Islam: Their Significant History With the 9/11 Date With Bill Federer: With the recent anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, we”€™re taking some time to remember what happened, discuss lessons we need to learn, and also how we can protect our nation going forward. Bill Federer from the American Minute will be joining us today to talk about his book on the Qur’an and what every American should know about it. Tune in now for more!

Air Date: 09/17/2018

Guest: Bill Federer

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

You”€™ve found your to the intersection of faith and the culture. Welcome to WallBuilders Live where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. Always from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim Barton”€™s with us, national speaker and pastor, and the president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator.

You can find out more about all three of us at WallBuildersLive.com, that’s our radio site with a list of stations, it also has archives of our past programs. And then at WallBuilders.com where there’s a wealth of information waiting for you. Go check out both those websites today.

David, Tim, later in the program Bill Federer will be with us to talk about his book on the Qur’an and what every American should know about it. Last week of course was 9/11 and there wasn’t nearly the same level of coverage on 9/11. Kind of a reminder of what happened, and the lessons we need to learn, and how we can protect our nation going forward. So, we thought we’d take a couple of days this week to talk a little bit more about it on the heels of it.

So, today Bill will be with us. And the next couple of days we’re going to be sharing, David, your program on the First War on radical Islamic terrorism. It”€™s going to be an interesting week hopefully. Some great biblical, historical, and constitutional, information for folks out there today.

One of Those Things You Want to Keep Remembering

David:

Yeah, it is a good time to remember and look back. And we have moved now 17 years downstream from that. And there’s been a lot of Americans born since that point in time that did not see 9/11, or that were too young to remember it. But it’s one of those things that you want to keep remembering. It’s a landmark for this generation. It certainly initiated the modern war on terror. As you mentioned, it’s not the first war on terror. We actually fought Muslim terrorists for 32 years back in the American founding. So, we’ll talk about that later in the week.

But what happened on 9/11 was not unpredictable. It was not surprising in the sense that this is something that Islamic terrorist have been doing for years. It”€™s been associated with who they are as a people. So, while we weren’t prepared for specifically on 9/11, the philosophy that was there is one that we’ve been fighting against for hundreds of years except we’ve forgotten much of that history.

And Bill Federer is really, really, good at looking back and making connections historically to what’s even going today. So, remembering 9/11 and looking back at what motivated these folks, and looking back to some other important events in history, that’s a good thing for us to do even and in helping remember 9/11 this year 17 years later.

Rick:

Bill Federer, our special guest. Stay with us, folks. We”€™ll be right back on WallBuilders Live.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment, Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Back with us is Bill Federer. Bill, always good to have you, brother. Thanks for your time.

Bill Federer:

Rick, great to be with you.

Have Americans Awakened to This?

Rick:

Well, you’ve done a ton of books and research on the specific topic we wanted to cover today on the heels of 9/11 and the anniversary. You’ve looked into this a lot closer than I think most Americans have and tried to educate people on what the Qur’an actually says, what the threat of radical Islam actually is. So, here we are just past the anniversary. Do you think Americans have awakened to that? Or do you think we’ve almost kind of forgotten 9/11 in many ways?

Bill Federer:

Well, there is a battle going on for the mind. And one of the things we see is the– past behavior is the best indicator of future performance. So, we can slice and dice Qur”€™an verses all day long, but if we look at history it tells a story that there’s been an expansionist aspect to Islam that includes military. And, of course, they conquered all of North Africa, invaded Spain, held it for 700 years, conquered the entire Middle East, conquered all of what is today Turkey used to be the Byzantine Empire.

But then as they come into Europe there’s actually three dates on September 11th that the Muslim armies suffered major defeat. And in Islam it’s not an individual religion, it’s more of a team. They call it the Olma, a community, it”€™s a group, it’s sort of peer pressure. And as your team loses, how does the team regain its honor? It wins. So these are–

Why The Dates Are So Important

Rick:

So, those dates are very important to them.

Bill Federer:

Yes. So, honor and shame based cultures that when you’re suffered defeats on a particular day then to regain your honor you have to win. The question is why they picked September 11th. Well, if you look back, back in 1527 there was a major defeat of the Muslims when they were there around Vienna. 1565 they suffer a major defeat at Malta. And then 1683 and 1697.

