Bookworm draws an interesting comparison: Denmark today and Constantinople in 1453. The parallels are not exact, but one thing that matches is that disunity among western countries strengthens Jihad.

You know the story: a lone, mostly Western country is surrounded by hostile Islamic nations. One of those nations, known for its aggression, announces that it intends to take over that lonely Western country, and that it has the arms and the technology to do so. The Western country looks to Europe for aid. The European nations, however, because of their essential hostility to the Western nation, and their need for the Islamic nation's product, stumble over themselves to say little and do nothing. Israel and Iran, right? Wrong.

I'm talking about the Ottoman state and Constantinople, circa 1453. That, of course, was the year Constantinople, the Byzantine capital of Eastern Christianity for a thousand years fell to the Ottomans. It marked the creation of Istanbul, and the beginning of the incredibly powerful Ottoman empire. The battle for Constantinople didn't come out of the blue, though. Mehmet II, the Ottoman Sultan, let everyone know his intentions in advance ("I've got nukes and I'm not afraid to use them"). Facing this threat, the Greeks in Constantinople sought aid from Europe. The relationship was somewhat fraught, though, because of religious differences between Eastern and Western Christianity.