Joseph Claire Pierre René Belloc, an Anglo-French writer and historian, wrote tellingly and presciently in 1938 about the then-quiescent Islamic Movement (hat tip: Blazing Cat Fur):

Millions of modern people of the white civilization – that is, the civilization of Europe and America – have forgotten about Islam. They have never come into contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them. It 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 in the past.

Like most of us of a certain age, Mohammedanism (as it was called) was a part of some vague, nonthreatening Abrahamic continuum.  Little did we suspect that it was a lion in waiting.

I remember a conversation with a long-ago girlfriend who was a daughter of a missionary and who was born in Tehran.  When I, naively, said Mohammedanism was a benign part of our shared great heritage, I almost lost my head, such was her fury about what Christians, Zoroastrians, and others suffered even then under the then-Shah.

Boy, was I dumb!

More:

Imagine Belloc now. What would he think? Of course, he would think that he was right all those years ago. But he would surely be amazed that the threat had grown so large, had penetrated the very bosom of the West, under our very noses, so to speak, without it causing profound alarm. He surely would think that our political leaders had turned traitorous or stupid to continue to preside over Muslim immigration....  Imagine Belloc now. What would he think? Of course, he would think that he was right all those years ago. But he would surely be amazed that the threat had grown so large, had penetrated the very bosom of the West, under our very noses, so to speak, without it causing profound alarm. He surely would think that our political leaders had turned traitorous or stupid to continue to preside over Muslim immigration.

Nowhere in the cited pieces could I find exactly when it was that Belloc supposedly make those statements, but they are certainly telling 70-plus years on.

As noted in the piece, "I confess to having read nothing else of Belloc which I now intend to put right."

I hope also that the rest of us will recognize that Winston had it exactly right:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

Spend a little time on the linked pieces to remind yourselves of the challenges we face.

PS: Read a little more about Belloc to see what an interesting character he was, hiking, walking, writing, serving in Parliament, and more.

The author is retired, his profile may be found on LinkedIn, and he usually responds to emails sent to bilschan@hotmail.com.