Islam: The West's 'Most Formidable and Persistent Enemy'
Anyone who doubts that Islam has been "the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had," should familiarize themselves with that civilization's long militant history vis-à-vis the West.
European historian Hilaire Belloc (b. 1870) said: "It [Islam] is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past... The whole spiritual strength of Islam is still present in the masses of Syria and Anatolia, of the East Asian mountains, of Arabia, Egypt and North Africa. The final fruit of this tenacity, the second period of Islamic power, may be delayed -- but I doubt whether it can be permanently postponed (emphasis added)."