1 00:00:04,690 --> 00:00:10,089 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church 2 00:00:10,089 --> 00:00:14,390 with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue 3 00:00:14,390 --> 00:00:20,469 of life and faith. And today, on this 25th anniversary of 9-11, 4 00:00:20,969 --> 00:00:29,829 what have we learned about Islam and its intentions? Islam and its intentions. What 5 00:00:29,829 --> 00:00:39,990 have we learned as Americans after this national tragedy, this horrific aggression from the 6 00:00:39,990 --> 00:00:47,829 religion of peace? Oh, what have we learned? For example, New York City, the very scene of this 7 00:00:47,829 --> 00:00:55,469 vicious act of conquest, which is really what it was, they have recently elected a Muslim mayor 8 00:00:55,469 --> 00:01:03,310 who recently prayed at a local mosque, death to the infidels. Oh, how sweet. What have we learned? 9 00:01:03,630 --> 00:01:12,629 Michigan has a Democrat running now for the Senate, Abdul El Saeed, who thinks that the U.S. deserve 10 00:01:12,629 --> 00:01:21,489 9-11 and he hates Israel. He loves Hamas and Palestine, right? Now also, most Americans born 11 00:01:21,489 --> 00:01:28,250 after 9-11 have no clue as to the horror and destruction of that day and what it tells us 12 00:01:28,250 --> 00:01:36,090 about our bitter existential foe, militant Islam. And one thing it does teach us, though, if a regime 13 00:01:36,090 --> 00:01:43,730 like the mullahs in Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, oh, they call death to America. That's a regular 14 00:01:43,730 --> 00:01:53,129 chant in the streets of Tehran. If they acquire a nuclear weapon, the mullahs in Iran, they will use 15 00:01:53,129 --> 00:02:02,269 it first on the little Satan, which is Israel, and then on the second big Satan, that is the United States 16 00:02:02,269 --> 00:02:09,430 of America. Now we know all of this is true because we have a record from not just 9-11, but the long 17 00:02:09,430 --> 00:02:18,090 history of Islam versus Christianity. And today I want to deal with perhaps a more obscure aspect 18 00:02:18,090 --> 00:02:26,889 of this relationship between Islam and Christianity, and that is Islam in the Balkans. Islam in the 19 00:02:26,889 --> 00:02:34,349 Balkans, especially the Ottoman Empire, because the Ottoman Empire had every modern contemporary 20 00:02:34,349 --> 00:02:43,250 weapon that existed, and they had it all at their disposal. And they launched a vicious crusade towards 21 00:02:43,250 --> 00:02:50,349 Europe through the Balkans. So this is one I want to talk about here today. Now, if you're reaching 22 00:02:50,349 --> 00:02:56,990 back in your memory to recall just where the Balkans are, let me refresh your memory. Now imagine a map of 23 00:02:56,990 --> 00:03:04,270 the Mediterranean Sea, and the Balkans, which is Turkish for mountains, is that peninsula in the 24 00:03:04,270 --> 00:03:11,710 Mediterranean basin, which includes Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania. It's one of the most 25 00:03:11,710 --> 00:03:17,750 mysterious and enigmatic places on earth. The newspaperman C.L. Salzberger calls the Balkans 26 00:03:17,750 --> 00:03:25,310 a carefree peninsula filled with sprightly people who ate peppered foods, drank strong liquors, 27 00:03:25,810 --> 00:03:32,710 wear flamboyant clothes, loved and murdered easily, and had a splendid talent for starting wars. 28 00:03:33,090 --> 00:03:40,889 Oh, what is little appreciated in today's atmosphere of the rise of Muslim fanaticism is that the founder 29 00:03:40,889 --> 00:03:49,530 of the great Ottoman Empire, Ottoman I invaded the small city of Gallipoli in Greece. And from there, 30 00:03:50,030 --> 00:03:58,030 Islam reached the shores of southern Europe as early as AD 1353. And from here, Islam, as propagated by 31 00:03:58,030 --> 00:04:03,729 and through the Ottoman Empire, would stretch from Greece to Hungary and threaten the very