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Hilaire Belloc: The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed [Chilling Clairvoyance]
The Great Heresies ^ | 1938 | Hilaire Belloc

Posted on 10/18/2003 1:02:52 PM PDT by nwrep

THE GREAT HERESIES

by Hilaire Belloc

Chapter Four

The Great and Enduring Heresy of Mohammed

It might have appeared to any man watching affairs in the earlier years of the seventh century_say from 600 to 630_that only one great main assault having been made against the Church, Arianism and its derivatives, that assault having been repelled and the Faith having won its victory, it was now secure for an indefinite time.

Christendom would have to fight for its life, of course, against outward unchristian things, that is, against Paganism. The nature worshippers of the high Persian civilization to the east would attack us in arms and try to overwhelm us. The savage paganism of barbaric tribes, Scandinavian, German, Slav and Mongol, in the north and centre of Europe would also attack Christendom and try to destroy it. The populations subject to Byzantium would continue to parade heretical views as a label for their grievances. But the main effort of heresy, at least, had failed_so it seemed. Its object, the undoing of a united Catholic civilization, had been missed. The rise of no major heresy need henceforth be feared, still less the consequent disruption of Christendom.

By A.D. 630 all Gaul had long been Catholic. The last of the Arian generals and their garrisons in Italy and Spain had become orthodox. The Arian generals and garrisons of Northern Africa had been conquered by the orthodox armies of the Emperor.

It was just at this moment, a moment of apparently universal and permanent Catholicism, that there fell an unexpected blow of overwhelming magnitude and force. Islam arose_quite suddenly. It came out of the desert and overwhelmed half our civilization.

Islam_the teaching of Mohammed_conquered immediately in arms. Mohammed's Arabian converts charged into Syria and won there two great battles, the first upon the Yarmuk to the east of Palestine in the highlands above the Jordan, the second in Mesopotamia. They went on to overrun Egypt; they pushed further and further into the heart of our Christian civilization with all its grandeur of Rome. They established themselves all over Northern Africa; they raided into Asia Minor, though they did not establish themselves there as yet. They could even occasionally threaten Constantinople itself. At last, a long lifetime after their first victories in Syria, they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Western Europe and began to flood Spain. They even got as far as the very heart of Northern France, between Poitiers and Tours, less than a hundred years after their first victories in Syria_in A.D. 732.

They were ultimately thrust back to the Pyrenees, but they continued to hold all Spain except the mountainous north-western corner. They held all Roman Africa, including Egypt, and all Syria. They dominated the whole Mediterranean west and east: held its islands, raided and left armed settlements even on the shores of Gaul and Italy. They spread mightily throughout Hither Asia, overwhelming the Persian realm. They were an increasing menace to Constantinople. Within a hundred years, a main part of the Roman world had fallen under the power of this new and strange force from the Desert.

Such a revolution had never been. No earlier attack had been so sudden, so violent or so permanently successful. Within a score of years from the first assault in 634 the Christian Levant had gone: Syria, the cradle of the Faith, and Egypt with Alexandria, the mighty Christian See. Within a lifetime half the wealth and nearly half the territory of the Christian Roman Empire was in the hands of Mohammedan masters and officials, and the mass of the population was becoming affected more and more by this new thing.

Mohammedan government and influence had taken the place of Christian government and influence, and were on the way to making the bulk of the Mediterranean on the east and the south Mohammedan.

We are about to follow the fortunes of this extraordinary thing which still calls itself Islam, that is, "The Acceptation" of the morals and simple doctrines which Mohammed had preached.

I shall later describe the historical origin of the thing, giving the dates of its progress and the stages of its original success. I shall describe the consolidation of it, its increasing power and the threat which it remained to our civilization. It very nearly destroyed us. It kept up the battle against Christendom actively for a thousand years, and the story is by no means over; the power of Islam may at any moment re-arise.

(Excerpt) Read more at ewtn.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Miscellaneous; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: belloc; catholiclist; christianlist; clashofcivilizatio; hilaire; islam
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1 posted on 10/18/2003 1:02:52 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: *Catholic_list; *Clash of Civilizatio; *Christian_list
ping
2 posted on 10/18/2003 1:05:10 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: nwrep
'Matilda Who Told Lies, And Was Burned to Death'
by Hillaire Belloc

Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her,
And would have done so, had not She
Discovered this Infirmity.

