| "On October 7, 2001, the 430th anniversary of the Naval Battle of Lepanto, the Armed forces of United States attacked the stronghold of Osama Bin Laden and his supporters in Afghanistan in the continuing struggle of counter-jihad." from a catholic website.
Naval Battle of Lepanto: In the 16th century the Turkish Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) pressed jihad further into the Balkans and also against the remaining Christian strongholds in the Mediterranean Sea... to invade western Europe and subject it to the Islamic rule. Pope Pius organised the Holy League consisting of the naval forces of Spain which met the Turkish fleet in October 7th 1571 off the coast of Greece in what is called as the Battle of Lepanto. The Christian fleet defeated the Turks in a day , which halted advance of Islam and marked the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire. In commemoration of this event, Pope Pius V established the feast of 'Our Lady Victory', later called Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, to be celebrated on October 7 in the Roman Catholic church... Hence with the success of the Holy League at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Muslims were defeated. Therewith began Europe's counter-jihad campaigns which continued intermittently over the following centuries. Read the article "Behind the US Crusades" |