REMEMBERING '9/11'
Dear friends,
Occasioned by the Turkish invasion of Malta and Hungary in the 1560s, the
following prayer was authorised and used in the Church of England during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Composed at a time when Islam threatened Europe,
this instructive and stirring petition is not out of place in a world faced by
the Muslim menace since '9/11'. It reminds us that the root problem is not
economic, social, political or cultural but religious, a fact that our 'PC'
secularists refuse to acknowledge. It also has a lot to say regarding modern
'western wickedness' for which God is justly judging us today. It is a call to
repentance. In view of the truths expressed, we ignore the pleadings of this
prayer at our peril.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Alan C. Clifford
THE ISLAMIC THREAT: A prayer for then and now
O Almighty and everlasting God, our heavenly Father, we thy disobedient and
rebellious children, now by thy just judgement sore afflicted, and in great
danger to be oppressed, by thine and our sworn and most deadly enemies the
[Muslim] Turks, Infidels, and Miscreants, do make humble suit to the throne of
thy grace, for thy mercy and aid against the same our mortal enemies: for though
we do profess the name of thy only Son Christ our Saviour, yet through our
manifold sins and wickedness we have most justly deserved so much of thy wrath
and indignation, that we can not but say, O Lord correct us in thy mercy and not
in thy fury. Better it is for us to fall into thy hands, than into the hands of
men, and especially into the hands of [Muslim] Turks and Infidels thy professed
enemies, who now invade thine
inheritance.
Against thee, O Lord, have we sinned, and transgressed thy commandments: against
Turks, Infidels, and other enemies of the Gospel of thy dear Son Jesus Christ,
have we not offended, but only in this, that we acknowledge
thee, the eternal Father, and thy only Son our Redeemer, with the Holy Ghost,
the comforter, to be the only true Almighty and everliving God. For if we would
deny and blaspheme thy most holy name, forsake the Gospel of thy dear Son,
embrace false religion, commit horrible Idolatries, and give ourselves to all
impure, wicked, and abominable life, as they do; the devil, the world, the
[Muslim] Turk, and all other thine enemies would be at peace with us, according
to the saying of thy Son Christ: If you were of the world, the world would love
his own [John 15: 19]. But therefore hate
they us, because we love thee: therefore persecute they us, because we
acknowledge thee, God the Father, and Jesus Christ thy Son, whom thou hast sent.
The [Muslim] Turk goeth about to set up, to extol, and to magnify that wicked
monster and damned soul Mahomet above thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, whom
we in heart believe, and with mouth confess, to be our only Saviour and
Redeemer. Wherefore awake, O Lord our God and heavenly Father, look upon us thy
children, and all such Christians as now be besieged and afflicted, with thy
fatherly and merciful countenance: and overthrow and destroy thine and our
enemies, sanctify thy blessed name among us, which they blaspheme, establish thy
kingdom, which they labour to overthrow: suffer not thine enemies to prevail
against those, that now call upon thy name, and put their trust in thee, lest
the Heathen and Infidels say: Where is now their God? But in thy great in thy
great mercy save, defend, and deliver all thy afflicted Christians in this and
all other invasions of these Infidels, that we and they that delight to be named
Christians may continually laud, praise, and magnify thy holy name, with thy
only Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, to whom be all laud, praise, glory,
and empire for ever and ever. AMEN.
'A Form of Common Prayer' (1565), in 'Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer
set forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth' (The Parker Society: Cambridge,
1847), p. 522.