Dates Worth Remembering: Sept. 11th and Oct. 7th
By O. Henry Swartzentruber
My daughter recently told me that her teacher lamented how poorly many students understand history. And not just the events themselves, but when they happened.I believe it. I am occasionally guilty. That same teacher told his class that some students couldn't place the Vietnam War. One student guessed 1848. Oof. That exchange got me thinking about two dates with major significance in the modern era: Sept. 11th for the 2001 bombing of NYC's Twin Towers and other landmarks, and Oct. 7th, 2023 for vicious Hamas attacks on Jewish settlements, including women and children. Both dates also correspond to major battles in the long history of conflict between the Ottoman Empire (the East) and European powers (the West). I only learned of the dates' significance when listening to a history podcast and reading one of the finest poems in English prose; Lepanto. Impossible for me to understand without Chesterton's notes and context. Do the dates themselves carry historical meaning for modern Islamist extremists? To me, the answer is clearly yes. Sept. 11: The Battle of Vienna, 1683On Sept. 11, 1683, forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeated the Ottoman army (Turkish Muslim forces), pushing them back at the gates of Vienna.The battle stopped Ottoman expansion into Europe and was a major landmark and turning point in European history. For centuries afterward, the Battle of Vienna stood as a symbol of the Islamic Ottoman Empire's slowed push westward.
Oct. 7: The Battle of Lepanto, 1571
On Oct. 7, 1571, the Holy League, a coalition of European Christian states assembled by Pope Pius V, defeated the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras. This is a 2-hour drive west of modern Athens, Greece. That Western victory stopped Ottoman naval expansion into (the western) Mediterranean from Turkey and became an important episode in the struggle between the Ottoman Empire (the Islamic East) and European powers (the Christian West). Modern historians even note the miraculous wind conditions that assisted the Holy League in their defeat of the Turks. God moves in mysterious ways, indeed. These dates were striking to me as I read GK Chesterton's poem Lepanto this summer.
An Evil Strategy
Islamist extremist organizations have often portrayed their struggle in historical and religious terms. The Crusades, taking back stolen lands (like Spain, lol), grievance, etc. Learning about the battle of Vienna, Sept. 11 feels like more than a calendar date. Terrorists seem to remember dates, while comfortable westerners forget. Even Oct. 7, 2023 was 50 years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a success of Israel. In his 2002 Letter to the American People, Osama bin Laden referenced present political grievances, including the U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, American foreign policy in the Middle East, and U.S. support for Israel. He referenced the Crusaders and a broader struggle between Islam and the West.But we should not turn a coincidence into causation.The fact that Sept. 11 falls on the Battle of Vienna does not, by itself, demonstrate al-Qaeda chose the date because of Vienna. Likewise, the fact that Oct. 7 coincides with the anniversary of Lepanto does not demonstrate that Hamas chose its date because of a 16th-century naval loss for Muslim forces. But seriously, if there is not a causal connection, what are the odds? The historical record supports my thesis that dates are worth remembering. History is not simply trivia. It is a written and oral record through which societies understand themselves and their opponents. If we don't know when the Vietnam War happened, we will struggle to understand the world that produced that war between Marxist-Leninist forces and Western sympathizers in Southeast Asia. If we don't know what happened at Vienna or Lepanto, we lose context for understanding how Europe and the Islamic world have interacted for centuries. We should not naively and comfortably forget history and these dates. Never forget.