Meet Romanian Catalin John Berenghi: former Foreign Legion Soldier and anti-Islamist badass

Long story short: the radical Islamist Turkish government of President Recep Erdogan offered the unpopular left wing Romanian government a multi-million Euro "donation" for the purpose of building a new mega-mosque in Romania's capital Bucharest. The Romanian government led by the premier Victor (AKA "Mickey Mouse") Ponta, accepted the offer and contributed to the project by allocating a very valuable parcel of land for the construction.

Enters Catalin Ioan (John) Berenghi, age 34.

John Berenghi is a veteran of the French Foreign Legion, successful businessman, passionate amateur historian and overall genuine bad-ass. It is well known they don't accept limp-wristed metrosexual wussies in the French Foreign Legion so as far as I'm concerned, Berenghi's bad ass credentials are impeccable.

Catalin John Berenghi during his days as a French Legionnaire

He, like millions of other Romanians share the collective memory of their country's 450+ years of bloody struggle for freedom from under the yoke of Islam. John Berenghi didn't like the idea of a mega-mosque being built in his country with money sent by the radical Islamist government government of Turkey and decided to take action.

But first, a little bit of history may be needed here so readers will better understand why John Berenghi and his co-nationals have a visceral aversion for Islam: 

For Romanians, Vlad "Dracula" The Impaler isn't a fictional character in a book or a Hollywood movie. He is a real life "voievod" (prince) who battled and despite the size of his minuscule army had won several victories against the mighty Islamic Ottoman Empire who tried repeatedly to invade, subdue and convert his country to Islam. 

"The Night Raid" depicting Vlad the Impaler guerrilla style night time attack on the Turkish troops encampment. The Sultan escaped with his life only because Vlad's scouts misidentified the tent where he was sleeping

To better understand Vlad's military prowess in his fight against the Islamic super-power of the age, here is a fictional scenario: just imagine the present day Chinese Army which is arguably second-best equipped in the world would try to invade a small country like say, Iceland. Only instead of being able to defeat a badly equipped army of Icelandic fishermen ten times smaller than the size of the Chinese invasion force withing days, not only the Icelanders crush the invading Chinese forces, but also storm the their base of operations and attempt to dispatch the Chinese General field commander. Who barely escapes alive from the battlefield only due to sheer luck. 
Vlad's heroism on the battlefield preserved Romanians Christian faith and national identity. For John Berenghi and his co-nationals Vlad's patriotism and tragic death  is somewhat akin to Sparta's King Leonidas ultimate sacrifice.

Adding insult to injury, the land donated by the Romanian government for the construction of the mega-mosque used to belong to Prince Brancoveanu's domains. Another heroic but tragic figure in Romanian history, Prince Brancoveanu who tried to forge anti-Islamic alliances with Western powers of his day was invited to the capital of the Ottoman Empire for talks with the Sultan. Once arrived, he was taken prisoner together with his four sons (youngest only 7 years of age) and his most trusted council. They were all tortured then according to the Sharia law were offered amnesty if they agreed to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. When all five refused to abandon their Christian faith the Sultan ordered their execution. The Brancoveanu family was put to death by beheading (sounds familiar?), their bodies thrown in the Bosforus strait and their heads put on spikes.
Who said Game of Thrones has no base in real historical events?

Church painting of martyred Prince Brancoveanu and his sons

So the building a mega-mosque funded by Turkish money on the land that belonged to a martyr of Christian faith murdered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks (and officially recognized as a Saint by the Romanian Orthodox Church) is a very bad idea to say the least. More like an insult followed by a spitting in the face of every Romanian citizen and their ancestors.

When the Romanian government announced the building of a mega-mosque funded by the radical Islamist government of Turkey, Catalin John Berenghi took action.

First, he went to a super market, purchased a whole frozen pig and buried it on the land of the future mega-mosque so the land become "unclean" and improper for the construction of a mosque according to the Islamic faith:

When the leftist Romanian government reacted with an official declaration condemning John Berenghi's action, he doubled down by purchasing a herd of pigs, spray painted the Romanian national flag colors (red, yellow and blue) on their backs and released them at the same location:

More government criticism and accusations of "Islamophobia" ensued, so Catalin John Berengi responded by hauling and planting a 1 ton, 100 year old Christian Orthodox stone cross on the land of the disputed future mega-mosque:

And to make his opposition clear, he commissioned and paid for 500 wooden crosses, then posted an invitation on his Facebook page requesting help from fellow Romanians to plant them in the ground and hold a collective prayer.

What else has John Berenghi planned for the future?
He says if the construction is breaking ground and the authorities will prohibit peoples access to the land, he will rent a helicopter, load it with buckets of pig entrails and "bomb" the construction from the air.

I don't have any doubts he will do it and millions of Romanians will love and support him for it.

The latest news: a spokesperson from the Turkish embassy in Bucharest declared in an interview: 

"The subject on the mosque no longer a bilateral issue. We did not force the government to do something against the will of the Romanian people. If the Romanianpeople are against the mosque, we abide by their will. It is a Romanian national issue."


UPDATE 06-24-18

The Mega-Mosque is history. The free lease agreement for the land where the mosque was supposed to be build signed by the Romanian government and the Islamic organization (Muftiat) who was supposed to build the mosque with Turkish money stated "the construction must be finished within 36 months from the date of signing the agreement". The date the agreement was signed: May 29th, 2015.

http://ortodoxinfo.ro/2018/06/16/oficial-mega-moscheea-lui-ponta-turcitu-nu-se-mai-face-slava-lui-dumnezeu/

For those interested in history, a couple of facts about prince Michael the Brave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_the_Brave

Sources for this article:

http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/S...hei+de+la+Bucuresti+25+de+ani+de+negocieri+si
http://www.diasporaro.com/romanii-nu-vor-moschee-in-bucuresti/
http://www.b1.ro/stiri/eveniment/ca...-se-faca-altceva-spionaj-terorism-122586.html
http://www.aktual24.ro/cum-saboteaz...uresti-arunc-din-elicopter-maruntaie-de-porc/
http://www.ele.ro/social/stiri-soci...a-arunc-din-elicopter-maruntaie-de-porc-50725
http://stirileprotv.ro/stiri/actual...at-o-cruce-de-piatra-reactia-patriarhiei.html
http://adevarul.ro/international/in-lume/ambasadorul-turc-bucuresti-mega-moscheea-nu-mai-chestiune-bilaterala-ci-nationala-romanilor-vom-retrage-poporul-opune-1_55fbf38df5eaafab2cbd1e9f/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/berenghi.catalin



Linked at IOTW Report:  http://iotwreport.com/what-is-this-romanian-man-doing-with-this-pig/