Beatrice Van Storch and Raymond Ibrahim join Stephen Kamb on the show to talk about the rise of Alternative for Deutschland (AFD) and what it means for the future of Europe and the world.
00:01:44.000And I wanted to have them both on together because this topic's kind of inextricably linked.
00:01:47.000So Beatrice, I was able just to tee it up in the morning show to kind of say,
00:01:51.000hey, Beatrice is going to be on here at six o'clock.
00:01:53.000The Washington Post did an article this weekend that talked about using democratic means to take down a party that leads in the polls in Germany as the alternative for Germany.
00:02:10.000All the other political parties kind of talk about taxes.
00:02:16.000But they don't ever talk about taking the sovereignty back and fighting for German values and fighting to make sure that you don't turn into a country overwhelmed by Islam,
00:02:25.000where all your other elites have kind of turned on the German people over the last decade or so to allow this.
00:02:51.000How can they attack a party that your basic premise is that, and particularly it's strongest in the East,
00:02:57.000that was under the boot of communism for so long that people are really thirsting for freedom.
00:03:02.000How can they say that they need to do this and they need to take the moral high ground?
00:03:08.000They do take the moral high ground to do it because you represent the beginning of Nazism and its return to the German people, ma'am.
00:03:18.000Yes, I think this is what we see in the Western world at the very moment.
00:03:21.000All the Western democracies are under pressure by far left-wing extremists in joint forces with Islamists or Muslims.
00:03:31.000And this is a very huge danger for all of us in the Western Hemisphere.
00:03:36.000And I think it has been very, very carefully and intelligently being addressed in the national security strategy, which we have all been reading for the past few days.
00:03:48.000And I think this has to be pointed out. We have to stick together and we have to fight this fight together.
00:03:55.000It's a global fight. It's not only happening in Germany, but of course, for Europe, it's of center interest that AFD keeps on going and that we shift policy here.
00:04:05.000Because if that's without AFD, the policy will always keep on the left-wing track.
00:04:11.000It will destroy our economy. It will destroy our culture. It will destroy our civilization in the end.
00:04:18.000And so there's a deep need and a deep desire by the people that policy is going to a different direction.
00:04:26.000And this is the same case. We see that in France. We see that in the UK.
00:04:31.000And I think we really have to push forward and to work together.
00:04:35.000This is what we are trying. And I think the MAGA movement is a movement which is very, of course, focused on American interest.
00:04:43.000But it's also an American interest to have this kind of MAGA movement and their allies in the Western world.
00:04:50.000And this is why we're trying to work together. I think that's the solution.
00:04:55.000But Beatrice, you mentioned, and Raymond's on here too. I'm going to talk to him about it.
00:04:59.000The timing of this is perfect because the president, they dropped on Friday or Thursday night, Friday morning, the national security,
00:05:07.000basically the architecture, which next week they're going to lay out our military strategy around this, but the architecture.
00:05:13.000And what was shocking is that Europe was on page 29 or 33. It came after hemispheric defense. It came after Asia.
00:05:21.000It came after the Middle East. And the opening pair, it was shocking.
00:05:24.000It said that you're seeing civilizational erasure. You're seeing the collapse of a civilization.
00:05:32.000And we're not so sure in 20 or 30 years we'll even be dealing with the kind of freedoms our people have thought of from the Judeo-Christian West for so long.
00:05:46.000It could be totally different. I mean, it was one of the most brutal paragraphs I've ever seen about people that have been our strategic partners for so long.
00:05:54.000And really implied that we've got the back and we're looking for new voices to come up and actually help take these countries back and get them back on track.
00:06:04.000It screamed to me that alternative for Deutschland is one of the leading parties to do that.
00:06:10.000Because what you're saying essentially is that we want to return sovereignty to the German people and we want to save our culture.
00:06:16.000We want to save our civilization. We want to save our society.
00:06:22.000I think this is perfectly right. And I think we have to play offense.
00:06:28.000And I remember Charlie Kirk once saying there are not so many people playing offense.
00:06:32.000He named you specifically, Steve, playing offense and some others, few others.