gates of 32 00:04:03,729 --> 00:04:10,870 Vienna before being turned back. The Ottoman Empire, primarily composed of the Seljuk Turks in Istanbul, 33 00:04:10,889 --> 00:04:16,910 and the Anatolian Peninsula. They would conquer and triumph over everyone and everything in its path 34 00:04:16,910 --> 00:04:23,490 and would last well into the 20th century. Now, remember, it is today's, like the days of the 35 00:04:23,490 --> 00:04:30,430 Ottoman Empire, that modern-day terrorists look for inspiration when they plan for a new modern 36 00:04:30,430 --> 00:04:37,730 Muslim taliphate on the earth. The modern jihadist longs for the power, glory, and wealth that 37 00:04:37,730 --> 00:04:44,370 characterized the centuries of domination exercised by the Ottoman sultans to them. Time is no barrier. 38 00:04:44,370 --> 00:04:49,290 It's like it happened yesterday. Therefore, it is incumbent upon anyone who would defend themselves 39 00:04:49,290 --> 00:04:54,709 against such aggression to look carefully at how this empire conducted itself. One of the reasons the 40 00:04:54,709 --> 00:04:59,769 Ottomans conquered in the Balkans is that they were fiercer than the peoples already there. 41 00:04:59,769 --> 00:05:05,470 So, in this regard, I must tell you about the secret weapon of the Ottomans. It was called the dreaded 42 00:05:05,470 --> 00:05:13,350 Janissaries. What or who were the Janissaries? Well, Janissaries is Turkish for new soldiers. 43 00:05:14,029 --> 00:05:21,810 They're a new elite fighting force developed and refined by the Turkish sultan Orkan I. As the armies 44 00:05:21,810 --> 00:05:27,509 of Allah would come sweeping through a Christian village, slicing and dicing everyone in their path or their 45 00:05:27,509 --> 00:05:33,050 scimitar, they would scoop up the young boys of the village alive, killing everyone else. These 46 00:05:33,050 --> 00:05:38,790 Christian youth would be severed from their roots and shipped back to Istanbul, where they would be 47 00:05:38,790 --> 00:05:46,009 converted to Islam and trained and indoctrinated as the most feared soldier of the age. Such was the fate 48 00:05:46,009 --> 00:05:51,850 of thousands of Christian children every year for centuries to come. They were not permitted to marry. 49 00:05:51,850 --> 00:05:58,050 They swore a solemn oath to the sultan and to him alone, and when not fighting, they trained and 50 00:05:58,050 --> 00:06:03,310 drilled in the most modern of fighting techniques. They were taught to be utterly fearless and willing 51 00:06:03,310 --> 00:06:09,129 to die at any moment for Allah and their sultan. They are compared as equals in every respect to 52 00:06:09,129 --> 00:06:15,029 Napoleon's old guard, and in particular Hitler's Waffen-SS, who swore an oath of allegiance not to 53 00:06:15,029 --> 00:06:22,269 Germany, but personally to Hitler himself. As one Serbian captain who had faced a squadron of 54 00:06:22,269 --> 00:06:27,970 janissaries and lived, he put it this way, better to face the army of demons from hell than the ranks 55 00:06:27,970 --> 00:06:34,430 of the sultan's janissaries. In front of them we stood in rank and order, ready to fight. Behind them, 56 00:06:34,569 --> 00:06:42,089 that is the janissaries, they left us nothing but blood, carnage, death, and chaos. So it's no 57 00:06:42,089 --> 00:06:47,410 surprise that, as one historian puts it, for the first three centuries of the Ottoman Empire, 58 00:06:47,769 --> 00:06:53,050 the janissaries were supreme on every battlefield where they fought, and they made it possible for 59 00:06:53,050 --> 00:06:58,149 the Ottomans to terrorize Europe until it seemed that one day all of Christendom would succumb to 60 00:06:58,149 --> 00:07:05,490 Islam. Oh, the Balkan Peninsula, dear listener, became the base of operations for the Muslim Ottomans. 