The Siege of Vienna and Eastern Europe’s "Subconscious Fear" of Islam

By A Colleague

Mon, Jul 15, 2019 1:07 p.m.

Remember, Lest We Forget

The Siege of Vienna and Eastern Europe's 'Subconscious Fear' of Islam

Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim is a Freedom Center Shillman Fellow and the author of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West.

"Austria acts against Muslims almost every day because of their subconscious fear of Turks," writes Turkish historian Erhan Afyoncu.  "Austrians have not forgotten the fear and their emperor's escape in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. When Turks were defeated in the Battle of Vienna, Europeans were so happy…"

This is true.  As such, a brief refresher on the Siege of Vienna—the anniversary of which is today—is in order:

The largest Islamic army ever to invade European territory—which is saying much considering that countless invasions preceded it since the eighth century—came and surrounded Vienna, then the heart of the Holy Roman Empire and longtime nemesis of Islam, on July 15, 1683.

Some 200,000 Muslim combatants, under the leadership of the Ottomans—the one state in nearly fourteen centuries of Islamic history most dedicated to and founded on the principles of jihad—invaded under the same rationale that so-called "radical" groups, such as the Islamic State, cite to justify their jihad on "infidels."  Or, to quote the leader of the Muslim expedition, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, because Vienna was perceived as the head of the infidel snake, it needed to be laid low so that "all the Christians would obey the Ottomans."

This was no idle boast; sources describe this Mustafa as "fanatically anti-Christian." After capturing a Polish town in 1674 he ordered all the Christian prisoners to be skinned alive and their stuffed hides sent as trophies to Ottoman Sultan Muhammad IV. (Snip That is not all folks)