00:06:37.000And playing offense in Germany is done by AFD. We have to push for a different policy agenda in all major areas.
00:06:47.000First, migration, economy, the Vogue ideology. This is all we have to push back.
00:06:53.000And this goes against the left ideology. And so it's a huge fight.
00:06:59.000And I think this has also been very clearly addressed in this in this national security strategy that we have to keep our force.
00:07:08.000And this means first and first and first of all, we have to keep our culture.
00:07:14.000We have to keep basically we have to keep our faith and we have to we have to stick together as Christian nations and make sure that we are not losing our identity.
00:07:26.000And everything else comes next. And we see this decline very, very, very hard in Germany as well.
00:07:33.000I don't know whether you're aware of those Christmas markets which has been under attack in Brussels.
00:07:38.000Well, same thing just happened yesterday in Berlin. So, you know, Syrian asylum seekers celebrating the one year defeat of Assad in Berlin.
00:07:50.000They fled Assad, but still they are in Berlin. And we wonder why, because Assad is gone.
00:07:58.000So they should be going back to their home countries. But no, they are attacking our Christmas markets.
00:08:04.000They are celebrating it. It's dangerous. Everyone can see it.
00:08:07.000And so it's about our identity and everything else comes comes afterwards.
00:08:13.000It's economy and then it comes to our, you know, national security.
00:08:17.000I want to in reading the article and Grace and Mo and I know the team here in Denver are pushing this out.
00:08:23.000I want everybody to and let's make it available so that they can get behind the paywall.
00:08:28.000One of the things is most shocking and we want people every day on the show during the Biden years.
00:08:34.000But we keep saying if President Trump, we lose the midterms or President Trump's not around.
00:08:39.000The same thing will come back to haunt us. What's stunning about the article is the degree that the German elites in the German deep state and national security state went out of their way to infiltrate you guys.
00:08:54.000They just couldn't let you evolve naturally. They went out of their way to destroy you.
00:08:58.000But most of the negative stuff is from informants or people they actually paid and put in to your operation.
00:09:05.000Can you give us a second? And what's the warning you have to people in America about this, about the way the deep state rolls?
00:09:11.000Well, if the deep state is able to ban the biggest opposition party in Germany, that can be done everywhere else.
00:09:23.000And the United States will lose an ally, will lose the biggest still power in Europe, and then Europe will be failing Europe.
00:09:35.000And so I think this is not in your interest as well. I think we really have to focus on what is best for our people and what is best for our countries.
00:09:46.000And we have to really fight to keep our freedom and to keep our democracy.
00:09:53.000We want to keep our democracy, basically. And they are saying we want to overthrow democracy, which is just a lie.
00:10:01.000That's fake news. They know it. And they are getting very, very nervous.
00:10:06.000Because what we will see next year, we will have very important regional elections in March.
00:10:12.000And we will see AFD winning the elections, coming in maybe not first, but second very, very strong.
00:10:22.000And that will put even more pressure on the German government. And as they are running out of concepts, out of ideas, they cannot take a different direction in their policy.
00:10:35.000So the only idea they come up with is banning the opposition party.
00:10:39.000So it really gets very, very dangerous. And I think we have but still a chance even to change Europe.
00:10:46.000Because look, it's not only Germany where AFD is rising.
00:10:51.000I'm very hopeful for France. Marine Le Pen or Jordan Badera, they are both leading the polls for the presidential election in France.
00:11:00.000And our common friend, Nigel Farage, Mr. Brexit, is about to be the next prime minister for UK.
00:11:09.000So even within Europe, there is hope. Something can change.
00:11:13.000But we have to make sure that the deep state is not stopping it, particularly in Germany.
00:11:19.000Last question. We've got to bounce. I know you do, too, and I want to thank you for sticking around.
00:11:24.000If Alternative for Deutschland doesn't actually take power in the not-too-distant future, by democratic means, at the ballot box,
00:11:33.000to basically set Germany on a different direction, to take its civilization and culture back,
00:11:38.000how long is it, do you believe, under the current German elites, that Germany is really, the culture of Germany is gone and you really become an Islamist state, ma'am?