And it’s sort of interesting to go back and look at the military might that the Ottoman Empire had. We really get into the concept of separation of church and state in the correct way, but back in Islamic countries they had no concept of that whatsoever. That the state is together with their Islamic faith and it’s a military, political, religious, system all in one.

But anyway, if you like, I could share a couple of these stories I think the listeners might find interesting.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah. In fact, you’ve got a book, What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur’an: A history of Islam and the United States. Not only those defeats back in the 1500s and 1600s. What is the– where does America’s kind of interaction with Islam and the Qur”€™an really began?

Bill Federer:

Well, when the Muslims conquered Constantinople it cut off the land routes to India and that’s when Columbus set sail looking for a sea route. Everybody that hates Columbus needs to read one chapter earlier in the history book and realize the reason Columbus set sail in the first place is because the Muslims had conquered all of Central Asia and cut off the land routes to India and China.

Rick:

Wow.

The History You Never Learned

Bill Federer:

And they finally sacked Constantinople in 1453. So, that’s when the Europeans look for a sea route. Vasco da Gama win around South Africa, made it to go to India in 1498. But Columbus thought the earth was smaller in diameter and said, “€œHey, you can make it just by sailing west.”€ And he runs into America. Took four voyages and he still was convinced he’s wandering around Cuba with a letter to the * thinking he”€™s somewhere in China or someplace. But the reason he set sail was because the Muslims cut off the land routes.

But then piracy. So, the Muslims– Muhammad and his 300 warriors robbed caravans, so this was transition to the sea. They had Muslim pirates called the Barbary Pirates and they would basically control the Mediterranean. They raided the coasts of Sicily, and Greece, and the islands, and Italy, and of course they had Spain for 700 years, they sacked Rome. In 846 A.D. 11,000 Muslim pirates sacked Rome, Italy and trashed the graves of St. Peter and St. Paul. It was after that that Pope Leo decided to build a 39 foot wall around the Vatican. So, here you have the pope building a wall to keep the muslims out. Anyway, a little interesting–

Rick:

Oh, you just rattled off– you already rattled off like five things I had no idea the connection there. So, yeah, I think I”€™m going to change the title of your book – not what every American needs to know about the Qur’an. What Rick needs to know about the Qur”€™an. I didn’t know that stuff either. Keep going. This is good.

Bill Federer:

Well, so in 1565 you have the Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, who claimed to be going to be the ruler of the world. And he almost completes it, but he is there on the Mediterranean and he is attacking Sicily, Sardinia, Mallorca, Spain, and threatens Rome.

So, Malta, it’s a little fortified island just south of Sicily. It was where the Apostle Paul landed. It’s mentioned there. But by this time it’s fortified island and this defended by the Knights of Malta. And it’s a religious order that basically wants to defend Christendom. The Muslims have a leader named Dragut and he has 200 ships, 40,000 Muslim soldiers, 6500 elite Janissary troops who were– Janissaries are a whole story in and of themselves.

First Full Time Army Since Roman Times

Bill Federer:

When the Muslims would capture a Christian area, they would confiscate the Christian boys and brainwash them and indoctrinate them to become Muslim soldiers. And then they would put them on the frontlines to attack the next Christian area. They were not allowed to grow full beards, just mustaches, they had to wear white hats in battle, they could never marry. And they had to look to the Sultan as their father. They were the first full time army since Roman times. Other people would fight and then go back to their families. More to that.

But anyway, so Dragut, is the Muslim Admiral, 1565 this year. He says, “€œUnless we smoke out the nest of vipers. You can do no good anywhere.”€ The nest of vipers was Malta. Queen Elizabeth, we’re familiar with her in Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth remarked, “€œIf the Turks should prevail against the island of Malta it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom.”€

So, leading the Knights of Malta is a 70 year old French guy named John Lavallette. Plea is sent for before reinforcements, nobody comes. So, he tells his men, “€œA formidable army composed of audacious barbarians is descending on this island. These persons, my brothers, are the enemies of Jesus Christ. Today it is a question of the defense of our faith as to whether the Gospels are to be superseded by the Qur’an. God, on this occasion, demands of us our lives already vowed to His service. Happy will be those who first consummate the sacrifice.”€

So, here he is saying, “€œOkay, guys, we”€™re on this island of Malta. We have this formidable Muslim fleet coming. No reinforcements are coming from Europe. It’s just us. It’s a battle between the Qur”€™an and the Gospels. Would you join this order? You’ve vowed to give your life for Christ. Basically, you’re going to have to give it here, so let’s go for it.”€

Anyway, so the Muslims attacked and they’re brutal. They have their cannons, they pound away at these fortresses for weeks, and then they charge in to clean up.

