Christian Jihad–Charlemagne And The Modern Day Defense Of Europe

A number of critics have suggested that Christianity has gone wobbly in the face of Islamic radicalism.  What ever happened to the spirit of Charlemagne, Roland, and the Crusades? Christians had defended Europe from the Muslim invaders, liberated Jerusalem from the Infidel, and assured a prosperous, enlightened, and civilized continent.  The victory against the Saracens at Roncesvalles was Europe’s seminal moment – France had defended Europe from the forces of darkness, ignorance, and unenlightened barbarism.  For good reason France was considered fille aînée de l'Eglise Catholique – heroic, patriotic, and symbolic.

It was a sorry sight to see the mess France had gotten itself into with its Muslims, said Randy Billiard. Islamists had not forgotten Roncesvalles, their expulsion from Spain by Isabella, their subjugation at the hands of their colonial masters in the Maghreb, and their long exile; but the French had.  The conflation of American multiculturalism with French Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité had left the French flummoxed and culturally hogtied.  Socialist governments while projecting an image of inclusivity and brotherhood are against the ropes, battered and beaten by the far Left which claims Islam is the victim and pilloried by the far Right which claims that France is ceding its history, its heritage, and its divine place in Europe to the forces of evil.

Randy Billiard was pleased that those progressives who insisted on cultural relativity and multiculturalist diversity have had a hard time recently.  Even the most committed ‘progressives’ have had to admit that religion is a factor in Islamic terrorism.  All Muslims are not terrorists, but – even the most liberal advocates of multiculturalism have to admit – most terrorists are Muslim.  To ignore the jihadist claim to Islamic supremacy; to dismiss the historical ‘slight’ of repeated defeats in Spain and Jerusalem; and to disregard Muslim shame for over one thousand years of retrograde cultural history; is folly. As much as one might like to consider Islam to be a spiritual, devotional, and inspirational religion, the facts speak for themselves.  Islam has regained its muscularity.  It has learned its lessons from Jerusalem and Roncesvalles. Islam is back.

What incensed Randy Billiard most was the fact that Christians had lost their will and their conviction.  Multiculturalism had eroded Judeo-Christian righteousness. Cultural relativity had sapped Christianity of its moral and ethical supremacy. Christianity had been tossed into the big,bubbling religious stew pot. Bits and pieces of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and animism floated together in a greasy mess. Its seminal messages of forgiveness,redemption, and salvation had been subsumed in a secular (i.e. multicultural) hodge-podge.

Christians have been whipped, whupped, and castrated by ‘progressive’ sentiments of ‘inclusivity’.  Neo-socialist hopes for a One World Social Order. long the stock-in-trade of European foreign policy, have contributed to the weakening of a Judeo-Christian order.

Randy Billiard had never paid much attention to world affairs,.  He had enough to worry about paying the rent on his duplex in Cincinnati, keeping his way-past-its-prime Skylark on the road, and maintaining his daughter, Sybil’s in-and-out rehab. 

Randy’s wife was still taking her pound of flesh even though he had left Mabel months before. He had met her at Cobb’s Diner ten years ago, and the quid pro quo arrangement of her pleasuring him and his paying her rent had lasted for almost a decade.  More than anything else, his relationship with Mabel Hoskins had solidified his conservatism.  Here were two people, divided by class, income, and aspiration, who conjoined weekly according to a mutually agreed-upon contract.  Supply and demand at its best.

Randy had more  than his hands full dealing with his wife and Mabel.  She, like most women, demanded fidelity, clean sinks, and a sympathetic ear; but he was having none of it. If there was such a thing as dependency, it had more to do with Oedipal instincts than toilet seats, coming home for dinner, and appreciative comments about looks.

What did he care about al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, or ISIS? These were peripheral issues and had nothing to do with his life.  He was more concerned about Torah and the Gospels than Islamic extremism.

One Friday morning Randy read of a Hamas attack on Jerusalem.  Radical Islamists had once again attempted to defile the Temple.  He was incensed, enraged at this untoward assault not only on Jerusalem, but on Israel and Judeo-Christian civilization.  The barbarians were again at the gates.

Randy was well-versed enough in the Hebrew Bible to appreciate the Law, the millennia-old rabbinical tradition, and the fundamental principles of God-sent righteous behavior to be outraged at the attack. How could barbarian infidels even consider an attack on The Chosen People?

And now the infidels were at the very same gates that Roland had defended over a thousand years ago. France! Bastion of Christianity. The last Christian redoubt in a continent gone secular and unbelieving.