00:11:51.000Well, I think it was outlined in the national security strategy that is maybe not even 20 years,
00:11:59.000and I would say that's very optimistic that it will last so long.
00:12:03.000We can see it everywhere, in every village, in every city, our Stadtbild, as the chancellor was calling it.
00:12:10.000So walking in the streets, you can see in the city that something is changing dramatically.
00:12:17.000And when it comes to economy, we're basically bankrupt.
00:12:20.000They are trying, you know, to put debt on debt on debt, but we don't even know how to pay the interest for the debts we already have.
00:12:28.000So Germany is facing a severe crisis, energy crisis, crisis of the economy.
00:12:36.000And this has a dramatic impact on all of the country.
00:15:08.000Raymond, when it came in on Thursday night, I said we got Raymond on.
00:15:11.000It's like, it's like Raymond wrote this.
00:15:15.000Sir, you've seen the strategy paper of President Trump when he talks about Western Europe, the erasure of their civilization in 20 years.
00:15:24.000One of the senior people in AFD just agreed that this, the collapse and maybe turn in.
00:15:30.000You said, hey, it's optimistic 20 years if we don't come to power.
00:15:33.000You've spent your professional life writing these three series of books over the last, what, eight, nine, ten years that talk about when the West has had to confront this before.
00:15:43.000And the West won, but it has to be confronted.
00:15:49.000But as you drop your third book in the series, here in the Christmas season, the President of the United States lays out a strategy that essentially says everything that you've been telling your audience is absolutely 100% true in modern times, sir.
00:16:08.000You know, listening to Beatrix right now, it's just amazing because as I think of the past and what I write about in the history that we will be discussing, it's just, it's hard to overlook the fact that the fundamental problem, the big difference now, is that the West is doing everything to enable and empower its enemies, including domestically bringing them in to terrorize them, because that's the fundamental difference when you look at the past and the present.
00:16:43.000And so when you look at the history, that's which we'll talk about, you'll see that.
00:16:48.000But the differences back then, everyone in Europe, you know, from the warrior monk Christians to the most secularized whoever politician in that context, all understood the danger, all stood collectively against it, all fought against it.
00:17:04.000And, and this is at a time when Islam was actually very powerful compared vis-a-vis to the, to Europe.
00:17:10.000And then, you know, you fast forward to our times.
00:17:13.000And, you know, Islam is inherently weak.
00:17:17.000But Western powers are empowering it, bringing it into their countries, making sure nobody can say anything against it, imprisoning their own native populations because they speak up or complain because they're being terrorized, and just do everything possible.
00:17:31.000So I think it's just amazing and mind boggling to see how different things are, you know, the consistency of Islam on the one hand, the continuity, and then on the other hand, you know, the Western sort of suicidal response that has gone from standing up and fighting, doing what needs to be done, to actually confronting a much weaker Islam, but still being terrorized by it, because you're allowing it to terrorize your people.
00:17:55.000So that's, you know, that's, I think we have to start there.
00:18:01.000I want to go through the arc of the, of the, and this is third in the series.
00:18:05.000Sword and scimitar is the first and lays out the whole thing of the combative nature.
00:18:09.000Then you actually take examples, defenders of the West, you actually take biographical of, of, of, of, of men who really stood in the breach at critical times and the big battles and what happened.
00:18:22.000And now you're actually going and taking the warrior monks, these two, the Templars and the, and the St. John hospitaliers that really fought in the middle of this.
00:18:34.000What were the three books and what ties them together?
00:18:37.000And why did you write them in this series?
00:18:39.000Sure, Steve, the first one, like you said, a sword and scimitar came out in 2008, 20,000, 2018.
00:18:46.000And that one was really a continuation of my academic studies back in the day under Victor Davis Hanson, you know, in the early, late nineties, my master's thesis was actually the first battle between Islam and the West, the battle of Yarmouk, which formed chapter one of sword and scimitar.
00:19:02.000But I've always been interested in, you know, we've all, we, we all grow up in the modern era hearing about the great, you know, the advancement of Islam and Andalusia and how backwards the West was and et cetera, et cetera.
00:19:15.000So I've always been very much interested in studying the actual military history.
