The world is in the midst of momentous change, brought about largely because of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the conventional foreign policy wisdom that appeasement and accommodation of sinister forces such as North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran is the path to peace, when actually appeasement only increases the aggression and bellicosity of the force that is being appeased. Trump knows this, and so against all the advice of the learned analysts, he took a strong line with Kim Jong-un, and while the outcome is by no means clear, the very fact that the North Korean and South Korean leaders met for talks is already an indication that standing strong against aggression is a wiser and more effective strategy than appeasement.
One would have thought the world would have learned this lesson after the 1938 Munich agreement between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler, but it didn’t — and there are plenty of examples throughout history of non-Muslim leaders trying to appease the jihad force that teach the same lesson that Munich teaches. Here are some that you will discover in my new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS:
- The eighth-century Catholic bishop who advised the last Christian holdouts in Spain to surrender to the Muslim conquerors and “enjoy many benefits alongside the Moors”
- The Hindu leaders in India who counseled their people to surrender to the Muslim invaders because “if we unite and go forth to fight, we will be killed”
- The Christian city that greeted its new Muslim leader with great joy and pomp, hoping to turn away his wrath — only to be told, “You have two options. Either die or convert to our religion”
- The Byzantine emperor who asked the Abbasid caliph for a peace accord, only to be told to submit and pay the jizya, or else the caliph would “seek Allah’s favor by spilling your blood”
- The Byzantine emperor who asked the caliph for a one-for-one prisoner exchange, only to be told: “It is not the Arab custom to exchange one Arab for a Byzantine since the Arabs have greater value”
- The besieged city that sent the jihad commander Alp Arslan an offering of sex slaves, hoping he would lift the siege — he didn’t, and after massacring many, took 50,000 Christian prisoners
- The U.S. President who counseled against the Zionist project because of Muslim opposition, asking Zionist leaders: “Are you trying to start a holy jihad?”
- Why George W. Bush’s proclamation that “Islam is peace” did vastly more harm than good
- Much more
Strike a blow against the philosophy of appeasement. Click here to preorder The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.