For once, towards the Close of Day,
Matilda, growing tired of play,
And finding she was left alone,
Went tiptoe to the Telephone
And summoned the Immediate Aid
Of London's Noble Fire-Brigade.

Within an hour the Gallant Band
Were pouring in on every hand,
From Putney, Hackney Downs, and Bow
With Courage high and Hearts aglow
They galloped, roaring through the Town,
'Matilda's House is Burning Down!'

Inspired by British Cheers and Loud
Proceeding from the Frenzied Crowd,
They ran their ladders through a score
Of windows on the Ball Room Floor;
And took Peculiar Pains to Souse
The Pictures up and down the House,

Until Matilda's Aunt succeeded
In showing them they were not needed;
And even then she had to pay
To get the Men to go away! . . . .

It happened that a few Weeks later
Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
To see that Interesting Play
The Second Mrs Tanqueray.
She had refused to take her
Niece To hear this entertaining Piece:
A Deprivation Just and Wise
To Punish her for Telling Lies.

That Night a Fire did break out -
You should have heard Matilda Shout!
You should have heard her Scream and Bawl,
And throw the window up and call
To People passing in the Street -

(The rapidly increasing Heat
Encouraging her to obtain
Their confidence) - but all in vain!
For every time She shouted 'Fire!'
They only answered 'Little Liar'!
And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned.

Other great poems and illustrations in Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children.

3 posted on 10/18/2003 1:22:00 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: nwrep
Sorry to be a nag (NOT a "N.A.G.") but it is necessary to excerpt this? I don't like going to other sites unless necessary as I have very slow dial-up, and also the articles are then not part of FR archives, and this looks to be very interseting.
4 posted on 10/18/2003 1:26:58 PM PDT by First Amendment
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To: xzins
PING for good read
5 posted on 10/18/2003 1:31:23 PM PDT by TrueBeliever9
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To: nwrep
Belloc was more than a prophet about the powers of Islam - his 'The Servile State' is a masterly prophecy of modern socialism.
6 posted on 10/18/2003 1:35:03 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Spirit of '76 bttt!)
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To: nwrep
With all respect to M. Belloc, Islam was hardly a "Christian" heresy. Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

Christianity just prior to the time of Mohammed had been splintered to a large degree: for example, the Coptic church (Egypt at that point was a largely Christian country)was at loggerheads with the church at Alexandria.

Although the Copts now say they never waged war,they did in fact mount a punitive expedition against one of their neighbors - who happened to hold Mecca - using Assyrian mercenaries.

During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox ( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield: bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )

The Coptic church almost vanished as a result, and when Mohammed came along - less than half a century later - there was little opposition to his preachings.
7 posted on 10/18/2003 1:36:59 PM PDT by genefromjersey (So little time - so many FLAMES to light !!)
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To: nwrep
Islam(Qu'ran & Hadith(s)) is Crotch-ology... and studying it does require wipeing your mind often..
8 posted on 10/18/2003 1:37:42 PM PDT by hosepipe
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To: Salem; xzins; Thinkin' Gal; dennisw
Millions of modern people of the white civilization that is, the civilization of Europe and America have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in 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 it has been in the past.

Vindication for General Boykin! Amen General Boykin never be afraid to speak the truth; however, it will get you censored by the American media and the Arab Amercian Council.

9 posted on 10/18/2003 1:47:24 PM PDT by TrueBeliever9
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To: genefromjersey
During the seige of Mecca, the Coptic forces were infected with smallpox
( early germ warfare? ) which killed them in such numbers they fled the battlefield:
bringing the deadly plague home with them.( Source: PLAGUE WARS )


You might like this book (if you haven't seen/heard of ti before):
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82
by Elizabeth A. Fenn
10 posted on 10/18/2003 1:47:26 PM PDT by VOA
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To: nwrep
"[T]he power of Islam may at any moment re-arise."

There, you see, it's happened.

Now it's time for another slap-down.

11 posted on 10/18/2003 1:49:11 PM PDT by jocon307 (I am suffering from chronic tag-line syndrome - where is my money?)
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To: genefromjersey
Mohammed, I read somewhere, was originally a Jew-though he and his tribe might have been long separated from anything resembling orthodox Judaism.

NOT TRUE! You sure fell for heresy genefromjersey!