00:19:18.000And then you, lo and behold, you find out that is what dominates the real history between, and the interactions between Islam and the West or Christendom at the time.
00:19:26.000And so sword and scimitar, what I wanted to do is really look at all the decisive battles that have completely changed the face of the globe, especially the old world, east of the Atlantic, that maybe many people are unaware of due to all the entrenched, you know, narratives that academia foists on people, which is why everyone who reads starting with sword and scimitar, the first response is, oh, I thought I was educated.
00:19:51.260I thought I had a degree in history and I didn't know any of this.
00:19:54.260Okay. So you come to learn, for example, that in the seventh century, Islam explodes and conquers essentially three quarters of Christendom.
00:20:01.260You know, what we'd now today glibly refer to as the heart of the Islamic world from the Middle East, you know, from Morocco all the way to Iraq, North Africa and the Middle East, and later Turkey or Anatolia, all of that, of course, was the heart of the Christian world.
00:20:16.160And it was violently annexed in one century after the death of Muhammad and until 732, now they're in France at the Battle of Tours.
00:20:23.760So I think I showed how persistent Islam was. I have a nice important quote from Hilaire Belloc, 19th century, died in 20th century historian, very insightful, who basically says, Islam is our most persistent and formidable enemy and may explode at any time.
00:20:40.580And he wrote that, I think, around 1928, when Islam was at its nadir, its absolute weakest vis-a-vis the West at the time.
00:20:48.580This is the colonial era. And, you know, he predicted it. And lo and behold, here it is again, right? Islam has exploded.
00:20:55.400So that was the purpose of the sword and scimitar. And it really went century after century.
00:21:01.520You know, and what's interesting to me and what I think the book shows is the unwavering continuity of hostility.
00:21:08.400And so you see from the very first chapter, the Battle of Yarmouk in 636 AD, the rationale that the Muslims gave to the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantines during that battle, was you're an infidel.
00:21:20.320Our Koran says to fight you, enslave you, et cetera, et cetera, give you the three options, convert, fight or die.
00:21:26.260And you fast forward, the last real battle I cover is the first Barbary War and the second, right around 1800 to 1815.
00:21:35.540And you find the same exact rationale at work. Thomas Jefferson, you know, this great luminary, enlightenment luminary, who didn't really understand Islam.
00:21:45.120You know, the Muslims of Barbary, North Africa, had now been attacking American sailor vessels, enslaving American soldiers.
00:21:52.960And so Jefferson and Adams, John Adams, met with the ambassador from, I believe, Tripoli, Abdul something.
00:22:01.000It's in my book. And they asked him, why are you attacking us? Why don't we get along? Why don't we trade, et cetera?
00:22:07.060And this guy, in Thomas Jefferson's extant letter, we still have to Congress, he explains how this man told him, you know what?
00:22:14.080It's in our, it's in our Koran, our God, our prophet, tell us you're the enemy, we have to attack you, we have to plunder you, and enslave you, okay?
00:22:21.740And, and, and of course, Thomas Jefferson didn't get that at the time.
00:22:25.200But so I just, I think that's the lesson of sword and scimitar, which is how unwavering this violence has been.
00:22:30.880It's never stopped. It's always, it's blown up in certain areas at certain times.
00:22:35.680There were the Arab conquests, then you had what happened in Spain, which was a microcosm of jihad and crusade, or reconquista.
00:22:42.080Reconquista, then you have the Holy Land, which people are familiar with, but it really goes much more than that.
00:22:46.760You have the Ottomans and the Seljuks, and then you have the Tatars or the Mongols who became Islamic and conquered Russia in the Eastern Slavic nations.
00:22:55.160And the whole nine yards of Islamic persecution of Christians is evident in that chapter as well.
00:23:02.280Slave raids all the way up into Ireland and Scandinavia and having an actual base off of England where they would raid and bring slaves back to North Africa.
00:23:12.080So it's a very deep history that most people are unaware of for political reasons, obviously.
00:23:17.580And that's, yeah, so that was the whole purpose of sword and scimitar.
00:23:21.000But before I continue with the other books, I'll leave it there.
