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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Newly discovered 5th-century church shows violence of Muslim conquest

Apr 4, 2016 11:30 am By Robert Spencer

“We found evidence suggesting that they shattered many of the church items, contrary to what some believe about the ‘enlightened’ Muslim conquest.”

The idea that the Byzantine Christians welcomed the Arab troops as liberators in the mid-seventh century is a staple of Islamic apologetics today, and (not surprisingly, given the abysmal state of academia today) is generally accepted among historians. However, it has always had weak foundations, and is actually yet another example of a phenomenon we see increasingly often: the revisionist whitewashing of history to remove any hint of wrongdoing on the part of Muslims.

In my 2005 book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), I noted that Islamic tradition has the Caliph Umar making a “telling admission in a message to an underling: ‘Do you think,’ he asked, ‘that these vast countries, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kufa, Basra, Misr [Egypt] do not have to be covered with troops who must be well paid?’ Why did these areas have to be ‘covered with’ troops, if the inhabitants welcomed the invaders and lived with them in friendship?”

Byzantine Church Gush Etzion

“Colorful Mosaic Uncovered in Unique Byzantine Church in Gush Etzion,” by Michael Bachner, TPS/Tazpit News Agency, March 25, 2016 (thanks to David):

Migdal Oz (TPS) – A colorful mosaic and various archeological artifacts have been recently unearthed at the site of a large, uniquely structured Byzantine basilica in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.

The discovery was made at the Khirbet Bureikut archeological site in Migdal Oz, where the Byzantine church was originally discovered in 1977, and indicates that the inhabitants there were very wealthy. The newly discovered mosaic indicates that the church was originally built in the fourth century, according to Hananya Hizmi, Head Staff Officer of Archeology of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.

“We started to expand the excavation at the end of 2015 to find out where all this wealth came from, since this area was probably isolated from major communities during the Byzantine era,” Haim Shkolnik, who led the excavation on behalf of the Archeology Staff Officer, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

Artifacts recently discovered at the excavation include over five kilograms of glass items, pottery fragments, around 50 coins, including one of Alexander Jannaeus, and a handle with the seal of the “Three Magi”.

“The findings at the church indicate great wealth,” Shkolnik informed TPS. “There were many types of marble and glass used and it had drainage channels, a rare feature for Byzantine churches. It also had an underground crypt with two staircases leading down to it, which is also a very rare feature.”

According to Hananya Hizmi, the church was built on a cave from earlier times. “The cave was converted to a crypt and used to buried martyrs,” he said. “The Basilica has a prayer hall, aisles, a narthex running across the structure and an atrium with a big water hole. The church is built of massive stone blocks, suggesting that it was built on an earlier structure.”

“The church is different in its design from what was normal at the time,” said Shkolnik. “It was possibly founded by monks arriving from Syria, as was common in the fifth century.”

The practice of worshipping in the cave began in the fourth century and the cave was converted to a crypt when it was expanded in the 5th century and the church was built. The basilical complex was built during the Byzantine era. According to Shkolnik, the findings indicate that it had been a major pilgrimage site. The place ceased to serve as a church after the early Muslim conquest.

“We found evidence suggesting that they shattered many of the church items, contrary to what some believe about the ‘enlightened’ Muslim conquest,” Shkolnik noted….

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Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Byzantine basilica, Gush Etzion


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Comments

  1. Zeke Zick says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:48 am

    “There is nothing new under the sun, yet everything keeps changing”. So this burning of churches and killing of Christians is not something new? (sarcasm)

    • Carl Anders Breitholtz says

      Apr 5, 2016 at 7:46 am

      Certainly not. It is what has been initiated by Islam since its founding.

    • red rose says

      Apr 5, 2016 at 9:23 am

      Awesome comment! 🙂

  2. Michele Fraser says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:51 am

    Robert Spencer I believe you are doing the most important work on earth informing people about Islam and its’ history with Christianity. I’m deeply concerned about the willing blindness most people exhibit when it comes to wanting to know and see the truth of Islam. It will be to our peril…and today’s Christian churches and communities may disappear, just like these ancient communities. Christ promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church….but I believe only a remnant will remain. I grieve about this. Please keep up the good work. I’ll keep you in my prayers.

  3. Berengaria says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 11:59 am

    The Byzantine Christian Ruler sent many appeals to the Pope in Rome requesting help from the “Religion of Peace”. There was no Enlightened era of Islam & will never be. Muslim violence in the 7th Century is the same violence that we suffer from today. The only difference is that the Western World has no Pope Urban11 to lead the First Crusade, and in 1095AD, the Western rulers had more sense than to invite the Muslim hordes into their countries.