12 posted on 10/18/2003 1:49:35 PM PDT by TrueBeliever9
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To: genefromjersey
>With all respect to M. Belloc, Islam was hardly a "Christian" heresy

Belloc was just a
proto-tin foil wearing nut
who viewed the world in

conspiracy terms.
Today, probably, he'd be
working for LaRouche:

"Now almost forgotten, Distributism was a composite of several social and moral theories first articulated by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) in the pages of volume 2 of The New Age. The initial concepts arose from the four-way (and more) argument among H.G.Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Belloc and Chesterton over modernity ... That discussion, now known as "the Chesterbelloc" contoversy, helped Belloc and Chesterton develop a rationale for equitable distribution of property and restoration of worker control in commerce, agriculture, and industry. This cluster of ideas, soon called "Distributism," was based on the two men’s look back, to European history, as well as their concerns about the present and the future of mass industrial society. ... As Distributism looked to the past for a model of a simpler, kinder, gentler world, it began to focus on what it saw as the abuses of international finance in causing wars, famine, and disruption in social relations. Steeped in European cultural and religious attitudes as they were, it was not a big step for some Distributists to believe in a conspiracy of international Jewish finance responsible for the social chaos caused by both capitalism and socialism. Chesterton, Belloc, Eliot and Ezra Pound were among those who succumbed to this viewpoint at various times."
[Distributism, by Carol DeBoer-Langworthy]

13 posted on 10/18/2003 1:54:07 PM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: TrueBeliever9
Hah! TrueBeliever9, I just came back from the extended post to quote the exact paragraph you did!

We all forget this at our peril. For sure, Osama, et al. would not disagree with Mr. Belloc's assessment.

And as for General Boykin, we'd better all be well prepared to freep our butts off for him if need be. I am, for one.
14 posted on 10/18/2003 1:57:35 PM PDT by jocon307 (I am suffering from chronic tag-line syndrome - where is my money?)
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To: theFIRMbss
To the contrary. Whatever you think of Distributism, Belloc and Chesterton were brilliant writers and thinkers who had a great deal to say on many subjects. Distributism certainly has absolutely nothing to say about Islam.

Nobody is expert in every field. I share your distrust of distributism. But it's no reason to put down some very great men.
15 posted on 10/18/2003 2:02:27 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: TrueBeliever9
It matters not; for as long as simple people are willing to subjugate themselves to the machinations of another whose wild imagination casts spells before their eyes of golden streets and honey there will be battles in the streets to queue up to be the first to slaughter.
16 posted on 10/18/2003 2:02:31 PM PDT by Old Professer
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To: nwrep
Long article. Interesting reading.

However, I take exception to the following comment.

"No fragment of Islam ever abandons its sacred book, its code of morals, its organized system of prayer, its simple doctrine."

I think this is not true. It's just that when a Muslim converts, he is not very vocal about it, because the Islamists will kill him if they can. And my guess is that there are a lot of Muslim's questioning the bloodthirstyness of their religion these days.

17 posted on 10/18/2003 2:03:35 PM PDT by DannyTN (Note left on my door by a pack of neighborhood dogs.)
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To: jocon307
>And as for General Boykin, we'd better all be well prepared to freep our butts off for him if need be. I am, for one.

So, in a world were
we are fighting nut Muslims
who've had their beliefs

perverted for war,
you support the perversion
of Christ for the same?!

18 posted on 10/18/2003 2:03:38 PM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: genefromjersey
Nobody knows for sure, but the usual opinion is that Muhammed was a pagan Arab who had spoken with Jews and Christians and was familiar with the Bible at second hand. Islam is partly based on the Bible, but gets a lot of the facts, as well as the theology, wrong.
19 posted on 10/18/2003 2:04:07 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: jocon307
Millions of modern people of the white civilization that is, the civilization of Europe and America have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in 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 it has been in the past.

Written in 1938! I agree, General Boykin is speaking TRUTH and the Arab American Council is out to stop truth!

My prayer is that General Boykin will "keep his composure though a whole world rages...cherishes his well reasoned convictions though a whole world persecutes...speaks the truth though all others prevaricate...such a one is, of all adventurers, the bravest and the noblest." (Hebrew Prayer Book)

20 posted on 10/18/2003 2:07:16 PM PDT by TrueBeliever9
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