61 00:07:05,490 --> 00:07:12,290 At first, Ottoman Turks were only one more people inhabiting the strange, beautiful, 62 00:07:12,709 --> 00:07:20,350 violent place I've been, to Romania, and it is a beautiful place in the mountains. But the fierce 63 00:07:20,350 --> 00:07:26,069 Ottomans soon foreshadowed why they would dominate these peoples and cast influence far beyond the 64 00:07:26,069 --> 00:07:32,509 borders of the Balkans. One of those dawning days in the consciousness of Europe came when a coalition 65 00:07:32,509 --> 00:07:38,110 force of armies was raised to capture and destroy the capital city of the Alamans in the west, that is, 66 00:07:38,430 --> 00:07:44,050 Gallipoli, and drive them back to Istanbul, ostensibly. And they were led by the great Serbian 67 00:07:44,050 --> 00:07:51,790 King Lazar I. The vast army was composed of Serbians and Malachians and Bosnians and Albanians. 68 00:07:52,189 --> 00:07:58,250 Just as today, these people were fighting and killing amongst themselves to see who would reign and 69 00:07:58,250 --> 00:08:04,410 rule over the other until they ran up against the new dark-skinned Orientals with their exotic tongue, 70 00:08:04,949 --> 00:08:11,350 their new religion and customs. Suddenly, all the petty differences between themselves evaporated in 71 00:08:11,350 --> 00:08:17,769 the face of this new threat from the east. The place where the two armies met is legendary even in 72 00:08:17,769 --> 00:08:25,430 our own day, Kosovo. Oh, now if you're a gray hair like me, you may vaguely remember Bill Clinton 73 00:08:25,430 --> 00:08:32,250 attempting to intervene in the mutual slaughter of Bosnian and Serb in and around Kosovo in the 74 00:08:32,250 --> 00:08:38,690 late 90s. They were fighting for control of the city when General Wesley Clark took over NATO troops 75 00:08:38,690 --> 00:08:48,149 and began bombing the Serbian capital, Belgrade, right? Oh, General Pavkovic said about Serbia, 76 00:08:48,809 --> 00:08:54,950 Serbia is in Kosovo and Kosovo is in Serbia. Serbian roots are in Kosovo and everything that's 77 00:08:54,950 --> 00:09:01,370 connected to the Serbs throughout the past centuries is there. Unquote. General Pavkovic is right. 78 00:09:01,690 --> 00:09:06,590 Everything connected to the Serbs throughout the past centuries is there. The battle between King 79 00:09:06,590 --> 00:09:15,230 Lazar I and Sultan Murad I was the seminal event in that long chain of memories. The coalition forces 80 00:09:15,230 --> 00:09:21,970 of King Lazar mustered almost 30,000 troops matched by 8,000 to 10,000 of the Adamants. 81 00:09:21,970 --> 00:09:27,830 And there on the fields of Kosovo, the two armies clashed. Back and forth, the battle went all day 82 00:09:27,830 --> 00:09:33,470 with the Serbs pushing back the Turks at one moment and the fierce Ottomans, led by the indomitable 83 00:09:33,470 --> 00:09:42,610 Janissaries, pushing back the Serbs at another moment. Wow. One brave Serbian, Miloš Kabilović, 84 00:09:42,710 --> 00:09:48,610 rode through the Ottoman ranks, feigning his betraying Lazar and his sympathies for Islam. 85 00:09:48,610 --> 00:09:55,250 And he was sent promptly to Murad, the first to be debriefed. Now, when Miloš got within striking 86 00:09:55,250 --> 00:10:01,870 distance, he pulled out a knife from his cloak and he stabbed Murad to death, getting cut down 87 00:10:01,870 --> 00:10:07,250 then himself by the Janissaries in the process. Well, Kabilović had heard stories of the Muslim 88 00:10:07,250 --> 00:10:13,230 assassins, and he saw an opportunity to employ the very same tactic on them that they were fond of 89 00:10:13,230 --> 00:10:19,490 visiting on Western leaders. This is the only known instance of anyone assassinating a Muslim prince 90 00:10:19,490 --> 00:10:26,169 when guarded by the elite corps of Janissaries. Well, with his dying breath, Murad ordered in his 91 00:10:26,169 --> 00:10:31,009 reserve troops into the battle, and this proved to tip the balance in the favor of the Adamants. 