00:23:24.760No, no, no. Let's go to, let's go to, that's perfect.
00:23:26.920Let's go to, then Defenders of the West, you go back and you highlight the personages in the West that have actually stood in the breach and say no.
00:23:36.100And some of them are tragic stories, some heroic stories.
00:23:44.640And as I say in that book, whereas sword and scimitar, what I had, what I did is focused on eight decisive battles that really changed the face of the old world.
00:23:53.720So in Defenders of the West, I looked at eight decisive men.
00:23:57.360And so the lesson really, it was, it's, I cover the same terrain more or less, but now it's through the eyes and the lives of various heroes, military Christian heroes.
00:24:07.600Okay. And, you know, the first one is Godfrey in chapter one of the first crusade.
00:24:13.720And we go all the way down to Vlad the Impaler, which is a shocker to most people that Count Dracula is actually a Christian hero.
00:24:20.200But if you look again in the sources, that's exactly how he comes off.
00:24:23.880And that's, that was his interest is defending, you know, his people against Islamic aggression.
00:24:29.440So the whole point, I think, in Defenders of the West, and a lot of people like it, is I think it's a little more, where a sword and scimitar is more factual and you'll get the grand overlay.
00:24:39.360Defenders of the West is now, you know, more particular and it's more biographical.
00:24:43.300So it's eight chapters, mini chapters of these various heroes and defenders and warriors and how they actually approach the Islamic menace.
00:24:52.700And I think it's very, and this one really underscores the difference between what you just heard from Beatrice in Germany and whatnot.
00:25:01.260And what's, what, how, how historically Christians and Europeans responded to this menace.
00:25:24.360So the Two Swords of Christ, that's a new book that just came out.
00:25:27.240And it's, it's similar to both books in the sense that it's a long history, like sword and scimitar of the fight between Christendom and Islam.
00:25:35.220And it's similar to Defenders of the West because it's really zeros in on the heroic aspect.
00:25:39.920But now it's not individuals. It's actually this collective organization of monks, military orders.
00:25:46.300And really they're much different in a way than the Defenders of the West characters because they're very anonymous.
00:25:51.840You know, they're very modest. They're the most, they're, they're essentially commando forces.
00:25:56.140They were the backbone of the Crusades.
00:25:58.760And what's interesting about them is the way they wed militancy with piety, which is so, and I think that's the most interesting aspect of the book to understand how Christians back then could actually be, the more pious they were, the more militant they were.
00:26:12.620So that's the new book and we can talk some more about after the break.
00:26:16.000Hang on. We're taking a short commercial break.
00:32:26.140And more or less, if you look at especially early Christian history, they pretty much dominate the first three, the free best-selling spots.
00:32:34.720So last I looked, Two Swords of Christ was number one.
00:32:46.260But Two Swords of Christ has been at number one since basically it came, actually before it came out, which is great.
00:32:51.500I think, you know, the appeal of the Two Swords of Christ is you're just—it's not just the history, but it's an explanation of the theological underpinning of Christian militancy, which I think is a very important topic that a lot of people would prefer not to hear.
00:33:08.040Tell me about it, because you would think today monks, you know, you hear about St. Francis of Assisi, and you hear about this really, these passive, very powerful spiritual warriors, but it wasn't the church militant.
00:33:22.880Tell me about today, because you have a rise to this, particularly this younger generation of men that are saying, hey, look, I'm a Christian, but I'm not going to be passive about it.
00:33:38.560Sure, and I'll just start off by saying even people like Francis of Assisi, who are so widely seen as being passive, he was actually fully on board with the Crusades.
00:33:47.160And I talk a little bit about it in The Two Swords of Christ, because he figures in there.
00:33:51.580And his goals was—one of the main goals was actually instead of killing and fighting with Muslims, let's try to convert them.
00:33:57.980And, you know, he risked his life on numerous occasions.
00:34:00.140But he was fully on board with the idea of a military order and a monk who fights war.
00:34:06.600And so I think the issue—you know, Steve, I've been given this much thought, but what's going on now, I think, with Western Christianity, and I think this is the inherent problem, is that no matter what Christians say, they're all, in the end, despite themselves, they're materialists.
