The Crescent and the Cross

Whither goeth the Muslim Crescent
No one knows for sure when and why the Crescent has become the insigne of Islam: there is even some evidence that it has been borrowed from the Eastern Roman Empire… One way or another, for a lot of folks today that innocent young moon looks pretty much threatening.

The relations between Islam and the West are too rich and diverse to be covered in a short article. For instance, they resulted in the birth of the US Navy. In the new-born American Republic some would argue against keeping the Navy altogether, relegating bloody war games on the high seas to crooked monarchs of the Old World. The honor of shattering this illusion belongs to the North African pirates: their trade was exactly the same as that of the Chechen warlords (PC for bandits) 200 years later on the Russian territory. The Americans were annoyed big time; they built a few good frigates, the famous Constitution among them, recruited courageous sailors, procured enough munitions, ─ and soon the American merchant ships were guaranteed a free passage…

It would be an unforgivable folly, however, to limit one’s view of Islam by events of that nature. More than for anyone else, it would be unforgivable for the Russians: we ought to keep in mind that Muslims made up a large share of the population of the Russian Empire, and quite a distinguished share, to that. In February 1917, when our country was wrecked by insidious conspiracy, there was a single top military commander who remained loyal to his duty: Khan of Nakhichevan, a Muslim.

That was no coincidence, to be sure. The Muslims of Old Russia, attracted into the orbit of the Christian civilization, had little in common with their “post-Christian” co-religionists, so familiar from Chechnya, Albania or Palestine. The White Tsar was their Tsar; they swore allegiance to him before the sacred Book of Quran just like their Christian neighbors ─ before the Cross and the Gospel. And when the Tsar was slain, when gospels were turned into fuel for bonfires and crosses into trinkets for the Commissars’ whores, ─ was there any reason for keeping that allegiance?...

The same is going on as we speak on a global scale. Islam is no crazy sect; it is a genuine religion with a profound ancient tradition, its origins rooted in Christianity. That means, it is a religion of partial truth; it hardly needs a reminder that anything true, lucid and kind we encounter in Islam comes from the True God Who became Man, was crucified, raised from the dead and established the religion of complete truth. And while Christianity, in whatever shape and form, was still alive in the leading civilization, it was only natural to assume that the partial truth of Islam (as well as any other genuine religious tradition) would not disappear, but rather retain the whole mankind from sliding towards hell.

When, however, the Western nations trampled upon their priceless Christian heritage, when they destroyed it, shoved it into the dark dusty closet, or disfigured it as a horrendous cartoon, ─ then broke the umbilical cord which had been mystically nurturing a good part of the planet with the life-giving essence of Christ’s truth. Thenceforth and through this day, subhumanity is on the assault.

Upon each stage of today’s bloody tragedy ─ that is, daily ─ we hear from the PC media the same nagging litany: Permanent war with Islam… perpetual hostility… deeply rooted age-old hatred… This is lie. Cheap, primitive lie, designed for modern-age TV viewers with dysfunctional memory and power-washed brains. Wars, indeed, never ceased to happen ─ but peace was always a tangible reality. Nations knew how to make peace on Earth and support good will among men. All-in-all, it took six centuries for the Russians to subdue their defiant Muslim neighbors ─ only to see in them a glorious example of fidelity and loyalty to their new Christian homeland.

And it is only in our super-progressive XXI century that Muslims en masse have begun wrapping themselves into explosives to reduce into dust as many bystanders as possible. Anyone familiar with the Holy Land will tell you how drastically it has changed in the past few years: how in the past after military conflicts the life would quickly return into its normal course, how private and business contacts would promptly resume, how Jews would patronize Arab restaurants and coffee-houses… Now that’s done away with. For good. Who is the happy winner? Certainly, all those exotic types who adorn every utility pole with leaflets calling for the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. And, of course, those who next to them post invitations for Muslim “volunteers” to spill some blood in Chechnya.

Lest someone think that it’s all too abstract, unfounded and far from reality, let us check out the memoirs about the WWI by General Peter Krasnov (+1947), A Wreath for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Russian Imperial Army: “German Kaiser William moved all Russian Muslim POWs in a special camp and, seeking their favor, ordered a gorgeous brick mosque built for them.

I don’t remember who exactly was invited to inspect that camp, to eyewitness the Muslim animosity towards the “Russian yoke” and their content with the German captivity. The Germans, however, were to be bitterly frustrated. After the inspection of the perfectly kept camp and the mosque, several thousand Russian Muslim soldiers were gathered in the plaza.

─ And now you will sing us your prayer! ─ said the inspector. Muslim clerics stepped out, conferred with the soldiers. The ranks drew in line, and the powerful chorus, under the German sky, next to the brand new mosque, stroke up:

─ Lord, save the Tsar!...

The commanding officer waived his hands in bewilderment. The soldiers interpreted his sign in a peculiar manner: they bent their knees and sung the Russian anthem three times…”

In the context of Gen. Krasnov’s memoirs, written even before bin Laden, Bill Clinton of Madeleine Albright were born, there is nothing special about this occasion: just the way things ought to be. And now, in order to appreciate the reality of the modern “civilized world”, try to visualize a throng of young Palestinian Arabs on their knees, prayerfully singing the Israeli anthem “Ha-Tikvah”.

Whither goeth the Muslim Crescent? It depends on whither go we, following the Cross. There could hardly be a better illustration to the Psalm verse: “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” If the Cross is restored to its proper place in our government, in our society, in every family and in every soul, then neither we, nor our Muslim compatriots and neighbors, have any reason for fear. Madmen and scoundrels will never cease to exist, no matter what religion or ideology they put on, ─ but there are age-proven measures against them, to make sure that they do us no more harm than a few cuts and bruises to a healthy body.

For those, however, who are willing to supplant the nation by the “world community” and the holy Christian faith by the ambivalent ignorance, godless superstitions and politically-correct “multi-culturalism”, madness and evil will produce a cancerous tumor rather than cuts and bruises. That tumor is incurable; its off-shoots permeate every vital domain, organ and layer. Any measures against the Islamic threat (or any other threat, to that matter) ─ military, political, social or “spiritual” ─ will be of little more use than proverbial snake oil. What remains is to calmly take consequences.

Deacon-Monk Macarios Ivanovo, Russia

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