92 00:10:31,429 --> 00:10:38,690 At the end of the day, legend has it that King Lazar's nephew, Prince Yukh Bankowich, when he saw the 93 00:10:38,690 --> 00:10:44,730 reserve Janissaries entering the fray, suddenly became frightened and fled the battlefield in panic 94 00:10:44,730 --> 00:10:49,669 on Kassavu. Seeing one of their own leaders melt down, the rest of the troops collapsed and ran, 95 00:10:49,830 --> 00:10:55,230 and they were cut down by the now victorious Ottomans. King Lazar himself was captured, 96 00:10:55,710 --> 00:11:01,409 brought before the new sultan, Murad's son, Bajaze, who commanded his head be cut off. 97 00:11:01,409 --> 00:11:08,509 In addition, Bajaze ordered all of his brothers to be strangled so that there would be no quarrels 98 00:11:08,509 --> 00:11:13,590 as to who would succeed their now dead father. Finally, enraged at the high losses suffered that 99 00:11:13,590 --> 00:11:19,129 day by the Adamants, Bajaze ordered that all of the Christian prisoners be executed there and then 100 00:11:19,129 --> 00:11:26,009 in the fields of Kassavu. Well into the night, Muslim executioners would tie the Christian prisoners 101 00:11:26,009 --> 00:11:31,990 into groups of three and four and then behead them in bunches. Their arms grew weary as the 102 00:11:31,990 --> 00:11:37,149 night progressed, and so they resorted to cutting off hands and feet or slitting throats, which was 103 00:11:37,149 --> 00:11:45,529 easier, and let the soldiers bleed to death. Oh, there in the fields of Kassavu, over 30,000 men died 104 00:11:45,529 --> 00:11:52,570 in desperate battle in one day. On still evenings, it's said, the cries of men can still be heard, 105 00:11:52,570 --> 00:11:59,090 and apparitions stalked the woods in the tall grass. The place is known as the field of blackbirds. 106 00:11:59,549 --> 00:12:05,429 Since the very next day and for days afterwards, huge black ravens feasted off the corpses there. 107 00:12:06,110 --> 00:12:13,149 Oh, dear listener, this is the legend and the battle of Kassavu. It's fresh in the minds of every 108 00:12:13,149 --> 00:12:18,690 Serbian since. It might as well have happened yesterday to them. It has shaped Serbian character 109 00:12:18,690 --> 00:12:25,309 and attitudes as much as the Revolutionary War or the Civil War has shaped America. Every time a Serbian 110 00:12:25,309 --> 00:12:31,570 boy or man picks up a weapon to fight another war, as Robert Kaplan, the historian, puts it, 111 00:12:31,830 --> 00:12:37,429 every Serbian peasant soldier knows what he is fighting for. When he was a baby, his mother greeted 112 00:12:37,429 --> 00:12:45,490 him, hail, little avenger of Kassavu, unquote. Imagine how this would have shaped your consciousness if 113 00:12:45,490 --> 00:12:49,570 every time you entered on a new phase of your life, you were greeted with the exhortation, 114 00:12:49,990 --> 00:12:56,070 hail, little avenger of 9-11. From your mother, how would it shape your outlook on life? How would 115 00:12:56,070 --> 00:13:02,350 it color your worldview? So it is that the phrase heard all over the Balkans as a childhood ditty, 116 00:13:02,809 --> 00:13:09,629 hail, little avenger of Kassavu, has shaped the events of the Balkan Peninsula. Now, while the Battle 117 00:13:09,629 --> 00:13:16,730 of Kassavu shaped the Serbian mind as a devastating tragedy and served as an explanation for their 118 00:13:16,730 --> 00:13:22,389 desperate place in life, the Battle of Kassavu served as a point of pride and boasting for the 119 00:13:22,389 --> 00:13:30,730 Ottoman Turk Muslims. As one historian put it, Kassavu opened up for the Ottomans five centuries 120 00:13:30,730 --> 00:13:37,409 of victory, unquote. Nothing now stood in their way of dominating the Balkan Peninsula. Therefore, 121 00:13:37,409 --> 00:13:43,610 when you look at a map of the Ottoman Empire at its height, you see it stretch from Persia in the 122 00:13:43,610 --> 00:13:49,870 east to the borders of Hungary in the west. For some 300 years, they would reign supreme throughout 123 00:13:49,870 --> 00:13:56,730 this region. This is what they aspire to again, even today. Believe me, Christian, you owe a debt of 124 00:13:56,730 --> 00:14:04,230 gratitude to countless men of the west for their heroic stand, though, against the Ottoman Turks over the 125 00:14:04,230 --> 00:14:10,590 centuries of conflict that stretched those 300 years of domination in the Balkan Peninsula. 