00:34:21.000And what I mean by that is they've lost the metaphysical understanding of theology and morality.
00:34:27.820And so everything is distilled in a materialist point of view, just like an atheist, which is my way of saying that they think all that, you know, what is good and evil is based on the material.
00:34:38.680Therefore, the worst thing a Christian can do is physically hurt someone, because it's the material.
00:34:44.300But things like morality, because they're metaphysical, and this is why you have all these Christians saying, oh, you know, don't judge.
00:34:52.040Oh, you know, love is love and all that sort of thing.
00:34:54.920So I think when you look at the world through a materialist lens, like a lot of Christians do, violence and killing become the absolute greatest sin.
00:35:05.220That's not how earlier Christians seen it, because they actually were Christians, and they actually accepted in the metaphysical, that which is beyond the physical, as even more important.
00:35:15.000Okay, so things like morality was much more important than physical harm.
00:35:19.880So I think that's why one of the reasons modern day Christians can't understand how can you fight back, how can you kill, etc.
00:35:25.320But when you look in the book, and you see the logic and the rationale by people like St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and they quote it, and it's all scriptural, too.
00:35:35.540We can go back in the title of the book, The Two Swords of Christ, was a pivotal theme that goes back to the verse in Luke, where Christ says, you know, sell your garment,
00:35:44.720buy a sword, and they say, look, Lord, here are two swords, and he says, that's enough.
00:35:48.720So how that was understood then was that Christ was saying one sword against spiritual evil, which modern day Christians, I think, still understand,
00:35:56.880but also a secular sword against physical evil, to protect the innocent, to protect the poor, to protect the orphan and the widow.
00:36:04.320Okay, so that was actually seen as a good thing.
00:36:07.140And as you know, there's so much we can talk about just war theory, that's completely embedded both Old and New Testament.
00:36:12.920Okay, so no one back then had a problem.
00:36:15.760But I think today, as you were saying, one of the big issues is, you know, this sort of passivity, turn the other cheek, which I call doormat Christianity,
00:36:24.680has been so popularized that every Christian thinks this is real Christianity.
00:36:29.460This is the only form of Christianity, which is for me to do nothing but to be a doormat.
00:36:47.000And a lot of, as you were also indicating, a lot of young men find this distasteful.
00:36:51.360And it's not, it's, I always hear, you know, churches, men are leaving churches.
00:36:55.820Well, there's a reason, because the message that's actually, this message, this doormat Christianity,
00:37:00.320doesn't resonate with our nature, which God gave us, which is to defend, you know, to defend the innocent and the victims and the poor and fight back.
00:37:09.800So the sort of emasculation of Christianity, which completely works in tandem with the enemy, and I speak in the abstract, of course, I think that's all by design.
00:38:23.000It overtook Syria, overtook Turkey, where the church was actually quite strong then.
00:38:31.020The reaction, the crusades to come back, these two military orders, give me the origin of these military orders.
00:38:37.500I don't want to give away the whole book because I want people to buy this in droves.
00:38:40.420Particularly, all three of these books you should get for yourself to learn, but particularly Defenders of the West and the Two Swords of Christ for young men.
00:38:51.980If you have young men in your family and you're looking to get them something for Christmas, don't get them a video game.
00:38:58.540Don't get them some piece of telecommunication as they use.
00:39:31.580Yeah, Steve, so, and that's the important point, which is why these books are also important.
00:39:38.420I think a lot of people, when you talk about history of Islam and Europe, in their mind, it always starts with the crusades, which means they're always fed a false narrative that's presented in a vacuum.
00:39:50.960What I'm talking about initially started in 636.
00:39:53.960OK, and, you know, this is when I was talking about the complete ransacking of Christendom and the conquest of three quarters of it and a lot, lots of, you know, in one year alone, in the year 10, 1009, an Egyptian caliph, according to Muslim sources.
00:40:09.740And people always argue with me, oh, that's, no, it's in the Arabic.
00:40:30.220So, you know, and then and unfortunately, we get people like John Esposito, professor at Georgetown.
