Islam & The West---Learning From History

In considering the reaction of the West to the renewed aggression of various Islamic groups in today's world, we might look at the last such great conflict which was that between the West and Turkish-Islamic aggression in the late 1500s. First consider the quote given below and then my "rewrite" for today's conditions.

THEN
"By the beginning of the sixteenth century Christendom was in a very sorry state. Gone were the crusading ideals of old; people turned deaf ears to the alarmed utterances of preachers and popes about the necessity of stopping the Turkish advance. For most European governments the Ottoman threat was low on their list of concerns --- they were more interested in maintaining their positions in the rich eastern markets --- while a few states were quite ready to abet, or at least not hinder, the sultans' expansionist policies for the sake of their own commercial interests." (1. At Page-47)

NOW
"By the beginning of the 21st century the West was in a very sorry state. Gone were the crusading ideals of the 1940s which lead to the crushing of the Nazis and Imperial Japan. People turned a deaf ear to the alarmed utterances of security analysts and reflective historians about the necessity of stopping the new Islamic aggression, with its 1400-year old and unalterable goals of conversion-and-conquest and its approved, if not commanded, use of murder, rape, genocide, robbery and perpetual war to further the goals of Islam and the individual desires of Muslims.. For most westerners the Islam threat is low on their list of concerns --- They are more interested in maintaining their sources of Arab oil and maintaining their positions of power in the economic world --- while most states are quite ready to abet, or at least not hinder, Islam's new campaign of aggression for their own commercial or secular progressive interests."

I realize that the fact that the history of more than two weeks ago can be applied to our present political, cultural and economic environment will be a shock to most of this era's journalists. It may be an equal shock to too many politicians and university professors that the lessons of history apply to today's threats to western, true, civilization.

It is specially a problem that this era's Popes, the Holy See and other Christians have lost sight of the essential battle between Civilization and Islam as much as have others.

It is well to remember that the only proven method of dealing with Islamic aggression is that proven over the last 1400-years---With the edge of a sword (Or its current equivalent).


(1) Capponi, Niccolo
Victory of The West: The Great Christian-Muslim Clash
At The Battle of Lepanto
Da Capo Press (Perseus Books Group); 2006
Cambridge (MA)

note bene I highly recommend this book for a variety of reasons.