126 00:14:11,149 --> 00:14:17,830 There were heroes who resisted. Time and again, the Turk pressed the west from their strongholds in 127 00:14:17,830 --> 00:14:24,370 Hungary, moving inexorably westward towards Austria. Yet time and again, faithful Christian men would stand 128 00:14:24,370 --> 00:14:31,470 against them in village after village, nameless to us, but remembered in song and poem by Serb and Bosnian, 129 00:14:31,470 --> 00:14:38,509 Greek, and Russian. In fact, one poem celebrates the spiritual nature of King Lazar I, who chose 130 00:14:38,509 --> 00:14:44,809 a heavenly kingdom over an earthly kingdom when he was asked before his death by an angel, 131 00:14:45,269 --> 00:14:50,850 of what kind will you have your kingdom? Do you want a heavenly kingdom? Do you want an earthly kingdom? 132 00:14:51,509 --> 00:14:56,429 The czar chose a heavenly kingdom and not an earthly kingdom. Then the Turks overwhelmed Lazar, 133 00:14:56,429 --> 00:15:02,769 and his army was destroyed with him. All was holy, all was honorable, and the goodness of God was 134 00:15:02,769 --> 00:15:09,289 fulfilled, unquote. Oh, the list of faithful Christian men was large, and the Ottoman Empire, filled with the 135 00:15:09,289 --> 00:15:15,529 zeal of Islam and the vengeance of Allah, would have conquered without hesitation all of Europe and the 136 00:15:15,529 --> 00:15:22,269 English islands, if not for these men's faith. Well, just one of them I wanted to mention to you today 137 00:15:22,269 --> 00:15:30,649 goes by the name of Janos Hunyari. Janos Hunyari. Well, who in the world, you may ask, is Janos Hunyari? 138 00:15:30,990 --> 00:15:36,149 Of what significance can he possibly be? If I've never heard of him, well, history has a completely 139 00:15:36,149 --> 00:15:40,929 different view of him than most Westerners. One historian puts it this way. He says, 140 00:15:40,929 --> 00:15:47,330 the name Janos Hunyari is virtually unknown outside his native country, but who probably has done more 141 00:15:47,330 --> 00:15:53,769 than any other individual in history to stem the Muslim invasion that, in the 15th century, 142 00:15:53,950 --> 00:15:59,529 threatened to overwhelm Europe. It's one reason you're not speaking Arabic today. Did you hear that? 143 00:15:59,690 --> 00:16:04,929 There's one name among the millions who lived during the 15th century who did more to thwart 144 00:16:04,929 --> 00:16:10,690 the dominance of Christian Europe by the Ottoman Turk than any other. The literature of Western 145 00:16:10,690 --> 00:16:17,350 Europe is filled with the fear of the Ottoman Turk, more than we can ever imagine. No, 9-11 is nothing 146 00:16:17,350 --> 00:16:23,590 compared to this. If you can, multiply the fear and dread of 9-11 many thousand times over in your 147 00:16:23,590 --> 00:16:29,049 own imagination, and you may have a sense for the fear of the Muslim onslaught that characterized the 148 00:16:29,049 --> 00:16:34,029 period under consideration. Many times the Ottoman Turk threw themselves against the defenses of the 149 00:16:34,029 --> 00:16:40,590 West. Many dozens of times the West, excuse me, withstood their advances. One man who did 150 00:16:40,590 --> 00:16:46,690 this more effectively than any other remains a hero in the small nation of Hungary is the aforementioned 151 00:16:46,690 --> 00:16:52,590 Janos Hunyari. There are many kinds of heroes in the history of mankind. Those heroes who utterly 152 00:16:52,590 --> 00:16:58,049 vanquish their enemies, achieving great victories for their peoples. There