00:40:34.740And I've quoted this quote that he's written in one of his books, I think, Islam, the straight path so many times I've memorized it.
00:40:42.620And he literally says five centuries of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians elapsed before an imperial papal power play led to centuries of so-called centuries of so-called holy wars that have left the legacy of misunderstanding and distrust.
00:40:57.380In other words, before 1095, the first crusade, this is the narrative now by the academics, so many of them, and Hollywood, of course, is everything was fine.
00:41:07.060Muslims and Christians were living in peace, you know, when they were when Muslims conquered three quarters of the Christian world, as I was saying, that was a time of peace until, you know, the popes and the papal power play ruined it all.
00:41:19.980So that is the narrative. And that's why I think it's very important to understand what led up the centuries that led up to the crusades, which was, as Bernard Lewis even put it pretty well.
00:41:29.180He said the first crusade was a belated response to centuries of Islamic aggression.
00:41:34.220Now, the military orders come into being after right after the first crusade.
00:41:37.980What happened is they've now the crusaders have liberated Jerusalem and a few other Christian cities along the coast of the, you know, in what was called then greater Syria.
00:41:49.900But today in modern day Israel and also Lebanon and regions like that in Jordan, they had various cities under control.
00:41:57.180But the problem was now that pilgrims were coming in droves, these were still islands surrounded by an Islamic sea because they were just literally outposts in the Islamic world right now.
00:42:06.880And so whenever pilgrims would come, they would get savaged, killed, raped, mauled.
00:42:11.780And so a small group of knights decided they're going to commit their lives to just defending these pilgrims.
00:42:17.800Okay. And I think they were nine for the longest time, for almost nine years, according to William of Tire.
00:42:23.960And they were so appreciated by the king, King Baldwin II, that he actually gave them residence in what was believed to be Solomon's Temple, which is Al-Aqsa Mosque.
00:42:34.460And so they became known as the knights of the temple or the Templars.
00:42:38.600And their entire life was about just protecting pilgrims from Muslims who would raid and attack them.
00:42:45.040And again, what's interesting about them is you read the theological justification for what they were doing.
00:42:50.400And it comes out in so many biblical verses that are cited that make perfect sense.
00:42:56.880They would, you know, verses such as, you know, no greater love does a man have than to lay down his life for his fellow man, which, of course, is often understood in Christ's sacrifice.
00:43:04.820But that's sort of what they were doing, too, right?
00:43:06.880They were following in his footsteps, and they were actually putting their life on the line to protect their fellow brethren, fellow Christians who were coming to pilgrimage, which was a very important thing.
00:43:17.360And then the second group, the knights of the hospital, were actually older, but they weren't militarized.
00:43:22.480The first military organization or military order are the Templars.
00:43:26.320But the knights of the hospital were actually, or the hospitalers at the time, these were just hospice workers, okay?
00:43:33.080And they actually had a small hospice in Jerusalem, so when pilgrims would come, they would give them refreshment, they would give them beds and take care of their medical needs, okay?
00:43:41.520So they were very meek, and the verses that actuated them were the ones about, they would actually have prayers about our lords, the sick, because Christ said, if you do this to the least of me, you're doing it for me.
00:43:53.560But then they realized before long that, you know, what's the point of letting these pilgrims come get attacked and hurt, and then we have to try to heal them and take care of them?
00:44:04.700So they, too, became militarized and realized that, well, let's nip it in the bud.
00:44:08.840Instead of waiting for them to get attacked and killed, we will also defend them, and we will fight back.
00:44:13.400So they functioned very much like the Templars as well, as protectors of Christians.
00:44:18.160I want to ask you, as people, you know, thinking about the holiday season and getting gifts, what is the most important thing you think people can get from reading your third book, The Two Swords of Christ?
00:44:35.040And who was your target, and who is your target audience, sir?
00:44:39.880The most important thing I think people will get is they'll, you know, first of all, it's a long, very interesting history.
00:44:47.200So it's, you know, as I always say, when you look at these histories that I write about, they're much more engaging and dramatic than what Hollywood serves up.
00:44:56.080Okay, so I think the history itself is going to be very engaging.
