It’s interesting to see Hilaire Belloc get his due in a secular newspaper, in this case the Charlotte Observer. Commentator Tom Ashcraft relates how Hilaire Bellox predicted the rise of radical Islam and its inevitable clash with Western, i.e. Christian, civilization, and he did it 70 years ago. Using Belloc as a guide, Ashcraft traces the rise of Islam as a Christian heresy, through centuries of conflict with Christianity, through its dormancy in the early part of the 20th century, until now. If you look at it in the sweep of history the constant challenge for Christianity, after the fall of the Roman Empire, was Islam more than anything else. Looking at things with such a wide lens helps to put the current conflict in perspective. This is why our schoolteachers always insisted on the importance of learning history.
