Dakota Beacon

On Memorial Day we honor our men and women who served their country in the military and who have passed on to their final reward.

Following September 11, 2001, a new era was ushered in, and another generation of veterans were recognized for making the ultimate sacrifice. We are in a protracted conflict like no other that has continued for centuries. Islamic fanatics from many nations wish to harm the West in general and the United States in particular.

The so-called War on Terror has historical roots. For years Western Civilization has confronted forced Islamic domination. That said, there is always a risk of being misunderstood. The argument is not with the Islamic faith but rather with extremists who have hijacked Islam for their own ends.

Why would these extremists wish to harm the United States? Much of their attitude has to do with the Islamic rendering of history as taught in Islamic schools around the world. The Islamic spin on history taught to young Muslim men in the madrasah is distinctly different from the history taught to Western youth in public and private schools. Reason? The logical premise is based on a radically different understanding of God.

The hatred for the West taught by Islamic radicals stems partly from the perceived humiliation of Islam by the West. A tenant of the Islamic faith is that the entire world must submit to Islam for the glory of Allah. Their idea of conversion did not include handing out tracts on street corners and witnessing. Time and again the West has rebuffed Islamic territorial incursions.

In 630 AD Mohammed founded Islam. Conversion of peoples ranging from India and Central Asia through the Middle East and across North Africa into Southern Europe occurred in a mere 100 years by the power of the sword.

In 732 AD the attempted conversion of Europe to Islam was stopped dead in its tracks at Pointier, France, 180 miles south of Paris. The Saracen general Abd-ar-Raham attacking from Spain led an army of Arab and Berber Cavalry across the Pyrenees into France. They were met by French heavy Infantry who defeated the invaders decisively. Had the Muslim invaders conquered Europe, Oxford University in England might be teaching the Koran today.

For the next 950 years Islam focused on preventing the re-conquest by Christians of Muslim lands while at the same time expecting the rise of a great leader, a Caliph. That Caliph would complete the effort to conquer the world for the glory of Allah.

Instead, the Islamic world continued to shrink. The defeat of Ottoman Turkish naval forces by Spain, Italy, and the Papal states in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 freed the Mediterranean region of Muslim dominance. In 1683 a final attempted incursion into Europe by the Ottoman Turks was defeated at the gates of Vienna.

What followed was the slow and painful decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Western colonialism.

WW I and the defeat of some colonial powers encouraged Islamic leaders to see that the West was not invincible. Then, the years following WW II saw a further decline of Western dominance with the breakup of former colonies into individual states. This reinforced Islam’s perception that the West was not unconquerable.

Then came the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. Islam viewed this event as a Western state planted in the middle of the Islamic world -- a setback for Islam.

Following the 9/11 attack on the US by Islamic radicals, the US chose to confront the Islamic terrorists on their own soil. At this point the principal obstacle between the terrorists and the American citizens was the American military.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military drove wedges between Islamic radicals and the rest of the Islamic world by helping create a sense of fairness and decency even if these objectives were imposed by infidels. America’s premise was that the countries where the majority exercised self-determination would be more stable and less of a threat than would be a unified block of totalitarian states controlled by extremists.

On Memorial Day 2026 our fallen sons and daughters from all branches of the military including Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserves and from all wars, deserve heartfelt commemoration from a grateful nation. Special honor is due to those most recently fallen in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).