00:44:58.880But I think what they'll ultimately get is this, you know, is this idea of doormat Christianity, which I think is so embedded in our psyche, that this is the only real kind of Christianity.
00:45:09.860I think this will pleasantly challenge so many people to see that, no, I don't have to always be a doormat, that there is room.
00:45:16.840In fact, it's advocated by the Lord himself to defend and fight and do what's right.
00:45:21.720Okay, Jesus himself is the one who engaged in violence with a whip of cord.
00:45:25.640Okay, so, you know, violence is not off the table.
00:45:31.300Again, this is a materialist point of view.
00:45:34.080So I think they will very much be refreshed and edified by the way the theology was understood.
00:45:40.440And again, this wasn't an aberrant theology.
00:45:43.420This was widely understood back then, but it's disappeared nowadays for a reason.
00:45:48.100And the audience I wrote for, I generally always write these books for a general audience.
00:45:52.580But I do believe younger men are really going to be the ones who profit the most from, especially the Two Swords of Christ, very much like they would from Defenders of the West.
00:46:03.060And just a quick note about, because people always ask me this, they say, are they all connected?
00:46:07.280Do I have to start with the first book?
00:46:08.640So the answer is no, I didn't write them in a sense that if you don't read the first one, the second one won't make sense.
00:46:14.680But all things being equal, if someone does want to read them all, I would start with Sword and Scimitar because it's the most general.
00:46:21.040And it's sort of kind of gives you the lay of the land, whereas the other ones, Defenders of the West and Two Swords, are a little more specific.
00:46:27.900But you still don't have to start with Sword and Scimitar.
00:46:32.000I wrote them so they're self-contained books.
00:46:35.040The reason that I'm so enthusiastic, but look, I love all of them.
00:46:39.060And I tell people, if you want to see what the country's really up against and our republics are up against, our civilization, this gives you such a depth of knowledge.
00:46:49.560And I think the Hiller-Bellock quote is so amazing because that really was the nadir.
00:46:56.020That was right after they had just started to get assemblates.
00:47:25.640And today, that's why it's so important, these books for young men, to realize that there is a history of heroes here that have stepped in the breach and defended the West over, you know, 1,400, 1,500 years.
00:47:40.000And that you are a part of this lineage.
00:47:42.080And if you read these stories, you can't help but be inspired.
00:47:45.960What's so powerful about the military orders, which has always been kind of an obsession of mine since I was a young kid, is that you're right.
00:47:53.800It has this humility and piety and really religiosity and spiritualism on top of being the level of badasses of, like, Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs.
00:48:07.360I mean, these guys, and the Crusades, with the Army of the Crusades.
00:48:10.660The first crusade was a world historical event.
00:48:51.520Young men have a certain, you know, energy to them, a certain searching for a purpose, searching for a task.
00:49:00.520And that's why I think if you get these books in their hands, you're going to see a change of, I think you'll see a change of attitude a lot.
00:49:06.160They'll say, hey, there's something out there greater than me just sitting around playing video games.
00:49:09.960I see that people that came before me had this task and purpose, and that's why I recommend it.
00:49:17.260I want to have more of your thoughts this week about President Trump's amazing strategic, because it sounded like you were an advisor on it, the section in the Middle East, and particularly the section in Europe and the fall of Europe, which you've warned people about.
00:49:31.100Where do people go now, though, to get the books, to particularly get to know more about you, social media, but particularly your website, because you're a fascinating character.
00:49:40.120You studied under Victor Davis Hanson, which is obviously our audience loves.
00:50:02.220Yeah, there it is, the Holy War channel.
00:50:04.120And speaking of Victor, whoever wants to see, I actually just, he did an interview with me about the Two Swords of Christ, I think, last week.
00:50:09.900And it's up there, and anyone can see it.
00:50:11.960As far as the books, I have links to all of them to Amazon, so you can get them there.
00:50:16.500And also, if you want a signed copy by yours truly, you can get it on my website as well.
00:50:22.360And like you said, Steve, I do think these books, especially The Last Two and Two Swords of Christ, will be very, very helpful and edifying for young men who are dissatisfied with the current state of the church.