Dakota Beacon

On Sunday, June 22, 2025, US B-2 bombers struck and destroyed Iran’s three main nuclear facilities. US estimated that Iran was within weeks of having a nuclear weapon. Such a weapon might not have been dropped on the US. But two or three nuclear air bursts over the US would have created a devastating electromagnetic pulse capable of destroying communications and computer systems nationwide.

To the bewilderment of many, the word “Islam” does not mean “peace.” The word “Islam” means “submission” or “surrender.”

How should we treat another word -- “jihad”? Apologists use this word to connote an inner struggle on the part of the believer. Would that be exclusively so! Explicitly, jihad advocates a holy war against infidels – period. Jihadists are motivated by the promises and commands of their religion. Quoting the Koran, “Fight those who believe not in Allah…nor acknowledge the religion of Truth…until they pay the Jizya [tax] with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (9:29) Islam means submission to Allah’s commands and that includes everyone – not just Muslims but infidels as well.

Understandably, relations between Islam and the West have been strained throughout history. Islam focuses on the year 630 AD when the Arab prophet Muhammad forged the Arab people into a land with a fighting religion. Their destiny was to bring the word of Allah, and submission to Islam, to all the world.

Within one hundred years from the death of the Prophet, Muslim Arabs conquered the world from India through the Middle East, Persia, the Asian interior, North Africa, Asia Minor, to Spain. Islamic expansion into southern Europe was halted in 732 AD at the Battle of Poitiers, 180 miles south of Paris. Charles Martel (The Hammer) and his heavy infantry defeated the Islamic cavalry invaders. Had that not occurred, Europe would be Muslim today, and the Koran would be taught at Oxford, England – a fact that Islamic culture has not forgotten for almost 1,300 years.

Thwarted in their attempt to push north, the forces of Allah turned east skirting the northern shore of the Mediterranean. The thrust dissipated in Italy. As an aside, Othello, Shakespeare’s character, was a Moor descended from the Islamic occupation of Spain.

Meanwhile, European Crusaders attempted to retake the Holy Land from Muslim control.

Another deterrent to Islamic expansion was the defeat of the Islamic navy at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 in the Gulf of Corinth. The Holy League including Venice, Spain, and the Papal States engaged the Ottoman fleet for four hours. At the end of that time a combined 40,000 fighters were dead on both sides, ranking Lepanto with Salamis, Cannae, and the Somme as one of the bloodiest single-day battles in history. When it was over, two-thirds of the galleys of the Ottoman Mediterranean fleet lay destroyed.

Lepanto, like Poitiers, was a watershed event in the history of East-West relations. The Western Mediterranean, previously an Islamic Lake, was secure for European shipping. As with the Muslims after Poitiers, the immediate Islamic threat to Europe was greatly diminished. Nevertheless, the Ottoman advance over the next two centuries would sweep into Hungary and stop at the gates of Vienna.

In a continuing effort to consolidate an Islamic caliphate, the Turkish army from the Ottoman Empire attacked Vienna in 1683. Vienna at the time served as the dominant power in Eastern Europe. The dream of a caliphate brought the Ottoman sultan to the gates of Vienna. The defeat of the Islamic army at Vienna, with the help of the German and Polish armies, again dashed the hopes of setting up an Islamic caliphate over Europe. That hope lay dormant for the next three centuries until the post-WWII period.

Hope once again for a worldwide caliphate shows itself in jihad. Terrorist incidents in recent decades exhibit the spirit of jihad. An incomplete list of terrorist acts includes the 1972 Munich Olympic athletes killed, 1972 Pan Am 747 hijacked and destroyed, 1973 Pan Am 707 destroyed in Rome, 1979 US embassy in Iran taken over and hostages held 444 days, 1983 US Marine barracks in Beirut blown up, 1985 cruise ship Achille Lauro hijacked, 1985-1988 other aircraft hijacked, 1993 first bombing of World Trade Center, 1998 US embassies bombed in Kenya and Tanzania, 2001 World Trade Center attacked and destroyed, 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl beheaded, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. These were deliberate acts of hostile Islamic jihadists – Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, al Qaeda, and the Taliban to name a few.

The fight for Islamic dominance over the past 1300 years has not gone well for Islam. Universal longing kept alive in the hope for a great leader, or caliph, continues in the attempt to avenge perceived historic wrongs. The longed-for resurrection of the glory of Islam can only be achieved in the defeat of Western dominance.

Iran must NOT have a nuclear weapon. Iran with a nuclear weapon threatens not only the US and Europe, but its Islamic (Sunni) neighbors as well. Take note. Other Arab countries may be silent for now. But on the inside, they are standing up and cheering Iran’s nuclear loss.

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