HOW ISLAM CONSOLIDATED ITS POWER

AND SPREAD ITS MESSAGE

PART 4 OF 4

 

            ISIS and radical Islam are the main issues in our world but Westerners know so little about Islam. I encourage everyone to read my book, Radical Islam’s War Against Israel, Christianity and the West. For those who are interested, I am available to teach on “ISIS, the Islamic Caliphate and the End Times.” This is really, really important. So please call our office to discuss your interest.

To help you understand how Islam established itself as a regional power and threat to the West, I am posting a blog of four articles entitled, “How Islam Consolidated its Power and Spread its Message.” The information presented focuses on the four leaders who succeeded Mohammed. This article is about Ali bin Abu Taleb.

 

Ali bin Abu Taleb (656-661)

 

            The fourth and last of the Arabian Caliphs or successors was Ali bin Abu Taleb. Ali was a cousin of Mohammed. Shiite Islamic leaders believed he was the true successor because he was blood kin to Mohammed. Others wanted to revenge the murder of Uthman. In a bitter rivalry, Ali was murdered in 661. His son, Hussain, was Mohammed’s grandson. He was murdered in 680. This caused a great split in Islam which still exists today. The followers of Ali are the Shiites and the followers of “the majority rule” are the Sunnis. About 85% of the one billion Muslims are Sunni. Iran and Iraq are Shiite.

 

Damascus Caliphs

With Ali died, the center of the Islamic world moved from Arabia to Damascus, Syria. Islamic leaders from Damascus further extended Islam conquering more territory including all of North Africa and Spain as well as lands stretching to the western border of China and the southern borders of France. In 691, the Dome of the Rock was built in Jerusalem to show Muslim superiority over Judaism. In 715, the Great Mosque of Damascus was built to replace the Great Cathedral of St. John to show the superiority of Islam over Christianity.

 

Battle of Tours

Islam was now eager and convinced it could conquer the West. One of the most important battles of history took place in France at the Battle of Tours. Muslims were poised to bring “Christian Europe” under the rule of Islam. With their superior numbers, fanaticism, and successful conquest in battle, Islamic leaders and warriors thought they could easily defeat the French. Yet they were miraculously stopped by Charles Martel in 732. They were only 100 miles from Paris. The defeat was a shock to what had been an unstoppable army. After this defeat, Islam moved its capital from Damascus to Baghdad.

On two occasions Islam attacked Vienna. Again with superior numbers, the armies of Islam were convinced that victory was certain. But on both occasions, they failed. Finally, in 1453, the Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople thus bringing an end to the Christian Byzantine Empire. They changed the name to Istanbul.

An Islamic Turkey ruled the Middle East from 1517 to 1917 when the Western powers defeated them in World War I. When turkey was defeated, the land of Israel, which the world called Palestine, was a barren wasteland waiting for its rightful owners, the Jews, to return home and claim it for themselves. Turkey was reconstituted as a secular state an aligned itself with the West until recently when the new Turkish leaders turned Turkey into an Islamic state. Their desire is to once again make Turkey the leader of a unified Islamic caliphate.