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I was reading through "The Great Heresies" by Hilaire Belloc and came across this statement he made in his writings:

I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic - but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past: - one might say that they are blinded by it.

This was written in 1938. It appears as if Mr. Belloc had his own thoughts on generational dynamics!

I was further astounded (and I thought I was a student of history!) to find that less than 100 years before the Declaration of Independence, Islam had almost conquered all of Europe. And what follows really stunned me:

Vienna, as we saw, was almost taken and only saved by the Christian army under the command of the King of Poland on a date that ought to be among the most famous in history - September 11, 1683.

Pretty interesting.

thomasglee wrote:

Vienna, as we saw, was almost taken and only saved by the Christian army under the command of the King of Poland on a date that ought to be among the most famous in history - September 11, 1683.

Although not particularly well publicized at the time, I do remember terrorist experts recognizing that dates are very important to Al Queda and that this was likely why 9/11 was selected by them. As it represents the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.

xakzen wrote:Although not particularly well publicized at the time, I do remember terrorist experts recognizing that dates are very important to Al Queda and that this was likely why 9/11 was selected by them. As it represents the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.

I didn't remember his date being talked about, but for some reason recall them discussing the relationship (not sure what it is... or if there really was one or not...) between 9-11 and the signing of the Balfour Agreement. Perhaps my memory (as I'm getting older... it's probably the case! ) is just failing me.

Thanks.

Here are some other quotes from around the same time

Hilaire Belloc wrote in 1938:
"Will not perhaps the temporal power of Islam return and with it the menace of an armed Mohammedan world, which will shake off the domination of Europeans -- still nominally Christian -- and reappear as the prime enemy of our civilization? The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam".

G.K. Chesterton:
There is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy of the very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology. . . . A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude if lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets.

thomasglee wrote:I didn't remember his date being talked about, but for some reason recall them discussing the relationship (not sure what it is... or if there really was one or not...) between 9-11 and the signing of the Balfour Agreement. Perhaps my memory (as I'm getting older... it's probably the case! ) is just failing me.

September 11 is not only significant in Christian/Islamic relations, but is also an historically tragic date in US history. It was on September 11, 1777 that George Washington lost the Battle of Brandywine outside Philadelphia forcing the Continental Congress to flee the then capital further into Pennsylvania.