Randy unfortunately was an American, and although he felt outrage at the Muslim extremists who had murdered so many, he could do little. He could only sit in silent rage at the terrorists and at the successive French governments which had allowed this to happen. What were they thinking, letting in so many disaffected immigrants? Algerians who felt humiliated by France’s colonialism.  Algerians who had swept the streets of Paris and lived in exile in the suburbs. Africans from Mali, Chad, Burkina, and Niger who had welcomed the invitation to come to France but who refused to submit to secular authority, choosing to remain faithful to their one true God, and now isolated, marginalized, and discriminated against, felt rejected and dismissed.

The residents of France’s Northern suburbs were like those in America’s inner cities – homogeneous in their poverty, isolated from the European dream, angry at their white oppressors, and with little hope of joining the mainstream. France did little while the suburbs festered.

France’s Muslims were separatist to the core and never subscribed to the nostrum, ‘We are all French’. Liberty, equality, and fraternity meant nothing to new African immigrants who only wanted work, francs, and the postal service to send remittances back home.  Allah, not Sarkozy, Hollande, or Mitterrand was their master.

Immigrants who come to the United States want more than just a daily wage.  They want the American dream of upward mobility, social and economic respect, and a promising future. Once they have crossed the border, they toss their campesino rags into the trash. They embrace the American way of life – freedom, enterprise, individual liberty, and limitless opportunity. French immigrants, argued Randy Billiard, are opportunistic journeymen who want nothing more than a free ride on the generous Socialist train.

Randy gave generously to Marine Le Pen and her National Front party.  He supported patriotic causes in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Britain.  They were not afraid of embracing their Christianity and using it as a bulwark – as Roland and Charlemagne did at Roncesvalles over a thousand years ago – against the forces of the Infidel.  Muslim immigration and the alien fundamentalism it brought with it represent the illiberal dark forces of absolutism and intolerance.

Financial and moral support were not enough, and soon enough Randy joined Onward Christian Soldiers, a militant Christian jihadist group which vowed to never rest until The Infidel had been beaten back across the Mediterranean just as he had in the days of Charlemagne and the heroic Spanish Queen Isabella. Members of the organization took oaths of fidelity to Jesus Christ and the spirits of all Christian heroes who had fought Moors, Saracens, and African newcomers. Conrad of Montferrat, Guy of Lusignan, Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor were their idols.

Randy, a good Catholic boy from New Brighton, Connecticut could never endorse violence as much as he felt he should.  Victory would only be secured by engaging the enemy using his own amoral tactics. Bombing innocent civilians in the name of The Risen Christ was, however, oxymoronic, and too much of a betrayal of his core values. He took this moral rectitude to the limit, however, and with his Onward colleagues went to the barricades to protest Muslim intolerance and radical violence.  Whereas his secular brothers condemned ‘terrorism’, he railed against Islam, its medieval mentality, and its anti-liberal slavishness to religion.  He marched with the Cross. 

Southern Europeans celebrate Holy Week like no others.  Every Eastertime they reenact the Passion of Christ in all its gory detail.  Christ suffered on his way to Calvary, and they honored his suffering by flaying themselves, wearing bloody crowns of thorns, and by carrying insupportable oaken crosses. Randy and his Onward brothers took a page from the Catholic hymnbook, and staged bloody Passions on the Place de la Bastille, Trafalgar Square, and the Via Veneto.  They raised their voices and shed their blood for the Holy Savior.  He was supreme and all-powerful, and they were the Knights Templar of his Church on Earth.

Randy was thrilled.  He felt like one of Christ’s apostles, going forth into the heathen world and preaching the Gospel; or like an armed Crusader marching to Jerusalem; or a subaltern in the army of Charlemagne.  He was God’s warrior.

After many years in the trenches, Randy wondered why his Christian movement had not caught on.  Why, he wondered, was ISIS and al-Qaeda able to recruit thousand from all ranks of European society; when Onward Christian Soldiers and their compatriots could only muster few adherents and supporters.  The moral flaccidity of Europe, he reasoned.  A continent gone soft with Socialism and misplaced progressive ideals.  A secular continent drifting away from Christ in godless hedonism. A distorted neo-Enlightenment based on reason but without God.

As he got older, Randy lost some steam.  He was as committed as ever to a Christian Europe, but simply became discouraged by the lassitude and indifference of so many.  What was the point, he asked himself, if the movement was not only going nowhere but backsliding into unconcern?

When he finally retired from Onward Christian Soldiers, Randy was given full military honors.  The Grand Vizier pinned him with The Medal of Charlemagne and had his name chiseled into the granite memorial at Amiens celebrating the Christian victory over the Moors.  He died a happy and fulfilled man.  He had indeed fought for Christ.