are their tragic heroes who 153 00:16:58,049 --> 00:17:03,429 die valiantly in a lost cause, at great sacrifice to themselves and their nation. Then there are those 154 00:17:03,429 --> 00:17:08,789 like Hunyari, who struggle against great odds, achieving victories that should not be theirs, 155 00:17:09,269 --> 00:17:15,470 but who also die in the end without ever seeing the fruits of their labor. Such a hero was Janos 156 00:17:15,470 --> 00:17:22,470 Hunyari, to the West at least, and such a hero should he be to you, dear listener. Hunyari was rumored to be 157 00:17:22,470 --> 00:17:29,769 the son of a great Hungarian king, Sigismond. He was baptized in the magnificent Orthodox Basilica in 158 00:17:29,769 --> 00:17:35,529 Budapest, and grew up in the shadow of the church, with many of his relatives going into the priesthood. 159 00:17:35,670 --> 00:17:41,250 Yeah, he was a devout Christian, and he considered going into the priesthood, but was taught the skills 160 00:17:41,250 --> 00:17:47,890 and ways of the Christian knight instead. His early years as a prince are shrouded in mystery, but we 161 00:17:47,890 --> 00:17:52,990 know that he was a fearless warrior who early on learned to fight the Turk on his own ground and with 162 00:17:52,990 --> 00:17:58,490 his own weapons and tactics. He was the very model of the warrior prince, yet he lived among his people 163 00:17:58,490 --> 00:18:04,210 without title or claim, leading army after army in defense of his beloved homeland, Hungary. 164 00:18:04,849 --> 00:18:09,789 And while every other king and prince shrunk in fear at the prospect of resisting the overwhelming 165 00:18:09,789 --> 00:18:18,210 onslaught of the Ottoman Turk and his zealous fighting proxy, the Janissary Hunyari was often the lone 166 00:18:18,210 --> 00:18:23,829 general. Willing to risk everything to stop the Turk in his seeming unstoppable advance, 167 00:18:23,829 --> 00:18:31,390 he single-handedly created the European light cavalry, for instance, stripping the armor-laden knight of 168 00:18:31,390 --> 00:18:38,049 the Middle Ages of his heavy metal armor and equipping him instead with a lighter lance and sword, 169 00:18:38,349 --> 00:18:43,809 training him in tactical maneuvers that countered the swift tactics of the Muslim horsemen. 170 00:18:43,809 --> 00:18:50,190 His method and tactics would form the basis for centuries of the famous hussars, the very cavalry 171 00:18:50,190 --> 00:18:56,750 employed by Napoleon in his conquest of Europe. Well, Janos Hunyari, a man without land or title, 172 00:18:57,049 --> 00:19:01,569 would earn the reputation of a king, fighting in the valleys and mountains and ravines of Hungary, 173 00:19:01,950 --> 00:19:08,809 Montenegro, and Romania, ranging all over the Balkans, claiming no village or city as his home. 174 00:19:08,809 --> 00:19:15,289 He would appear in all the cities of the empire, from Rome to Vienna to Constantinople, negotiating with 175 00:19:15,289 --> 00:19:19,529 kings and popes and sultans. He was labeled a ghost and a devil. 176 00:19:20,190 --> 00:19:28,049 By his Ottoman enemies, a bandit and opportunist by local barons who envied his beloved status among 177 00:19:28,049 --> 00:19:34,529 the people, whose hearts were stolen by Hunyari, a king and patriot by the common people who loved 178 00:19:34,529 --> 00:19:39,809 him and trusted him to deliver them from the oppressive hand of the jihad and the pact of Omar. 179 00:19:40,529 --> 00:19:45,569 Just when the sultan's troops would appear at the outskirts of a village, ready to impose the 180 00:19:45,569 --> 00:19:51,910 predatory tax of the pact of Omar, ready to impound the farm implements of the villages for use in other 181 00:19:51,910 --> 00:19:58,450 places, and intent upon impressing the youths of the village into the ranks of the janissaries, well, 182 00:19:58,950 --> 00:20:04,130 Hunyari would descend upon the sultan's troops from the mountain heights. He would