“€œFight Until You Die”€

Bill Federer:

Well, these guys climb out of the rubble, these Knights of Malta, and they fight back the Muslim army. They do it again, and again, and again. When they’re– one of the castles is destroyed, the young men make it back to the main castle and they told John Lavallette we made it. He goes, “€œWhat are you doing here? You”€™re supposed to fight till you die.”€ And he sends them back and they fight till they die.

Rick:

Wow.

Bill Federer:

Well, the Muslims blast through the last wall of the last castle and everybody runs to the back. This 70 year old John Lavallette stands in the gap in the wall with his sword out and the Muslims– here the walls *, and the dust settles, there’s just one old guy standing there, and they hesitate. And all the rest of the soldiers say, “€œWell, we’re going to die anyway we may as well die with him.”€ So, they charge and the Muslims didn’t expect to blow a hole in the wall and have people charge out of the hole.

So, they charge at the Muslims, they chase them down the hill, they route them. Finally a couple boatloads of reinforcements came, and Dragut Rhys is killed, and the Muslims sail away on September 11th, 1565. It’s considered one of the first major defeat to the Muslim navy in the Mediterranean.

Rick:

Wow I thought this was going to end up being an Alamo story. I really did. I was like, this whole thing, I”€™m going– what’s his name now, John Lavallette?

Bill Federer:

Correct.

Rick:

So, I was thinking John Lavallette is William Barrett Travis, except he’s 50 years older than Travis, and does the victory or death, they all die. But no, they defeated them and they defeated them on 9/11.

Bill Federer:

Right. 9/11, September 11th, is the date in 1565. Now, what’s left of the fleet goes back to Constantinople, the Muslim Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, is furious. He vows to build up his navy and destroy Europe. He dies a year later. His son Saleen the Drunkard takes over who spends a lot of time with his harems and he loses the battle of Lepanto, a big victory for the holy league, the Christian West.

Battle of Vienna

Bill Federer:

But now let’s fast forward to 1683. This is the same time William Penn is founding Pennsylvania. And you have 138,000 Muslims surrounding Vienna, Austria. And for two months they’re starving the 11,000 Habsburg Austrian defenders. The Sultan by this time is *Mamad IV. He sent a message to the Austrian King Leopold. He says, “€œAwait us in your residence so we can decapitate you.”€ Well, anyway, to the rescue comes the Polish king, Jan Sobieski. So, he leaves 81,000 Polish Austrian German troops and they do a surprise attack coming to the rescue of Vienna on September 11th 1683.

The Muslims fight all day long and they think it’s just about over. When he sends the signal and out of the hillside, out of the woods, comes 40,000 cavalry that had been waiting up there all day long. And these guys had made wings for their back, you know how soldiers will put horns on their helmet? These guys made these enormous black wings and they charge. These wings made this flapping whistling noise and it freaked the Turkish Muslims out and they drop their weapons and flee. This cavalry charges down, drives off the Muslims.

And, of course, the little trivia story is after the victory, Jan Sobieski, the Polish king, is going through the abandoned Muslim camp. And he goes into their tents and he finds bags of beans, coffee beans.

Rick:

Really.

The Beginning of Coffee in the West

Bill Federer:

And realizes this was this new drink the Muslims had that allowed them to fight day and night. And shortly thereafter, the Polish general opens the first Polish coffeehouse. His name was General Koltschizky. He opens the first Vienna coffeehouse. Now trivia, they weren’t sure if they should drink coffee because it was the muslim”€™s drink. The beans came from Ethiopia, which was a Christian country in Africa. Ethiopia was able to stay Cristian. The Muslims called the Christians “€œcoffers”€, which means infidel, “€œcoffer”€. Since the beans came from the Christian Ethiopians the Muslim called them “€œcoffer beans”€ or “€œinfidel beans”€.