    • bouboulina says

      Apr 9, 2016 at 4:24 pm

      Your comment is a succinct & eminently cogent analysis of what ails the world today.

  4. Jerry says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 12:07 pm

    It’s oil and water, thinking that Christianity would welcome islam, or that islam would have tolerated Christianity. Islam’s early aggression seems too well documented for me to try and work in any substantial welcoming by infidels of the day. And if there was, it almost certainly was part of a capitulation. I’m no historian so I could be wrong. But I doubt it. I know islam too well to give it the benefit of the doubt. Shadows are not a source of light and islam is not a source of peaceful intent. I see no reason to see light where darkness always prevails.

    • Charli Main says

      Apr 4, 2016 at 1:45 pm

      @ Jerry

      The indisputable fact that tens of thousands of Christian basilicas and churches, throughout the Middle East and North Africa, were converted into mosques by the invading Muslims, gives nonsense to the claim that the Christians ” welcomed” the Muslims into their countries.
      This happened because the Christians were powerless and were forced to standby as their holy places were defiled and desecrated by their newly arrived Muslim masters.

  5. Sam says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 12:42 pm

    Come on now. Violence by Muslims? Islam is a religion of peace. Whatever Muslims do it will stay that way. Period.

    • pandirkelana says

      Apr 7, 2016 at 4:56 am

      Yes, just in your imagination.. I’m Muslem too, buat I don’t agree with this savage idea: Based on hadeeth saying that “there is only one qibla in one place” all other religions place of praying must be made flat with ground. Unfortunately, I tried to find English version but failed. Please find by yourselves.

      https://islamhouse.com/id/books/207788/

  6. J. Romine says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    Wait, I thought Islam was invented by Muhammad in the 7th Century. So how could there be Muslims in the 5th Century?

    • Robert Spencer says

      Apr 4, 2016 at 3:24 pm

      Uh, the church dates from the fifth century. Its destruction by Muslims came later.

  7. Linde Barrera says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    To Robert Spencer- Thank you for this interesting article and thank you for YOU. In my opinion, you are a great man, and I pray daily for you and yours to be safe, have good health, and be joyful. I also pray for Pamela Geller and all associated with the David Horowitz Freedom Center. I believe that when Jesus Christ comes again, that planet Earth will be changed and a new, beautiful era will begin. Since only the Father knows when that will be, we should be prepared and ask Christ to come now.

    • Lyndon Weggery says

      Apr 6, 2016 at 4:02 pm

      Linde-Always remember the truth of Romans 11:25-“Israel has undergone a “hardening” until the full number of the Gentiles has come in (to the Kingdom).In other words the Apostle Paul is reminding his readers that we currently live in an Age of Grace and when the full number of cargo and crew has been loaded (Paul is using a nautical term to denote “full”) then the ship will sail (Rapture) with God as the master mariner.We have no right to ask Christ to come now for the above reason.All we can do is “speed his coming” in terms of the Apostle Peter’s wise words of 2 Peter 3:11-12.

  8. Agnishtoma says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    This is nothing. We have a 1000 temples demolished due to Muslim invasion. All priceless pieces of architecture. When India shouted that Pakistan was a terrorist state, the west arrogantly continued to support Pakistan and clandestinely support terrorist . Now the west has been rudely jolted out of its slumber and awoken to the truth, but the US still provides Pak a billion dollars in aid. Still it has not learnt its lesson.

  9. somehistory says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 1:29 pm

    islam is from the devil, the one Jesus said comes to “Steal, kill and destroy.”

    Nothing else should ever be expected from or believed about islam and its adherents. It’s all evil, all of the time.

  10. PEER ZULQARNAIN SHAH says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 3:34 pm

    Dear Mr Spencer
    I m realy inspired by your research work on Islam and JIhadi activities. The pubkication of your organization is really admirabale but Mr SPENCER as a researcher we should be honest to our self and particularaly to our readers. We have to varify our source of informmations. Unfortunately your team sources are not credible.. Apparently it looks like prpeganda. I think we should focus on terrorism, its etiology. If the organization like Jihad Watch will not balance it will nor expose the real problem. Hope we will keep in touch to demstfy the viscious circle of terrorism for our coming generations.