strike them swiftly 183 00:20:04,130 --> 00:20:09,730 and suddenly, being outnumbered regularly by 10 to 1. He taught his men to pick off those at the front 184 00:20:09,730 --> 00:20:14,970 and back of the column, along with any stragglers, and then quickly disappear back into the mountains 185 00:20:14,970 --> 00:20:21,529 and valleys of the Balkans. By doing this day after day, year after year, sometimes letting months go by 186 00:20:21,529 --> 00:20:29,170 before striking again, he instilled fear into the hearts of the fearless Turk. Oh, turning the tables, 187 00:20:29,289 --> 00:20:35,309 if you will. And on occasion, at the time and place of his own choosing, Hunyari would fight a pitch battle 188 00:20:35,309 --> 00:20:41,609 with his adamant foes. Oh, across a fearful Europe, one historian put it, the pope, the cardinals, 189 00:20:41,769 --> 00:20:45,789 the bishops, and the priests prayed and trembled, and the faithful, if they had the knowledge and 190 00:20:45,789 --> 00:20:53,210 imagination, shuddered at the advent of the Turks. Hunyari didn't tremble, excuse me, Hunyari didn't 191 00:20:53,210 --> 00:21:01,390 tremble. He fought, unquote. Oh, Janos Hunyari is one of those rare men without whom we all would be 192 00:21:01,390 --> 00:21:07,609 speaking Arabic today. The next time you say a prayer, give thanks to God for Janos Hunyari and 193 00:21:07,609 --> 00:21:15,190 other obscure heroes like him, from whom we must learn how to resist the rising tide of militant 194 00:21:15,190 --> 00:21:21,309 Islam in our own day. Don't be naive. Wake up, listener. How are we to do this? How are we to 195 00:21:21,309 --> 00:21:27,650 evaluate what happened on that mountainous, densely forested peninsula called the Balkans? Oh, 196 00:21:27,650 --> 00:21:34,309 number one, we must realize the religious faith of the Ottoman Turk was focused. The long tradition 197 00:21:34,309 --> 00:21:41,309 of jihad thrived under the Turkish sultans. In fact, Islam would enjoy another period of greatness and 198 00:21:41,309 --> 00:21:47,589 triumph as Arabic and Egyptian and Persian caliphates would feed into and be transformed 199 00:21:47,589 --> 00:21:54,710 into one of the greatest caliphs in history, Suleiman the Magnificent. Remember the very name 200 00:21:54,710 --> 00:22:01,470 caliph means lieutenant, the idea being that a caliph is Allah's chosen successor to Muhammad. 201 00:22:01,869 --> 00:22:08,210 The religious faith of the Ottoman Turk was focused on conquest. And secondly, we must realize 202 00:22:08,210 --> 00:22:14,789 that the Ottoman Turk had a heritage of strong leaders. From the founding father of the Ottoman 203 00:22:14,789 --> 00:22:22,789 Empire, Uthman I, to the very embodiment of Islamic glory, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Turks 204 00:22:22,789 --> 00:22:29,190 raised up a constant stream of able caliphs and generals. You have to realize this if we're going 205 00:22:29,190 --> 00:22:35,130 to fight it. These men were fearless and pious, committed to spreading the faith at the edge of 206 00:22:35,130 --> 00:22:42,390 gleaming scimitars and raping, plundering, and destroying the infidel, that's us, along the way. 207 00:22:42,650 --> 00:22:48,630 On the side of the West, with a rare exception of real heroes like Hunyadi, leadership was scarce and 208 00:22:48,630 --> 00:22:55,650 weak. Instead, what developed is what you have today. People ran and hid in the caves of secluded 209 00:22:55,650 --> 00:23:01,190 valleys of the densely forested mountains on the Balkan Peninsula, where, out of the persistent 210 00:23:01,190 --> 00:23:07,450 reach of the Turk, Western culture and church would survive, but barely. Oh, dear listener, number 211 00:23:07,450 --> 00:23:14,769 three, realize the Ottoman Turk had the supreme military force on earth. The Ottoman Turk had the 212 00:23:14,769 --> 00:23:22,789 supreme military force on earth. What would happen if, indeed, Muslims today got a hold of the supreme 213 00:23:22,789 --> 00:23:30,309 military force of the United States, for example? Now, for over 300 years, the Ottoman Empire would expand 214 00:23:30,309 --> 00:23:38,309 and triumph virtually unopposed, stopped only by geography and the occasional pest, like Janos Hunyadi. 