So, they weren’t sure if they should drink the coffer drink. So, they took a cup of it to Pope Clement and he tasted it and said whether or not they should drink this drink of the devil. Clement said, “€œThe devil’s drink is so good we should cheat the devil by baptizing it.”€ So, coffee spread across Europe. So, the next you have your cup of infidel you can celebrate the victory of the Battle of Vienna–

Rick:

Oh wow.

Bill Federer:

–September 11th, 1683.

Rick:

Bill, that is amazing. Okay, first of all, I guess I’m truly an infidel because I love coffee, so– This is incredible. So, tell me, are these stories in your book on what every American should know about the Qur’an?

Bill Federer:

Yes. Yes.

Rick:

I love it, I love it. Alright, I got it. Folks, you”€™ve got to read this, you”€™ve got to learn this, what a great time to do this on the anniversary of 9/11. I love to know this history. So, that’s just two of the dates so far. Incredible stories on there. And John LaFollette, I”€™ve got– Lavallette, I”€™ve got a new hero there. Good stuff. Bill Feder, website people can go get– I wish we had more time– website people can go get more of these stories from you?

One More Date

Bill Federer:

It’s AmericanMinute.com. And the last story is in 1697, the Muslims are surrounding Belgrade Serbia. And the leader of the Holy league is Eugene of Savoy and one of the young soldiers that’s fighting with Eugene of Savoy is James Oglethorpe. We know him because he went on to found the colony of Georgia. Anyway, 30,000 Turks are invading and Eugene of Savoy was able to drive them out on September 11th, 1697.

So, three major battles on September 11th. In 1565, 1683, and 1697. And that’s why they think they picked that date to restart their concourse. Because these were major pushbacks to the Islamic goal of having a world government, called the caliphate. And these were pushbacks, so they thought well maybe they used that date to say they’re restarting their conquest. But nevertheless, it’s fascinating to know the history.

Rick:

Very, very, fascinating, Bill. God bless you, brother. Appreciate your time. AmericanMinute.com is the website. And then the book is called What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur”€™an. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on again today.

Bill Federer:

Thank you, Rick. It’s always an honor to be on with WallBuilders.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Join Us In Israel!

Hey guys what are you doing January 28th through February 7th? If you said you don’t know, let me give you an idea. We are going to Israel. Rick Green, my dad, David Barton, Tim Barton, our families are going and we would love for you to go with us. We are going to the Holy Land if you’ve ever been to Israel this is something as a Christian that will make you forever read your bible differently.

To see where Jesus walked, where He lived, where He did miracles, where so much of the Bible took place. If you’ve ever read through the Bible and you’ve given it a mental picture, the mental picture will not do justice of what happens when you’re actually on the ground. If you’ve ever thought about the story of David and Goliath and you”€™ve envisioned what it looks like, we’re going to go to the actual field where it took place.

There are so many things that you will see that literally makes the Bible come to life. In fact, that’s the name of the tour group we”€™re going with is The Bible Comes to Life. Go to CMJacksboro.com. You can click on the link, it has an Israel itinerary, all kinds of details. Hope to see you on this trip this coming year.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live. Thanks to Bill Federer for joining us as well. We’re back with David and Tim. Guys, man, he just rattles it off like it’s just no big deal. But there were things in there I had no idea what amazing connections. It makes history make more sense when you actually step back and go into those things. I’ve always just gone back kind of the American founding. I love this going back before that and seeing why some of these things happen.

Tim:

It really does give a lot of perspective and even kind of looking at where America was and we felt so blindsided when this attack happened on 9/11. But as Bill points out, right, historically that date had some significance and there were some things going on culturally. And, Rick, as you’re mentioning kind of looking at a bigger picture history, it really is something that if Americans had been better students– And really, we could say most people in the world, right. If we were a better students of history than a lot of this kind of stuff would not surprise us.

Big Picture History

Tim:

But Bill really did a great job of walking through, and unfolding, and helping explain the history, of why there has been some of these battles, of what’s going on. And really, it made me think I need to go back and read his book again. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that book. And certainly, he just does such a good job outlining and highlighting some of these details that, frankly, most people have just never heard of.

