attacked the town of Bari and set up a camp there, and made vicious incursions on the surrounding areas. They continuously expanded and eventually took control of the whole of Lombardia, and almost reached Rome, (Skylitzes, Byzantine History, 6.26, 146-147) the center of Western Christianity, a city the Muslims, no doubt, wanted to destroy on account of its primacy and orthodoxy.
The emperor realized that the hundred ships would not be efficient enough to vanquish the Muslim problem in Italy. The heretics were now using Ragusa as a base from which to execute their attacks around Italy, and as a foothold into Christendom, and a Christian army strong enough to accomplish this dangerous feat needed to be assembled. Basil I went to the person who would care the most about a wounded Christendom, and about the Church being conquered by the heretics: the Pope of Rome, Pope Adrian II.
With the authority of the Pope behind him, Basil I pushed the king of France, Louis II, to send reinforcements to fight alongside his Christian brethren against the haters of Christ, an exhorting request which the king piously fulfilled. (Skylitzes, Byzantine History, 6.26, 147) Surely was this a moment in which the Two Swords of St. Peter worked as one, with the Pope of the Church, weaving his spiritual sword and giving the nod to the king to unleash the temporal sword against the godless enemies of Christ. Indeed, this truly was what Christendom was about; and most definitely was this a crusade.
They are those who say that the Crusade of 1095 was the first of its kind, with the Pope calling for soldiers to fight against the Muslims from conquering eastern Christendom. While there were aspects of the First Crusade that could be labeled distinct the battle for Ragusa and the rest of southern Italy shows that the Pope using his spiritual authority to call for armies to protect the Byzantine empire from Islamic conquests was not exclusive to 1095. Since here we have Pope Adrian II pushing for an army to drive back Islamic expansion from flooding Byzantine territory, a moment parallel to Pope Urban II, in 1095, calling for armies to stop the Muslims from taking Constantinople and the rest of the eastern Christian lands.
The hardy warriors of France were ready for the intensity of the battle, and Basil I ordered that the native Christians of Ragusa do their part and put up a resilient fight. When all of them had gathered together, they charged into the town of Bari, which was earlier conquered by the Muslims, and drove the heretics out, taking the town for Christendom, and for Christ. The Frankish fighters attacked the sultan of Bari and his men, and drove them into France where they would make them captives. (Skylitzes, Byzantine History, 6.26, 147)
Sicily and Italy are both part of Chittim, and the Lord says that “the ships of Chittim shall come against” the Antichrist (Daniel 11:30), so make no mistake: the spirit of the warrior is only being cultivated in the lands of Chittim, for the Final Crusade that is to come!
True Christianity is not the hypersensitive rubbish that we see today; Christianity is a warrior religion and Christians are not here to compromise, but to destroy evil. This short history that I presented to you is a section from my upcoming book on Christian militancy and empire, and it will be the most extensive research ever done on the subject. But before the book comes out, get our 2-disk DVD special on Christian militancy.