Andy Bostom sends my way the following trailer to a vid from Bulgaria which gives an excellent and accurate portrayal of the kind of jihad waged against the people of that region by the Ottomans. Oppression, forced conversions and servitude in the realm of the Sultan, which is exactly what the actual Vlad Tepes went through as a boy.
Based on eyewitness written accounts. In the 17th century, a Bulgarian Christian region is selected by the Ottoman rulers to serve as an example of conversion to Islam. A Janissary who was kidnapped from the village as a boy now serving the Ottoman sultan is sent to force the reluctant inhabitants to convert. The Bulgarian christians have to chose between physical annihilation and losing their spiritual identity.
This reminded me of a segment from an older version of Marco Polo video series, where the Islamic code for dhimmis under their control, mandated the wearing of certain colors, blue for Christians and yellow for Jews, accurately depicted in the following clip. What comes after in the following text, is a piece by Bostom about the very man, Marco Polo, and please do read it to the end.
Understanding Meriam Ibrahim’s Plight, From Marco Polo to Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Sharia Engenders “Religious” Hatred Towards Christians
Raymond Ibrahim, in an enlightening April 2010 essay, explained how the famous 13th century Italian merchant and traveler Marco Polo—contra reductio ad absurdum pejorative characterizations of him as an “Orientalist,” inveterately prejudiced against the “Other,”—provided objective anthropological assessments:
in fact, Polo occasionally portrayed the few Christians he encountered in a negative light (such as those of the island of Socotra) and frequently praised non-Christians, including Muslims. For example, he hails the Brahmins of India as being “most honorable,” possessing a “hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons. They are likewise remarkable for the virtue of being satisfied with the possession of one wife.” He refers to one Muslim leader as governing “with justice,” and another who “showed himself [to be] a very good lord, and made himself beloved by everybody.”
However, Marco Polo, as I learned from reading through the Yule-Cordier edition of “The Travels of Marco Polo,” (Vol. 1), was also capable of describing unabashedly the Sharia-based animus towards non-Muslims Islamic doctrine engendered on a massive scale—a tragic legacy still very much alive today:
Indeed, it is fact, that the whole body of Muslims throughout the world are always most malignantly disposed toward the whole body of Christians…And marvel not that the Muslims hate the Christians; for the accursed law [i.e., the Sharia] that Muhammad gave them commands them to do all the mischief in their power to all the other descriptions of people, and especially to Christians; to strip such of their goods, and do them all manner of evil, because they belong not to their law. See then what an evil law and what naughty commandments they have! But in such fashion the Muslims act, throughout the world.