David:

Well, there is a lot of bad stuff that happened that he covered including the introduction of coffee. We get coffee out of this. That is a good deal.

Rick:

Wait a minute. Alright, you”€™re getting in my kitchen now literally.

David:

I thought that was hilarious on the coffee stuff.

Rick:

Yeah.

David:

And what the pope said about coffee the first time it was tasted. That was like a little tidbit off the side that was really kind of fun to go with the seriousness of the story.

Rick:

Yeah, I’m surprised, I can’t believe I’ve never heard that story. That’s that’s crazy.

But so let’s kind of shift this now to what do we do today with this information? Like why do we need to know so much about the Qur”€™an and Islam’s significance for 9/11?  Why does that matter to us today?

Tim:

That’s a great question, Rick. I would say my first two initial thoughts are, obviously, as Christians we’ve been called to reach the world. We’ve been called to make disciples of all nations. And one of the things if you’re going to help lead somebody to truth you can never give proper directions to help somebody arrive at the right location if you don’t know where they’re starting from.

Knowing What People Believe

Tim:

One of the things that”€™s important is to know what people in the world believe, right, so that we know how we can talk to them. One of the things, if you look in the book of Acts in the Bible, when Paul goes to the Areopagus, Paul didn’t just share that gospel with them. Paul looked around and said, “€œI see all these gods.”€ And Paul starts naming the gods and recognized not only what those gods were, but what they represented and why they prayed to them. And because Paul knew their culture he was able to explain to them in a way that, a language they understood. Communicating in kind of their, a message they can appreciate.

And when he gets into this, “€œWell, you have this idol to an unknown god, let me tell you about this unknown god who has now revealed Himself.”€ So, this is where I think first of all as Christians we really ought to be able to know what people believe so we can help lead and guide them to ultimate truth by knowing where they’re starting from.

But the second thing I think just practically as a nation. One of the things that you can back up Sun Ztu said, “€œKnow thy enemy.”€ And not that we want to declare everybody that believes in Islam, everybody that holds the Qur’an, is an enemy necessarily, no. But I think obviously strategically if there are Islamic terrorists and they are targeting America, well, we ought to know why are they targeting us, where does this come from? It’s really spelled out pretty well in their beliefs and in the Qur’an.

This is one of the things that, again, Bill does a great job of highlighting where these beliefs come from, why they believe what they believe. And even going through the coffer and many other things. I think as Christians we need to know what they believe so we can help reach them for Christ. But as a nation in the sense of national defense, if there are people that are declaring themselves our enemy then we need to know our enemy, so we know why they are doing what they do, what motivates them, and maybe even how we can stop that.

Rick:

Let’s just continue this conversation tomorrow and the next couple of days. We’re going to we’re going to share some great research, David, that you did on America’s first war on radical Islamic terrorism. Just a wealth of information there. Nothing that’s taught today. And Bill actually alluded to some of that with the Barbary Pirates. But this CD that we’re going to be sharing with folks over the next couple days is incredible.

Islam: Their Significant History With the 9/11 Date With Bill Federer

Folks, you can actually get it. If you’re going to miss the program this week for any reason go to WallBuilders.com and get the CD itself. It’s called A Spiritual and Historical Perspective of America’s War on Terror. That’s available at WallBuilders.com. We’ll have a link today to make it easy on WallBuildersLive.com. Just great information. Don’t miss the next couple of days as we cover that topic in depth.

And then let’s also make sure we go check out WallBuilders.com and look at ways you can come alongside us and partner with the program. You can even go to WallBuilders Live and just click on the “€œcontribute”€ button and that will take you to a place where you can make a one time contribution to be a financial partner of our program or monthly. And that monthly contribution really helps us know what we can do throughout the year for adding stations, for adding new programs, and training more leaders as we train pastors, and legislators, and young people.

So, be sure to go to WallBuildersLive.com today and click on “€œcontribute”€ and look at what you can do. Maybe just give up one special coffee. We talked about coffee today and how it came along. If you’re paying five bucks for your coffee when you go out, just one of those a month and make a five dollar contribution to WallBuilders can make a huge difference as we help to save America’s constitutional republic.

Thanks for listening today to WallBuilders Live.