215 00:23:38,309 --> 00:23:44,509 This they did by applying and refining the fighting techniques brought with the Seljuk Turk from the 216 00:23:44,509 --> 00:23:50,109 steppes of Asia and Turkestan. Combined with the long tradition of the Muslim warriors in Arabia, 217 00:23:50,549 --> 00:23:56,329 the Ottoman Turk fashioned an invincible army that culminated in the special forces, if you will, 218 00:23:56,509 --> 00:24:03,309 of the ancient world, that is, the Janissaries. Number four, we must also realize that the Ottoman Turk 219 00:24:03,309 --> 00:24:10,470 created one of the great Islamic cultures. Yes, even the opposites did in Persia. The Ottomans would 220 00:24:10,470 --> 00:24:16,329 bring all of the wealth and knowledge plundered from other lands to Istanbul and the Anatolian 221 00:24:16,329 --> 00:24:23,549 Peninsula and create the great culture of the Ottoman Empire. Oh, therefore, Christian, do not 222 00:24:23,549 --> 00:24:31,690 underestimate the enemy that we face. You've learned that Islam is capable of generating a powerful world 223 00:24:31,690 --> 00:24:37,269 and life view, one that inspires men to great heights of achievement and power. You've also 224 00:24:37,269 --> 00:24:43,630 seen how the West consistently underestimated this capability and they paid dearly for it in loss 225 00:24:43,630 --> 00:24:50,829 after loss and how weakness and division made us incapable of effective resistance. That patterns be 226 00:24:50,829 --> 00:24:58,230 repeated in our own day. All around us, we observe some of these very same qualities in our own leaders, 227 00:24:58,230 --> 00:25:06,049 weakness, who underestimate the powerful upsurge of Islamic fervor around the world, and they rather practice 228 00:25:06,049 --> 00:25:13,730 the religion of political correctness, pretending that all religions are of equal value and no one is more 229 00:25:13,730 --> 00:25:21,009 of a threat than any other. Oh, nation states like Iran are militantly Islamic, and they seek to strengthen 230 00:25:21,009 --> 00:25:28,089 all of those characteristics just outlined for you. Do you want America to succumb to the fate of the Balkans? 231 00:25:28,230 --> 00:25:34,029 Where a map of our people and religion and cultures when plotted by color looks like a kaleidoscope of 232 00:25:34,029 --> 00:25:40,190 clashing colors and cultures, all fighting and vying with one another, until the very word for violent 233 00:25:40,190 --> 00:25:47,910 parochialism and butchery is still called balkanization. If this will not be the fate of America, 234 00:25:47,910 --> 00:25:54,890 then pray, oh Christian, for a reformation of Christianity in our land, and for raising up 235 00:25:54,890 --> 00:26:02,029 strong leaders with a vision for leading us, for a strong military with a vital esprit de corps, 236 00:26:02,309 --> 00:26:08,849 and for a vibrant and productive Western culture based not upon the holy trinity of tolerance, 237 00:26:09,049 --> 00:26:16,009 diversity, and radical egalitarianism, no, but upon the Christian faith, Republican government, 238 00:26:16,009 --> 00:26:23,710 in a free market capitalist economy. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian 239 00:26:23,710 --> 00:26:30,029 Church with a moment of truth. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sundays at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street 240 00:26:30,029 --> 00:26:36,690 on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We invite you to join us and visit us. We have strong men and leaders 241 00:26:36,690 --> 00:26:49,609 in our own congregation. And you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.