    REGARDS
    Peer Zulqarnain Shah
    narc_ali@yahoo.com

    • Angemon says

      Apr 4, 2016 at 5:47 pm

      That was terrorism on its time, and committed with people with the same goals and ideology as the people today. And it’s important to point history like these out, otherwise we risk getting irreversibly quagmired in the erroneous notion of “islam is a religion of peace hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists”.

    • John Stefan Obeda says

      Apr 5, 2016 at 9:21 pm

      Robert Spencer is showing in detail by many of his paragraphs and writings that the devil is the father of lies and murder right from the beginning when man fell into sin and we all now have to die because of man’s fall. And somehow the devil was very successful with Muhammad and through him now many suffer and die sooner than they otherwise would have suffered and died. And now I must add that we who have been blessed to trust in Jesus for salvation are richly comforted for we have a Saviour from sin and death and we suffer and die in peace whether we do so soon or later.

    • pandirkelana says

      Apr 7, 2016 at 5:09 am

      Plase check this Ibn Taymiya interpretation of Qur’an and hadeeth that make Islam is bullzozer for praying places of other religions.

      https://islamhouse.com/id/books/207788/ (failed to find English version)

      I’m Moslem, but “Islam Nusantara” (Nusantara, aka, Indonesia, Moslem).

  11. Mirren10 says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    ”We have to varify our source of informmations. Unfortunately your team sources are not credible.. Apparently it looks like prpeganda.”

    Of course. The perfidious Jooooos made the whole thing up. 🙂

    Everyone knows the wonderful muslims would never, ever, destroy another religion’s artefacts …

  12. Zimriel says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 7:45 pm

    The dates are important. I just see that the destruction happened some time after the conquest and some time before the later ‘Abbasids (from the OP – “The place also saw some activity in the ninth century”)

    During the last half of the eighth century, the first ‘Abbasid conquerors of Syria enacted a wideranging persecution against all sects remotely supportive of the Umayyads. The Samaritan Chronicle remembers this. Also the Christian chronicle from Zuqnin.

    The first invaders weren’t angels by any means, but they barely compare to the apocalyptic fury of the ‘Abbasid revolution. So I’d really need the original excavators to present their findings to peer review.

  13. mortimer says

    Apr 4, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    Archeology tells truths that the written word of history had sometimes overlooked or left out. What we read from ancient historians may be lacking important details or it may be hearsay or the author hasn’t checked the facts. There are written accounts of the brutal invasions of the ayyae (bedouin nomadic Arabs), magaritai or mhaggraye or agarenoi (muhajiroon or muhagareen ) around 640. There would have to be some archeological artefacts that would reflect these brutal invasions.

  14. Carl Anders Breitholtz says

    Apr 5, 2016 at 7:37 am

    — “Christians welcomed the Arab troops …” Arabs they were but also Muslims. Not all Arabs are Muslims , and certainly weren’t at that time! So the aggressors were driven by Islam, it’s important to put forward that.

  15. Michael says

    Apr 5, 2016 at 10:31 am

    I also would like to know more about the dating of the destruction. The Persians under Chosroes II invaded Syria and the Holy Land in the 610s and reputedly destroyed some monasteries and killed numerous monks. One invasion dates to 614, when the Persians captured Jerusalem. Mohammed was then in the “peaceful” Meccan phase of his so-called prophetic ministry. My question is how the archaeologists can be sure that this church was destroyed by Arabs/Moslems and not by the Persians shortly before the beginning of the Islamic era.

  16. Moshe Akiva says

    Apr 5, 2016 at 3:57 pm

    Come on, these are Zionist archeologists, they will lie anything to further their claim against the totally innocent, hapless Molestinian people.

    I for one am sure back then the people of Byzantine were welcoming the invading savage Muslim hordes with flowers in one hand, while in the other hand they were waiving a flag of sickle and hammer complimented with a crescent.
    And Byzantine wives and daughters were raping the holy Mujaheddin, who fought back very hard not touch any of those ladies, because – as we know – it is forbidden for a holy Muslim to hurt any woman. But the women of Byzantine were very pushy. That’s why all those broken glasses!

    • Alex says

      Apr 8, 2016 at 9:29 am

      Islamic tradition has the Caliph Umar making a “telling admission in a message to an underling: ‘Do you think,’ he asked, ‘that these vast countries, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kufa, Basra, Misr [Egypt] do not have to be covered with troops who must be well paid?’
      I guess the Caliph was also a Zionist, no mention of Palestine in his letter.

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